General Education Competency Areas

Basic Communications (3 Credits required)

Students will:

• Produce coherent texts within common college-level written forms;
• Demonstrate the ability to revise and improve such texts;
• Research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details;
• Develop proficiency in oral discourse, and
• Evaluate an oral presentation according to established criteria.

Humanities (3 credits required)

Students will demonstrate:

• Knowledge of the conventions and methods of at least one of the humanities (Art, Literature, Modern Language, Philosophy) in addition to those by other knowledge areas required by the General Education program.

Arts (3 credits required)

Students will demonstrate:

• Understanding of at least one principal form of artistic expression and the creative process inherent therein.

History (6 credits required)

Students will demonstrate:

• Knowledge of a basic narrative of American history, political, economic, social, and cultural, including knowledge of unity and diversity in American society, knowledge of either a broad outline of world history, or
• Knowledge of common institutions in American society and how they have affected different groups, and
• Understanding of America's evolving relationship with the rest of the world.
• The distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc. of one non-Western civilization.
• Student will demonstrate knowledge of the development of the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, Student will demonstrate knowledge of the development of the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc. of Western civilization, and relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world, etc. of Western civilization, and relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world. 

Mathematics (6 credits required)

Students will demonstrate:

• Competence in the following quantitative reasoning skills: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Data analysis, and Quantitative reasoning.

Modern (Foreign) Languages (3 credits level 2 or higher required)

Students will demonstrate:

• Basic proficiency in the understanding and use of a modern (foreign) language; and
• Knowledge of the distinctive features of culture(s) associated with the language they are studying.
• This requirement may be partially fulfilled by earning a grade of 85 or higher on a regents examination in a foreign language. To complete the requirement, these students should take a course taught in English that is offered by the Modern Language department.
• Students who speak languages not offered at Farmingdale State University of New York may fulfill this requirement by passing proficiency tests.

Social and Behavioral Sciences (6 credits required)

Students will demonstrate:

• Understanding of the methods social scientists use to explore social phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence, and employment of mathematical interpretive analysis; and knowledge of major concepts, models, and issues of at least one discipline in the social sciences.

Natural Sciences (8 credits required included 2 Laboratories)

Students will demonstrate:

• Understanding of the methods scientists use to explore natural phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence, and employment of mathematical analysis; and
• Application of scientific data, concepts and models in one of the natural sciences.