Academics

iCons is a collection of theme-based science courses. Students typically will start in the Spring of the freshman year, and the concentration consists of three courses (one per year for three years) and a senior capstone project. Currently, our concentration themes are Renewable Energy and Biomedicine. Climate Change and Clean Water themes will be added in the near future.

All iCons courses share the following elements:

• Integration of multiple science disciplines within each course
• Faculty team-taught, student team-work on case studies and student-driven projects
• Leadership development
• Student and program assessment by iCons students, faculty and external reviewers
• Development and application of quantitative and computational skills

The four-year iCons curriculum is as follows. For more details on a particular course, you may view that course page and syllabus.

Student Goals

• Collaborate in diverse teams to critically evaluate societal challenges.
• Gain confidence in your ability to ask scientific questions.
• Use fundamental science principles to create experiments yielding valid insights that address holes and gaps in scientific knowledge.
• Learn to write, speak, and think as a scientist to create your own logical arguments and narratives.
• Articulate an interdisciplinary scientific argument to both scientists and non-scientists.
• Provide and receive constructive criticism when communicating with experts in different scientific fields.
• Critically evaluate experimental data from scientific problems in your own and other fields.
• Develop an appreciation of the interdisciplinary nature of the scientific process.