Examples of First Year Seminar (FYS) Courses and Themes for AY19-20

Examples of First Year Seminar (FYS) Courses and Themes for AY19-20

First Year Seminar Course Specifics

FYS courses provide innovative approaches to a subject area specifically designed to appeal to and engage incoming first-year students and serve as a point of entry to the richness and diversity of Liberal Studies Program.

FYS prioritizes courses in the Aesthetic and Human Inquiry distribution block and those that fulfill the criteria for the Ethnic and Global Diversity requirements.

Please be sure that your course supports the intended Liberal Studies Curricular Distribution Block that you are interested in and the FYS Program intent and gain support from your department head prior to submission.

The First-Year Student

Your students will all be first-year students. They are likely to be enthusiastic learners and rewarding to teach. Since they are new to the university setting, you will have the opportunity to help them strengthen and deepen their abilities to pose meaningful questions, pursue inquiry, and contribute their ideas to ongoing conversations through writing, research, and verbal communication.

Course Opportunities: Three Examples

Teach a section of a course related to a particular theme from the faculty member’s discipline, perspective or area of expertise that invites students to investigate a topic or cluster of related topics, such as Critical Thinking and Discussion of. . . or Crossroads in Health and Medicine.
Teach a new topic of high student interest from your discipline’s perspective that is not being taught within another department or other disciplines that you have been wanting to teach, like “Life as an Experiment?”

Teach a section of an existing student favorite’s course from your disciplinary perspective, such as The Think of Ink, Alternatives in Medicine or Zombies and Fear of the Future.

Teach a section of a course related to a theme from the faculty member’s discipline, perspective or area of expertise.

The following section highlights possible course theme suggestions, along with course examples.

Theme: Critical Thinking and Discussion

Is international trade bad for us? Are illegal immigrants harming the US economy? How do we handle refugee crisis across the world? Should climate change be taken seriously, and if so, what should be done by policymakers? Do we ignore socialist ideas, such as free education and free healthcare for all? Do we ignore free market ideas of free trade and no government regulations? Should we be scared rising power of machines? What should be done about international terrorism? These courses will delve into these difficult questions and try to make sense of these issues.

These courses engage students in a shared process of inquiry which take into account diverse student backgrounds and creates an environment of critical reflection, analysis and reasoning informed from a number of perspectives, methods and points of view.

The important method of engagement in these course is informed dialogue—reading widely about what others think (including those who disagree with us), talking back and forth respectfully among ourselves, and then writing down our individual conclusions for others to consider carefully and perhaps, to challenge thoughtfully. In this give-and-take, students should strive to be good listeners as well as active talkers, and all should learn from each other.

Course Examples:

Critical Thinking and Discussion, Sustainable Energy: In this seminar we will take a closer look at how we might best reconcile prosperity with sustainability and what it ultimately means to live sustainably and to develop sustainable technologies. Everyone talks about converting to sustainable and renewable sources of energy, but for now we continue to burn oil and gas as the primary methods of energy generation. Can we find common ground on what it means to be sustainable?Students will be tasked with studying the sustainable energy field based on information rather than on emotion: how much oil is there to be had? How efficient is wind energy? Based on answers to questions such as these each student will be challenged to develop, articulate, and defend a personal viewpoint on the direction of our energy future.

Critical Thinking and Discussion Finding Your Opinion: Every student will decide her or his own viewpoint about a handful of today's most pressing issues. The students will pick most of the issues to be covered. The point is to learn how to figure out and support your views as well as talk respectfully with each other about disagreements.

Make sense of complicated ideas
Develop the capacity for deep thought, sustained inquiry, and careful, evidence-based reflection
Connect their learning across course and disciplinary boundaries.
Have the capacity to engage in dialogue, discussion and disagreement in a civil manner.
Take a different perspective in a dialogue and rationalize behind the position and also to listen to and understand the alternative sides of an argument

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Theme:Crossroads in Health and Medicine

Understanding of the broader health issues facing our current society. These seminars examine the range of topics associated with health, including innovations in health, and interdisciplinary connections. As well as understanding of the broader health issues facing our current society. Such as population growth, food security, affordable healthcare, environmental diseases (e.g., cancer), emerging diseases (e.g., Ebola, West Nile), food-borne illness, water usage, hazardous wastes, and human health risk assessment.

Course Examples

So, You Want to Be a Doctor or a Nurse?This course is not intended to persuade you to choose, or dissuade you from choosing, a career in medicine. It will introduce you to medical sociology, focusing on who becomes a doctor, the doctor’s socialization in medical school, and the life of medical practice in a changing health care system. It will also consider whether a life in medicine is a spiritual vocation and the implications that such a “calling” has for the relationship between doctor and patient. Attention will be given to thinking and writing about the meaning of work in other than financially remunerative ways.

Bioethical Challenges of New Technology How might we apply ideas from ethical theory to contemporary issues and debates in biotechnology? This course will provide critical encounters with some of the central topics in the field of bioethics, with an emphasis on new technologies. Controversies over genetic engineering, stem cell research, reproductive technologies, and genetic testing will provide an opportunity for you to critically assess arguments and evidence. We will begin with an overview of the field and the theoretical approaches to bioethics that have been derived from philosophy. You will then have the opportunity to engage in debate and learn how to identify underlying values and how to apply ideas from ethical theory to contemporary problems.

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Theme: Asking the Big Questions

College is the time for asking big questions. Who am I? What do I want to do with my life? How do I find my purpose and not disappoint others? What does it mean to live a satisfying and meaningful existence? These courses will explore these big questions and the ways we can use them to make meaning from our experiences in college and beyond.

Course Examples:

Just Happy to Be HereResearcher and author Tom Roth states “the pursuit of happiness” is a shortsighted personal goal. The latest research from Roth and others have placed particular emphasis on the value of meaning. Students will embark on a semester-long journey to find the meaning in their own lives. Through thought-provoking readings, class discussions, and personal reflections, students will be able to answer the questions that we are all asking ourselves. Or Defining Success: What is Success?More important, what makes you feel successful? Is it a great job? A beautiful house? Health and happiness? Real success grows from a sense of purpose, community, centeredness, and the ability to manage your complicated brain to achieve meaningful goals. Explore what experts from many areas say about success and consider how to define it in your life.

The Art of Living. Where do our ideals for living come from, and how should they be structured? How do we justify them in the face of criticism? What role do great works of art play in this creative process? Our lives are not simply given to us, but also something we make: as we examine the circumstances of our existence, recognizing certain facts as immutable and others as subject to our control, each of us faces the challenge of fashioning out of them a way of living that is both meaningful and justifiable. The Art of Living will explore different ways to think about the nature of that challenge and how to accommodate conflicting demands and values, how to make our choices artfully.

Ultimate Meanings Does life have some ultimate meaning or purpose? How can the stories used by the world’s religions help us find the answer to this question? Ultimate Meanings will focus on stories shared by the world’s three great monotheistic traditions: stories first recorded in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and later elaborated upon by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and secular readers. Our aim is to understand the original meaning of these stories. What their authors intended them to mean, as well as to examine how different kinds of readers, from religious scholars to artists to feminists, have interpreted and understood them.

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Theme: Modern Anxiety, Identity, and Wellness

Interdisciplinary exploration of arts and science related to stress, identity, and wellness. Courses adopts a multi-dimensional focus using science, theory, art, literature, and performance. Students use these approaches to understand structural causes of stress, their physiological effects, and how these stressors impact our identities and community ethics.

Course Examples:

Loneliness and Community It’s hard to imagine any person existing without at least some experience of feeling or being lonely. For many of us, loneliness is situational: it’s what we feel when we first immerse ourselves into a new community or when a relationship ends. For some, loneliness is a feeling they wrestle with more consistently. In this class, we will look at what it is to be and feel lonely. We won’t stop there, though. We’ll study how community and connection to other people (might) help alleviate loneliness. We’ll ask if the experience of loneliness today is unique to our time, or if there is something common to all human experiences of loneliness. We’ll ask how different scholars from diverse fields suggest we “deal” with the problem of loneliness and discover whether there are skills and practices we can adopt to lessen our own and others’ lonely feelings.

Angst YearsUndergraduate students report high rates of anxiety and its distressing impact on their lives. This seminar approaches anxiety as an existential state that is braided with the experience of freedom. We will focus on philosophical and spiritual approaches that treat anxiety in the context of ethical formation. We will consider practical ideas for reducing or countering the impact of anxiety on our personal and collective wellbeing. In response to shared readings, we will consider the questions: Is anxiety a meaningful condition of freedom? How is anxiety responsive to social, environmental, and political contexts? What opportunities and challenges does anxiety present for responding to those contexts? Can we identify transcendent or transformative dimensions of freedom that anxiety inspires? Are their tragic contingencies associated with freedom that inspire anxiety? We will explore meaningful connections between experiences of anxiety and our formation as free and ethical beings.

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Theme: Living Your Adventure

Making the most of the college years and beyond, seizing the moment and living a life of discovery.

Course Examples:

Leaving Home“Leave” in order to discover who you are and what you are supposed to do in this world. Questions to be considered throughout the year include: Is it necessary to leave home in order to figure out who you are and what you are supposed to do in this world? In this age of technology and social media, which make maintaining connections with family and friends so easy, is it even possible to leave home?

Sharing Your Travels Travel the world and learn about what life is like outside the suburbs. Ask yourself the big questions: What do I really need in life? How can I make my life a work of art? Students will consider how to share their story through social and digital media as they work in teams to create four different types of projects. Only when we become conscious of the function of time, and deliberately contend with decisions we make (both conscious and unconscious) over its expenditure, can we evaluate our lives’ direction.

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Theme: The Creative Process

These courses will engage in questions about creativity, innovation, and what it means to be a creative person.

Course Examples

Genius or MadnessWhat does it mean to give voice to an idea? We have all met--or perhaps even identified with--people who are seen as different, strange, or on the margins. The course looks at links between creativity, conformity, mental illness, business, and art.

Theatrical Performance and the Art of PersuasionThis course will consider and apply theatrical performance training to the art of public speaking or rhetoric. One of the three original Liberal Arts, the art of discourse has long been recognized as fundamental to the creation of knowledge, and the development of thought. Employing dramatic and nondramatic texts, original student-written work, and an occasional Saturday Night Live sketch, students will discover the power of words to change hearts and minds, as well as their ability to undercut the speaker who does not know how to use them properly. The course is intended to develop communicative and expressive skills in students who might not be drawn to the fine arts, but who might benefit from theatrical training to become more effective thinkers, writers, and speakers.

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Or propose a new topic of high interest to first-year students based upon an area of expertise that is not being taught within another department or other disciplines.

Course Examples:

Technology and SocietyTechnology can be wonderful. We live in a highly advanced technological age, with airplanes, smart phones, computers, high definition televisions, social networks . . . the list goes on and on. No one would dispute that these things have made life easier and more enjoyable in many ways. But technology can also have a dark side. It has also brought us weapons of mass destruction, cyberbullying, the spread of false and misleading information, and violations of personal privacy. This course will examine the impact of technology, positively and negatively, on the human community.

Decisions, Decisions!Why we make bad ones and how to make better ones. We make decisions every day. Parents decide whether to vaccinate their children. Voters decide whether to believe the planet’s climate is changing. Spring breakers decide whether it is safer to fly or drive to the beach. Countries decide who their next elected official will be.

Fortunately, we are rational beings. We use logical reasoning to make our decisions, our beliefs are founded on good science, we have access to the truth on the Internet, we draw reliable conclusions from the troves of data we collect, and we have left behind the mystical beliefs of our ancestors . . . right? If these are true, then why do we spend billions of dollars each year on alternative medicine? Why do we buy lottery tickets? Why do we vote for third party presidential candidates? Why do we believe in conspiracy theories? In this seminar, we will look at how to use mathematics, statistics, psychology, and science to help us make good, informed decisions.

We will learn how to nurture a healthy skepticism and to develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills that will enable us to face issues with our eyes and minds wide open and to make the best decisions.

Entertainment Media and SocietyIn this seminar, we will explore the meanings that we can derive through entertainment media. The entertainment industry incorporates the values of society into their media, and in turn, the messages found in entertainment media affect society’s values.

From Soul to RappingHas the struggle for freedom and equality in the Civil Rights era lost out to a superficial world of “bling” and “booty,” or do today’s artists pick up where the past greats left off?

How Does Your Brain Work? How do the biological and chemical processes in the brain give rise to the mind that lets us talk, walk, laugh, and love, learn, remember, and forget? How does the brain, in other words, make us human? The human brain is the most complex organ we know. It has evolved over time by adapting to the various behavioral and environmental constraints. The highly interactive lectures and discussions in this course will be directed at understanding the biological mechanisms of brain function, from the individual structures to functioning brains.