Professors R. Dawley, Lyczak (Coordinator), Stern; Assistant Professor Price.

Science and the Common Good is an interdisciplinary minor designed to challenge students to consider the connection between science and other ways of understanding – ethical, political, religious, artistic – and to ponder how science can help or hinder our efforts to live together. The minor program provides students with curricular opportunities to explore the Ursinus Open Questions Core in ways that build connections across disciplines. A minor in Science and the Common Good consists of 24 credits plus an applied learning experience. It fulfills the linked inquiry requirement. Required courses in the three categories below address Ursinus Quest:

Category 1:

Question 1 (What should matter to me?) and Question 2 (How should we live together?)

Four courses
1) POL-336

2) One ethics course: EDUC-380, ENV-248, HEP-275, PHL-240, PHL-246, POL-237

3) One additional course that links science and another discipline: ANTH-235, ENG-230 (Afro-futurism), ENV- 242, ENV-272, ENV-332, ENV-338, ENV-360, ENV-366, HEP-202, HIST/ENV-254, HIST-475W, POL-354, SPAN-308, SOC/ENV-220, SOC/ENV-288, SOC/ENV-290, SOC/HEP-298

4) An additional class from #2 or #3 above, or a science course (in addition to those in category 2) that fulfills a DN, GN, O, or CCAP requirement. A 4-credit XLP (from category 3 below) may also be used to fulfill this requirement.

Category 2:

Question 3 (How can we understand the world [through science]?)

Two courses from the natural sciences, OR two courses from mathematics, OR two courses from computer science.

Category 3:

Question 4 (What will I do?)

Credit or non-credit applied learning project with reflection
To fulfill the Science and the Common Good minor, students must also complete an experiential learning experience (XLP) or similar experience, that bridges science and society. Options include: internships, Summer Fellows research, or other non-XLP experience approved by the minor coordinator (and director or advisor of the experience, as needed). A 3- or 4-credit accumulated sequence of research, or a volunteer experience that leads to a coherent project at the intersection of science and society may also fulfill this requirement, with approval from the minor coordinator and the faculty/staff member supervising the experience.

A limit of 12 credits toward the minor can be fulfilled from courses in a single department.