Texas Academy of Mathematics and Sciences expanding curricular tracks for fall 2019

Wednesday, March 28, 2018 - 18:39
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He’s most famous for developing the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, but Albert Einstein was also an accomplished violinist who wanted to master Brahms’ violin sonata in G major.

And Leonardo Da Vinci has long been recognized as one of the great artists of the Renaissance, but he was also a pioneer in the understanding of human anatomy who wanted to publish his findings.

Students who enroll in the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at the University of North Texas for the 2019 fall semester will have the option of combining study in the sciences with study in the arts, as Da Vinci and Einstein did. The academy, known as TAMS, will offer three new curricular tracks in music, media arts and visual arts and design, adding to its existing curricular tracks of science and computer science and engineering.  

The three new curricular tracks will provide students with opportunities to develop their multiple interests and talents and prepare for careers that combine knowledge of STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — with an artistic foundation, said TAMS dean Glênisson de Oliveira.

He noted that the while STEM education is the academy’s primary emphasis, “the philosophy of education adopted by the academy is holistic, involving ethics, creative development, leadership and multiple areas of intellectual growth.”

“Humanities have always been part of the core curriculum, and students have sought opportunities in the past to study the arts. They’ve also displayed talent in the past by winning national art and music competitions,” de Oliveira said. ”The new curricular tracks will create a more systematic way for students to develop those talents.”

He added that, in the past, some of UNT’s faculty have conducted research that connects the arts with STEM areas, such as a physics professor studying the physics of music.

TAMS will continue its traditional curricular track in science, which it began when the academy admitted its first class for the 1988 fall semester, and its track in computer science and engineering, developed after UNT’s College of Engineering was established in 2004.

All five tracks include required courses in biology, chemistry, math and physics, as well as required UNT core curriculum courses in English, history and political science.

In the music track, students will also take courses in aural skills, music as communication and music theory in UNT’s College of Music, and take lessons for their instrument. Students in the visual art and design track will take courses in art appreciation, art history and design in the College of Visual Arts and Design, while students in the media arts track will study video writing and production in the Department of Media Arts. Each track will require specific admission criteria.

An online application for admission to TAMS for the 2019 fall semester, which will include the three new curricular tracks, will be posted on the TAMS website this July. The academy will have three Preview Days in fall 2018 to provide more information about the tracks to prospective students.

About TAMS

UNT's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science is the nation's first early college entrance residential program for gifted high school students. Mentored by faculty at UNT, TAMS students tackle complex, real-world problems, working on solutions and breakthroughs in fields ranging from healthcare to energy consumption. It's an important pipeline for STEM education, nurturing the next generation of innovators, and is one of the many ways UNT advances science, engineering and technology.

 

      

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