Area B ~ Scientific Inquiry & Quantitative Reasoning

New Content:

B1: Physical Science

Students shall take no more than four lower-division courses with the same subject prefix as their major to fulfill their general education requirements.

Approved Courses

Outcomes

Students demonstrate scientific content knowledge within the physical sciences and its relevance to their own lives.
Students demonstrate the application of quantitative skills (such as statistics, mathematics and the interpretation of numerical graphical data) to physical science problems.

B2: Life Science

Students shall take no more than four lower-division courses with the same subject prefix as their major to fulfill their general education requirements.

Approved Courses

Outcomes

Students demonstrate scientific content knowledge within the life sciences and its relevance to their own lives.
Students demonstrate the application of quantitative skills (such as statistics, mathematics and the interpretation of numerical graphical data) to life science problems.
Students identify differences between science and other ways of constructing knowledge, and evaluate the credibility and scientific value of different sources of scientific information.

Understand how the scientific peer review process contributes to the reliability of scientific knowledge; effectively search for and identify peer-reviewed articles on the topic.
Select library databases appropriate to the topic. Identify and combine keywords and synonyms to develop a search strategy; effectively execute the search in appropriate library databases.
Evaluate the credibility of information sources, using the following criteria: expertise & credentials, purpose & audience, point of view

B3: Laboratory Practices

Students shall take no more than four lower-division courses with the same subject prefix as their major to fulfill their general education requirements.

Approved Courses

Outcomes

Students demonstrate satisfactory laboratory and/or field methods to collect and evaluate data used in scientific inquiry.
Students apply standard scientific methods to critically evaluate evidence to address questions about the natural world and communicate their findings.

B4: Mathematics

Students shall take no more than four lower-division courses with the same subject prefix as their major to fulfill their general education requirements.

Approved Courses

Outcomes

Students solve routine* and non-routine** problems using tools*** and arithmetic, algebraic, geometric and/or statistical methods.
Students assess the reasonableness**** of solutions to mathematical or statistical problems.
Students apply, analyze, and represent mathematical or statistical information in symbolic, visual, numerical and verbal forms.
Students recognize and describe the assumptions and limitations of the mathematical or statistical methods they employ.
Students use appropriate***** reasoning and terminology to communicate mathematical or statistical ideas, methods and results.*Path to solution should be obvious. Instructions scaffold the procedures necessary to obtain solution– no need to decide between possible different pathways to approach the solution. All procedures are standard algorithms. Requires only memorization of standard formulas. Routine problems could be applied or theoretical.

*Path to solution should be obvious. Instructions scaffold the procedures necessary to obtain solution– no need to decide between possible different pathways to approach the solution. All procedures are standard algorithms. Requires only memorization of standard formulas. Routine problems could be applied or theoretical.

**Requires more than replicating a known procedure in an obvious context. Involves abstractions or alternative forms of representation. Multiple pathways to solutions. Requires student to make connections between different representations (i.e. equation and graph). Non-Routine problems could be applied or theoretical.

***External to mathematical and statistical concepts and ideas. Tools include calculators, compass and straightedge, software, manipulatives, etc.

****The student states the solution within the context of the problem. The solution is justified with a reflection on how the student knows the solution is reasonable based on estimation, the context of the problem, or any other information that helps determine reasonableness. Some obvious numeric checks students should do include whether the answer should be negative or positive, and seeing if order of magnitude makes sense within the context of the problem.

*****The assessment of the students’ communications will be based upon the clarity and structure of the work, proper language and terminology for the given audience, and sound logic and correct mathematics or statistics.