Foundations in Critical Studies

• Reading at a college level, including close reading, annotating, recognizing the central arguments or theses of assigned readings (and as applicable, multimedia content), and identifying supporting evidence and ideas.
• Applying learned ideas to new texts and contexts via writing, discussion, oral presentations, and/or creative projects.
• Engaging with and articulating diverse perspectives and values, including identifying how standpoints (their own and those of others) are shaped by social and power relations.
• Participating in a learning community through seminar-style discussion, engaged listening, and mutual support of other students’ participation, in order to reach understanding of course concepts and themes.

Philosophy and Critical Theory

• Accurately identify the core claims of multiple sophisticated nonfiction course texts and articulate their contributions to an overarching course theme.
• Consider and address multiple perspectives on a given issue/problem, such as counterarguments or alternative claims.
• Identify and define at least one specific theoretical or philosophical concept derived from course materials, and explain its relevance in the world outside the course.
• Develop and pose at least one non-obvious, non-factual, provocative question to guide their own or collective thinking about course materials and themes.
• Consider and address the cultural impact and relevance of larger systems of power and privilege on the questions discussed and the contours of their debate, persistence, and/or resolution.
• Participate in a classic seminar-style conversation as an informed interlocutor among peers.
• [3000 level only]: Generate, in consultation with the instructor, a pertinent thesis topic that deals with primary and secondary sources to interpret philosophical claims and ideas.
• [3000 level only]: Lead or help direct a seminar-style discussion, presentation, or written discussion forum that effectively analyzes multiple philosophical perspectives and/or theories.
• [3000 level only]: Critically evaluate multiple course sources to generate a nuanced and well-documented interpretation of philosophical perspectives and/or theories.

Science and Math

• Demonstrate observational skills (e.g. through using taxonomy for categorizing and comparing; using the senses to gather data; distinguishing between expectation and reality; and/or recording observations in a disciplinarily appropriate way)
• Learn through systematic experimentation (e.g. through application of scientific method; using trial and error to determine explanations; manipulating one factor to determine causality; using craft or engineering to explore what works and what does not; applying calculations to explain phenomena; or using things that do not work to understand what else might be possible)
• Recognize the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning, and apply each appropriately to understand a given or observed set of facts
• Use modeling strategies to represent the possible outcomes of a series of observations or experiments or to interpret complex data (e.g., to interpret and analyze data sets, to construct graphs or charts, to compare observations symbolically, or to project outcomes)
• Generate or use quantitative information as a tool to critically interpret and analyze patterns or observable phenomena
• Articulate the importance of the learning they have done in their SCIMA coursework to their understanding of at least one sociocultural phenomenon beyond CCA
• [3000 level only]: Generate, in consultation with the instructor, a pertinent research question, the investigation of which integrates two or more of the appropriate scientific skills: observation, experimentation, logical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and modeling
• [3000 level only]: Generate and execute a plan to answer a research question that integrates multiple scientifically appropriate strategies to create knowledge
• [3000 level only]: Effectively communicate to peers a research question, a method for answering it, and the results of an executed plan for answering it

Social Science and History

• Frame a basic research project through appropriate and intentional selection of topics, strategies, and sources that involves:
  1. Identifying a search strategy appropriate to a topic provided by the instructor.
  2. Selecting valid and appropriate sources, recognizing the difference between popular and scholarly or peer-reviewed materials.
  3. Documenting research through complete citations and annotated bibliographies.

• Mobilize evidence effectively to support or refute contested factual claims.
• Understand and describe information about social phenomena presented in quantitative forms, including statistics, charts, and graphs.
• Articulate relevant connections between individual or local experiences and large-scale sociocultural structures, processes and narratives, and to interpret the former in light of those connections.
• Consider how systems of power and privilege impact sociocultural phenomena and our encounters with them.
• Participate in a classic seminar-style conversation as an informed interlocutor among peers.
• [3000 level only]: Generate, in consultation with the instructor, a pertinent topic that deals with primary and secondary sources to analyze human experience.
• [3000 level only]: Lead or help direct a seminar-style discussion, presentation, or written discussion forum that effectively analyzes multiple perspectives on human experience.
• [3000 level only]: Critically evaluate multiple lines of evidence from a variety of sources in a final research paper or project in order to take a position on a complex issue or problem.