Foundational Series - Baccalaureate Program

FOUNDATIONAL SERIES—19 CREDITS

The Foundational Series is designed to provide students, in the Catholic tradition, with the skills, initiative, and resourcefulness to pursue truth and further knowledge across contexts. By completing this series, students will develop a firm foundation in the interpersonal, analytical, and critical thinking skills to communicate effectively in social, academic, and professional environments. The Foundational Series emphasizes communication skills, science and qualitative reasoning, as well as critical thinking and information literacy (Core Values: Catholic Tradition, Resourcefulness).

Communication Skills: 9 credits

• Required courses:

  CT 233: Communication Skills

  EN 113: College Composition I

  EN 133: College Composition II

• Goal: Students will be able to communicate clearly and effectively in a range of social, academic, and professional contexts.
• Outcomes:
  1. Students will write purposefully and effectively for a variety of contexts, audiences, and tasks with attention to style, organization, presentation, and content (EN 113 or EN 114).
  2. Students will be able to search for, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize primary and secondary sources in order to integrate their ideas with those of others in research-based writing (EN 133).
  3. Students will develop interpersonal communication skills through effective collaboration, speaking, presenting, and active listening (CT 233).

Writing Intensive – 2 courses required for graduation

• Various courses
• Goal: Students will write at least 4,000 words in a combination of essays, analyses, reviews, letters, journals, reports, arguments, and/or research papers, with at least 1 assignment being a longer, formal written assessment of some kind.
• Outcomes:
  1. Students will write purposefully and effectively for a variety of contexts, audiences, and tasks with attention to style, organization, presentation, and content.
  2. Students will be able to search for, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize primary and secondary sources in order to integrate their ideas with those of others in research-based writing.

Critical Inquiry and Information: 3 credits

• Required Course: GE 150: Critical Inquiry and Information Literacy
• Goal: Students will develop higher level analytical and evaluative skills to explore contemporary social and professional topics and arrive at a reasoned judgment.
• Outcomes:
  1. Students will identify the potential bias in social, personal, academic and professional environments and how this may influence our judgments.
  2. Students will evaluate the characteristics of different points of view and arguments in order to determine their origin and validity.
  3. Students will make a reasoned judgment based on a critical evaluation of the evidence.

Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning: 7 credits

• Courses:
  • MA 153: College Algebra or MA 243: Statistics
  • Natural Science with Laboratory Elective
• Goal: Students will identify problems and obtain knowledge to effectively find a solution through scientific and quantitative reasoning.
• Outcomes:
  1. Students will use mathematical concepts and reasoning to identify problems, create plans, analyze data and interpret results to solve problems (MA 153 or MA 243).
  2. Students will use scientific principles and reasoning as a way of knowing the natural world, distinguishing science from non- science (Natural Science course with Lab).
     1. Students will define the scientific method and demonstrate its application in a scientific discipline (Lab component).