Biological Sciences

Chemistry

Geological Sciences

Mathematical Sciences

Physics

Dr. Thomas E. Brady, Dean

Dr. Larry P. Jones, Associate Dean

Dr. Pablo Arenaz, Associate Dean for Entering Students

Dr. Jorge A. Lopez, Assistant Dean

Bell Hall, Room 100

Phone: (915) 747-5536

Fax: (915) 747-6807

E-mail: science@utep.edu

The College of Science was formed in 1965 when Texas Western College divided the Arts and Sciences College into the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Science. However, the college's academic departments have roots that start at the beginning of the institution. In 1913, the curriculum of the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy included physics and mining, engineering, mathematics, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, shop work, and drawing. From these roots The University of Texas at El Paso's College of Science has grown to over 80 faculty in five academic departments--Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Geological Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physics--offering thirteen Bachelor of Science degree programs.

The preparation of these students for graduate and professional schools and careers as scientists and teachers is the primary mission of the college. In addition, the college offers basic science and mathematics courses needed by students seeking other careers.

Faculty of the College share a commitment to the idea that teaching and research are critically important in the education of students in science. The College is proud of the large number of undergraduates that participate in research laboratories. Although many of the faculty have achieved international reputations for their research, all have classroom teaching responsibilities.

Reflecting the long connection between the arts and sciences, each academic department also offers a Bachelor of Arts degree program through the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Psychology in that college offers the BS in Psychology through the College of Science. The Graduate Studies Catalog describes the Master of Science degree programs offered by each academic department and the Doctor of Philosophy degree programs offered in Biological Sciences and Geological Sciences. Doctor of Philosophy degrees in the interdisciplinary areas of Materials Science and Engineering and Environmental Science and Engineering are listed in the Interdisciplinary Studies section of the Graduate Studies Catalog.

Each department of the College of Science and the Department of Psychology offers the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree subject to the general requirements listed below. Each department also offers the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree subject to the general requirements listed in the College of Liberal Arts.

A student planning a technical career or graduate work is advised to follow the BS degree route. Either the BS or the BA degree is suitable for admission to health professional schools

(see Preprofessional Programs).

BS programs that include course work leading to Secondary Teacher Certification are offered by each department and in three different interdisciplinary programs in science. BA programs leading to Teacher Certification are also available.

The Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Geological Sciences, Physics, and Psychology have departmental honors programs for qualified undergraduates. Information about these programs are found in each department's section of this catalog.

The BS degree in all science disciplines requires a minimum of 128 semester hours of credit including a minimum of 45 upper-division (junior and senior) semester hours. A GPA of 2.0 must be achieved in all course work at UTEP and in all course work in the major department. In addition, a grade of "C" or better must be achieved in the following courses: all courses used to fulfill the University Core Curriculum requirements, all lower-division courses in the major and minor, and all lower-division MATH and STAT courses. Individual degree plans may restrict or extend some of the general education requirements, which are:

Mathematics: Completion of MATH 1411 and either MATH 1312 or the sequence STAT 2380, 2182, and 2381

The College of Science offers BS degrees in the following disciplines: Applied Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth Science, Geological Sciences, Geophysics, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics, and Psychology. The specific requirements for these disciplines and various options may be found in the academic department sections of this catalog (Psychology is listed under the College of Liberal Arts). In addition, BS degrees are offered in the following interdisciplinary areas: Life/Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Physical Sciences.

Students planning to obtain a degree in the College of Science must major in one of the above fields. Students planning to enter medical or dental schools normally obtain a BS or BA degree in science and, for this reason, they should declare a major field (pre-medical and pre-dental are not major fields).

Students may enroll as double majors in all BS degree plans except Earth Science, Life/Earth Science, Natural Science, and Physical Science. Double majors in a single department are not allowed. Geophysics majors are limited in the selection of a second major to Applied Mathematics. All other BS degree plans are limited in the selection of a second major to one of the approved minors for the major degree plan. Double majors must satisfactorily complete all course work required of majors in each department.

Students who have earned a baccalaureate degree at an accredited institution may enroll as candidates for a second baccalaureate degree in the College of Science. This degree will be awarded upon satisfactory completion of all Bachelor of Science degree requirements in the College of Science. Students seeking a second baccalaureate degree must complete at least 24 semester hours, specified by the department, following the award of the first baccalaureate degree. Students may petition the Dean of Science to reserve up to 9 semester hours taken during the last semester of the initial degree work for credit toward the second BS degree.

Students may not obtain a second baccalaureate degree in the same academic department as the first degree.

Entering students wishing to obtain a B.S. in mathematics or science will be classified as pre-science students for not less than one semester after their admission to the university. Pre-science students must complete all the requirements of a pre-science program designed to prepare them for college success. Pre-Science students must make satisfactory progress toward completing the pre-science program, including:

1. Completion of the specified orientation program
2. Meeting with a pre-science advisor each semester
3. Completion of an approved program of study. The program of study depends upon the intended major and includes specific courses in mathematics and English composition dependent upon placement.
4. Enrollment in a mathematics course each semester until completion of the mathematics prerequisite for Calculus I
5. Maintaining a minimum overall GPA of 2.0 in all courses and a "C" or better in mathematics and science courses

major from pre-science to a selected major. Students who do not make satisfactory progress toward completion of the pre-science program may be placed on college probation or college suspension (see the College/Major Academic Standing section of this Catalog).

All students enrolled in the College of Science must be advised prior to registration. Students should follow the directions for obtaining academic advice outlined in the Schedule of Classes under ADVISING: COLLEGE OF SCIENCE. Although the Department of Psychology may not require advising, it is strongly recommended that students seeking the BS in psychology obtain degree plan advice from the Office of the Dean of Science. In particular, these students are advised not to postpone the required courses in mathematics.

Students planning a career in Clinical Laboratory Science, Nursing, Physical Therapy, or other allied health fields are referred to the College of Health Sciences section of this catalog and should be advised in that college.

Information about entrance requirements to health professional schools may be obtained from the Preprofessional Advisor in the Office of the Dean of Science. Students should seek this advice by the time they have completed 60 semester hours of credit toward a degree. Students planning to enter medical, dental, pharmacy, or veterinary schools normally require a Baccalaureate degree. No particular major is required for entrance, although a minimum of one year of biology, 2 years of chemistry including a year of organic chemistry, a semester of calculus, and 1 year of physics are required for admission to most health professional schools. Thus, a major in Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Microbiology, or Physics is appropriate.

The College of Science encourages students to consider teaching in the secondary schools as a career goal. This is in the college�s self interest. It is assumed that better prepared teachers will result in better prepared freshmen who enroll in college. Certification for teaching in the secondary schools is available in the following BS degree fields: Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics, and Physics. The College of Science also offers interdisciplinary degrees in Life/Earth Sciences (biology and geology), Natural Sciences (science composite�biology, chemistry, geology, and physics), and Physical Sciences (chemistry and physics), which lead to secondary certification. School systems especially seek those with interdisciplinary degrees since they are prepared to teach different subjects.

Students planning to teach mathematics or science may also obtain certification with a BA degree in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics, or Physics (offered by the College of Liberal Arts). In addition, those who already hold a baccalaureate degree in mathematics or a science may obtain secondary teacher certification in the College of Education. See the College of Education section of this catalog for details on these programs. Students of mathematics and the sciences considering teaching should inform themselves on these options and decide which is best for them.

Minors in Secondary Education

Secondary certification requires a minor in Secondary Education. The B.S. in Mathematics requires an additional minor, while other fields of certification require only the minor in Secondary Education. Secondary Education minors for B.S. degrees for Mathematics or Science consist of 21 semester hours. The following courses are required for these minors:

EDPC 3300 Developmental Variations

RED 3342 Reading and Study in the Content Areas

SCED 3311 Curriculum Planning in the Secondary School

SCED 3317 Multicultural Education in the Secondary School

SCED 4691 Student Teaching in the Secondary School.

The minor for mathematics students includes

SCED 4367 Teaching Math in Secondary School

Whereas the minor for science students includes

SCED 4368 Teaching Science in Secondary School

In addition, the speech component of the University Core Curriculum is restricted to COMM 1301 and the humanities component is restricted to an English literature course for minors in Secondary Education.

A 12-credit directly supporting field is also required for certification if the teaching field is a single discipline. By their nature, interdiscipline degrees (Life/Earth, Natural, and Physical Sciences) do not require a supporting field. The directly supporting field (not the major) may be selected from the following: Basic Business, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics, or Physics. Supporting fields other than these must be approved in the Office of the Dean of Science. The supporting field requirement is met by completing 12 semester hours selected from courses approved for a minor in one of the above areas. A minor other than Secondary Education will satisfy this requirement, and Physics majors may use the required courses in mathematics for the supporting field.

The College of Education secondary education professional development program consists mainly of two semesters of blocked courses, normally taken during the student�s last year of course work. In order to enroll in these courses, a student must be admitted to secondary teacher education, which requires the following:

1. Credit for ENGL 1311, 1312, and COMM 1301 with a "C" or better
2. Credit for MATH 1508 (or 1409 or higher) with a "C" or better
3. Completion of a minimum of 60 hours of college courses with a minimum overall GPA of 2.5

Application for admission to the program is to be filed in the College of Education Student Services Office, EDUC 412. Additional requirements may be found in the College of Education section of this catalog.

Secondary Teacher Preparation Programs

Students preparing to teach are advised to carefully plan their last two years of course work. COMM 1301 is required for application to the secondary teacher preparation program, so the course should be completed early. After admission, the present plan is that the courses EDPC 3300, RED 3342, SCED 3311, and SCED 3317 must be enrolled in concurrently as Field Based Block I. Students in this program must block out either 8 AM to 12 PM or 12 PM to 4 PM Monday through Friday for this part of the program because field experiences in secondary schools are required in addition to the course work. Normally, students in morning blocks may enroll in afternoon laboratories or those in afternoon blocks may only enroll in morning lecture sections. This often requires prudent planning of upper-division majors course selection since it is not assured which block one may be forced to enroll in.

Field Based Block II consists of SCED 4691 and students are interns in secondary schools from 8 AM to 3:30 PM every school day, demanding that any additional courses be in the evening. SCED 4367 and SCED 4368 are often offered in the evening, which finishes the teacher preparation program. It is almost impossible to complete upper-division majors courses during this semester.

Approved College of Science minors of Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, and Physics are detailed in the academic department sections of this catalog. These minors are approved minors for the B.S. in Psychology. In addition to these minors, the following minors outside the College of Science are approved for the listed B.S. degrees:

Accounting (B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Mathematics)

See the College of Business Administration section of this catalog.

Anthropology (B.S. in Biological Sciences, Earth Science, and Geological Sciences)

See the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

section of this catalog.

Computer Science (B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Chemistry,

Geological Sciences, Mathematics, and Psychology)

CS 1401 (or CS 1420); CS 3333 (or CS 2401 and CS 2302); CS 3350, and six

semester hours selected from CS 3335, CS 3360, CS 4342, or CS 4352.

Economics (B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Mathematics)

See the College of Business Administration section of this catalog.

Environmental Science (B.S. in Chemistry)

BIOL 1305, BIOL 1106, BIOL 3414; CE 3325, CE 4390; and an additional

course selected from GEOL 4380, GEOL 4384, or MICR 3328-MICR 3128.

(The additional science, not the major of minor, cannot include BIOL 1305-

BIOL 1106.)

General Business (B.S. in Mathematics)

See the College of Business Administration section of this catalog.

Management (B.S. in Mathematics)

See the College of Business Administration section of this catalog.

Psychology (B.S. in Biological Sciences)

See the Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts section of this

Catalog. (PSYC 1303 is waived if STAT 2380, STAT 2182, and STAT 2381 are

completed with a "C" or better.)

Secondary Education/Mathematics (B.S. in Mathematics)

See above.

Secondary Education/Science (B.S. in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth Science,

Life/Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, Physical Sciences, or Physics)

See above.

Any student who has completed 60 credit hours and is calculus-ready is required to file for a degree plan. The degree plan, which is a listing of the outstanding requirements for graduation, must be obtained from the Office of the Dean of the College of Science (Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for the BA degree). A copy of the degree plan will also be filed with the student's major department. The degree plan must be updated following the completion of 90 credit hours. Each student is required to obtain confirmation of their standing from the Office of the Dean of the College of Science prior to registering for the semester in which all course work for a degree will be completed. (Details of the above "paper" degree plans may change with the introduction of "electronic" degree plans.)

The prerequisite structure in science programs requires careful attention to course sequences.

Freshman courses required of all BS majors include (all must be completed with a grade of

"C" or better)

ENGL 1311, ENGL 1312 (or equivalent ESOL courses)

HIST 1301, HIST 1302

MATH 1411

These courses should be completed before the student reaches Junior standing (60 semester credit hours). Note that these and all freshman courses specified as required for the degree must be completed before Senior standing (90 semester credit hours) in order to count toward the minimum hours required for the degree.

The prerequisite for MATH 1411 (credit with a "C" or better in MATH 1508 or MATH 1410 or placement) is required in order to declare a major. It is to the student's advantage to continue enrolling in the other required mathematics courses since success in these courses largely depends upon what was learned in the previous course and delaying enrollment in higher level courses often requires considerable review.

Required Lower-Division Courses in the Major and Minor should be completed with a "C" or better before enrollment in upper-division courses. These lower-division courses are listed below. Other lower-division College of Science courses required for the various degree plans are included in brackets. These courses should also be completed with a "C" or better before enrolling in upper-division courses if the discipline is the minor.

MATH 1411, MATH 1312, MATH 2313, MATH 2300

[CS 1401 or CS 1420; PHYS 1120, PHYS 1121, PHYS 2410, PHYS 2411]

BIOL 1305-BIOL 1107, BIOL 1306-BIOL 1108, and (for biomedical track) MICR 2440

[CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106, MATH 1411, MATH 1312

(or STAT 2380-STAT 1182, STAT 2381)]

CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106, CHEM 2101,

CHEM 2261-CHEM 2161

[CS 1401 or CS 1420; MATH 1411, MATH 1312, MATH 2313; PHYS 2410, PHYS 2411]

[CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106; MATH 1411, MATH 1312

(or STAT 2380-STAT 1182, STAT 2381)]

GEOL 1301-GEOL 1101 (or GEOL 1303), GEOL 1302-GEOL 1102 (or GEOL 1304),

GEOL 2411, GEOL 2412

[CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106; CS 1401 or CS 1420; MATH 1411, MATH 1312; PHYS 1120, PHYS 1121, PHYS 2410, PHYS 2411]

GEOL 1301-GEOL 1101, (or GEOL 1303), GEOL 1302-GEOL 1102 (or GEOL 1304),

GEOL 2411, GEOL 2412

[CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106; CS 1401 or CS 1420; MATH 1411, MATH 1312, MATH 2313; PHYS 1120-PHYS 1121, PHYS 2410-PHYS 2411]

[CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106; MATH 1411, MATH 1312

(or STAT 2380-STAT 1182, STAT 2381)]

MATH 1411, MATH 1312, MATH 2313

[CS 1401 or CS 1420; PHYS 1120, PHYS 1121, PHYS 2410, PHYS 2411]

BIOL 1305-BIOL 1107, BIOL 1306-BIOL 1108; MICR 2440

[CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106; MATH 1411, MATH 1312

(or STAT 2380-STAT 1182, STAT 2381), PHYS 1403-PHYS 1404 (or PHYS 1120-

PHYS 2410-PHYS 2411)]

[MATH 1411, MATH 1312]

CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106, CHEM 2261; PSCI 2303;

PHYS 1120, PHYS 1121, PHYS 2410, PHYS 2411

[MATH 1411, MATH 1312]

PHYS 1120, PHYS 1121, PHYS 2410, PHYS 2411

[CS 1401 or CS 1420; CHEM 1305-CHEM 1105, CHEM 1306-CHEM 1106; MATH 1411, MATH 1312, MATH 2313]

PSYC 1301, PSYC 1303

[MATH 1411, MATH 1312 (or STAT 2380-STAT 1182, STAT 2381)]

A minimum of 45 semester hours of upper-division course work is required. The various majors require 21 to 32 semester hours of upper-division course work. In addition, the minor requires a minimum of six upper-division semester hours (Secondary Education requires 21 semester hours), and an additional 3 hours are required by the general college requirements. Thus 4 to 15 free elective upper-division courses are required. Upper-division courses are not often offered each semester and summer. Students are cautioned to plan ahead in terms of when these courses are generally offered and what prerequisites are needed. Due to the blocking of upper-division education courses, this is particularly important for students seeking secondary teacher certification.

Bell Hall, Room 100

Phone: (915) 747-5536

E-mail: science@utep.edu

The interdisciplinary BS degrees, Life/Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Physical Sciences are administered from the Office of the Dean of Science. These degrees do not require a minor unless certification in Secondary Teaching is sought.

The requirement to obtain the BS in Life/Earth Sciences consists of the general College of Science requirements plus the following specific requirements:

The requirement to obtain the BS in Natural Sciences consists of the general College of Science requirements plus the following specific requirements:

Other: MATH 1312 is required.

The requirement to obtain the BS in Physical Sciences consists of the general College of Science requirements plus the following specific requirements:

Other: MATH 1312 is required.

This concentration may be selected by students majoring in any of the above interdisciplinary degree programs and simply requires a minor in Secondary Education.

The College of Science offers seven interdisciplinary courses:

1100. Science Seminar (1-0)

1300. Introduction to Science and Engineering (3-0)

1400. Introduction to Science and Engineering (3-0)

interpretation, science vs. pseudo-science, science and theology. Laboratory exercises in

science as a progress of investigation. Prerequisite: MATH 0310 or placement into

MATH 0311 or higher level mathematics course. Laboratory fee required.