StudyQA — Bachelor: Communication of Science and Technology

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The study of the communication of science and technology is an interdisciplinary enterprise that draws upon the scientific, engineering, and communication resources of Vanderbilt University. The program is designed for students who have an interest in science and technology and also are interested in how science and technology are communicated to the larger world outside science, engineering, and medicine.

The Communication of Science and Technology major at Vanderbilt is unique in that it was invented by students in the early 2000s as an independent contract major and continues as an interdisciplinary major, with a small team of supportive faculty advisors, but with no formal home department.

Both the major and minor in the Communication of Science and Technology are interdisciplinary. Students must take advanced courses in writing and public speaking and are encouraged to take courses in video and film production. These courses provide a broad, three-legged foundation of communication skills that are invaluable for students in any profession. Students must take at least five science and engineering courses; of these, at least three must be advanced courses in one or more scientific disciplines; up to two of these courses may be engineering courses. Students also take a course that bridges the sciences with non-science content and issues (for example, Public Policy or Medicine, Health, and Society courses), a statistics course, and a selection of electives.
Students have a choice of using their required science/engineering courses and electives to probe deeply into a single discipline or of spreading those courses thinly over many disciplines. Many students combine this major with a second major or a minor in one of the natural sciences and/or a program in engineering. This approach, which ensures depth of knowledge in a single content area as well as breadth across several areas of science and engineering, is considered best for those students who intend to become communicators of science.

1. Written and Oral Communication Courses (9 credit hours from 3 courses): Three courses, with a minimum of 3 credit hours per course, as follows:

a. CSET 2100 (Science Communication Tools and Techniques) or CSET 3890 (Special Topics). If neither course is offered for two consecutive years, majors may, with approval of the program director, substitute a course from category 1c. Note that CSET 150 is rarely offered.

b. One advanced public-speaking course: CMST 2100 (Argumentation and Debate), CMST 2110 (Persuasion) or 2120 (Organizational and Managerial Communication

c. One advanced (2000-level or higher) W course from any of the following:

i. any 2000-level or higher W course from any Natural Science program (as used here, Natural Science includes all courses identified as MNS courses in AXLE except MATH and PHIL courses),

ii. any 2000-level or higher W course from any Engineering program,

iii. any 2000-level or higher W course from MHS

iv. ENGL 3210 (Intermediate Nonfiction Writing), ENGL 3220 (Advanced Nonfiction Writing), or ENGL 3720/3720W (Literature, Science, and Technology

2. Natural Science and Engineering Courses (15 credit hours from five courses): Five courses (minimum 3 credit hours per course), at least three of which must be 2000-level or higher Natural Science courses. (As used here, Natural Science includes all courses identified as MNS courses in AXLE except MATH and PHIL courses.) The other two courses may be 2000-level or higher Natural Science courses or courses taken at any level from the School of Engineering. Students will count 15 credit hours of Natural Science and/or Engineering courses toward this part of 38 or 39-credit hour requirement, even if they choose to take five 4-credit-hour courses. Engineering research, project, design, seminar, independent study, and introductory programming courses (e.g., BME 3860, 3861, 4950, 4951, 4959; ChBE 4950W, 4951W, 3860, 3861, 4959; CE 3841, 3842, 3843, 4950, 4951, 4900; CS 1101, 1103, 1151, 3860, 3861; EECE 3850, 3851, 4950, 4951, 4959; ENGM 3850, 3851, 4951, ES 1115, 0703, 3860; MSE 3850, 3851, ME 3841, 3842, 3860, 4951, 4959; SC 3841, 3842, 3843, 3851, 3852, 3853) do not count toward this requirement. Students may count the three 1-credit-hour courses ES 1401, 1402, and 1403 as equivalent to a single 3-credit-hour course if they earn credit for all three courses.

3. Statistics (3 credit hours) selected from:

BSCI 3270 (Statistical Methods in Biology)
ECON 1500 (Economic Statistics)
ECON 1510 (Intensive Economic Statistics)
MATH 1011 (Probability and Statistical Inference)
MATH 2810 (Probability and Statistics for Engineering)
MATH 2820 (Introduction to Probability and Mathematical Statistics)
PSY 2100 (Quantitative Methods)
PSY-PC 2110 (Introduction to Statistical Analysis)
PSY-PC 2120 (Statistical Analysis)
BME 3200 (Analysis of Biomedical Data)
SOC 2100 (Statistics for Social Scientists)

4. One course bridging science, engineering, or medicine and health with non-science content and issues, including public policy courses and environmental courses (3 credit hours):

ANTH 2109 (Food Politics in America), 3143 (Medical Anthropology), 3343 (Biology and Culture of Race), 3141 (Anthropology of Healing), 3142 (Medicine, Culture, and the Body), 3372 (Human Osteology), 4373 (Health and Disease in Ancient Populations)
ASIA 2630 (Chinese Medicine)
ASTR 2130 (Theories of the Universe)
CS 1151 (Computers and Ethics)
ECON 2350 (Health Care Policy)
EES 2150 (Science, Risk, and Policy)
ENGL 3730 (Literature and the Environment)
HIST 1480 (The Darwinian Revolution), 1500 (History of Modern Sciences and Society), 1510 (The Scientific Revolution), 2800 (Modern Medicine), 2810 (Women, Health, and Sexuality), 2830 (Medicine, Culture, and the Body), 3030 (Epidemics in History), 3040 (Health and the African American Experience), 3045 (US Eugenics 1865-present), 3070W (Science, Technology, and Modernity)
MHS: any course except first-year writing seminars, with the exception of special topics internship, service learning, research, seminar, independent study, and Honors classes
PHIL 3616 (Philosophy and the Natural Sciences)
PSCI 3253 (Ethics and Public Policy), 2255 (Public Policy Problems), 2256 (Politics of Public Policy)
PSY 3705 (Human Sexuality)
RLST 3921 (Ethics and Ecology), 3941 (Religion, Science, and Evolution)
SOC 3311 (Climate Change and Society), 3312 (Environment and Development), 3314 (Environmental Inequality and Justice), 3315 (Human Ecology and Society), 2270 (Ecofeminism: Theory, Politics, and Action)
WGS 2240 (Introduction to Women/’s Health), 2268 (Gender, Race, Justice, and the Environment), 2270 (Ecofeminism: Theory, Politics, and Action)

5. Electives (8 or 9 credit hours) chosen from:

a. CMA 1500 (Fundamentals of Film and Video Production), 1600 (Introduction to Film and Media Studies), 2100 (Intermediate Filmmaking: Alternate Forms), 2200 (Intermediate Filmmaking: The Fiction Film), 2500W (Screenwriting), 2600W (Advanced Screenwriting), (no more than 2 courses)

b. category 1c (no more than 2 courses)

c. category 2 (no more than 2 courses)

d. category 4 (no more than 2 courses)

e. A combination of at least one hour of CSET 3840 (Directed Study) and at least one hour of CSET 3841 (Project in Science Writing and Communicating) may be counted together as a single elective course. No more than 3 hours of CSET 3840 and 3841 may count toward the major.

Requirements

All required parts of either the Coalition Application, Common Application, or Universal College Application.
$50 nonrefundable application fee, or fee waiver for qualified students
Official high school transcript
Counselor letter of recommendation
Two academic teacher recommendations
Standardized Test Results: SAT or ACT (SAT code: 1871 / ACT code: 4036)
Official results of the TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE Academic if applicable*
A completed College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile, if applicable**