Liberal Education in a Technological Age: The Education of aScientifically-Literate Society

罗切斯特大学最近通过的课程改革要求每个人文和社会科学专业的学生在自然科学/工程/数学领域(A组)至少选修三门紧密相关的课程。它为该大学提供了一个机会来检验非专业学生在这一领域的教育经验，并改变向非专业学生提供科学、工程和数学课程的方式。这项建议汇集了一个由自然科学/工程/数学系组成的跨学科小组，以探索开发一种新的课程，从而在整个院校范围内对本科科学教育进行改革。这一建议是引入Quest课程后，理科专业本科生科学教育发生重大变化的自然延伸。申请的资金将用于启动非理科专业理科课程的类似改革。作为这一计划的一部分，课程将采用以探究为基础的方法，学生将接触到科学方法。他们将探讨更广泛的科学观，探索什么是科学理论，为学生提供在实验室进行科学假设检验的机会，并通过审查科学家及其人文主义同代人关于科学提供的世界观的著作。我们将把重点放在发现的过程上，而不是“展示和讲述”。这一过程不仅将用于教授科学的基本原理，还将从历史的角度进行研究。为发展这些课程而申请的大部分经费，将会用来减轻教职员的教学负担，让他们有机会集中精力发展一学期的课程。此外，我们将成立学习/写作小组，支持参加这些课程的学生，并对设想的创新的成功进行深入评估。开发的课程将连续提供至少三年，并将在每年年底组织研讨会，以评估我们创新的成功。计算机技术将在几个拟议的课程中广泛使用，大学将为购买所需设备提供相应的资金。这些资金和免除间接成本回收，再加上大学在Quest计划中投资的资金，清楚地表明了大学对整个机构本科教育改革的承诺。

Recently adopted changes in the curriculum at the University of Rochester requires every Humanities and Social Science major to take at least three cohesively related courses in the Natural Science / Engineering / Mathematics area (a Cluster). It presents the University with an opportunity to examine the educational experience of non-majors in this area and to change the way the Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics are presented to non majors. This proposal has brought together a cross-disciplinary group of Natural Science / Engineering / Mathematics faculty to explore the development of a new curriculum that can produce an institution-wide reform in undergraduate science education. This proposal is a natural extension of significant changes in undergraduate science education for science majors that were achieved with the introduction of Quest Courses. The funds requested will be used to initiate similar changes in the science curriculum for non-science majors. The courses that will be developed as part of this program will apply an inquiry-based approach in which students will be exposed to the scientific method. They will address the larger view of science, by exploring what constitutes a scientific theory, by providing students with the opportunity to engage in scientific hypothesis testing in the laboratory, and by examining the writings of scientists and their humanist contemporaries about the worldview that science provides. Rather than "show and tell'' we will focus on the process of discovery. This process will not only be used to teach the basic principles of science, but will also be studied from a historical perspective. Most of the funds requested for the development of these courses will be used to provide teaching relief for the faculty involved, providing them with an opportunity to focus on course development for one semester. In addition, we will create study/writing groups to support the students taking these courses, and to carry out an in-depth assessment of the succe ss of the envisioned innovations. The courses developed will be offered for at least three consecutive years and workshops will be organized at the end of each year to evaluate the success of our innovations. Computer technology will be used extensively in several of the proposed courses, and the University will provide matching funds for the purchase of the required equipment. These funds, and the waiver of indirect cost recovery, combined with the funds that were invested by the University in the Quest Program clearly indicates the commitment of the University to institution-wide reform of undergraduate education.