Summer 2013
Business
All students in the Business STEP program will take:
B A 342: Socially Responsible, Sustainable and Ethical Business Practice (3 credits)
This course examines actions taken by corporations that impact global citizenship, environmental sustainability, and the economic stability of international societies. It further looks at relationships, rights, and responsibilities between businesses, business decision-makers and their stakeholders. (Required for all Smeal College of Business majors)
As your second course, you will choose any one of the following:
MIS 204: Introduction to Business Information Systems (3 credits)
An applications-oriented course that provides an overview of (1) the role of information systems in business process design, (2) the current technologies used for obtaining, storing, and communicating information in support of operations and decision-making within a business organization, and (3) the concepts and principles for programming, developing, and using popular spreadsheet and database tools. Applications focus on important problems and issues found in business disciplines, including accounting, finance, marketing, supply chain operations, and general management. (Required for all Smeal College of Business majors)
MKTG 330: Consumer Behavior (3 credits)
Application of behavioral science concepts to the understanding of buyer behavior as a basis for marketing management decision making. (Required for Marketing majors; satisfies 3-credits of the Marketing 2-piece sequence for other Smeal majors)
SCM 301: Supply Chain Management (3 credits)
This course provides an overview of key logistics and supply chain management processes, concepts, and methodologies. Empasis is given to the framework for supply chain management, the analysis of logistics cost, and service trade-offs among inventory, transportation, and warehousing activites, the strategic role of information technology in supply chains, the use of third-party logistics providers, and the methods of measuring the value of logistics performance. (Required for all Smeal College of Business majors except Risk Management, ACTSC option)
In addition to the two required STEP courses, all Business STEP participants are given the opportunity to take:
B A 297A: Career Planning Strategies (1 credit)
This strategic career planning course will educate students on the intricacies of the career search process. Educated by faculty, Smeal corporate partners, and Penn State alumni, students will ground their theoretical knowledge of careers with a greater understanding of corporate operations and environments. This course has been designed to help students as they continue their self-discovery and goal setting process essential to their career search. Some outcomes include resume development, interviewing and communication skills, and networking strategies. (Counts as 1 credit electives)
Communications
COMM 260W: Basics of news reporting (3 credits)
This course introduces students to the basics of news reporting and writingThrough a combination of lecture, discussion, and writing assignments, students learn how to write news stories that are accurate, fair, clear, and concise.
COMM370: Introductory course in public relations (3 credits)
It is a survey course that will provide students with a foundation for understanding the role and function of public relations and public opinion in American society, business and industry. The course defines the role of public relations, its societal value, and the workplace settings where public relations is practiced. Students are introduced to the interrelationships between the disciplines of public opinion and public relations and the many definitions of public relations and how they vary from organization to organization. Students learn how individuals, interest groups, organizations, corporations and politicians monitor and analyze public attitudes, opinions and issues that impact individual citizens, groups, organizations, institutions, and society. Students examine public relations from a historical perspective and study important social campaigns that have laid the groundwork for public relations in the modern era. Students are introduced to a myriad of communications theories and how they apply to different scenarios ranging from persuasion to crisis communications. The course helps students develop an understanding of the history, structure, and functions of public relations, the four-step public relations process (research, objectives, programming, and evaluation), the tools used to carry out public relations, ethics in public relations, and legal framework adhered to by public relations practitioners. Additionally, students are taught to appreciate the value of public relations in solving problems and making policy, i.e., the importance of being involved in the decision-making body of a corporation or public relations firm. Students are also show why individual as well as institutional credibility is critical to public relations practice.
Education
E C E 451: Instruction in Early Childhood Education Derived from Development Theories (3 credits)
As the required introductory courses to early childhood education for undergraduate students, this class presents a foundational base of the early childhood education field, including the study of children/childhood, current practices, various roles of practitioners, environments for learning, and approaches to teaching. This course provides an historical overview of influential thinkers and the roots of early childhood education, multidisciplinary perspectives of development of the young child (for example, perspectives on children/childhood from anthropology, behaviorism, developmental psychology, neuroscience, postmodernism and post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, etc.), and resources for planning curriculum and instruction.
E C E 497A: Environmental Design for Diverse Learners in Early Childhood Education (3 credits)
This course introduces students to planning, designing, building and facilitating educational experiences for diverse learners using child-centered, community-engaged, sustainable, and universally designed environments. The focus of class is especially on creating learning studios that nurture young children’s use of multiple modalities, mediums, and media with the aim of discovering the potential of diverse learners. Within the learning studio or classroom community, students in this course will learn how to incorporate design features such as mobile furniture and educational materials, natural materials, spatial organization, architectonic elements, views, ambient features, and the comforts of home. Outside the learning studio, students in this course will learn how to develop sustained connections between classrooms communities within the school and outside the local community (e.g. museums, parks, farms, historical sites, shops, hospitals, etc.). We will read about environmental design from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes readings from architecture, anthropology, community-based design, early childhood education, environmental design, interior design, landscape architecture, playscapes, urban planning, and universal design. Students will work together on design teams to carry out pre-design focus groups with stakeholders, as well as plan, design, and construct a classroom project model made from recycled objects. Also design teams will create a film to document the story what happened during the course.
Information Sciences and Technology
IST 301: Information and Organization (3 credits)
Students will learn the basic principles of organizational design, including the various ways an organization can be structured, the importance of culture in determining underlying rules and values for the organization, and the relationship of tasks and information flows as they support decision-making and activity. Students will also gain a better appreciation for the importance of diversity within the organization, as well as explore the role that organizational ethics plays in the operations of the organization. (Prescribed course for all IST majors)
IST 402: Emerging Techologies (3 credits)
Students will be exposed to emerging methods, models and techologies relevant to the support of information systems in work settings. Because informaiton technology is a particularly rapidly changing area, students require the ability to understand the difference between established successful technologies, new technologies that have failed ro are mere fads, and emerging technologies that are changing the way businesses operate. The course emphasis will be on software methods and technologies that are relevant to a wide variety of projects and careers in information technology. (Supporting course required for all IST majors)
Liberal Arts
Pair # 1
AF AM 465.201 Civil Rights and American Politics 1933-68 (3 credits)
The civil rights struggle and its impact upon American politics.
CAS 100A.203 Effective Speech (3 credits)
Principles of communication, implemented through presentations.
Pair # 2
ECON 302.103 Intermediate Microeconomic Analysis (3 credits)
Allocation of resources and distribution of income within various market structures, with emphasis on analytical tools.
Prerequisite: ECON 102
CAS 100A.248 Effective Speech (3 credits)
Principles of communication, implemented through presentations.
Pair # 3
ECON 304.102 Intermediate Macroeconomic Analysis (3 credits)
Analysis of forces that determine the level of aggregate economic activity.
Prerequisite: ECON 104
PHIL 010.202 Critical Thinking (3 credits)
Teaches critical thinking skills.
Pair # 4
PHIL 432.201 Medical and Health Care Ethics (3 credits)
Examines ethical, political, and social issues in the research, implementation, and practice of medicine, medical technologies, and healthcare.
BIOL 472.201 Mammalian Physiology (3 credits)
Mechanisms concerned with normal animal function, with special emphasis on humans.
Prerequisite: BIOL 240W or CHEM 203
