Minimum: 11 Credits including

• ENGL 1117, Reading and Writing Critically I, 4 cr
• ENGL 1118, Reading and Writing Critically II, 4 cr
• COMM 1114, Fundamentals of Public Speaking OR COMM 1130, Interpersonal Communication, 3 Cr

Objective: To develop writers and speakers who use the English language effectively and who read, write, speak, and listen critically. As a base, 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.

Student Competencies for Goal 1:

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

Minimum: 6 Credits with a minimum of two courses with a lab from two different areas that meet MnTC Goal 3

Objective: To improve students' understanding of natural science principles and of the methods of scientific inquiry, i.e, the ways in which scientists investigate natural science phenomena. As a basis for lifelong learning, students need to know the vocabulary of science and to realize that while a set of principles has been developed through the work of previous scientists, ongoing scientific inquiry and new knowledge will bring changes in some of the ways scientists view the world. By studying the problems that engage today's scientists, 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.

Student Competencies for Goal 3:

• Demonstrate understanding of scientific theories.
• 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.
• 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.

Minimum: 3 Credits from MnTC Goal 4

Objective: To increase students' knowledge about mathematical and logical modes of thinking. This will enable 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.

Student Competencies for Goal 4:

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

Minimum: 9 Credits with a minimum of two credits from each of three areas from MnTC Goal 5

Objective: 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.

Student Competencies for Goal 5:

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

Minimum: 9 Credits with a minimum of two credits from each of three areas from MnTC Goal 6

Objective: 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. Through study in disciplines such as literature, philosophy, and the fine arts, 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. Students should have experiences in both the arts and humanities.

Student Competencies for Goal 6:

• 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.
• 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.

Minimum: 2 Credits

Objective: 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 United States. Students should be able to evaluate the United States' historical and contemporary responses to group differences.

Student Competencies for Goal 7:

• Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.
• Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States' history and culture.
• Demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.
• 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.