Physical Science Courses - Physical Science Department

Register for classes using WebAdvisor. Review the Class Schedule for class dates and times. Course descriptions are available in the Catalog. All students are encouraged to meet with a counselor to review academic program requirements and/or have questions answered.

A sampling of courses for this discipline includes (not a complete list):

Skip list of courses.

• PHS-135 Physical Science
• PHYS-108 Survey of Physics
• ASTR-101A General Astronomy of the Solar System
• ASTR-101B General Astronomy Beyond the Solar System
• ASTR-102 General Astronomy Lab
• CHEM-101A General Chemistry
• CHEM-106A Principles of Chemistry
• CHEM-108 Survey of Chemistry
• GEOL-101 Introduction to Geology
• GEOL-102 Introduction to Oceanography

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the courses in this discipline, the student will have acquired the following knowledge and skills:

• Demonstrate a comprehension of physical and environmental reality by understanding how fundamental physical principles underlie the huge variety of natural phenomena and their interconnectedness.
• Demonstrate a comprehension of biological reality by understanding how physical principles are at work in living organisms.
• Demonstrate a comprehension of technology by understanding how things work on a fundamental level.
• Build critical thinking and quantitative skills by gaining insight into the thought processes of physical approximation and physical modeling, by practicing the appropriate application of mathematics to the description of physical reality, and by searching for a physical interpretation of mathematical results.
• Demonstrate basic experimental skills by the practice of setting up and conducting an experiment with due regards to minimizing measurement error and by the thoughtful discussion and interpretation of data.
• Demonstrate basic communication skills by working in groups on a laboratory experiment.
• Retain information from course to course by aiming at proficiency in the correct use of all the fundamental laws and equations to solve integrated problems.