Program Description

Because of the increasingly technological nature of our society, science majors will find an impressive array of options and exciting opportunities. A science major can provide preparation for a career in fields related to biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, astronomy, or engineering.

Learn more about the program on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math website.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to integrate the various fields of science in order to critically evaluate and interpret scientific information.
• Students will be able to assess how relevant scientific information could be used to inform their own personal economic, political, and social decisions.

Career Opportunities

There is a need for scientifically trained people in non-traditional areas such as marketing and sales, scientific information, patent law, and health and safety.

Award Type(s)

• AS = Associate in Science Degree

Units Required

• Major: 39.5

Additional Information

Note: Courses used to meet the major requirements may be used to satisfy any graduation general education requirement.

Associate Degree Requirements

A minimum of 90 units is required¹ to complete the associate degree, including:

• Core courses for the major (39.5 units total)
• Completion of one of the following general education patterns:
  • Foothill College General Education
  • Summer Session 2025 only–CSU General Education Breadth (CSU GE Breadth)²
  • Summer Session 2025 only–Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC)²
  • Beginning Fall Quarter 2025–California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC)³

¹

Additional elective course work may be necessary to meet the 90-unit minimum requirement for the associate degree.

²

Summer Session 2025 is the final term during which CSU GE Breadth and IGETC may be used. Please see a counselor for more information.

³

Cal-GETC begins in Fall Quarter 2025. Please see a counselor for more information.

Note: A grade of "C" (or "P") or better is required for all core courses used for the degree. In addition, the student must obtain a minimum GPA of 2.0.

Refer to the Associate in Arts & Associate in Science Degree Requirements page for complete information about graduation requirements and catalog rights.

Core and Support Courses

Select a minimum of 20 units from Category I and a minimum of 19.5 units from Category II, as described below.

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Core Courses
Category I: Biology
Select at least one course each from Area A and Area B. At least one course in this category must include a laboratory:		20
Area A
BIOL 9	ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY 2
BIOL 9L	ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY LABORATORY 1, 3
BIOL 10	GENERAL BIOLOGY: BASIC PRINCIPLES 1
BIOL 14	HUMAN BIOLOGY 1
Area B
BIOL 1A	PRINCIPLES OF CELL BIOLOGY 1
BIOL 1B	FORM & FUNCTION IN PLANTS & ANIMALS 1
BIOL 1C	EVOLUTION, SYSTEMATICS & ECOLOGY 1
BIOL 8	BASIC NUTRITION
BIOL 12	HUMAN GENETICS
BIOL 13	MARINE BIOLOGY 1
BIOL 36AH	HONORS EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN BIOLOGY I 1
BIOL 36BH	HONORS EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN BIOLOGY II 1
BIOL 36CH	HONORS EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN BIOLOGY III 1
BIOL 40A	HUMAN ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY I 1
BIOL 40B	HUMAN ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY II 1
BIOL 40C	HUMAN ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY III 1
BIOL 41	MICROBIOLOGY 1
BIOL 45	INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN NUTRITION
BIOL 81	LEARNERS ENGAGED IN ADVOCATING FOR DIVERSITY IN STEM
or CHEM 81	LEARNERS ENGAGED IN ADVOCATING FOR DIVERSITY IN STEM
or C S 81	LEARNERS ENGAGED IN ADVOCATING FOR DIVERSITY IN STEM
or MATH 83	LEARNERS ENGAGED IN ADVOCATING FOR DIVERSITY IN STEM
Category II: Physical Sciences, Computer Science, Mathematics & Engineering
Select at least five units from Area A, at least 4.5 units from Area B, at least five units from Area C, and at least five units from Area D:		19.5
Area A: Chemistry
CHEM 1A	GENERAL CHEMISTRY
CHEM 1B	GENERAL CHEMISTRY
CHEM 1C	GENERAL CHEMISTRY & QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
CHEM 12A & CHEM 12AL	ORGANIC CHEMISTRY and ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LABORATORY
CHEM 12B & CHEM 12BL	ORGANIC CHEMISTRY and ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LABORATORY
CHEM 12C & CHEM 12CL	ORGANIC CHEMISTRY and ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LABORATORY
CHEM 25	FUNDAMENTALS OF CHEMISTRY
CHEM 30A	SURVEY OF INORGANIC & ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
CHEM 30B	SURVEY OF ORGANIC & BIOCHEMISTRY
Area B: Engineering/Computer Science/Astronomy/PSE
ASTR 10A	GENERAL ASTRONOMY: SOLAR SYSTEM
ASTR 10B	GENERAL ASTRONOMY: STARS, GALAXIES, COSMOLOGY
or ASTR 10BH	HONORS GENERAL ASTRONOMY: STARS, GALAXIES, COSMOLOGY
ASTR 10L	ASTRONOMY LABORATORY
C S 1A	OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGIES IN JAVA
C S 1B	INTERMEDIATE SOFTWARE DESIGN IN JAVA
C S 1C	ADVANCED DATA STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS IN JAVA
C S 2A	OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGIES IN C++
C S 2B	INTERMEDIATE SOFTWARE DESIGN IN C++
C S 2C	ADVANCED DATA STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS IN C++
C S 3A	OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGIES IN PYTHON
C S 3B	INTERMEDIATE SOFTWARE DESIGN IN PYTHON
C S 3C	ADVANCED DATA STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS IN PYTHON
C S 8A	INTRODUCTION TO DATA SCIENCE
C S 10	COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE & ORGANIZATION
C S 11A	INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
C S 12A	INTRODUCTION TO MACHINE LEARNING
C S 20A	PROGRAMMING IN C#
C S 22A	JAVASCRIPT FOR PROGRAMMERS
C S 30A	INTRODUCTION TO LINUX
C S 30B	LINUX SHELL PROGRAMMING
C S 30C	LINUX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
C S 30D	ADVANCED LINUX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
C S 30E	LINUX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION: NETWORK SERVICES
C S 31A	INTRODUCTION TO DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
C S 40A	SOFTWARE ENGINEERING METHODOLOGIES
C S 48A	DATA VISUALIZATION
C S 49	FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
C S 50A	NETWORK BASICS (CCNA)
C S 50B	ROUTING & SWITCHING ESSENTIALS (CCNA)
C S 50C	SCALING LOCAL AREA NETWORKS (CCNA)
C S 53A	CYBERSECURITY FUNDAMENTALS
C S 53B	FIREWALLS & THREAT MANAGEMENT
C S 53C	ETHICAL HACKING
C S 53D	INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER FORENSICS
C S 55A	INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD COMPUTING IN AMAZON WEB SERVICES
C S 55B	DATABASE ESSENTIALS IN AMAZON WEB SERVICES
C S 55C	COMPUTE ENGINES IN AMAZON WEB SERVICES
C S 55D	SECURITY IN AMAZON WEB SERVICES
C S 55G	AWS CLOUD PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION PREPARATION
C S 55J	AWS CERTIFIED SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT ASSOCIATE PREPARATION
C S 56B	IT ESSENTIALS
C S 63A	DEVELOPING APPLICATIONS FOR IOS
C S 64A	WRITING APPS FOR THE ANDROID
C S 77A	ADVANCED WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
C S 77B	PROJECTS IN WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
C S 80A	OPEN SOURCE CONTRIBUTION
ENGR 6	ENGINEERING GRAPHICS
ENGR 10	INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING
ENGR 11	PROGRAMMING & PROBLEM-SOLVING IN MATLAB
ENGR 28	INTRODUCTION TO BIOENGINEERING
or BIOL 28	INTRODUCTION TO BIOENGINEERING
ENGR 35	STATICS
ENGR 37	INTRODUCTION TO CIRCUIT ANALYSIS
ENGR 37L	CIRCUIT ANALYSIS LABORATORY
ENGR 45	PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS
ENGR 47	DYNAMICS
PSE 20	INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Area C: Mathematics
MATH 1A	CALCULUS
or MATH 1AH & MATH 1AHP	HONORS CALCULUS I and HONORS CALCULUS I SEMINAR
MATH 1B	CALCULUS
or MATH 1BH & MATH 1BHP	HONORS CALCULUS II and HONORS CALCULUS II SEMINAR
MATH 1C	CALCULUS
MATH 1D	CALCULUS
MATH 2A	DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
MATH 2B	LINEAR ALGEBRA
MATH 10	ELEMENTARY STATISTICS
MATH 12	CALCULUS FOR BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
MATH 17	INTEGRATED STATISTICS II
MATH 22	DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
or C S 18	DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
MATH 40A	QUANTITATIVE REASONING
MATH 42	MATH FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
MATH 47	PATH TO CALCULUS
MATH 48A	PRECALCULUS I
MATH 48B	PRECALCULUS II
MATH 48C	PRECALCULUS III
Area D: Physics
PHYS 2A	GENERAL PHYSICS
PHYS 2AM	GENERAL PHYSICS: CALCULUS SUPPLEMENT
PHYS 2B	GENERAL PHYSICS
PHYS 2BM	GENERAL PHYSICS: CALCULUS SUPPLEMENT
PHYS 2C	GENERAL PHYSICS
PHYS 2CM	GENERAL PHYSICS: CALCULUS SUPPLEMENT
PHYS 4A	GENERAL PHYSICS (CALCULUS)
PHYS 4B	GENERAL PHYSICS (CALCULUS)
PHYS 4C	GENERAL PHYSICS (CALCULUS)
PHYS 4D	GENERAL PHYSICS (CALCULUS)
PHYS 6	INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS
PHYS 12	INTRODUCTION TO MODERN PHYSICS
Total Units		39.5

¹

Course includes a laboratory component.

²

May be taken with BIOL 9L to satisfy laboratory requirement.

³

Only if taken with BIOL 9.