Gather Here. Go Far

NSU is where success begins. Here professors know their subjects and how to get you ready for a career after you graduate. We empower individuals to become socially responsible global citizens by creating and sustaining a culture of learning and discovery.

Gather Here. Go Far

NSU is where success begins. Here professors know their subjects and how to get you ready for a career after you graduate. We empower individuals to become socially responsible global citizens by creating and sustaining a culture of learning and discovery.

Gather Here. Go Far

NSU is where success begins. Here professors know their subjects and how to get you ready for a career after you graduate. We empower individuals to become socially responsible global citizens by creating and sustaining a culture of learning and discovery.

Gather Here. Go Far

NSU is where success begins. Here professors know their subjects and how to get you ready for a career after you graduate. We empower individuals to become socially responsible global citizens by creating and sustaining a culture of learning and discovery.

Gather Here. Go Far

NSU is where success begins. Here professors know their subjects and how to get you ready for a career after you graduate. We empower individuals to become socially responsible global citizens by creating and sustaining a culture of learning and discovery.

Bachelor of Science in Mathematics

Mathematics B.S. (Select from Mathematics Generalist or Mathematics Education): 
Mathematics includes the study of numbers, sets, functions, symbolic logic, geometry, and probability. Studying mathematics promotes discipline, creativity, precision of thought, communication skills, and problem solving skills. These qualities are highly sought after in the education market and in industry. 

There are currently two options when pursuing a mathematics degree which include the mathematics generalist option or the mathematics education option. Students who choose either option take a wide variety of rigorous mathematics courses. Students who take the mathematics education option also take courses in educational theory and gain practical experience in public schools as well as become state certified to teach at the secondary level in Oklahoma.  

Take MATH 1714 (Precalculus) or MATH 1613 (Plane Trigonometry) as part of the general education requirements if you have not completed the high school equivalent of College Algebra or Plane Trigonometry.

For more information about degree requirements, visit the NSU catalog.

Mathematics Courses

See Course Catalog for Mathematics Courses

What is Mathematics?

Mathematics is the queen of the sciences, according to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), one of the most prolific mathematical innovators of all time. Mathematics is most simply defined as the study of the relationships obtaining amongst pure quantities. Mathematics historically attracts to its royal court many of the world's finest thinkers, including household names (Euclid, Archimedes, Cantor, Fermat) as well as those whose extraordinary ingenuity continue to inspire a more elite coterie (Erd s, von Neumann, G del).

The persistency of its challenges occasionally generates hundreds of years of intense intellectual labor on the offhand commentary of mere marginalia (as in the case of the notorious Fermat's last theorem ). Coupled with the enticing potential of witnessing, for the first time ever with human eyes, a previously undiscerned universal truth, mathematics continues to intoxicate the countesses/earls, duchesses/dukes, dames/knights, (and, occasionally, serfs and court jesters) of the mathematical community.

As the fundamental tool of theoretical physics, mathematics constitutes an indisputably essential discipline for technological progress. Without mathematics, humanity could not feasibly comprehend the subtleties and implications underlying such phenomena as electromagnetism, radioactive decay, telecommunications, or even such simple devices as the ratchet-and-pawl or pulley system, integral to demonstrating basic ideas in classical mechanics.

The standard of mathematics rigorous proof justifying what we call mathematical certainty maintains the torch of intellectual integrity as a beacon of hope to wayfarers on those oft tempestuous seas known as the empirical sciences (physics, chemistry, engineering). Mathematics provides a universal link connecting the various peoples and places of Earth in common pursuit of humanity's ever-present goals: Goodness, beauty, and truth.

Mathematics is the study of numbers and shapes and their many connections. These connections bring about more complex structures and areas of study such as graphs, functions, sets, probability, statistics, geometry, algebra, and calculus. The investigation of the connections found in mathematics is a vital and integral part of the subject because it hits on the process of mathematics. Mathematical thinking is based on logical reasoning, abstraction, generalization, and critical thinking. Logical proof ties the connections of mathematics together with a certainty that is exceedingly rare in other fields of human endeavor.

The mathematical way of thinking is what makes mathematics a subject worthy of study from the earliest grades through college. That is why there is a need for good mathematics teachers and all types of employers benefit from hiring a person who has attained the discipline of mathematical thinking.

Professional Licensure Disclosure

Programs at Northeastern State University that prepare students for initial licensure as educators are designed to meet the licensure standards set by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Students seeking licensure in another state are advised to contact the appropriate licensing board in that state to determine specific requirements of guidelines for reciprocity. Northeastern State University cannot confirm whether a particular licensure program meets requirements for licensure outside of the State of Oklahoma. For a list of the state departments of education that oversee professional teaching licensure, see the U.S. Department of Education website - State Contacts page. Click here for NSU's state-specific matrix.

For questions related to licensure, please contact Lois Buttress (buttress@nsuok.edu).