Honors Program

Winter Term 2012

University Seminar Honors Section Offerings

Topic, “Ethical Thinking for the 21st Century: Personal, Social/Political, Professional”
USem 102H: Social/Political Ethical Thinking for the 21st Century
Personal, Social/Political, Professional. Students explore values and how they are pivotal to life and life-changing decisions. When a personal ethical framework-knowledge of one’s values and how they are used-enters the world, a clash of values occurs. This clash calls students to develop the skills of listening, persuasion, and critical thinking in order to engage in civil conversation and debate. Ergo, this class addresses the moral dimension of ethics through research and persuasion so that facts replace opinion in argument and conversation. Students learn to effectively communicate their values through both writing and speaking, culminating in a presentation to their peers through a variety of media that they use throughout the year.  Instructor: Carol Voisin. Register for CRN 4230, 10:30am-12:20pm TR

Topic, “Becoming a Public Citizen: Policy and Values in the 21st Century”
USem 102H: Public Policy Analysis
The World Around Us: Making Sense of What We See. This section considers the topic of Public Citizenry in order to give students practice in these critical skills as we seek a deeper understanding of social issues faced by our communities as well as our own values, beliefs, perspectives, and culture. We apply analytic tools contributed by the field of economics, performing focused exploration of policy issues to develop written, oral, and other methods of making and supporting a claim. Students participate in individual and small-group tasks and presentations to distill the results of research, and then to incorporate those results into insightful issue analyses. We will seek opportunities to share our results with audiences outside the classroom.  Instructor: Gentry. Register for CRN 4229, 10:30am-11:45am MWF. 

Topic, “Human Ecology & Environmental Issues”
USem 102H: Biological Issues and Society
Students will explore biomedical topics relating to the well being of self. These topics will include personal health and nutrition, drugs and addiction, human genetics and bioethics. Our approach will be aimed at educating citizens that will be able to evaluate scientific arguments and make informed decisions affecting their own lives. Instructor: Carol Ferguson. Register for CRN 4231, 1:30pm-3:20pm MW.

For other Honors Program Course offerings, download the Winter 2012 Course Flyer (PDF)