ST requirements to change this fall

Under the current system, all A.B. students are required to take two ST courses, while those with sufficient Advanced Placement credits in the sciences can replace one ST course with an STX, a science class without a laboratory component. Starting next semester, however, any course including a laboratory component will be designated as a STL, while any science course without a lab will be designated as a STN. Since current students are not directly affected by the change, students who qualify and wish to fulfill the requirement with a STX course will need to meet with the dean of their residential college to find courses that fulfill the requirement, Quimby said in an e-mail.

It is not immediately clear how many courses will be available next fall to cover the STX requirement. Twelve STX courses were offered last fall and 13 are being offered this semester, according to an e-mail from Butler College Dean David Stirk.

Quimby said the old STX option is only available to a few current students. “It only works for a student who has two terms of Advanced Placement in a science area and who wants to take an upper level course in that department,” he explained.

Under the new system, students in the Class of 2015 and in future classes will be able to fulfill their ST requirement by taking one STL and one STN course. The change comes as the result of a proposal from the Council on Science and Technology, which oversees the ST requirement. The faculty voted to institute the change in May 2010. The Council recommended the changes in order to “better engage students in the study of science,” Quimby said.

“In looking at student course-taking patterns and survey data over the last several years, the Council concluded that despite entering Princeton with impressive scientific skills, too many undergraduates were taking the minimum number of science courses,” he said about the decision to revise the ST requirement. “And information from students suggested that the vast majority saw little connection between science and their everyday lives.”

Although more students will be able to take only one lab course as a result of the change, molecular biology assistant professor Rebecca Burdine said she did not think the requirement is being watered down.

“Students will still need to take a lab course, and this course should help them understand how science is conducted ‘hands on’,” she said in an e-mail. “They will also have to take an additional ST course and this could be with or without a lab. It is important to remember that STN courses are still science courses and will still provide an education in how science is conducted.”

The change reflects a broader effort to improve how science is taught to non-science majors, chemistry professor and associate chair Martin Semmelhack said.

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“The change is not just on paper; people are being hired who are good at organizing [STN] courses to add to the curriculum development in different areas,” he said in an e-mail.

Burdine said she was confident the new requirement would be beneficial to students.

“I think we all want students to get a real feel for science, how it is conducted and how it affects everyday life, even if it isn’t their major area of interest,” she said. “I believe the [changes to the requirement] can do this well, especially given some of the gifted teachers we have in the science departments at Princeton.”