Early Childhood Education Program Curriculum

View General Education Elective (Behavioral/Social Science 100-200 Level) offerings.

View General Education Elective (Humanities/Fine Art 100-200 Level) offerings.

Language arts in the early education classroom covers a variety of topics. The development of a child's listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills is discussed in this course, as well as practical guidelines for setting up a classroom to address all children and meet their developmental needs.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Describe the progression of language development and ways to foster that development.
• Explain speech development in young children and identify ways to address the needs of multicultural students.
• Plan and promote language, literacy, and listening.
• Identify how to effectively use literature and storytelling in the classroom.
• Discuss the value of using poetry, flannel boards, puppetry, and drama to foster language arts experiences.
• Describe the progression of speech in children and how to successfully incorporate group times in the classroom.
• Explain the stages children follow as beginning writers and readers and the many approaches to foster these stages.
• Discuss how to set up a literacy-rich classroom and work cooperatively with parents.

Credit Hours: 3

You'll learn how the topics of health, safety, and nutrition are interrelated, how to assess children's health, how to plan for safety and attend to children's injuries, and how to foster nutritious eating habits.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Summarize how to promote nutrition and wellness.
• Explain the difference between good health and chronic conditions based on health assessments.
• Describe communicable diseases and the steps for identification and control.
• Defend how quality environments and safe management practices promote effective classroom instruction.
• Construct safety and emergency steps for initiation in response to emergencies including child abuse and neglect.
• Describe the science of nutrition and its impact on children's mental health.
• Prepare feeding and menu planning for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children.
• Set up healthful practices and food safety steps.

Credit Hours: 3

Have you ever wondered why play is so important for children and why it's a core component of an early childhood curriculum? This course will show the importance of play and teach students how to integrate play into the art, music, movement, and drama curricula. Creative Expression and Play analyzes the connection between play and creativity and will demonstrate techniques for fostering creativity.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Examine the dimensions of creativity that make it both a thinking process and a feeling process.
• Explain the different ways play helps young children develop in areas such as cognitive, language, literacy, social, physical, and creative growth.
• Identify the ways children learn through art.
• Summarize the educational value of music, movement, dance, and drama.
• Develop specific teaching strategies that will promote creative thought and expression in children.
• Analyze teachers' roles in assessing and the influence of culture on children's creativity.
• Explain key features of creative environments.
• Examine the different types of play and learning materials for young children of various ages.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is a graphical and numerical approach to algebra that incorporates the use of technology. Emphasis is placed on solving algebraic application problems, and results are solutions-oriented. The concept of a function as a tool to model real-world data will play a central role. Emphasis will also be placed on the study of equations and inequalities, graphs, matrices and determinants, quadratics, sequences, inductive reasoning, and probability.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Solve equations using the addition principle.
• Solve equations using the multiplication principle.
• Solve problems using applications of percentages.
• Solve inequalities.
• Identify functions.
• Graph linear functions.
• Find the domain & range of a graph or equation.
• Find equations of lines.
• Use and simplify integers as exponents.
• Evaluate exponents and scientific notation.
• Add and subtract polynomials.
• Multiply polynomials.
• Factor and expand differences of squares.
• Evaluate and simplify exponential functions.
• Recognize, create, and simplify composite functions.
• Create and simplify inverse functions.
• Evaluate and simplify logarithmic functions.
• Apply properties of logarithms to expand or simplify logarithmic expressions.
• Recognize mathematical modeling.
• Complete matrix arithmetic operations.
• Solve systems of equations with Cramer's Rule.
• Solve systems of equations with inverses.
• Identify and apply sequence notation.
• Identify and apply formulas to arithmetic sequences and series.
• Identify and apply formulas to geometric sequences and series.
• Use the counting principle to determine the number of possible outcomes.
• Calculate and interpret probability.
• Solve quadratic equations using the quadratic formula or factoring.
• Graph quadratics.
• Solve mathematic modeling problems using quadratics.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to provide you with basic theories and skills that are essential to effective public speaking. Topics include audience analysis, organization, persuasion, credibility, and delivery. Ideally, you should be able to apply these skills in a variety of public speaking situations, whether in future college courses or in nonacademic settings. As a member of the class, you'll also become an active listener and learn to analyze, critique, and evaluate the speaking of others.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Demonstrate and apply knowledge of public speaking principles and concepts.
• Relate knowledge and skills needed for effective listening and doing speech criticism.
• Recognize the process of selecting and narrowing a speech topic and audience analysis.
• Identify and state purposes and central ideas for a speech.
• Specify sources and uses of supporting materials and presentation aids in speech preparation.
• Construct speech outlines applying organizational methods.
• Prepare a formal speech demonstrating skills in speech composition.
• Demonstrate knowledge of speech delivery techniques.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is an introduction to the partnerships among the child, family, and community that must be created to achieve the best results for children in the classroom and society. Among the topics covered are the challenges to creating partnerships with families, relationship building with parents and children, and the community's role in socializing the child.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Describe the multiple influences on development and learning.
• Evaluate how to support and engage families and community through respectful relationships.
• Assess the factors that contribute to children's initiative.
• Summarize the importance of recognizing culture and working with parents from diverse backgrounds.
• Discuss how to best support children to understand their feelings and how to problem solve.
• Describe influences on gender equity and child-rearing.
• Discuss how to support families and children dealing with stress and success.
• Explain ways to help families access community resources and expand their social networks.

Credit Hours: 3

View General Education Electives (100-200 Level) offerings.

View General Education Electives (100-200 Level) offerings.

This course is an introduction to basic statistics, including descriptive and inferential statistics. This course will place emphasis on understanding statistical calculations as well as interpreting statistics to understand the meaning behind the number. This course will use Excel to aid in statistical calculations. Topics include principles of experimental design; graphical and numerical methods for summarizing data; describing, exploring, and analyzing data; probability; confidence intervals; and hypothesis testing.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Apply statistical terminology and relevant statistical measurements.
• Utilize various visual data displays to understand simple and complex statistical relationships.
• Develop an understanding of basic statistical functions, distribution patterns, and variation measurements.
• Identify normal distribution patterns and apply the central limit theorem.
• Calculate statistical probability and apply its significance.
• Relate differences of correlation and causality and their strengths and limitations on projecting results from sample to population with varying confidence levels.
• Construct hypothesis testing for means and proportions and interpret results applicability.
• Develop hypothesis testing further with the use of t-test, tables, and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Credit Hours: 3

This course explores introductory concepts in psychology. This course helps students to think like psychologists and understand why scientific and critical thinking is so important to the decisions they make in their own lives. This course provides an overview of psychology that emphasizes critical thinking, gender, and culture.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Define the science of psychology.
• Distinguish between a theory, a hypothesis, and an operational definition.
• Explain the relationship among genes, chromosomes, DNA, and genomes, and describe their importance to psychology.
• Identify and describe the major structures of the central nervous system and their primary functions.
• Define circadian rhythms and explain how the body's "biological clock" works and what happens when this clock goes awry.
• Distinguish between sensation and perception, explain how the doctrine of specific nerve energies applies to perception, and discuss how synesthesia contributes to our understanding of sensory modalities.
• Describe the basic principles of classical conditioning, including the extinction and recovery of a classically conditioned response, how higher-order conditioning takes place, and the process of stimulus generalization and discrimination.
• Compare social norms and social roles, and note how each contributes to the social rules that govern a culture.

Credit Hours: 3

In a world where academic and professional achievement is so valued, it appears as though seemingly trivial activities like painting and dancing are pushed to the bottom of the priority list. However, many would argue that those tasks are actually the most important work children might do, especially in terms of their emotional, social, and cognitive development. Throughout this course, you'll explore these ideas of art, music, and movement and their roles within a child's development. By tailoring teaching strategies, assessment techniques, and environments to the creative needs of students, you'll reach one of the most important goals of teaching: to make learning fun.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Demonstrate effective written and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrate job-specific technical and professional skills.
• Demonstrate computer and information literacy.
• Analyze developmental theories related to creative thinking, behavior, and play in children's learning.
• Identify the best practices for fostering creative thinking through art, music, movement, and drama.
• Categorize the research-based methods for assessing children's creative thinking.
• Analyze the learning environments and materials that promote creative thinking.
• Prepare a lesson plan for a single day for a preschool classroom.

Credit Hours: 3

View General Education Elective (300-400 Level) offerings.

View General Education Electives (100-200 Level) offerings.

Literature is a core component of an early childhood curriculum. This course will teach students how to select and evaluate appropriate resources and how to use these resources in a classroom to meet specific educational objectives.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Apply your understanding of literary elements to evaluate the quality of children's fiction and nonfiction books.
• Explain how teachers should choose a story to read aloud to help children develop understanding and meaning from literature.
• Summarize knowledge of diversity in literature to create appropriate classroom activities.
• Create and plan literature programs for emergent readers.
• Discuss how to select poems and how children learn from poetry.
• Identify the significance of informational books in the classroom.
• Outline how books of various genres are evaluated and selected.
• Describe the role of story and literature in the personal and academic lives of children.

Credit Hours: 3

This course builds on what you've learned in Introduction to Psychology I. That foundation included topics such as defining psychology, exploring the brain and nervous system, becoming familiar with sensation and perception, learning and conditioning, and the ways by which behavior is shaped by social and cultural influences. In this course, Introduction to Psychology II, we'll press onward to gain insights into an array of topics that include the basics of psychological research, genetics and evolution, sensation and perception, different types of consciousness, learning theories, thinking and intelligence, memory, motivation, theories of personality, emotions and stress management, development over the lifespan, an overview of psychological disorders and, finally, an exploration of treatments and therapies for addressing the various kinds of psychological disorders.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Explain the rational and irrational processes involved in thinking and describe approaches to the measurement of intelligence.
• Discuss and explain the nature of memory, including the ways we reconstruct the past, the three-box model, and techniques for enhancing memory.
• Describe the nature of emotions and the various influences of emotion on our health and well-being, including guidelines for managing stress.
• Discuss and explain variables related to motivation, including weight management, love vs. infatuation, the biological root of sexuality, the cultural influences of gender bias, and our drive to achieve personal goals.
• Outline and discuss human development over the lifespan, including infancy, early childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, and an understanding of the stages of cognitive and moral development.
• Discuss and explain theories of personality, including psychodynamic models originating with the work of Sigmund Freud and modern personality theories based on identifying personality traits, while appraising genetic, peer, family, and cultural influences on personality development.
• Outline and discuss the various forms of mental disorders.
• Outline and discuss the various approaches to treating or alleviating the different kinds of mental disorders.

Credit Hours: 3

Young children explore the world around them and learn about themselves essentially by moving about and using their senses. Movement is a key component of all children's development. Thus, movement is an essential part of an early childhood curriculum. Children also love music, and rhythm is directly related to movement, making it an essential part of an early childhood curriculum as well. This is a broad-based course in physical education for children, which emphasizes the development of fundamental motor skills through child-centered activities that often involve the use of music.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Explain the importance of movement and music for young children.
• Formulate a well-rounded movement and music curriculum based on state standards.
• Examine research-based strategies for teaching music.
• Create developmentally appropriate lessons and environments for a range of children.
• Explain the relationship between music, movement, and higher-level thinking skills.
• Summarize the sequence of development of gross motor skills.
• Relate the importance of using movement and music to enhance learning.
• Summarize how to utilize competency and performance-based assessments and evaluations.

Credit Hours: 3

View General Education Elective (300-400 Level) offerings.

View General Education Electives (100-200 Level) offerings.

In today's classroom there is an array of children with many different needs and abilities. It is important for teachers to be prepared to meet each child's individual needs while making each child feel like a vital part of the learning community. This course is an introduction to the special needs of children with developmental disabilities, and how to implement programs that include these children in an early childhood classroom. Inclusion is not only beneficial for the child with special needs, it is beneficial for all the children in the classroom as they develop a sense of community and an acceptance of diversity.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Describe how to teach a child with special needs through partnering with the family.
• Construct individualized intervention plans and programs for students with special needs.
• Choose instructional programs that meet the needs of students with specific disabilities.
• Summarize how to promote emotional and social development of students with special needs.
• Synthesize how to develop motor and self-help skills in young children.
• Explain the importance of cultivating communication skills for students with special needs.
• Explain the developmental sequence of thinking and reasoning.
• Summarize the importance of collaboration, problem solving, and consultation.

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides an exciting and comprehensive overview of human development. It highlights lifespan development and its fascinating theories and applications. This course enriches your understanding of lifespan development and demonstrates how this can be applied to your life. Finally, this course highlights how you can develop a sense of awareness of the similarities of growth and developmental changes everyone shares.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Summarize the relationship of lifespan development, heredity, and genetic influences along with their prenatal impact.
• Describe the labor and birth processes, potential birth complications, and the competent newborn.
• Explain the infant's growth and development in relation to motor, sensory, cognitive, information processing, and language development.
• Discuss the infant's cognitive growth as it relates to information processing and language development.
• Compare the evolution of the infant's social and personality formation and a child's physical and intellectual changes in beginning childhood.
• Describe the intricacies of a preschooler's psychosocial, social, and moral development.
• List the physical, intellectual, and educational developments of a child in middle school.
• Explain the adolescent's physical and cognitive development and potential threats to this population.

Credit Hours: 3

This course focuses on incorporating the fundamental concepts of math and science into education programs for young children. It provides strategies for teaching children how to apply these concepts in problem-solving and scientific investigation.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Summarize the concepts children are developing in early childhood.
• Explain how young children acquire fundamental skills and concepts.
• Create developmentally appropriate instruction as it relates to concepts, attitudes, and skills.
• Defend the importance of utilizing symbols and higher-level activities in the early childhood classroom.
• Construct activities that promote the learning of whole numbers, patterns, and fractions for the primary grades.
• Construct activities that promote the learning of numbers, geometry, and measurement for the primary grades.
• Prepare developmentally appropriate scientific investigation lessons relative to concepts, attitudes, and skills for the primary grades.
• Set up a productive math and science environment.

Credit Hours: 3

View Elective (300-400 Level) offerings.

View Elective (300-400 Level) offerings.

This course is designed to help students explore early childhood environments and curriculum that will enhance the learning and development of young children. It focuses on creating healthy, safe, and emotionally supportive environments that facilitate and promote learning in a variety of areas - literacy, math, science, art, music, play, etc.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Discuss the importance of an emotionally supportive and equitable classroom environment.
• Establish a context for learning through a play-based curriculum.
• Design an effective learning environment.
• Explain the importance of dramatic play, manipulative, sensory, block and building, literacy, science, math, art, and music centers.
• Describe the appropriate materials needed and placement of each learning center.
• Integrate technology into the classroom, focusing on age appropriateness.
• Explain the value of outdoor environments.
• Discuss the challenges when creating space for families, teachers, and sharing space.

Credit Hours: 3

This course offers fascinating insight into human growth and development from middle childhood to late adulthood. You'll build on the knowledge they attained in the first part of this course, which looked at lifespan from infancy to middle childhood. New discoveries that continue to draw scientific and personal attention about the ongoing nature-nurture debate and its impact on human development will be discussed. You'll also delve into the interesting topic of the human condition and reflect on how people's lives will evolve.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Compare social and personality development of middle childhood with early adulthood.
• Describe relationships in the life of the adolescent.
• Explain the intellectual and physical development of adults and how experiences impact this group.
• Summarize the various changes that occur during middle adulthood.
• Discuss social, personality, and work-life balance changes that affect middle adulthood.
• State the physical, cognitive, and health changes in late adulthood.
• Explain the intrinsic and extrinsic variables that affect late adulthood.
• Describe the effects of death and dying, along with grief and bereavement, on late adulthood.

Credit Hours: 3

When working with children, it is important to realize that the environment and family a child is growing up in directly affects the way the child thinks, learns, and behaves. This course is a sociological overview of the ways cultural diversity influences children's behavior, communication, and learning styles; it also gives suggestions for teachers in working with children from diverse backgrounds.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to do the following:

• Demonstrate effective written and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrate a high level of inquiry, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrate effective quantitative skills.
• Demonstrate computer and information literacy.
• Identify the long-term benefits of childhood programs and how cultural differences affect education.
• Analyze how poverty and culture affect child-rearing practices.
• Prepare curriculum and instruction strategies for young English learners.
• Create a week's lesson plan for a preschool class.

Credit Hours: 3

View Elective (300-400 Level) offerings.

View Elective (300-400 Level) offerings.