Minnesota Transfer Curriculum

The goal of this area is to develop writers and speakers who use the English language effectively and who read, write, speak and listen critically. All students should complete introductory communication requirements early in their collegiate studies.

Writing competency is an ongoing process to be reinforced through writing-intensive courses and writing across the curriculum. Speaking and listening skills need reinforcement through multiple opportunities for interpersonal communication, public speaking and discussion.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate the writing and speaking processes through invention, organization, drafting, revision, editing and presentation.
• Participate effectively in groups with emphasis on listening, critical and reflective thinking and responding.
• Locate, evaluate, and synthesize in a responsible manner material from diverse sources and points of view.
• Select appropriate communication choices for specific audiences.
• Construct logical and coherent arguments.
• Use authority, point-of-view and individual voice and style in their writing and speaking.
• Employ syntax and usage appropriate to academic disciplines and the professional world.

The goal of this area is to develop thinkers who unify the following modes of thought:

• Factual
• Creative
• Rational
• Value-sensitive

Critical thinking will be taught and used throughout the general education curriculum to develop an awareness of the student’s own thinking and problem-solving procedures. Students must be actively engaged in practicing thinking skills and applying them to open-ended problems to integrate new skills into their customary ways of thinking.

Students will be able to:

• Gather factual information and apply it to a given problem in a manner that is relevant, clear, comprehensive and conscious of possible bias in the information selected.
• Imagine and seek out a variety of possible goals, assumptions, interpretations or perspectives which can give alternative meanings or solutions to given situations or problems.
• Analyze the logical connections among the facts, goals and implicit assumptions relevant to a problem or claim; generate and evaluate implications that follow from them.
• Recognize and articulate the value assumptions which underlie and affect decisions, interpretations, analyses and evaluations made by ourselves and others. 

The goal of this area is to improve understanding of natural science principles and methods of scientific inquiry. Students need to know the vocabulary of science to realize that ongoing scientific inquiry. They will learn that new knowledge will bring changes in some of the ways scientists view the world.

Students learn to appreciate the importance of science in their lives and to understand the value of a scientific perspective. Students should be encouraged to study both the biological and physical sciences.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding of scientific theories.
• Formulate and test hypotheses by performing laboratory, simulation or field experiments in at least two of the natural science disciplines.
• One of these experimental components should develop, in greater depth, students' laboratory experience in the collection of data, its statistical and graphical analysis and an appreciation of its sources of error and uncertainty.
• Communicate their experimental findings, analyses and interpretations both orally and in writing.
• Evaluate societal issues from a natural science perspective, ask questions about the evidence presented and make informed judgments about science-related topics and policies.

The goal of this area is to increase students' knowledge about mathematical and logical modes of thinking. This enables students to appreciate the breadth of applications of mathematics, evaluate arguments and detect fallacious reasoning.

Students will learn to apply mathematics, logic and or statistics to help them make decisions in their lives and careers. Minnesota's public higher education systems have agreed that developmental mathematics includes the first three years of a high school mathematics sequence through intermediate algebra.

Students will be able to:

• Illustrate historical and contemporary applications of mathematics/logical systems.
• Clearly express mathematical/logical ideas in writing.
• Explain what constitutes a valid mathematical/logical argument (proof).
• Apply higher-order problem-solving and/or modeling strategies.

The goal of this area is to increase students' knowledge of how historians and social and behavioral scientists discover, describe and explain the behaviors and interactions among individuals, groups, institutions, events and ideas.

Such knowledge will better equip students to understand themselves and the roles they play in addressing the issues facing humanity.

Students will be able to:

• Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition.
• Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
• Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
• Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.

The goal of this area is to expand students' knowledge of the human condition and human cultures, especially in relation to behavior, ideas and values expressed in works of human imagination and thought.

Students will engage in critical analysis, form aesthetic judgments and develop an appreciation of the arts and humanities as fundamental to the health and survival of any society through this area of study. Students should have experiences in both the arts and humanities.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
• Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within an historical and social context.
• Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
• Engage in the creative process or interpretive performance.
• Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.

The goal of this area is to increase students' understanding of individual and group differences (e.g., race, gender, class) and their knowledge of the traditions and values of various groups in the U.S. Students should be able to evaluate the historical and contemporary responses to group differences.

Students will be able to:

• Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the U.S.’s history and culture.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.
• Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism and bigotry.
• Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.
• Demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity.

The goal of this area is to increase students' understanding of the growing interdependence of nations and peoples and develop their ability to apply a comparative perspective to cross-cultural social, economic and political experiences.

Students will be able to:

• Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.
• Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.
• Analyze specific international problems, illustrating the cultural, economic and political differences that affect their solution.
• Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.

The goal of this area is to develop students' capacity to identify, discuss and reflect upon the ethical dimensions of political, social and personal life and to understand the ways in which they can exercise responsible and productive citizenship.

There are diverse views of social justice or the common good in a pluralistic society. Students should learn that responsible citizenship requires them to develop skills to understand their own and others' positions, be part of the free exchange of ideas and function as public-minded citizens.

Students will be able to:

• Examine, articulate and apply their own ethical views.
• Understand and apply core concepts (e.g. politics, rights and obligations, justice, liberty) to specific issues.
• Analyze and reflect on the ethical dimensions of legal, social and scientific issues.
• Recognize the diversity of political motivations and interests of others.
• Identify ways to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

The goal of this area is to improve students' understanding of today's complex environmental challenges. Students will examine the interrelatedness of human society and the natural environment.

Knowledge of both bio-physical principles and socio-cultural systems is the foundation for integrative and critical thinking about environmental issues.

Students will be able to:

• Explain the basic structure and function of various natural ecosystems and of human adaptive strategies within those systems.
• Discern patterns and interrelationships of bio-physical and socio-cultural systems.
• Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic or religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges.
• Evaluate critically environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems and institutions.
• Alternative solutions to environmental problems.
• Articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues.