All college students today need a broad baseline of science and mathematics to become full contributors to U.S. society. For students with concentrations outside the technical areas, being cut off from scientific knowledge undermines their ability to understand important aspects of the modern world and to act as responsible citizens. Stanford University proposes to develop a core course in Engineering, Mathematics and Science for students in the non-technical majors. The goal is for students to have a serious encounter with essential processes and ideas in mathematics, engineering, and science, with an emphasis on process. The program will consist of several year-long tracks taught by interdisciplinary teams of faculty. Each track will have a lab component. The tracks allow for disciplinary focus, but will have in common a collection of key ideas from science and technology. The mathematics in the course will be developed in context and to support the study of scientific and technical problems. Computer technology will also be incorporated as an important tool. To elicit faculty interests a (university) RFP describing the course and inviting proposals to design and teach a track was sent to the faculty last year. As a result there are now three tracks under development to be offered next year for a period of at least three years. The tracks are: Planet Earth, The Heart, and Light in the Physical and Biological World. The RFP process will be repeated to bring new faculty and new tracks into the program.
