Core Curriculum

Inquiry Core Curriculum Overview

The CSU Inquiry Core Curriculum is designed to prepare all students to be successful at CSU and beyond. By completing a curated 36-credit hour program, students will have the foundational knowledge and durable skills to become leaders in their communities and future careers.

Your Inquiry Core Curriculum Expedition Involves:

Your entry into intellectual inquiry. In these activity-oriented, collaborative courses, you will work with others to explore an important issue while becoming familiar with CSU, Cleveland, and the keys to success in university.

Upon successful completion of any Inquiry Launch course, you should be able to...

  1. Identify yourself as a member of the CSU community;
  2. Engage in personal and academic goal setting;
  3. Strategically deploy effective college success strategies and utilize university resources
  4. Engage effectively with diverse others to investigate complex issues and propose a way forward
Core Competencies Developed
  • Collaboration

In the CSU Inquiry Core Curriculum, you won't just be producing new knowledge; you'll be communicating it in your own unique voice. Who are you, as a communicator? How can you present your ideas to diverse audiences?

Finding Your Voice courses guide you in developing your ability to inquire into complex texts, deploy the English language to effectively communicate your ideas, and develop a voice that is authentically your own.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Written Communication

 

The production and communication of new knowledge is always part of a larger conversation. To produce new knowledge, you must place it in conversation with what has come before. To communicate new knowledge, you must contextualize it to the appropriate audience.

Research & Professional Writing courses will further refine your foundational inquiry abilities by engaging you in the practice of research and construction of written work for specific academic and professional communities.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Written Communication
  • Information Literacy

 

Mathematics, statistics, and logic sit at the core of any effective inquiry. Each field provides the techniques necessary to critically assess claims and arguments, to determine whether to accept or reject them.

Every Quantitative & Formal Reasoning course is designed to develop your ability to engage in abstract reasoning, making the training they provide applicable to any future inquiry.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Quantitative Reasoning OR Collaboration

 

Inquire into the unique history, culture, and experiences of African-Americans. Through these courses, you will develop an ability to see an issue from multiple perspectives and develop methods for investigating social dynamics and social diversity.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Intercultural Knowledge & Competence
  • Critical Thinking
  • Written or Oral Communication

Inquire into human creativity through the exploration of the art, history, culture, and ideas that have shaped our collective thinking. Through these courses you will develop methods for interpreting the products of the human imagination, understand diverse worldviews, and express your own creativity.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Critical Thinking
  • Collaboration
  • Written or Oral Communication

Inquire into global perspectives by emphasizing the diverse experiences of peoples and societies from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Broaden your thinking about your life and the world by examining how different cultures have approached the human condition.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Intercultural Knowledge & Competence
  • Critical Thinking
  • Written or Oral Communication

Inquire into our natural world, engage with the scientific method, and develop your ability to critically assess scientific arguments.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Quantitative Literacy
  • Critical Thinking

 

Gain hands-on experience in the scientific method and the tools of natural science. Your Scientific Investigations laboratory course will work in partnership with a Scientific Inquiry course to enhance your scientific reasoning skills.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Collaboration
  • Information Literacy

Engage in investigations into human behavior, social structures, and the interactions between the two. Through the methods of the social sciences, you will develop your ability to understand yourself, other individuals, and social dynamics.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Critical Thinking
  • Information Literacy
  • Collaboration

Investigate diverse perspectives and develop techniques for understanding and engaging with social diversity in the United States. Through these courses, you will deepen your understanding of diverse peoples and of the issues and opportunities that arise in a society built with the promise of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Core Competencies Developed
  • Intercultural Knowledge & Competence
  • Critical Thinking
  • Written or Oral Communication

We live in a world of data and digital technologies. Any meaningful engagement with the world now involves working with digital technologies and interpreting data. Through these courses, you will actively engage with specific in-demand technologies and grow your ability to interpret, analyze, and use data to support your goals.

This course requirement may be met by completing a second "Quantitative & Formal Reasoning" course or by completing a course specific to this category

Core Competencies Developed
  • Digital Literacy
  • Critical Thinking
  • Collaboration