Bachelor of Science, Major in Aviation Education with Specialization in Aviation

at South Dakota State University USA

The English major requires 45 credits in English and linguistics courses and is designed to give the student a broad overview of literature, writing, and the language.

Student Learning Outcomes
The English department’s B.A. program prepares students to become innovative professionals and global citizens by teaching them to read closely and critically, write creatively and persuasively, and explore the beauty and value of diverse literatures and cultures.

• Analyze texts closely and critically, using key literary terms and concepts to interpret how the specific elements of a text contribute to its larger meanings. (Cross-Curricular Skills: Inquiry and Analysis; Critical and Creative Thinking; Integrative Learning)
• Identify significant texts, authors, periods, movements, genres, theories, or modes from literary history, explaining how literary texts engage with their historical, cultural, aesthetic, or ideological contexts. (Cross-Curricular Skills: Inquiry and Analysis; Integrative Learning)
• Identify key theoretical ideas, concepts, or methodologies and apply them to the reading and writing of texts. (Cross-Curricular Skills: Critical and Creative Thinking; Integrative Learning)
• Write argumentative, creative, and reflective texts that demonstrate focus, content, structure, evidence, style, and grammar appropriate to their rhetorical contexts. (Cross-Curricular Skills: Critical and Creative Thinking; Integrative Learning)
• Conduct scholarly research that incorporates the use of library resources and discipline-specific databases; the evaluation and integration of secondary sources; and the documentation of primary and secondary sources using MLA style.  (Cross-Curricular Skills: Information Literacy; Inquiry and Analysis)
• Explain how literature both reflects and enriches the diversity of human experience through its exploration of the ways in which race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, or class shape identity and influence perception. (Cross-Curricular Skills: Critical and Creative Thinking; Inquiry and Analysis; Integrative Learning; Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity)

SDSU’s English department offers the M.A. degree in English. There are two emphases available to students:

• Studies in Literature
• Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

Within these two areas of study, the department offers three options for completing the degree:

• Option A requires twenty-four credit hours of coursework, six credit hours of thesis, a thesis project, and an oral examination. Within this option, the student may write a critical or a creative thesis.
• Option B requires thirty credit hours of coursework, two credit hours of research, a research/design project, and an oral examination.
• Option C requires thirty-six credit hours of coursework, a comprehensive written examination, and an oral examination.

Each option will support a variety of educational or professional goals. Students generally complete the program in two to three years.

Student Learning Outcomes

The English department’s M.A program prepares students for professional careers or further graduate study by developing their capacities for textual analysis, research, theory, and creative and critical writing.

Upon completing the English M.A. program, students will be able to:

• Textual Analysis: Demonstrate an advanced ability to analyze and interpret literary and cultural texts.
• Literary History: Examine significant texts, authors, periods, movements, genres, theories, and modes from literary history, interpreting the relationship between texts and their historical, aesthetic, cultural, and ideological contexts.
• Writing: Compose sophisticated argumentative, creative, and reflective texts that demonstrate focus, content, structure, evidence, style, and grammar appropriate to their rhetorical contexts.
• Theory: Demonstrate an advanced ability to apply theoretical concepts to the writing and analysis of texts.
• Research: Produce original research that advances knowledge within the discipline; generates questions for scholarly inquiry; identifies its methodological and theoretical foundations; employs library resources and discipline-specific databases; evaluates and integrates secondary criticism; and documents sources using MLA style.
• Diversity: Explain how literature both reflects and enriches the diversity of human experience through its exploration of the ways in which race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and class shape identity and influence perception. (Transferable Skill: Diversity Awareness)
• Teaching: Deliver instruction that demonstrates a growing mastery of course content (cultural analysis, rhetoric, grammar, and research) and increasing skill in helping students of varying abilities improve their cultural awareness, critical acumen, reading comprehension, and writing competence. (Graduate teaching assistants only.) (Transferable Skill: Teaching/Training)

The Data Science major prepares students to use the power of data to help organizations of all sorts and society as a whole to make better decisions.  Students learn to use mathematics, statistics, and computational tools to analyze data of all sorts, and learn to communicate the results of their analysis in order to produce the greatest positive impact.  Graduates are prepared for any post-graduation outcome including immediate entry into the professional world or further study in a pursuit of a M.S. in Data Science.

Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the Data Science major, students should be able to:

• Apply concepts and methods from Calculus and Linear Algebra. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis; Information Literacy)
• Work as part of a team to solve a complex Data Science problem. (Cross-curricular Skill: Teamwork)
• Gather requirements from professional contexts and translate them into a clearly articulated data analysis problem. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis; Critical and Creative Thinking; Problem Solving)
• Identify, gather, and prepare data necessary for analysis (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis)
• Select the optimal combination of mathematical, statistical, and computing techniques necessary to solve a problem. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis; Critical and Creative Thinking; Information Literacy; Problem Solving)
• Conduct analysis in a manner that produces well-understood and reproducible results and avoids common analytical and ethical problems associated with data analysis. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis; Critical and Creative Thinking; Information Literacy; Problem Solving)
• Interpret and communicate results in the optimal combination of written, graphical/visual, and verbal means, to provide actionable intelligence to the stakeholder. (Cross-curricular Skill: Problem Solving)
• Appreciate the value of and work efficiently with a diverse group of individuals. (Cross-curricular Skill: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)

The Spanish major - Teaching specialization at SDSU consists of language, culture, literature and professional courses to prepare students for teaching careers in primary, middle or secondary schools or for further graduate study.

Student Learning Outcomes
Upon the completion of the Spanish major, students should be able to:

• Speak, read and write Spanish at the Intermediate-High or Advanced level, developing solid competence in the language needed for everyday life and advanced narrative skills in the past, present, and future. (Cross-curricular Skills: Intercultural Knowledge; Inquiry & Analysis; Information Literacy)
• Demonstrate understanding of and growth in the skills required for intercultural communication and competence and life-long learning. (Cross-curricular Skill: Intercultural Knowledge; Diversity, Inclusion and Equity; Critical & Creative Thinking)
• Identify the cultural perspectives of the Spanish-speaking world’s civilizations and their cultural products, such as literatures, arts, institutions, pop cultures, etc. and compare the cultural frames that determine everyday life in French- speaking cultures and the U.S. (Cross-curricular Skills: Intercultural Knowledge; Critical & Creative Thinking; Inquiry & Analysis; Information Literacy)
• Adapt behavior to a variety of cultural contexts through critical analysis of cultural frames. (Cross-curricular Skills: Intercultural Knowledge; Creative & Critical Thinking; and Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)
• Articulate the value of their language and cultural studies and apply this knowledge in future employment. (Cross-curricular Skill: Intercultural Knowledge; Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)

The Master of Arts in Communication and Media Studies is a broad-based graduate degree for students with an undergraduate degree in communication studies, media studies, or related areas. Coursework emphasizes the intersections of academic and professional approaches to understanding, creating, and evaluating messages across contexts. Core coursework covers the foundations of the communication and media studies disciplines (including relevant theories and methods), explores cross-platform communication, and offers applied coursework in either professional communication or media law.

Students who pursue Option A (thesis) complete an additional 9-12 credits of elective coursework and an independent, theoretically-based study that generates new disciplinary knowledge and prepares them for advanced graduate work. Students who pursue Option B (project) complete an additional 15-18 credits of elective coursework and an independent, applied project that addresses a practical issue using skills related to students’ chosen career fields.

Student Learning Outcomes

A graduate with a specialization in Communication Studies will be able to:

• Demonstrate excellent communication skills across various platforms (written, oral, and digital) that are tailored to the professions, audiences, and purposes they serve. (Transferable Skill: Career Preparedness)
• Conduct research and/or evaluation projects using appropriate qualitative and/or quantitative methodologies.
• Understand the theoretical foundations of the field and generate new, creative insights or contributions to one’s academic or professional field.
• Identify the impact of history, diversity, and intersectionality of social identities on human communication and mass media within personal, professional, organizational, and societal contexts.
• Use current and emerging technologies effectively to adapt fundamental critical thinking and storytelling skills to the interconnected world with digital, networked media.
• Practice professional ethics, as well as principles of freedom of speech and expression, within one’s academic or professional field.

Dietetics prepares Registered Dietitian Nutritionists to practice dietetics at an advanced level and/or pursue doctoral study.  The program seeks to develop research skills, stimulate independent thought, and provide up-to-date knowledge in foods, nutrition, and food service/business management. This program prepares individuals to integrate and apply the principles ranging from the biomedical sciences, human behavior, and management to design, and to lead effective food, nutrition, health and wellness programs in a variety of settings. This online program will be a degree tailored for credentialed, practicing dietetics professionals who seek to enhance their knowledge in a specific area of dietetics practice or to retool for new career opportunities in dietetics practice. The student must already have the RDN credential or have a Verification Statement from an ACEND accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics. This degree does not prepare one to become a credentialed RDN.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Foundational knowledge: Apply foundational knowledge and skills in the theory and application of nutrition and dietetics sciences to professional practice, education, and research.
• Communication skills: Develop effective written and oral communication skills.
• Critical thinking: Critically analyze and synthesize scientific evidence to defend a position.
• Career preparedness: Demonstrate effective career preparedness.

A major in advertising will prepare students with effective written and visual communication, critical thinking, strategy, design, and research skills. Through coursework and experiential learning experiences, including a required internship, graduates gain experience working on teams to develop solutions for applied projects, clients, and competitive campaigns.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students completing an advertising major will be equipped to:

• Understand and apply the principles and laws of freedom of speech and press, for the country in which the institution that invites ACEJMC is located, as well as receive instruction in and understand the range of systems of freedom of expression around the world, including the right to dissent, to monitor and criticize power, and to assemble and petition for redress of grievances.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the history and role of professionals and institutions in shaping communications.
• Demonstrate an understanding of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and, as appropriate, other forms of diversity in domestic society in relation to mass communications. (Cross-curricular Skill: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)
• Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of peoples and cultures and of the significance and impact of mass communications in a global society. (Cross-curricular Skill: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)
• Understand concepts and apply theories in the use and presentation of images and information. (Cross-curricular Skills: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, Information Literacy)
• Demonstrate an understanding of professional ethical principles and work ethically in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness and diversity. (Cross-curricular skill: Ethical Reasoning)
• Think critically, creatively and independently. (Cross-curricular Skills: Inquiry and Analysis, Critical and Creative Thinking)
• Conduct research and evaluate information by methods appropriate to the communications professions in which they work. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis, Information Literacy)
• Write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communications professions, audiences and purposes they serve.
• Critically evaluate their own work and that of others for accuracy and fairness, clarity, appropriate style and grammatical correctness. (Cross-curricular Skill: Critical and Creative Thinking)
• Apply basic numerical and statistical concepts. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis)
• Apply tools and technologies appropriate for the communications professions in which they work.

Chemistry is often referred to as the central science because of its strong connections to the other natural sciences and mathematics. Chemistry is therefore an area of study that allows students vast opportunity to explore the unknown and to address some of human society’s most pressing scientific problems. The Chemistry Education program will prepare students for careers in high-quality teaching of chemistry at the secondary/high school level. The curriculum consists of a set of core requirements for students to acquire fundamental chemistry content knowledge and skills shared by all high-quality chemistry teachers, requirements for cognate knowledge development and skills acquisition (e.g., mathematics and other sciences), while meeting the state licensure requirements to teach high school. The core requirements provide foundational understanding in all five sub-disciplines of chemistry (analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic, and physical), representing breadth of content knowledge.  The curriculum also allows for exploration into the depth of chemistry content by including elective coursework in chemistry, environmental chemistry, and a capstone research course.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completing a major in Chemistry Education, graduates will:

• Understand the basic concepts fundamental to chemistry.
• Be properly prepared for laboratory investigations.
• Develop in-depth knowledge of at least four of the five subdisciplines of chemistry (analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic, and physical).
• Demonstrate knowledge of modern chemistry topics, which could include catalysis, environmental chemistry, green/sustainable chemistry, materials science, and toxicology.
• Be able to design and execute experiments, analyze data, and use the chemical literature. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis)
• Be able to synthesize the curricular knowledge and skills in a capstone (research) experience. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis; Information Literacy)
• Understand the scientific process and develop problem-solving skills. (Cross-curricular Skill: Problem Solving)
• Retrieve information effectively. (Cross-curricular Skill: Information Literacy)
• Develop chemical safety skills.
• Be able to rely on collaboration, effective teamwork, safety, and ethical practices. (Cross-curricular Skill: Teamwork; Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)
• Learn professional ethics. (Cross-curricular Skill: Ethical Reasoning)
• Have proficiency in essential green chemistry competencies.
• Be able to assess, comprehend, and communicate science. (Cross-curricular Skill: Inquiry and Analysis)
• Demonstrate teaching effectiveness. (Cross-curricular Skill: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)
• Illustrate learner development.
• Recognize learning differences and learning environments. (Cross-curricular Skill: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity)
• Formulate content knowledge.
• Implement uses of multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.
• Create plans of instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
• Use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
• Engage in ongoing professional learning and use evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapt practice to meet the needs of each learner.
• Seek appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.

The Natural Resource Management specialization will provide training in ecology, evolution, environmental sciences, and range areas of expertise with a focus on basic and applied research.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of program: Exhibit knowledge concerning biological and/or microbiological systems/sciences at a level appropriate to a M.S. degree holder.
• Communication skills: Be able to effectively express themselves orally and in written form.
• Understand scientific method: Understand the scientific methods and techniques for solving research problems and analyze scientific data using the appropriate statistics.
• Use statistics to analyze data: Be able to use statistics to analyze scientific data.
• Specialization: Specialize in some area of biology, biotechnology and/or microbiology, but still be broadly based in knowledge in cellular and molecular biology.
• Publish research: Be able to conduct and publish scholarly research. (Option A)
• Professional Development: Demonstrate professional development and competence so that they may enter the work force in academia or industry.

The Master of Engineering program is a professional degree designed to grow your capacity to manage and lead in complex technical organizations. The program is 50% advanced engineering courses, 50% management and leadership courses, and can be completed on-campus or on-line.

The Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) is a terminal or professional degree as it is coursework only – no thesis. This graduate program is tailored to meet the needs of working professionals at their own pace or for senior-level engineering students who want to earn a graduate degree while still at SDSU. Core classes include project management, operations, and management and leadership, culminating in an applied industry-based project.  Advanced engineering courses come from civil, electrical, mechanical, or agricultural engineering disciplines.

The M.Eng. program has a dedicated industrial advisory board to provide input and guidance on expected student competencies and program outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes

At the time of graduation from the Master of Engineering program, students will have:

• in-depth technical knowledge in engineering;
• knowledge of contemporary leadership and management in professional practice;
• a demonstrated ability to apply engineering, management and leadership concepts; and,
• a demonstrated ability to effectively communicate verbally, graphically and in writing.

The Capstone course (GE 750) is used to determine whether students have met expected program outcomes. In the Capstone course, students are expected to manage and execute an industry-based project or similar complex application of technical knowledge and management analysis skills.