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The First Year Curriculum
Students in Integrative Studies (INTS) join a year-long learning community which shares a common curriculum and a faculty team dedicated to working and learning with first-year students.
Students who complete this core curriculum also complete most of the General Education requirements required for graduation. As sophomores, they are ready to design their individual concentrations and to begin the accumulation of specialized credits.
Students in the College of Arts and Sciences who are aiming for a traditional disciplinary degree will find in New Century College's first-year experience an alternative route to the fulfillment of many General Education requirements. Once students complete the integrated first-year experience, they are ready to concentrate on courses required for their major early in their academic careers. For an explanation of the General Education requirements met by NCC's first-year experience, see General Education Equivalencies.
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The Courses
The College divides the first year into four consecutive eight-credit learning communities (called units):
Students meet Monday through Thursday in small seminars for six or seven weeks per course. The curriculum emphasizes intensive reading and writing, collaborative assignments, problem-centered projects, field study and self-paced learning in close cooperation with an experienced faculty member. Guest speakers from George Mason and beyond frequently join seminars or offer topical lectures.
Each learning community is followed by a two-week break or the Christmas vacation. These breaks are integrated into the curriculum to allow students to involve themselves more extensively in their studies or in the community through options such as service learning. The Christmas break also accommodate intensive individual projects, experiential learning (such as explorations of new information technologies) or study abroad.
Finally, whether collaborating closely in seminar, or working individually on an assignment, first-year students also practice the nine competencies integrated into the NCC curriculum. Ranging from Global Perspective to Communication, from Aesthetic Response to Problem-Solving, the competencies equip students for successful life-long learning and flexible response to social, economic and personal change.
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Semester One
NCLC 110 Community of Learners
Objectives:
The themes for Unit I are Sense of Self, Ways of Learning and Knowing, and Higher Education. These themes provide the focus for the reading, writing, discussion, and questioning in seminar sessions. In the afternoon classes, much of the work develops the skills needed for a successful academic career and professional life. These skills include collaboration, information technology, problem solving, analytical reasoning, communication skills, and ways of learning.
The three main goals of Unit I are to develop academic ways of thinking, or habits of mind; to learn skills for working together; and to assist students with the transition to college life.
Major Assignments:
- Generations I and Generations II Project
- Group Presentation on Higher Education
- Individual Website Project
- Ë2Xs in the YÓ Research Paper
- Technology Assignments and Test
- Transformation Project, Part I
- Unit I Portfolio
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NCLC 120 The Natural World
Objectives:
This course will create a learning environment that allows students to exhibit knowledge of the chronological flow of events in the evolution of life and the process of evolution. Students will learn to understand analytical tools such as: measures of central tendency and variability; principals of measurement, confidence intervals and levels of confidence; and normal distribution and sampling. Students will also learn to discriminate between subjective and objective reasoning and information sources, and be able to apply this reasoning to practical societal and scientific problems. Through the course, students will learn to understand the importance of biology to human culture and history with specific references to disease organisms. They will also develop oral and written communication skills through critical thinking, argument development, organization and presentation.
Major Assignments:
- Advocacy Project
- Critical Thinking Exercise
- Debate on Controversial Science Projects
- Ongoing Journal Exercises and Essays
- Smithsonian Institution Naturalist Center field study
- Self-Selected Museum Experience
- Transformation Project, Part II
- Unit II Portfolio
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Semester Two
NCLC 130 The Social World
Objectives:
Unit III is designed to focus on the social world across cultures and history. Students will investigate how the world is both model and mirror of social behavior and are encouraged to model interdisciplinary thinking, analysis and synthesis, and explanation and understanding. Topics: Borders - How do we organize spaces and establish borders? Spaces - What is nature and what is natural? Community and Identity - What constitutes identity, community? Belief, Ideas, and Values - What are our underlying beliefs about how society should be organized? Performance and Interpretation - How does performance [concert, theatre, film, video, dance, performance art, etc.] express a view and offer an interpretation of society?
Major Assignments:
- Area Cultural Site Visits
- Group Projects
- Weekly Essays
- Performance Attendance Essay
- Transformation Project, Part III
- Unit III Portfolio
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NCLC 140 Self as Citizen
Objectives:
In Unit IV, students are asked to consider their sense of self in relationship to the idea of governance. Students explore the ideas, values, and principals that have been influential in establishing our social contract for living together as a community in the U.S., while still respecting and adhering to a sense of self. Students are also asked to consider the topic of citizenship and develop a coherent framework for participating as citizens.
Major Assignments:
- Arts Project
- Citizenship Essay
- Conflict Studies Project
- Social Science Research Project
- Transformation Project, Part IV
- Year-End Portfolio
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