Honors Courses

Courses for Fall 2012

Instructor: Nancy Lumpkin

Meets: W 4:00

Steven Levitt is an absolutely brilliant economist who claims to be a poor academic.  He hates calculus and regression and he shies away from what people typically regulate as the classic economic questions.  What will the stock market do?  Is deflation good or bad for the economy?  No, these are not the riddles that attract Levitt.  I guess you could say he is much more interested in relationships.  Does your real estate agent get you the best deal on your house?  Will naming your child Finnegan permanently scar his career chances?  Can you use the economic way of thinking to stop terrorists?

This one-hour class will have a book group format, with students taking turns presenting the week’s reading to the group and leading discussion. While the reading is very straightforward, the questions that get raised are not.  Those who are presenting will write and distribute in advance a paper that outlines the student’s approach to the material and proposes questions for discussion. Students are expected to come to class prepared to engage with the assigned readings and with their fellow students’ presentations of the issues.

Beyond weekly readings and one or more presentations each student will write a more polished essay, about 5 pages in length and due at the end of the semester, discussing a question or theme of the student’s choice; it could be from the same chapter that the student has presented in the class hour, but does not have to be.

The class will read:

Levitt, Steven D., Stephen J. Dubner.  Freakonomics:  A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything P.S.).  New York:  HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2009.

Note: This is a 1-credit course.  Even if you have already taken Hon 170, you may take it again if the new topic interests you!

Instructor: Juilee Decker

Meets: MWF 11:00

All grading opportunities as designated on the syllabus remain, with the exception of the two essays. Each essay shall be replaced by an in-depth essay (5-7 pages each). Two additional components are required of the Honors Student: consultation and discussion. In preparation for these essays, the student will consult with the instructor at least once per essay. Twice throughout the semester, students enrolled with the Honors Increment, will participate in a discussion with peers in this course about their findings. This presentation will be open to all art faculty and faculty in the student’s major as well. The subject and scope of these essays is selected by the student and approved by me. The essays are intended to give the student experience with deeper research that might eventually be used for an honors thesis project, perhaps. Please ask me if you would like some suggestions or types of topics considered by previous students. If no major has been selected by the student, appropriate essay situations will be arranged in consultation with the instructor.

Instructor: Mary Anne Carletta

Meets: MWF 9:00

Read an additional text related to biology or science in general, meet with me once a week for at least 45 minutes to discuss it, and make a short (10 minute) presentation to the class at the end of the semester, summarizing the readings.    Possible texts are:

• You are Here:  Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon But Get Lost in the Mall by Colin Ellard
• Hot, Flat, and Crowded:  Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
• Salt Marshes:  A Natural and Unnatural History by Judith Weis and Carol Butler
• The Third Chimpanzee: the Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared Diamond
• Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer
• Plan B by Lester Brown
• Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
• Our Stolen Future: How We Are Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peter Meyers
• Hope’s Edge:  the Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe
• The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen Buchmann, Gary Paul Nabhan, and Paul Mirocha
• Science on Trial:  the Case for Evolution by Douglas J. Futuyma
• Genome by Matt Ridley
• Feral Future Tim Low
• Ecological Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
• Deep Economy by Bill McKibben
• The Future Eaters by Tim Flannery
• Living Downstream: an Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber
• The Next 100 Years: Shaping the Fate of Our Living Earth by Jonathan Weiner
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Having Faith: an Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood by Sandra Steingraber
• Collapse:  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
• Gathering the Desert by Gary Paul Nabhan
• The Beak of the Finch: a Story of Evolution in our Time by Jonathan Weiner
• Beyond the Limits:  Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jorgen Randers
• Why is Sex Fun?  The Evolution of Human Sexuality by Jared Diamond
• Time, Love, Memory:  a Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior by Jonathan Weiner
• Coming Home to Eat:  the Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods by Gary Paul Nabhan
• The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson and Theo Colborn
• Stolen Harvest by Vandana Shiva
• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  the Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
• Sex:  A Natural History by Joann Ellison Rodgers
• Darwin:  The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist by Adrian Desmond and James Moore
• Remarkable Creatures by Sean B. Carroll
• The Queen of Fats by Susan Allport
• Life Ascending:  The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane
• Science Under Siege:  Defending Science, Exposing Pseudoscience edited by Kendrick Frazier
• Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology by Oren Harman, Michael Dietrich, William Dritschilo, and Bruce Weber
• Food Politics:  How the Food Industry Influences nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle
• Only a Theory:  Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul by Kenneth Miller

Instructor: Patrick Sheridan

Meets: TR 12:45

This increment will be designed to enhance the student’s understanding of molecular interactions and reactivities.  We will focus on concept development mainly through short lectures and problem sessions.  Our informal meetings will be conducted weekly, at a mutually agreeable time.

Instructor: Jana Brill

Meets: MWF 11:00

French 201 students spend 4 weeks reading the original French version of the tale Beauty and the Beast. Two labs are devoted to the showing of the classic postwar film by Jean Cocteau. As an intermediate language course, the emphasis is on basic understanding of the vocabulary and grammar. The beginnings of analysis emerge towards the end as they write an essay on the topic: “The Beast – A Monster or a Man?” For the Honors Increment the student would focus on Cocteau’s film in depth – researching such elements as Cocteau’s relationship with surrealism, French new wave cinema, gender identity issues, and the relationship of the film to the original Beaumont text. This research would be presented orally (5 minutes in French) to the class, and in a two-page typed paper (also in French) due at the end of the semester. In addition, the student will discuss research findings (in English) with the professor, prior to and after completion of the paper. Note: Other research topics arising from class discussions may be considered, with permission from the instructor

All sections

Meets: Various

In calculus courses, increment work typically has two components:

1. A Few Tougher Homework Problems. Each week the instructor assigns the honors student a very few problems that are more difficult than what is given to the rest of the class. Students turn in these problems along with their regular HW, and meet outside of class with the instructor to discuss them.
2. A Selected Special Topic. This is decided in advance in consultation with the student; generally we try to find something that falls within the special interests of both student and instructor. Past topics have included: a look at the foundations of calculus through rigorous treatment of epsilon-delta approaches to derivatives, sequences and infinite series; exploration of programming with symbolic computation software such as Mathematica; topics in the history of mathematics, such as the study of an original writing by a great mathematician of the past, in a language (French, German or Latin) that the student knows, or in translation.

Instructor: Sonny Burnette; Mami Hayashida

Meets TR 8:00; 1:10

Note: This is a 2-credit course.  If you have taken or plan to take HONS170, this class will is a good way to accrue the required 15h rs in honors courses.

Students will complete two projects in consultation with the professor. The first, “Fictional Composer” is as follows: Create a fictional composer who lived between 1600 – 1950.  Produce a brief biography (300 – 500 words) of the composer followed by an imaginary interview.  The interview should read as if you could get on a time machine and had a chance to interview him/her.   Questions and answers should be crafted carefully to reflect your knowledge of the particular era; this means you should have clear ideas about the musicals style(s) of the time as well as the social, political, economic conditions.  Minimum: 12 questions and answers. The second project will be chosen from the following options:

1.  Composer Research Project

Choose a composer not covered in lectures.  Prepare a 10- min. presentation for the class, which should include a one-page handout and musical samples to be played.  Multimedia presentation is encouraged.

2. Program Note Project:

Choose a musical work and write a program note.  It should include a brief biography of the composer, historical information about the piece (when/where the piece was composed and premiered–if such information is available), and a brief summary of what the listener should expect when listening to the work.  Length of the document: ca. 1000 – 1500 words.

3.  (Option for students who play an instrument) Instrument Project

Prepare a 10 min. presentation of your instrument, which should include a one-page handout, followed by a brief (2 – 3 min.) demonstration of your instrument for the class.   It should include a brief history (origin, development etc.) as well as some mechanical details of the instrument.  The demonstration should include not only scales and chord progressions (if applicable), but also a short excerpt from the representative repertoire.  Multimedia presentation is encouraged.

4.  (Option for  musically literate students) Performance Review Project

Choose a piece and listen to recordings of three reputable performers with the score. (please discuss your choice of the piece and the performers with your professor.)  Discuss the differences in interpretation and execution: 3-page summary and an oral report to the professor.

Instructor: Jonathon Dickinson

Meets: MTWRF 8:00

The honors increments for General Physics I and II will take one of three forms. For all forms of the increment the student would be expected to meet with the instructor an average of ½ hour a week during the course of the semester. The majority of these meetings would take place during regular office hours.

1. Increased Complexity. In this form of the increment some of the student’s homework problems would be replaced with problems of greater complexity. Types of problems can include applying the material covered in the regular class to situations not covered in class, complex situations, and situations that span multiple chapters of material. The goal of this form of the increment is to improve analytical reasoning and problem-solving skills. This form of the increment would give likely majors and pre-engineering students an opportunity to be better prepared for the upper level courses.
2. Additional Topic. In this form of the increment the student would study one particular physics topic mutually agreed upon by the instructor and the student. The topic could either be one covered in class (but at greater depth) or a topic typically omitted from the class. For example a non-major could explore an advanced topic such as relativity or quantum and a major could delve deeper into the physics of sound, a topic not covered in any upper level course. The topic would be covered in either a conceptual or mathematical manner depending on the nature of the student’s interest and abilities. Likewise the method of evaluation would be individually determined. If the topic lends itself to problems of a reasonable level for the student, then problem assignments and a test could be used for evaluation. If a final product is more appropriate for the topic, then a mathematically adept student might derive a collection of formulas, while another student might write a paper or do a presentation that conceptually explains the same formulas.
3. Connections to Other Disciplines. In this form of the increment the student would consider the intersection of physics with other disciplines. Possible humanities connections includes political policies on energy, the epistemological basis of Einstein’s thought experiments, and the implications that the ordered nature of the universe has on the nature of a creator. Possible science connections include the field of medical physics and describing chemical reactions in electromagnetic terms. The evaluation of this form of the increment would be some type of final product such as a paper or presentation.

A typical final product paper that is conceptual rather than mathematical would be ~8-10 pages. A typical final product presentation would be 10-15 minutes in length and would be given in class, class time permitting. The exact nature of the increment and the evaluation would be established at the beginning of the semester.

Instructor: Karyn McKenzie

Meets: MWF 10:00 and 11:00

Social psychologists attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others (Allport, 1985).  Relevant topics covered during the semester include the self, conformity, obedience, gender, attitudes, prejudice, liking & love, aggression, helping, and group behavior. Interested honors students will complete all requirements for the course and in addition, will create an experimental or correlational study investigating an area of interest within social psychology.  Such students will be responsible for collecting the data and analyzing it using a statistics program; students will closely work with the professor because it is assumed that students are not already familiar with conducting psychology studies.  At the end of the semester, a paper will be submitted, which will include a literature review that summarizes the variables studied and their relationships with each other, a methodology section describing the experimental procedure used to collect the data, a statistical analyses section that addresses the correlational results, and a discussion section that involves interpretation of the findings.  The ethical guidelines established for the field of psychology will be followed.  The final product should be between 3-5 pages.  For example, one semester a student surveyed 30 students in her social psychology class, who completed an informed consent form, followed by 3 reliable, valid scales: The Altruism Scale, The Interpersonal Betrayal Scale, and a Self-Esteem Scale.  She hypothesized about their relationships before surveying her classmates, looked at current research related to the variables, analyzed her data using SPSS, and interpreted the results.

Instructor: Laura Hunt

Meets: MWF 11:00 and 1:00

All SPA 102 students do a short presentations during the semester about one of the countries we study (Caribbean and South American Spanish-speaking countries).  The topic must be specific and something that is not covered in depth during class time.  An honors student, therefore, can receive an honors increment by doing the following with his/her topic:

-       6-page research paper (in English) about one of the countries we will be studying this semester.  It must be a specific topic (for example, we cover Chile, so the student can do a research paper on Easter Island; we cover Cuba, so the student can do a research paper on the history of baseball in Cuba). This is an additional assignment.

-       1 ½ -page summary (in Spanish) of the 6-page research paper he/she wrote.  This is an additional assignment.

-       4-6 minute presentation in Spanish about his/her topic.  This is the same assignment as all the other SPA 102 students; the only difference is that the honors student will present by himself/herself, while the other students present in groups of 2

Instructor: Emily Stow

Meets: MWF 10:00

Students in SPA 201 have a better grasp of the Spanish language and can express themselves in various tenses. They also have studied various Spanish-speaking countries (Caribbean and South American countries in SPA 102, Central American countries and Spain in SPA 201). Therefore, an honors student can receive an honors increment by doing the following:

• 8-page research paper (in English) about a specific issue in the Hispanic world. The student should choose a topic that is related to his/her major and/or interests (for example, an art major can do a paper about Hispanic muralists; a business major can do a paper on the trade agreements of South America). This is an additional assignment.
• 2-page summary (in Spanish) of the 8-page research paper he/she wrote. This is an additional assignment.
• 5-10 minute presentation in Spanish about his/her topic. This is an additional assignment.

Honors students who wish to complete an honors increment in this class will use one of the regular assignments—classic scene or contemporary scene—as the basis for an exploration of the background and history of the play, an overview of the critical responses to the character, an overview of notable past performances of the character, as well as a statement by the student on how s/he will approach the scene.  The written paper would need to run from 8-12 pages, conform to current MLA guidelines, and have a strong command of the historical and critical background on the character, scene, and play.

The paper is much more in-depth than the typical character analysis, which focuses on the play and scene, but does not take into account past performances, critical discussion of the play and more particularly, critical analysis of the character.

The scene will need to be approved by the teacher.  Honors students will need to take on classic roles in classic plays.  Kate from Taming of the Shrew, Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, Argan from The Imaginary Invalid, Maggie in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,  or George and Martha in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? are just some of the possibilities.  The point is that honors students will be tackling great roles that have been the subject of intense scrutiny by performers, critics, and theorists.  Moreover, the honors student’s scene will be longer in length than the regular assignment, running from 7-12 minutes in length.  This added length (regular scenes usually run no more than 5 minutes) places greater demands on the student’s craft.  There’s not only more to memorize and more to block, there’s also a greater emotional and psychological burden placed on the actor or actress, particularly given the complexity of the roles they’ll chose from.

In short, the honors student will tackle a longer scene, requiring additional preparation, and will engage in a more advanced research project than the regular requirement.

Instructor: Barbara Burch

Meets: MWF 10:00 and 11:00

English library research, the methods of scholarly writing and the ethics of scholarship. For your first two papers, you will take on research problems from the humanities and social sciences. Our work in the last third of the semester will help you to discover and 112 is an introduction to academic writing. During the semester, we will learn about and practice: strategies for develop your identity as a scholar. With guidance from the honors faculty, you will plan and carry out a research project that addresses a pressing contemporary issue in the academic field of your choice. All incoming honors students should register for this course.

There is no Honors Seminar for fall 2012.  Look for a seminar in spring 2013.