General Education Mission
Learning Outcomes
GE Identifications
GE Transfer Credit
The total number of credits required to complete General Education (GE) is 34. General Education completion is required for the Associate of Arts (AA); Associate of Science (AS); Associate of Science Business (ASB) and Associate of Fine Arts (AFA).
Only courses numbered 1000 or above are counted toward graduation. A 2.00 (C) cumulative grade point average or better must be earned on work completed at Snow College.
At least 15 semester credits must be resident credit earned at Snow College. AP, CLEP, IB, and Credit-by-Exam are not considered resident credit.
The following General Education Worksheets should be studied carefully as students prepare semester schedules. In addition, students should check their individual major's departments for recommended classes and prerequisites. With careful planning, many courses can do double duty by filling both a general education requirement and a major requirement.
“A man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
The mission of general education at Snow College is to stretch students’ minds and enlarge the foundation of their intellectual and practical skills in order to create in them a lifelong love of learning.
As many of the world's great thinkers have observed before, a general education is more than simply facts and numbers: it is that part of the self that remains when the details have been forgotten. At Snow College, first and foremost, general education is who we are.
The general education curriculum is designed to accomplish several goals: to provide students with a broad exposure to different academic disciplines in order to assist them in selecting their course of study; to introduce a variety of ways of making knowledge so that students understand the complexity of information and knowledge; to facilitate the development of a passion for a specific area of study and a love of learning in general; to provide connections between disciplines by providing interdisciplinary, integrated learning opportunities; and to prepare students to participate fully in human culture, ask probing and thoughtful questions, and engage as responsible citizens.
Specific courses are selected for inclusion in the general education curriculum only when the GE Committee has evidence that the course advances the GE mission, fulfills General Education learning outcomes, fulfills core or knowledge area outcomes, and articulates a coherent assessment plan. Courses approved for GE credit will be included in the General Education assessment for the knowledge area, and the GE Committee will receive the results.
The General Education curriculum is mandated by the state of Utah and consists of courses that formulate a GE core as well as a selection of course options that fall into several GE Knowledge areas:
A student who graduates from Snow College with an AS or AA degree:
In addition, a student who graduates from Snow College with an AA degree can speak, read, and write a foreign language with basic proficiency.
A student shall demonstrate reasonable understanding of the history, principles, form of government, and economic system of the United States. Students who fulfill the GE requirement of American Institutions will be able to:
A student shall demonstrate reasonable understanding and interpretation of numerical information. Students who fulfill the GE requirement of Quantitative Literacy will be able to:
Writing skills are foundational for success in higher education, crucial for workforce preparation, and a basis for life as an educated person. Classes that meet E1 and E2 GE requirements should focus on developing effective and efficient writing processes and will not privilege course content over composition instruction and practice. Instructors should provide and arrange for detailed feedback on higher-order concerns on multiple drafts of multiple paper assignments. Students should write 15-20 pages of revised prose for each class (including an 8-12 page research paper for E2). Additionally, the instructors should help students address syntax, usage, and mechanical issues in the context of student writing. Class sizes should be kept low (20-25 students) to ensure that instructors can devote enough attention to student work. Finally, E1 and E2 need to be fulfilled by two courses taken sequentially.
Outcomes: General education courses in this area enable students to:
Courses to be designated as a Fine Arts (FA) General Education experience are expected to provide students with an understanding of the basic conceptual frameworks, historical and cultural contexts of artistic works, and be instilled with a sensibility of the creative process. Assessment will occur through the student’s ability to critically evaluate creative works using the language and methodology appropriate to the disciplines of dance, music, theater, and/or the visual arts.
Outcomes. Students who complete a course designated to fulfill the Fine Arts (FA) General Education requirement at Snow College should be able to:
The Humanities are a group of academic disciplines that study the many ways by which humans have attempted to understand themselves and their world. At Snow College, the Humanities focus on cultural traditions that are expressed largely through text or which have a strong textual component: languages, literature, and philosophy. The methods by which the Humanities study culture are at once analytical and interpretive, objective and subjective, historical and aesthetic.
Outcomes. General education courses in this area enable students to:
For the natural sciences, science is the systematic inquiry into natural phenomena organizing and condensing those observations into testable models and hypotheses, theories or laws. The success and credibility of science is anchored in the willingness of scientists to: 1) expose their ideas and results to independent testing and replication by other scientists which requires the complete and open exchange of data, procedures, and materials; 2) abandon or modify accepted conclusions when confronted with more complete or reliable experimental evidence. Adherence to these principles provides a mechanism for self-correction that is the foundation of the credibility of science (Adapted from a statement by the Panel on Public Affairs of the American Physical Society which was endorsed by the Executive Board of the American Associations of Physics Teachers in 1999).
Broad categories of the Natural Science disciplines include Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Meteorology, and Biology. At Snow College, the first five are considered physical sciences and biology the life science. While properties of matter and energy in the physical sciences are common to life science, the emergent properties resulting from the complexities of life require additional study to amplify and clarify the scientific mechanisms of nature.
Outcomes. A student who has earned Snow College General Education Life Science Learning Outcomes will be able to:
Outcomes. A student who has earned Snow College General Education Physical Science Learning Outcomes will be able to:
Students will develop an understanding of the world around them through study of content and the processes used by social and behavioral scientists to discover, describe, explain, and/or predict human behavior and social systems. Students must understand the diversities and complexities of the cultural and social world, past and present, from a social scientist’s perspective, and methodologies, and come to an informed sense of self and others.
Outcomes. A student who earns General Education in the Social and Behavioral Sciences will be able to:
Foundations (GNST 1200) exposes students to three disciplines wrestling with one thematic issue (e.g. cloning, GMOs, definitions of beauty). Foundations is designed to give students college success skills while instilling in students an appreciation for the importance of diversity of thought and perspective to the understanding and addressing of important questions or concerns in today’s society.
In this course, we will study one thematic issue (e.g. cloning, GMOs, definitions of beauty) from three different disciplinary perspectives in order to understand ways in which knowledge is connected, dependent, and relevant. Additionally, this course will focus on the habits of mind (intellectual, motivational, emotional, self-awareness, and self-directedness) that are essential for becoming a learner in an interdisciplinary world.
Outcomes. Students who complete the Foundations curriculum will be able to:
The Integrated Exploration (IE) requirement supports the General Education Mission of Snow College by providing students with an opportunity to either explore deeper into or broaden their foundation of General Education by taking an additional course in one of the Core or Knowledge Area offerings.
Alternatively, students may choose to take an IE designated course which meets the following outcome:
Outcome. Students who fulfill this General Education requirement will either:
Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degrees require some, but not all, of the GE for AS and AA degrees. A student who graduates from Snow College with an AAS degree:
A student who graduates from Snow College with an AAS degree with career specific hazards can demonstrate safe practices and awareness of potential hazards in his/her field of expertise.
To qualify for graduation from Snow College, each student must earn a minimum grade of C- in a GE level math course (Math 1030, Math 1040, Math 1050, etc.). Please note that some schools that require these math courses as part of their program will only count the course as meeting the prerequisite if the student has earned at least a C. Please check with your transfer institution to verify minimum grade requirements for your program.
General education courses are identified with the following abbreviations:
For information on transferring credit from regionally accredited institutions of higher education, please see the Transfer Articulation section of this catalog.
