Sample Science Communication Curriculum

This course introduces students to all the humanistic disciplines offered by the College of Arts and Letters: history, literature, philosophy, the social sciences, art, and music. By studying seminal works and engaging in discussions and debates regarding the themes and ideas presented in them, students learn how to examine evidence in formulating ideas, how to subject opinions, both their own, as well those of others, to rational evaluation, and in the end, how to appreciate and respect a wide diversity of opinions and points of view.

A historical survey of science and technology. Principal topics include science and technology in prehistory, Egyptian and Babylonian science and culture, Greek science, Medieval technology and science, the Scientific Revolution, the making of the modern physical science, Darwin, and the Darwinian Revolution.

This is a first course in computer programming for students with no prior experience. Students will learn the core process of programming: given a problem statement, how does one design an algorithm to solve that particular problem and then implement the algorithm in a computer program? The course will also introduce elementary programming concepts like basic control concepts (such as conditional statements and loops) and a few essential data types (e.g., integers and doubles). Exposure to programming will be through a self-contained user-friendly programming environment, widely used by the scientific and engineering communities, such as Matlab. The course will cover problems from all fields of science, engineering, and business.

This is an introductory programming course using the Java language. The topics include: basic facts about object-oriented programming and Java through inheritance and exceptions; recursion; UML diagrams and how to read class diagrams; ethics in computer science; and some basic understanding about computer systems: the compile/link/interpret/ execute cycle and data representation.

The objective of this course is to provide students with a general survey of the field of sociology.  This course aims at providing students with a way to think about and understand the social world and one’s place in it.  Therefore, the lectures, readings and assignments will focus on understanding the basic social processes and how they can be applied to everyday events, both small and large, both personal and political.

This course emphasizes the biological underpinnings of behavior and of mental processes. What do we know? How do we come to know? What do we want? Why do we act the way we do? In this course these fundamental questions of psychology are mainly looked at from a biological perspective that emphasizes the study of the brain and nervous systems. Historical, philosophical, and evolutionary perspectives on mental processes are considered, as well.

This course empowers students with the written and oral communications skills essential for both university-level academic discourse as well as success outside Stevens in the professional world.  Tailored to the Stevens student, styles of writing and communications include technical writing, business proposals and reports, scientific reports, expository writing, promotional documents and advertising, PowerPoint presentations, and team presentations.  The course covers the strategies for formulating effective arguments and conveying them to a wider audience.  Special attention is given to the skills necessary for professional document structure, successful presentation techniques and grammatical/style considerations.

This course provides an examination of philosophical concepts and ideas that address questions regarding the problem of knowledge (epistemology), methods of reasoning and the nature of reality (metaphysics). Special attention will be given to applying these topics to an introduction to the philosophy of natural science. Readings include classical sources such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Hegel, as well as contemporary works.

Limits, the derivatives of functions of one variable, differentiation rules, and applications of the derivative.  Definite integrals for functions of one variable, antiderivatives, the Fundamental Theorem, integration techniques, and applications of the integral.

This course provides students with an understanding of the use of statistical methods as applied to business problems, in general, and to marketing research applications in particular.  Topics include: descriptive statistics; probability theory, discrete and continuous probability distributions; sampling theory and sampling distributions; interval estimation; hypothesis testing; statistical inference about means, proportions, and variances; tests of goodness-of-fit and independence; analysis of variance and experimental design; simple and multiple regression; correlation analysis.  This course has been developed with particular attention to the specific statistical foundation required by students enrolling in BT214 Marketing Research the next term.  A statistical package (SPSS) will be used throughout the term.

This course provides the background necessary for advanced study of mathematics or computer science. Topics include propositional calculus, predicates and quantifiers, elementary set theory, countability, functions, relations, proof by induction, elementary combinatorics, elements of graph theory, mends, and elements of complexity theory.

Limits, the derivatives of functions of one variable, differentiation rules, and applications of the derivative.  Definite integrals for functions of one variable, antiderivatives, the Fundamental Theorem, integration techniques, and applications of the integral.

This course provides students with an understanding of the use of statistical methods as applied to business problems, in general, and to marketing research applications in particular.  Topics include: descriptive statistics; probability theory, discrete and continuous probability distributions; sampling theory and sampling distributions; interval estimation; hypothesis testing; statistical inference about means, proportions, and variances; tests of goodness-of-fit and independence; analysis of variance and experimental design; simple and multiple regression; correlation analysis.  This course has been developed with particular attention to the specific statistical foundation required by students enrolling in BT214 Marketing Research the next term.  A statistical package (SPSS) will be used throughout the term.

A working seminar in which students will become acquainted with the various research methods and resources in the Humanities disciplines, and with the modes of presentation characteristic of each discipline.  Special attention will be paid to clarity of expression and logical structure of essays and research papers.

The student will complete a major research thesis in the area of concentration under the guidance of a faculty advisor.  Open to Bachelor of Arts students only.

An individual program of study arranged between student and instructor.  A tutorial plan must be prepared (and presented to the Tutorial Committee of the Department of the Humanities) outlining the program and indicating the nature and scope of the project (generally a written paper).  Upon completion of the program, the student will receive a grade and credit for a humanities elective.