It includes courses on human demography, mathematical modeling strategic behavior and statistics in public policy.

For example, the outline for a course on methods of behavioral research states, "the goal will be to facilitate a critical evaluation of claims to truth made by behavioral scientists. Questions range from methods of measuring intelligence and personality to the reliability of test construction."

At a meeting in January, several Faculty members submitted outlines for courses that could be offered in a quantitative field of the Core.

Eric S. Maskin '72, professor of economics, proposed a course in strategic behavior.

He says the goal of the class would be to introduce game theory to students in a way that would help them apply it to everyday situations.

Game theory is a tool that economists, mathematicians and political scientists use to analyze strategic situations, in which several participants have conflicting objectives and their actions affect the well-being of the other parties.

According to Maskin, the course might study topics such as the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"There are some courses in game theory for undergraduates in the economics department," he says. "But the emphasis in all these courses in more on the theory than its application to everyday events."

George B. Field, Wilson professor of applied astronomy, said he likes the list of proposed QRR courses.

"I find it very attractive that the proposed courses would be very closely tied to various applications, including humanities and social sciences, that will help to motivate students to learn the methods of quantitative reasoning," he says.

Maskin says departmental courses presume that students have a certain preliminary level of quantitative knowledge.

"The course that I was describing would assume nothing much more than high school algebra, so part of the course would be developing some quantitative skills," he says.

Maskin, who has never taught a Core class, says he might be interested in teaching such a course should the quantitative requirement be instituted.

"It's fun and stimulating to be able to try out ideas that will be new and fresh to bright, young undergraduates," he says. "You have the privilege of exposing them to a body of knowledge that they haven't encountered before."