Present: Faculty—Bruce, Dohse, Friedenberg, Hardy, Lee, Konz, Krumpe, McKnight, Moseley, Pons, Rizzo, Ruiz, White-Carter, Katz; Student—Spencer; Alumni—Perry

1. VCAA Search—Following are the dates for the lunch meetings with the VCAA candidates—Dr Katz will be able to attend the first two lunches and the fourth, but will be out of town for the third; Dr Hardy has agreed to attend the third lunch and to make a report on his impressions. Please consider attending these and reporting back your impressions.

a. Friday, 8 Mar, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m., Private Dining Room 300
b. Tuesday, 19 Mar, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m., Private Dining Room 300
c. Friday, 22 Mar, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m., Private Dining Room 100
d. Friday, 29 Mar, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m., Private Dining Room 300

2. The next phase—Following our meeting on the Arts and Ideas program, on 3 April, we will have two meetings in which we review our progress and discuss the next phase of our work.

3. Discussion of APC Report on Natural Sciences requirement (with original report submitted to APC)—Drs. Gregg Kormanik of Biology and Bert Holmes of Chemistry were present to help GERTF members with questions about the Natural Science requirement and to comment on curricular directions their departments might be interested in pursuing. Ms. Spencer raised her interest in seeing a new General Education science requirement that is cross-disciplinary in nature, bridging or bringing together the science disciplines into one course. Dr Holmes noted that team-teaching is often a limiting factor in creating cross-disciplinary courses of this kind. There may be a way to combine the 5-credit lab courses with the 3-credit in order to achieve cross- or inter-disciplinarity. Or, Dr Holmes noted, learning communities might be a way to bring such courses together.

Drs Kormanik and Holmes were asked if General Education science courses should b introductions to the disciplines. Dr Holmes said that offering introductory science courses to non-science students is a difficult issue, as our students may not be as prepared for hard science courses as those students at other more elite schools. Using introduction courses to the major can be a failure; at Lyons College, during a two-year experiment in using such courses, only 3 non-science majors successfully completed a chemistry or biology course.

The concern was raised that we are not holding students responsible for the lab science they took in high school. Dr Kormanik noted that we have such variation in terms of our students’ science experience that we must often start at ground zero.

Several GERTF members were interested in knowing what should distinguish General Education science from introductions to the major. Drs Kormanik and Holmes both agreed that General Education science courses should address the following issues or concerns: how scientists approach problems they are studying; the fact that scientific approaches to the study of problems change over time, in response to new knowledge and developments in the disciplines; an understanding of what we mean by theory; and the historical dimension of scientific study.

We returned to the question of interdisciplinarity. Would it be possible to create an interdisciplinary lab science that accomplishes the goals for General Education? Dr Holmes replied that he had developed such a course at another institution. The success of such a course depends greatly on those who are teaching the course. This sort of approach, he found, was difficult to maintain. When faculty teaching in the course move on to other interests, the course often ceases to function effectively. Dr Kormanik said that the introduction to the major approach may not necessarily be a bad thing, especially in a lab science course. General Education lab science, he said, introduces students to the discipline, provides a historical context for study, and connects the focus of study to other disciplines.

Drs Kormanik and Holmes were asked if all of the aims above could be met in one course, or are two courses necessary? Why did the two-course model emerge as our practice? Dr Kormanik replied that the 5-credit lab course provided depth, while the 3-credit course was intended to be interdisciplinary, thus providing breadth. The 2 courses also allow other (non-lab) sciences to participate in General Education, which is a worthwhile aim for the General Education program. The more quantitative the science, Dr Holmes noted, the less the interest non-science students have in using that course for satisfying their General Education requirement. Therefore, Physics and Chemistry courses that serve as introductions to the major don’t draw students. Dr Holmes concluded by observing that General Education science courses should also encourage skills development, and should include discussions and debates with a focus on contemporary issues.

4. Our next meeting will be 3 April, at 4:30 pm, in the Red Oak Room. Also, remember to keep the Wednesday, 4:30-5:30 timeslot clear throughout this semester and next year.

a. Meeting topic, 3 April: Arts and Ideas