Minor Program

• Minor Home
• Background Info
• Course List
• Curriculum
• Registration
• Forms
• Consortial
   Agreement [pdf]

RRSCS Minor Background

How was the Computational Science minor program developed?
The Ralph Regula School has focused on developing a minor program because it is believed that each student needs some domain expertise in a major field before being able to complete computationally-based projects in related areas.

A committee has reviewed the various options for the sharing of materials, instruction, and revenues associated with cross-registered students. Recommendations in this regard have been made to the participating institutions on institutional procedures.

Because of the inter-institutional nature of the program, the minor program has been designed to be competency-based. The instructional materials associated with each competency or subset of competencies was then embedded either in existing courses on each campus, in new courses at one or more campuses, or as stand-alone modules that might be taken at distance and at the time that each student is ready for them. Competency will then be demonstrated through one or more assessments of the student's abilities on a combination of exams and projects. The competency-based approach is preferred because it gives curriculum flexibility to participating programs and gives employers some assurance of the working knowledge of each graduate.

A business advisory committee has reviewed the draft competencies created by participating faculty members. The committee members confirmed the majority of the recommended competencies at a meeting on May 31, 2006, and offered some advice on topic emphasis and breadth. This document reflects their comments and is the basis on which faculty are currently proposing instructional modules that meet the competencies.

The computational science minor will enable science and engineering majors to apply computational tools to the problems in their discipline. As such, the minor breaks into three broad categories: Prerequisites, the Computational Science Core Competencies and the Discipline Specific Competencies. The goal of the Core competencies is to establish a foundation that can be leveraged in the Discipline Specific Competencies that are directly applicable to the practice of the student’s chosen profession.

Click here for a pdf form of the basic requirements and computational science core competencies.