To further our mission of providing a career centered education, and to allow undergraduate students to pursue an organized, coherent secondary course of study, New York Tech has created a minor in physics. Just as an academic major gives an employer or professional school an idea of one's ability to specialize and to develop an understanding in depth of a particular discipline, an academic minor provides an occasion to expand the breadth of a student's interests independently of the student's major. It demonstrates broad competence beyond a narrow specialization.
The physics minor provides a perfect opportunity for students in other areas to take and complete in a reasonably short period of time. The minor is flexible and suitable for students who are pursuing a STEAM career. The physics minor strengthens the skills not only for STEM majors, but other related majors as well.
Recently, the boundary of knowledge in STEM areas has been blurred. Having an undergraduate degree in one area with a minor in another will prepare students for problem solving and critical analysis and help them to start their career with a better set of tools.
Learning Outcomes, Post-Graduation Opportunities, and Interdisciplinarity:
- Students will be able to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to analyze complex physical phenomena using the course material of the introductory physics courses.
- Students will be able to model physical systems using mathematical and computational tools and demonstrate effective written, oral, and communication skills to present their ideas and findings and give coherent oral presentations of scientific material to both peers and the public at large.
- Students will be able to read and preferably write scientific papers in the advanced courses.
- Students will gain laboratory skills including the use of common instruments, experimental design, and data analysis.
Students interested in pursuing the minor in physics should discuss this option with the academic advisor for their major discipline and notify the chair of the department on their campus.
Total credits for the physics minor is 15 to 18 credits.