On October 26, 2000, The Academic Policies Committee met with the faculty from the five natural science departments which offer courses satisfying the general education requirements.
Senate Document 3684 requires that students take two courses from the natural sciences. It mandates the following.
1. A 5-hour course from Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. This course must include a laboratory, must treat the historical development of the science, must explicitly employ and discuss the scientific method, must be interdisciplinary where feasible, and may not be the first course in a sequence taken by majors. An 8-hour sequence with a laboratory from Chemistry, Physics, or Biology may substitute for the 5-hour course.
2. A 3-hour course from Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Studies, or Special Topics Courses. These courses need not include a laboratory but must be interdisciplinary in content. Upper-level science courses may be interdisciplinary enough in scope for science majors to satisfy this requirement.
The Senate document justifies the requirement as follows:
In general education students need both breadth and depth in their science experience. The first course provides depth through the content and methodology of a single science. Laboratory experience is essential to understand the method of science. Choices are limited to Biology, Chemistry, and Physics due to their fundamental character. The second course is designed to provide breadth and perspective. Courses from Atmospheric Sciences and Environmental Studies are especially suitable for this 3-hour requirement because they are interdisciplinary in nature. Courses may be developed in Biology, Chemistry, or Physics that meet the goals of the 3-hour requirement.
1. The original charge has been amended so many times that it lacks an overarching vision.
The two major changes have been the addition of courses from disciplines other than those specified by the charge and the use of the same laboratory course for both general education and as an introduction to the major. While these changes have been formally ratified by the Faculty Senate, they appear to have originated as much in expediency as they have in any change in the principles governing the requirement's establishment and purpose. The requirement that the laboratory course "must explicitly employ and discuss the scientific method" is problematic too because there is no one clear meaning of that term.
2. There seems to be no coherent understanding of the 3-hour interdisciplinary requirement.
While the natural science faculty unanimously agree on the importance of a hands-on laboratory experience, there is no clear consensus about the purpose of the 3-hour interdisciplinary requirement. Since the departments agree that the natural sciences are inherently interdisciplinary, there seems to be no need for such a requirement unless interdisciplinary is taken to mean incorporating material from outside the natural sciences. The meaning of the term "interdisciplinary" in the original charge as well as how the departments understand the term must be clarified.
3. Incorporating diversity needs to be more systematically addressed.
Natural science faculty are divided about how diversity concerns are relevant to their general education courses. Some departments have incorporated diversity issues in their curriculum with little difficulty. Others, however, are unclear as to how such matters can be addressed given the material their courses examine. The departments need to make a more concerted effort to systematically address diversity related concerns in both content and pedagogy, particularly in the laboratory courses.
4. The complex resource issues confronting the natural sciences need to be addressed before they affect the departments' ability to deliver general education.
Natural science faculty are concerned about a variety of resource needs including dwindling laboratory space and aging and obsolete equipment. As yet, there is no evidence that these pressures have affected the departments' contribution to general education. The natural sciences do meet their general education commitments without significant reliance on adjunct faculty, for example. APC is concerned, however, that resource problems could soon affect the general education courses. The committee thus encourages the administration to work with natural science faculty to develop a long term plan to address the resource problem so departments are not forced to choose between serving their majors and general education students.