Bachelor of Arts in History

at Kaplan Group - Arizona State University - Polytechnic Campus USA

The BA program in English is focused on literature, writing, film and culture.

Courses address a wide variety of genres, traditions and time periods. Students engage in close reading and critical thinking as they work with powerful, multilayered texts. They build communication skills as they compose for multiple purposes and audiences. The program ends with a degree capstone that allows students to use their skills and knowledge in a personalized academic or creative project.

The agribusiness industry is increasingly competitive, sophisticated and global, driving demand for innovative leaders who understand the industry's unique challenges and practices. The BA program in business with a concentration in global agribusiness teaches students the business of agricultural production, finance, marketing and distribution.

Through a technology-rich, applied, industry-oriented curriculum that focuses on real-world projects, students explore global agribusiness issues such as international trade, food safety and sustainability. It is specifically designed to meet the needs of students interested in studying the business aspects of agriculture in the domestic and global economy. Students learn to analyze and manage issues involved in food manufacturing, input and output supply activities, commodity trading and food distribution.

The MS program in user experience combines topics in web, human factors, visual displays and technical communication to make products, systems and services useful, usable and desirable.

Students learn how to research user needs, identify criteria for successful products and services, prototype those products and services, and refine them through usability testing and other user-centered evaluation methods. User experience skills are increasingly valued by industry yet are not typically covered in depth in traditional engineering or technical communication programs.

The MS program in human systems engineering with a concentration in user experience research focuses on designing products that are useful, usable, desirable, easy to learn, efficient to use and easy to remember. It focuses on the research, design and validation of all system components an end user interacts with, including software user interfaces, documentation, help systems, user support, aesthetics and communication. It is an important specialization within human systems engineering with a bright job outlook.

Students may complement their education with courses in graphic information technology, technical communications and entrepreneurship to strengthen their skills in information architecture, visual design and user interface prototyping. Additionally, hands-on user experience projects in these classes help students build portfolios necessary for entry-level positions.

BAE programs in secondary education prepare educators to teach youth enrolled in grades 6-12. While teacher candidates develop a strong theoretical background in their specific content areas, education program courses focus on developing the skills and teaching abilities required to be successful in the classroom. This program offers the Structured English Immersion instruction that qualifies them to receive the endorsement that enables them to work with English language learners and also provides extensive experiences throughout the program in integrating technology into teaching.

Secondary education professional pathway programs are clinically embedded during the junior and senior years. The primary goal of all professional experiences is to provide students with multiple opportunities to apply knowledge learned in ASU coursework to classroom practice in grades 6-12. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College students complete internships one day a week during the junior year and first semester of the senior year. In the final semester, students complete a full-time teaching residency. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College faculty and highly qualified lead teachers from partner school districts and charter schools collaboratively coach interns and residents during required professional experiences. The professional experience provided by the program provides students an opportunity to work directly with youth and make an immediate impact on classroom achievement. Students are also given the opportunity to work collaboratively with fellow interns in content area and interdisciplinary teams. This intensive, hands-on model of teacher preparation creates highly sought-after graduates.

The MS program in human systems engineering with a concentration in intelligent systems provides students with a deep understanding of the science of human performance and experience in the engineering of intelligent systems, robotics and autonomous systems industries.

Students in this program participate in courses focusing on methods and tools in applied cognitive science and foundations of human systems engineering, including uses of simulation and robotics, among other topics.

This concentration prepares students for facilitating the future of work when humans will work closely with heterogeneous technology in the military, space exploration, manufacturing, medicine and agriculture.

Counseling and applied psychological science is a specialty in promoting psychological well-being. Counselors and applied psychologists provide the tools and resources necessary for individuals, families and organizations to cope with everyday problems.

The BS program in counseling and applied psychological science provides foundational training in counseling theories, addictions, trauma, lifespan development, group counseling and professional ethics. A unique aspect of the program is its attention to cultural diversity, which focuses on age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status.

The MS program in human systems engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering provides students with a deep understanding of the science of human performance and experience.

Students learn to use methods and tools that enable them to apply this understanding, to design and problem solve in a wide variety of domains such as product usability, learning design, sports performance, cyber security, human-robot teaming and workplace and patient safety.

A broad range of professions need experts in human factors to work on problems that involve an understanding of human performance. Students gain real-world experience by tackling projects that examine cutting-edge issues such as cell phones as a source of driver distraction, detection of improvised explosive devices, process optimization in health care and even control of unmanned vehicles.

Interest areas include user experience, aviation human factors, cognitive performance, consumer psychology, transportation human factors, patient safety, effective teamwork, human-robot teaming, health psychology, learning optimization, social cognition, threat detection and sports psychology.

The School of Social and Behavioral Sciences offers a BS in political science in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

Political science is the study of governmental practices, politics and theories. Coursework in the political science program covers American institutions, international relations, political theory and world affairs. This program helps students gain a basic understanding of the assumptions underlying political science and to develop the necessary research skills for analyzing complex sociopolitical issues. In addition to coursework, students learn through internships, service-learning and research opportunities. The Bachelor of Science degree differs from the BA degree in that it requires an additional statistics course and a methods course.

Graduates of this program are prepared for work as analysts or aides in local, state or national legislative offices, among other roles. Many graduates go on to law school or graduate programs in political science, social science, urban planning or public administration.

The MS program in applied biological sciences offers advanced instruction in the ecology and sustainable management of natural and urban ecosystems. Rigorous programs of study involving field and laboratory work are custom-designed to apply ecological or biological principles to problems in species or ecosystem conservation. All programs culminate with the completion of an intensive, research-based thesis or applied project.

The program is supported by faculty members with backgrounds in:

• Ecological restoration
• Environmental microbiology
• Environmental stress physiology
• Desert horticulture
• Plant-fungal ecology
• Plant systematics
• Riparian and stream ecology
• Wildlife biology