So far just one student has formally declared a major in it, and only a few others have expressed interest in the program.
It's a slow start for UC Davis' newest undergraduate major, natural sciences, but faculty members in the sciences and education are hoping that it will go far toward the university preparing more students to become science teachers.
The major gives undergraduates the breadth of knowledge in biology, chemistry, geology and physics required by the state for those seeking a science teaching credential. Students in the major may also participate in a classroom or community internship, helping them get the feel for their future profession.
"The fact is that there has been a critical shortage of science teachers, especially trained science teachers," said geology professor Howard Day, who helped develop the new major.
According to a 2001 report by the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing, 2,728 of the 12,267 state teachers holding temporary, emergency credentials in the 1999-2000 school year had obtained them to teach science. Only math was taught by a greater percentage of uncredentialed teachers.
Through its compact with UC, in 1999 the state has asked the university system to double the number of teachers it trains by 2003, especially in math and science, said Barbara Goldman, associate professor of the UC Davis Teacher Education Program, who also was involved in the creation of the new major.
Right now, many science majors often choose lucrative careers in private sector over teaching, or go onto graduate school. Others, who are interested in teaching at the junior high or high school level, find it difficult to meet the state's broad science requirements while concentrating on their specialized major.
Before the natural sciences program was developed last spring, students who wanted to teach science had to take several lower-division sciences courses beyond their major requirements.
"The burden on people who were already majoring in science was beyond reasonable expectation," Day said.
Students either chose to make up the courses or they tried to pass two standardized tests to show their proficiency in the range of sciences, Goldman said. The natural sciences major will allow students to meet the requirements with more ease and prepare them well for the wide range of science courses they might teach, she said.
Senior Katie AhSing is the first student to officially sign up for the major. The major helped satisfy her interests in studying both geology and biology.
"It gives you options," AhSing said.
When she heard the program would put her on the road toward becoming a teacher, she quickly signed up.
"I'm kind of a 'didja know' type person," AhSing said. "I like passing information on."
The natural science major requirements are mostly carved out from existing classes. Students must take a year of calculus and a course in statistics, along with the range of science courses. They pick one field of concentration and a supplementary field in which they also take upper-division classes. Just one new course, "The Blue Planet: An Introduction to the Earth Sciences," taught in the spring by geology professor Jim McClain - has been developed. The course meets the special needs of a future science teacher, Day said.
"(Physical geology course) Geology 50 mostly covers the solid earth," he said. "Teachers need to know about the oceans, the atmosphere and astronomy, too."
Day says the geology department plans to publicize the major more this year, posting flyers and beefing up its Web site, http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~natsci/.
Goldman said the university also is promoting the major to students at Sacramento City College, with which UC Davis has an articulation agreement. Students who excel in the community college's science courses will be on track to enter the natural sciences major at UC Davis and go on to get their teaching credential.
"We are looking at this as a recruitment device," she said.