Our goal is to improve the scientific literacy of Hartwick College students, and in so doing, develop a successful model for reform that might be adapted to the needs of other institutions. We will revise our general education curriculum so that those students whose desire to do science is fueled only by graduation requirements will leave that experience with a much fuller appreciation of what science is, how science is done, why science is important, and most significantly, a solid understanding of some of the important issues in modern science. We hope to engender in students the confidence and the ability to make informed decisions about science & technology issues. We feel that the most significant barrier to increased scientific understanding is the lack of connection between the science courses offered to non-science majors. These courses are designed with the assumption that students have no prior knowledge of the subject matter and have limited mathematical skills. Thus at Hartwick, where students must complete three math & science courses to graduate, each faculty member starts from scratch and cannot build on the efforts of our colleagues who may have taught these students in previous semesters. Additionally, as math is purposefully removed from coursework, students see math as a completely separate enterprise, rather than as an integral part of science. This approach effectively cheats our students of the thorough science education that they deserve. Furthermore, by requiring courses to be distributed across different departments and allowing students to take the courses at any time, we make it extremely difficult for students to see the connections between the various scientific disciplines. We force science to appear fragmented rather than coherent. We will develop a series of three sequenced, thematic, interdisciplinary courses in math and science that would satisfy Hartwick's general education requirement. The program theme is "The science of the Environment," and will be staffed by members of the departments of mathematics, biology, chemistry and geological & environmental sciences. The program targets first-year students who enter college as undeclared majors. Thus a secondary goal is to encourage some of these undecided students to consider a career in science.
