FORM UPDATED: 21 November 2002General Education Course Approval Form and InstructionsI. PROCEDURE FOR SUBMITTING COURSES FOR GE APPROVAL, & FORMII. CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONSFORM UPDATED: 21 November 2002General Education Course Approval Form and InstructionsCONTENTS: I. Approval Procedures, Submission and Approval Form, and II. Category Descriptions for General Education Courses________________________________________________________________________I. PROCEDURE FOR SUBMITTING COURSES FOR GE APPROVAL, & FORMA. NEW AND SIGNIFICANTLY MODIFIED COURSES:Departments should submit new and or significantly modified courses (requiring catalogue copy changes) to (1) the appropriate college curriculum committee first, including the application materials requested in this packet. (2) After College council approval, Colleges should forward general education applications to the Office of the Provost, General Education committee. Colleges are responsible for submitting new and revised course information to the Registrar’s office.B. EXISTING GENERAL EDUCATION (PRIOR PLAN) COURSES:If the course submitted is an existing General Education course, Departments should submit 2 copies of the complete GMU Gen Ed. course assessment/certification request packet to (1) the appropriate College Dean or Director’s office for FYI and signature, andthen it should be (2) forwarded by the Dean’s Office to the Office of the Provost General Education Curriculum Committee. We encourage revising existing general education courses to reflect the new guidelines.C. PROCESS AND EVALUATION: The courses approved by the elected Committee on General Education Curriculum would be in effect for a period of two years. All courses, both existing and newly created, will be reviewed and if necessary, adjusted at the end of the first phase. Assessment procedures will be developed in the first phase of this three-year plan. Colleges: Please Submit application packets to:General Education Curriculum Committee, c/o S. Beach & M. Glover Office of the Provost, MSN 3A2Mason Hall D109George Mason UniversityFairfax VA 22030George Mason University General Education Course Approval Form, rev. 11/21/02Office of the Provost (Please Attach to GMU Standard Course Approval Form, Office of the Registrar, and submit via your College Dean’s Office) New___X_____ Modify________ Existing__________ Date: __9.10.09___Dept. ___CDS____ Course Abbrev/Number____130_______ Full Course Title:_______Computing for Scientists______________Credit Hours:____3____ Lab/Non lab (circle one) GE Area A. Foundation__X_ B. Core______ or C. Synthesis: (interim)____(permanent)____ GE Category:_____Information Technology_________(If Synthesis, please also see Appendix 1, Checklist; all other categories see Appendix 2, and 2002-03 Catalogue Descriptions)1. Course Content (please attach SYLLABUS)CDS 130 : Computing for ScientistsSyllabusCourse Prerequisites: Satisfaction of prerequisites for MATH 113Course DescriptionIn this course, students will learn how to use computers to solve practical scientific problems. Topics will include creating effective scientific presentations, understanding and analysis of experimental data, graphics/visualization, on-line literature, data/information ethics, scientific modeling/simulation, communication/collaboration tools, and the future of scientific computing. Beyond just introducing computing tools, this course will equip students with the knowledge and confidence they need to make productive use of future hardware and software both as students and throughout their career.Course Objectives and OutcomesBy the end of this course, students will:- Use computational tools to develop effective scientific presentations using a wide variety of software packages and media- Be able to use computers in the experimental sciences, particularly with laboratory data- Become effective, skeptical, ethical consumers of information from on-line sources, particularly scientific literature- Create and use simple programming tools to build computational models that solve scientific problems- Effectively use on-line communication techniques to collaborate on projects- Be equipped with the background and skills that are necessary to learn new computational tools that will be used in the sciencesGradesHomework 40%Midterm 25%Final exam 25%Class participation 10%Exams A midterm and final exam will be given in the class to test comprehension of the topics covered in the lecture, discussions, and homework. The test format may include short answers, multiple choice, and simple discussion questions.HomeworkStudents will complete a series of assignments using their laptops or campus computing laboratories. Many of these assignments will let students extend the work they started as in-class projects using their laptops (or working with other students who have laptops). All of the software will be available either as free downloads or through Mason's on-campus labs. Software server systems may also be used, which will let students with laptops in class use Mason software licenses like Matlab and Excel. Students in this course will: Create scientific presentations and using scientific visualization to effectively communicate ideas Use spreadsheet software to conduct basic quantitative analysis of laboratory data, including statistics, creating simple models, and visualization Search on-line literature searches to research scientific problems, specifically using on-line journals and databases Develop simple simulations using high level simulation languages such as STELLA or Vensim Create and contribute to websites using authoring software and Web 2.0 tools Use on-line collaboration tools to work on group projects and contribute toclass discussionsHonor CodeAs in any class, you are allowed to study with other students. However, tests andhomework assignments must be completed on your own unless stated specifically in the assignment guidelines. In some assignments, you will be directed toward on-line sources for papers, data and code. If these data, code, or papers are used for a project, then you MUST cite where it came from. Specifically, you may notcopy any text, computer code, image, data or any other material from the Internet or any other source and represent it as your own. Any material that is taken in whole or in part from any other source (including web-pages) that is not properly cited will be treated as