Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences - Fitness Wellness

at Northern Arizona University - Flagstaff Campus USA

The Environmental Science program at NAU constructs an interdisciplinary base of knowledge and skills to explore and develop real-world solutions to environmental problems.

Our program provides a firm grounding in the natural and social sciences to ensure all students understand how chemical, physical and biological processes maintain life, and the complex relationships among humans and the environment. Students work together and individually in the classroom, field and laboratory to practice applying the scientific method to address environmental problems and explore creative solutions that apply cutting-edge technologies.

The broad range of emphases available within our program allows students to delve deeper into a specific knowledge base, then work individually and often together in Environmental Science courses to solve problems by applying the perspectives and knowledge they developed in their emphasis with students from other emphasis areas. To culminate the learning in the program, students develop an individually designed research project or internship addressing an environmental issue of importance to them, which in turn, is expected to further prepare students for a range of professional or graduate opportunities.

Applied Statistics Emphasis

• Apply statistical techniques to find innovative ways of understanding environmental problems.
• Explore advanced math, computer programming, bioinformatics, and geographic information systems, and through collaborations with those of other disciplines and viewpoints, apply this information to generate solutions to environmental problems.

The Bachelor of Arts in English prepares graduates for any future that demands proficiency in literature, language, and writing, as well as general excellence in resourceful, well-informed communication. Our graduates recognize the close weave of logical thought and effective expression, strive for more persuasive or more creative uses of English, possess the sense and insight to appreciate the value and quality of literature, have developed their historical and cultural imaginations by studying the marks of other times and diverse peoples in language and text, and recognize the global contexts of English as well as the social, civic, and environmental responsibilities that come with a liberal education. Our graduates have attained the high-level literacy skills and have practiced the research methods needed to compete in graduate and professional schools and to succeed in the workplace. With our help, they have prepared themselves to become productive, responsible members of the communities in which they live and work.

The Linguistics emphasis introduces students to the scientific/analytic study of language, including such topics as how language is constructed, and acquired, and processed and how language use is affected by social and cultural factors, context, and goals of communication.

Creative Media & Film teaches students to create and critique stories made with moving images and audio. Students will engage in a shared core that will teach them the fundamentals of production and criticism. This program blends analytical thinking, creative expression, and professional experience to develop students’ skills in all aspects of digital filmmaking and critique.
 
CMF’s foundation rests on the critical view that our students should be empowered to tell their own distinctive, idiosyncratic, and regional stories, rather than have those stories told for them. Our program focuses on narrative and storytelling theories, skills, and application. As moving image/audio storytellers, our students learn about and are trained within the domains of both cultural and aesthetic values.
 
The program begins with an exploration of the theoretical, social, historical, and industry standards within which all media are grounded.  Through this foundation, students develop strong aesthetic sensibilities, storytelling skills, and a deep appreciation of the impact of audience, culture, time and place upon stylistic choices made during the creative process.

This M.S. in Informatics will prepare you to either enter the informatics workforce or continue on to a doctoral program of study, building core skills that are widely applicable to many areas of science.

Core coursework provides learning opportunities in the foundations of informatics, programming and computer science, structuring large-scale data sets, machine learning, and statistical data analysis. Elective coursework allows students to customize their program of study so that it is maximally aligned with their professional or research interests, with coursework available in many areas of informatics, including epidemiology, bioinformatics, ecological modeling, and remote sensing. Thesis option students will have additional opportunities to engage in informatics research and scholarship under the mentorship of an informatics faculty member as prepare a thesis on their specific research.

This program is designed for students with strong preparation in an area of science, such as biology or ecology, and experience in computer programming and data analysis gained through successful completion of a relevant undergraduate program or other professional experience. The non-thesis option of the program is designed for students seeking professional preparation, while the thesis option is particularly appropriate for students for considering further graduate study in a doctoral program.

As a graduate, you will be prepared to contribute in a wide variety of informatics areas, including population health, bioinformatics, remote sensing, ecological modeling, wearable computing, and machine learning and data science.

This bachelor of science degree in Strategic Communication offers a strong core of advertising, public relations, and communication courses, to engage students in a variety of professional communication environments. Students may pursue one of two emphases to allow deeper skill mastery in advertising or public relations.

Communication develop an understanding of communication theory and how messages are spread among groups of people. They apply analytical skills to the development and evaluation of communication plans. They also master practical skills needed for the implementation of those communication plans.

Upon graduation, students emphasizing one area of strategic communication will often find themselves working closely with other professionals focusing on skills in other areas of Strategic Communication. However, the emphasis areas tend to differentiate from each other in the following broad ways.

Advertising emphasizes the use of paid media in communication efforts and will often focus more on specific calls to action. These students focus on advertising campaigns for digital and heritage media. They will develop skills relevant to planning ad campaigns and important aesthetic concepts in advertising.

The Bachelor’s in Justice Studies provides online and distance-learning students with a professional, criminal justice-focused education that prepares students to ethically work and lead in the fields of criminal justice and intelligence studies.
 
To help students reach their education and career goals, all Justice Studies faculty members have advanced degrees and extensive experience in the criminal justice or intelligence fields, specializing in areas, such as, criminal justice investigations, police leadership, community policing, drug investigations, federal law enforcement, corrections, intelligence-led policing, military intelligence, cyber crime, and the law.
 
Students complete core courses in ethics, leadership, criminal justice, criminology, the justice system and effective writing. They then move on to tailoring their degree to their individual interests by selecting elective courses in criminal justice administration or intelligence studies.
 
Emphasis in Intelligence Studies
The emphasis in intelligence studies focuses on preparing students to identify, analyze and disseminate intelligence information for the purpose of investigating all forms of criminal activity. In addition, the courses within this emphasis expose students to a variety of contemporary topics in the intelligence field. Upon completion of this course of study, students will have the skills to transition into professional intelligence careers at the local, state or federal level.
 
In addition to working in the criminal justice field, many graduates choose to build upon their critical thinking, criminal justice and leadership courses by pursuing advanced degrees in criminal justice, leadership or the law.

The B.A. in Comparative Cultural Studies is a 49-58 credit degree whose aim is to provide students with a comparative, integrative and global approach to the study of human culture in its diversity and interconnections. The different emphases in the CCS B.A. degree introduce students to the complexities of diverse human cultures, both past and present; in the process, they develop the skills of analysis, interpretation and communication crucial to both their academic and professional development.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts degree encompasses knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are in demand from an array of creative fields—including but not limited to medical, entertainment, and design—in addition to the skills needed to be studio artists. Studio artists work in a variety of different occupations that require a combination of hand skills, an understanding of a variety of material applications, and creative problem solving. Upon graduation, students are expected to exhibit the strong critical thinking, aesthetic design, and conceptual thinking skills needed to participate effectively in a competitive creative arts market.
 
Beyond the skills of artistic creation, students develop business practices for artists including graduate school application, grant application, gallery representation, self-promotion through web and print media, and maintaining a sustainable and safe studio practice. Studio Arts students learn how to apply their skills beyond traditional studio art applications to other industrial and non-industrial fields outside the world of art.

School of Art faculty teach students to apply critical thinking and analysis, innovation and creative solutions, as well as technical artistic processes towards the production of art while building an open mind to criticism respect for public opinion. All Studio Arts majors are required to complete a Foundation year which includes drawing and basic 2D, 3D, and 4D design coursework. Eventually, students work primarily in one of five emphases: Ceramics, New Media, Painting, Printmaking, or Sculpture.  Classes are studio-based and include classroom critiques and discussions about work produced in class, review of professional artwork and artists, and professional practices of an artistic practice. Each Studio Arts student works towards a senior thesis which reflects the student’s experiences and research the student has completed throughout the program.

Emphases Learning Outcomes  
New Media Art
A New Media student’s education focuses on 4D design and the applications of technology to create artwork. Students learn how to synthesize content, processes, and components to express compelling purpose, story, emotion, or ideas in a variety of media including but not limited to performance art, installation, interactive programming, and video. The work created in this program focus on personal research reinforced by additional electives outside of the School of Art to allow more in-depth interdisciplinary exploration.

Musicology Emphasis

Students develop skills in the area of musicology and/or ethnomusicology that prepare them for further study at the doctoral level.

• Demonstrate advanced historical knowledge of music from the Western tradition as well as music from around the world.
• Demonstrate advanced analytical skills in interpreting music within historical and cultural contexts.
• Participate in the intellectual discourse on music, drawing from their historical, practical, and theoretical knowledge.
• Develop appropriate research questions and arguments and integrate musicological/ethnomusicological methods for the purposes of answering the developed questions and supporting the developed arguments.
• Demonstrate understanding and breadth of critical approaches to music in preparation for researching and writing a master’s level thesis.
• Produce a master’s thesis displaying research of a caliber that could be presented at a regional music conference. This thesis will:
• Present an original, sustained, and coherent argument.
• Involve detailed musical analysis of the work of a particular composer or a specific repertoire of musical works.
• Summarize, respond to, and/or build upon the prior secondary analytical literature on that composer or repertoire.
• Employ a methodology that is more detailed, specific, and/or advanced than the approaches taught at the level of the basic undergraduate music history course sequence.

The Bachelor of Science in Multidisciplinary Engineering provides students learning opportunities in multiple engineering disciplines and complemented by other disciplines across campus. The program supports a customizable curriculum that includes a capstone experience focused on multi- and inter-disciplinary teamwork. Specific combinations of coursework are formulated in several named emphases that provide unique opportunities and inspires students to build their own unique engineering pathways.

The core of the program is a design sequence with loose commonality across most of NAU’s engineering programs.  All students, regardless of emphasis, engage in contextualized engineering design and project management courses. This core is supported by foundational math, computer science, and physics coursework.  The design sequence also becomes the scaffolding for integrating and synthesizing coursework across several disciplines and content areas.

Students who do not select an emphasis area may work with either an advisor or a faculty mentor to select course work in the plan that supports their own personal engineering aspirations and interests. Students who get an MDE degree have many general engineering career opportunities.  This includes areas such as engineering sales, engineering management, engineering communication, or an engineering technician.

Students who select the User Experience emphasis take specialized coursework in psychology and user experience design and testing, by combining core engineering coursework, computer science, and psychology.  User interfaces and human computer interaction is explored in CS coursework while the foundational principles of human perception and engagement is explored in Psychology coursework.  This emphasis is intended to support students interested in becoming UX engineers or product design engineers who focus on usability.