The two-semester First-Year Seminars sequence combines a fall semester focused on interdisciplinary intellectual exploration and risk-taking with a spring semester focused on in-depth investigation of and argumentation about an important topic.
First-Year Seminars will cultivate students’ intellectual curiosity, developing their abilities to inquire into complex issues, formulate and support coherent arguments, and engage in constructive, transformative dialogue with their professors and peers. All first-year seminars are developed with consideration of difference, cultural inclusiveness, and contending perspectives.
The two semesters will be taught as separate courses, with separate instructors and student cohorts. The P-D-F grade option may not be elected for this course.
175 Exploring Complex Questions Fall Staff 4 credits
Students are introduced to the liberal arts through interdisciplinary, collaborative, discussion-based courses, housed in 4-6 learning communities, which each include faculty from at least three different disciplines. Each Exploring Complex Questions learning community engages a common topic, either a theme explored through a series of questions, or a large question explored through a variety of subtopics. Common elements within a learning community might include one or more of the following: a shared syllabus, syllabi that share some common texts, or syllabi with common activities (speakers/symposia/excursions, etc.). All Exploring Complex Questions seminars incorporate some aspect of information literacy to increase students’ abilities to independently explore complex topics. Distribution area: none.
Exploring Complex Questions – Learning Goals
Students will be able to:
- read inquisitively and generously
- read with attention to detail and nuance
- engage with texts of varied genres and mediums
- formulate productive questions that guide exploration of a complex text (broadly construed)
- use discussion as a means to discover and reconsider ideas
- learn collaboratively with classmates and professor
- use writing as a means to discover and reconsider ideas
- adapt writing to different forms, genres, and/or audience
176 Making Powerful Arguments Spring Staff 4 credits
As students progress into the second half of their first year they choose a seminar focused on in-depth investigation of an important topic and work on developing and supporting arguments. Making Powerful Arguments seminars are offered on a wide range of topics but all share common writing assignment parameters. All Spring Seminars incorporate library research skills and develop students’ proficiency with and understanding of citation practices. Distribution area: none.
Making Powerful Arguments – Learning Goals
Students will be able to:
- read inquisitively and generously
- read with attention to detail and nuance
- practice respectful but rigorous debate
- learn collaboratively with classmates and professor
- use writing as a means to discover and reconsider ideas
- develop arguable and defensible thesis statements
- integrate appropriate evidence to support argumentative claims