THEME-BASED COURSES

Students are required to complete 12 credit hours within a single thematic cluster. If a student decides to change to a different thematic cluster, he/she will have to satisfy all the course requirements for the new cluster. The Dean of University Studies will consider exceptions to this rule based on individual petitions. Theme-based courses are communication intensive (oral and written) and emphasize interdisciplinary learning motivated by societal issues and problems. Course descriptions of approved thematic courses offered by departments outside of University Studies can be found in the requisite sections of the Bulletin.

Courses in this cluster will help students understand the complex relationships between scientific discovery, technological advances, and societal change. In addition, students will debate the ethical implications of contemporary scientific research, examine how technology is portrayed in literature and the arts, and evaluate the frequently made claim that better science and technology lead to better lives.

UNST 201. Inventing America: Science, Technology, and Progress
This course explores the complex relations among scientific discovery, technological advancement, and societal change through analysis of key episodes in American history from the pre-industrial era to the Information Age. In addition, students will debate the ethical issues triggered by scientific and technological innovation, examine how technology is portrayed in literature and the arts, and evaluate the frequently made claim that more advanced science and technology lead to better lives.

UNST 203. Technology, the Real, the Fake and the Authentic
This course encourages analysis and comparison of cultural systems through case studies of real, fake, virtual, and authentic works and personal experiences studied from the standpoint of the technologies and cultural communities that produced and consumed them. These case studies include works of art, technological artifacts, and other experiences.

UNST 206. Scientific Revolutions and Social Change
This course highlights the complex connections between science, technology, scientific breakthroughs, and social, political and economic change. The experiences of and the lessons from the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century will be used to understand the social, political, and ethical implications and challenges of the current revolution in nanotechnology. Students are led to discover the deeper relationships between seemingly unrelated events in history, and explore competing interpretations given by different disciplines.

UNST 207. Ethics and Technology
This course examines ethical issues arising from scientific and technological advancements. The central normative question students will consider is: Simply because we can do something does this mean we should? After exploring various standards of morality, students analyze issues such as reproductive technologies, cloning, genetic engineering, stem-cell research, life-span extension, genetically-modified foods, and ethical concerns within nanotechnology.

UNST 210. Ethics in Information Technology
This course will explore moral, ethical, and legal problems associated with information technologies including issues such as security and privacy. Students will critique ethical dilemmas, debate moral issues, and develop ideas for reducing ethical problems and coping with their effects.

UNST 213. Evolution and Social Implication of Technology. Theme: Technology and Progress
This course examines diverse technology systems such as biotechnology, communication, construction, manufacturing, medical, and transportation. Discussion focuses on the interaction of technology with human health, the environment, the global economy, and politics, as well as technological forecasting and assessment.

UNST 219. Technology and Public Wellness
This course describes, reviews, and challenges issues arising from the development of technology and the implications for public health policy. Students explore the relationship between the development and implementation of technology and cultural factors such as religion, politics, history, and economics. The course also examines how technology influences health and wellness in local and global contexts. In addition, students critically evaluate how technology policies of the industrialized superpowers influence the well-being of people in non-industrialized nations.

UNST 221. Thematic Writing and Speaking: Technology and Society
This course is designed to improve students’ abilities to write, speak. and think critically about important issues in the contemporary world by focusing on the rhetoric of science, technology and progress. Students examine rhetoric as represented in fiction and nonfiction: essays, short stories, drama, poetry, novels, film, popular culture (including popular science writing and journalism), and speeches.

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AGEN 216. Geographic Information Systems in Engineering and Natural Resources
This course will introduce the student to a Geographic Information System (GIS) for database analysis using ARC/INFO software. Management and techniques for data input, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial and tabular data would be covered in a computerized laboratory setting. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) will also be introduced.

CHEM 100/110. Physical Science/Physical Science Laboratory
This is a one semester introductory course designed to make clear the nature of science as an enterprise and illustrate by numerous examples really proceeds. Learning experiences are constructed so that they closely approximate real life situations where one has to search for clues a variety of sources. This course is not open to students who have received credit for CHEM 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, or 107. Physical Science Laboratory
This is a laboratory course designed to bring students into working contact with the essential aspects of scientific experiences. In this course the student develops concrete ideas about the operational meaning of the scientific method and problem solving. Corequisite: CHEM 100. This course is not open to students who have received credit for CHEM 114, 115, 116, or 117.

COMP 390. Social Implications of Computing
This course examines the increasingly complex interaction between computer systems, our social fabric and ethics. Software and microprocessors control automobiles, banks, brokerage trading, aircraft, medical equipment, and just about every other device used in industrialized nations. Impacts of computerized systems upon personal privacy and citizen involvement in governance are examined in relation to the public policy questions of the day. The role and opportunity for historically under-represented groups will be explored. Interdisciplinary readings are stressed, along with required written and oral presentations and class debates. Prerequisites: ENGL 331

ENGL 206. Film and Culture
This course examines film as a legitimate form of artistic expression worthy of serious critical analysis. Consequently, film will be studied as history (including its relationship to other print and nonprint media), aesthetic theory, ideology, and cultural artifact. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which film not only reflects, but also shapes, contemporary culture.

ENGL 231. World Literature II
This course surveys selected major world writers from about 1600 to the present, excluding English and American. Prerequisite: ENGL 101.

ENGL 331. Writing for Science and Technology
This course includes the study and practice of the basic techniques of writing and editing scientific and technical materials for both the general audience and the specialist. Prerequisite: ENGL 101.

GEOM 210. Cartography
This course will examine the evolution of cartography by presenting both traditional and computer‑based cartographic techniques. Cartographic methods, design, and basic map reading and interpretation will be examined. Professional quality maps that adhere to basic cartographic principles involving projections, graphic design and layout, data symbolization, and mapping theory will be produced.

HIST-307. The Historical Origins of Environmental Crises Credit
This course will deal with man's changing philosophical and technological relationship with his natural environment since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

ITT 385. Economic and Social Implications of Information Technology
This course is designed to assess critically the institutional forces that shape and create the demand for information technology (IT). It will also discuss how the consumption of IT impacts the economy and society. This course will help participants think about how changing social and economic conditions determine what technologies are consumed and how they are consumed, who consumes them, and where they are consumed. Prerequisite: Junior standing

MATH 111. College Algebra and Trigonometry
This course is a review of basic algebra; first and second degree equations; polynomial and rational functions-systems of equations-inequalities, right triangle trigonometry; and trigonometric identities and equations. Prerequisites: Mathematics 099 or two units of high school algebra, one unit of high school geometry and a satisfactory score on the mathematical portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

MATH 112. Calculus for Non-Mathematics Majors
This course includes a brief treatment of basic concepts of differential and integral calculus with applications to business, economics, social and behavioral sciences; polynomial, rational, exponential and logarithmic functions. Prerequisite: MATH 102, 110, or 111.

PHIL-266. Contemporary Moral Problems
This course begins with an examination of various ethical theories and then applies these theories to address moral challenges faced by today’s society. Topics include the environment, abortion, treatment of animals, drug use, pornography, hate speech, euthanasia, famine relief, affirmative action and the death penalty.

PHYS 101. Introduction to Astronomy
The fundamentals of astronomy with emphasis on methods of observation and the solar system; astronomical instruments including optical and radio telescopes; and the nature of the sun, moon, planets and other objects of the solar system will be studied.

PHYS 105. Physics for Non-Scientists
This course is intended for non-science students. It is a qualitative introduction to topics at the forefront of modern physics, with an emphasis on conceptual understanding. Mathematics use is reduced to a minimum. The course stresses the major role physics plays in our everyday life and aims at helping students evaluate the importance of the new scientific developments and their technological and socio-economical implications. It covers a wide variety of topics such as the building blocks of matter, the evolution of our universe, superconductivity and superfluidity, MRI and medical imaging techniques, the physics of lasers, the physics of semiconductors and transistors, nanosicence and nanotechnology, modern and future energy sources and their effects on the environment.

POLI 410. Public Policy and Technology
This course is designed primarily for students in sciences and engineering; however, it does not exclude students in other disciplines, especially business and economics. Students will study the social, economic, human, and environmental impact of technological development. The role of scientists and technologists in selected policy choices will be examined.

POLI 448. Politics of Transportation
This course includes an analysis of the political roots of various transportation problems, such as highway location issues, mass transit issues, and the interest group struggle of transportation innovation. The working mechanisms of federal, state and local transportation related units will also be considered. Case studies of local, regional and national issues will be included. Prerequisite: Junior standing.

SOCI 473. Introduction to Population Studies
This course includes a review of demographic processes; growth, fertility, mortality and migration in human populations. Focus on causes and consequences of demographic change in relation to social change and economic development.

SOWK 415. Medical Sociology
This course includes sociological analysis of medical services, the roles of the sick professional organizations and quasi-professional groups; socializational structure of hospitals; sociodemographic and socioepidemiologic variables in relation to modern societies. Cultural and cross-cultural customs and traditions affecting attitudes toward health and the healing art will also be studied.

*Use of these courses as theme-cluster electives in subsequent semesters is not guaranteed.

(more theme-based courses...)