Hawk Core Curriculum

At Dunwoody, you won’t spend your time in classes unrelated to your degree path. You’ll learn things that matter from faculty who care.

Dunwoody’s Hawk Core Curriculum delivers a relevant, practical, and focused approach to your general education requirements. Through courses that directly relate to your chosen field of study, you will learn to communicate effectively, construct professional behaviors, form ethical decisions, and solve problems.

Courses like Car Culture, Electrical Science, Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, and Sustainable Communities were created and designed for students like you.

As part of Dunwoody’s Core Curriculum, you’ll complete COMM1000, SSCI1000, HUMN1000 (School of Design students complete ARTS1250), and math or science courses based on your program. By following your academic plan, you’ll complete any additional program-specified courses or select from elective courses that align with your degree path and career plans.

The Hawk Core Curriculum meets the degree standards set by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education for each degree level.

Academic plans include a curated mix of core curriculum and technical courses based on the specific needs of your degree program. Courses support career readiness skills in combination with technical proficiencies.

All Core Curriculum courses are taught by faculty holding advanced degrees and professional experience and a passion for applying their expertise in technical fields and the skilled trades.

Faculty Advisors will work with you to ensure Hawk Core Curriculum courses meet your degree requirements and are taken in the order that benefits your course of study.

Core Curriculum courses meet the needs of industry as well. Many employers are looking for professionals with the soft skills needed to be successful on the job. The Hawk Core Curriculum has been designed with that in mind, reinforcing the valuable communication and problem-solving skills that can set you apart. You’ll not only learn the professional skills expected by employers, but ways of approaching the complex and challenging problems found in today’s workplace.

Hawk Core Curriculum Courses

Explore general education courses that align with your degree pathway in the College Catalog

” When students can relate what they are learning to their future career, we see higher levels of engagement and interest in the subject. Dunwoody students are focused and they want their education to be the best use of their time and resources. By designing general education courses that not only meet the degree standards set by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education but do so in a way that directly benefits students professionally, we can provide a higher level of return on investment. “

Bridget Reynolds

Academic Dean, Office of Instruction

Hawk Core Curriculum & Your Technical Degree

Students seeking a degree in the skilled trades and technical fields often ask the question: why do I need to take general education classes?

While your technical courses give you the skills and expertise needed in your future profession, Core Curriculum classes give you the communication, problem-solving, collaboration, and decision-making skills that employers are looking for. In addition, degree-seeking students must meet Minnesota Office of Higher Education standards to fulfill their degree requirements. Dunwoody’s Hawk Core Curriculum both meets these standards and does so in a way that is practical and applicable to your future career.

The Department offers courses in five different content areas:

Communications

Communications is the study of how people share information, ideas, meaning, and culture. Communications offerings are designed to develop a student’s understanding and application of research and critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate information, identify and evaluate source material, integrate differing points of view, and establish a reasoned course of action for effectively solving problems and demonstrating effective verbal, nonverbal, and visual skills (i.e. reading, writing, speaking, listening, audience awareness, and conflict resolution).

Arts and Humanities

Humanities/Arts is the study of human culture and/or expression. Humanities/Arts offerings are designed to develop a student’s understanding of the relationship between a work of art or text and its cultural context and ability to form judgments through the critical and aesthetic analysis of works of art, literature, religion, history, and philosophy.

Social Sciences

Social Science is the study of human society and/or behaviors and cause and effect. Social Science offerings are designed to develop a student’s understanding of individual or social human behavior from the perspective of one or more disciplines of the social sciences, knowledge of empirical methods for studying human behavior, and to use theories and concepts of human behavior with appropriate empirical evidence to analyze contemporary social issues (historical events, cultural and societal differences), consumer behavior, and/or the inter-workings of an economy, how to analyze and interpret data from a social science context, and evaluate society as a whole.

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of numerical relationships, geometrical and spatial properties, and/or logic. Mathematics offerings are designed to develop students’ understanding of basic mathematical concepts, to develop their abilities to analyze and solve mathematical problems, and to promote the importance of mathematics through analysis of problem solving strategies and the interpretation of results.

Natural Science

Natural Science is the study of the physical world and/or how biological life, non-living systems and matter, and/or energy works. Natural Science offerings are designed to develop a student’s understanding of the natural world, its processes, and the inter-relationships of its systems; how to apply the scientific method including the appropriate collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and effective communication of findings; harness the ability to use scientific terminology appropriately in meaningful scientific dialogue; and gain an understanding of the process of science as an intellectual pursuit and the ways in which scientific ideas evolve and come to be accepted.

Summer Classes

Want to pick up a few credits over summer? Check out the various Hawk Core Curriculum courses offered in Arts & Humanities, Communications, Social Sciences, or Math & Science.

Dunwoody offers two, four-week summer sessions one in June and one in July.

Students can register for the summer courses at the same time as they register for Spring Semester.

J-TERM

J-TERM is a three-week intensive learning opportunity to enroll in a Hawk Core Curriculum course in Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communications.

Enrolling in a J-TERM course will lighten your credit load during the regular semester.

We do recommend that students enroll in no more than one J-TERM course due to the compact learning time frame.

Students can register for J-TERM classes at the same time as they register for Spring Semester.

PSEO

Hawk Core Curriculum courses are available for PSEO students, earning the student dual credit towards both a high school diploma and a college degree.

Flexible Learning Options

The Hawk Core Curriculum delivers classes in flexible options for students including in-person, fully online, and hybrid.

Program Learning Outcomes for Arts, Humanities, Communications, and Social Sciences Courses:

1. Communicate Effectively	Construct written, oral, and visual communication for author, audience, text, context, and purpose.
2. Embrace Integrity	Apply ethically and civically responsible behaviors for professional and personal settings in a dynamic society.
3. Exhibit Curiosity	Collaborate to promote inquiry, discover solutions, and generate new ideas and creative works that are relevant and responsive to the world around them.
4. Collaborate Successfully	Explain concepts that influence the behavior and decisions of individuals and institutions.
5. Think Critically	Access, evaluate, and use information gathered through a variety of resources and technologies in developing projects and presentations.
6. Integrate Learning	Connect and transfer skills and learning among disciplines, domains of thinking, experiences, and situations.

Program Learning Outcomes for Math & Science:

1.	Accurately explain information presented in mathematical forms (equations, graphs, diagrams, tables, words).
2.	Convert relevant information into various mathematical forms (equations, graphs, diagrams, tables).
3.	Use the analysis of data as the basis for drawing reasonable conclusions.
4.	Explore a topic in depth, to determine inter-related topics.
5.	Evaluate solutions taking into consideration the history of the problem, its feasibility or its impact.
6.	Propose a solution/hypothesis taking into consideration ethical, logical or cultural context.
7.	Identify multiple approaches for solving the problem within a specific context.