Most courses in the natural sciences have an essential laboratory component which must, for safety reasons, be done in a classroom or laboratory setting. For this reason, student designed independent study in these disciplines is rare and takes place only under the following conditions:
- The student must have completed at least one science course at Metropolitan State with a grade of B or above.
- The student must be an admitted Metropolitan State student.
- The SDIS proposal must be approved by the department chair and College of Sciences dean before the student registers.
- The SDIS instructor must be a member of Natural Sciences Department faculty, resident or community at Metropolitan State University.
- Topics outside the normal courses are possible as independent studies. A department faculty member must agree to be the evaluator for these types of topics.
Not that an SDIS cannot be used to meet Minnesota Transfer Curriculum’s natural science requirement (goal 3).
Students are reminded that an SDIS is intended to be truly independent study and not a tutorial.