Honors Course Archive

This Honors Interdisciplinary Study discussion course explores knowledges, philosophies and histories as told by contemporary indigenous people. “Story” is the central concept of this course with stories and storytelling used as both pedagogy and source information. Story is understood to be any narration on any topic about any event with any amount of veracity and/or claim to exclusiveness of accuracy.

We will be conversing with these ideas:
– performances of living
– methodologies for scholarship
– knowledge systems and their genealogies including creation stories
– negotiating and negotiated histories
– identity – including gender, phenotype, ability, history

Over the quarter, I would like to see us spend time with these tasks:
– develop and revise a syllabus for our next ten weeks learning together
– learn within Anishinaabe pedagogical concepts
– undertake cognitive and experiential explorations of knowledges and philosophies within stories told by indigenous [and other] peoples
– share our insights and knowledges with other learners in the class as we encounter new knowledges and come to more developed understandings
– learn as a group with an implied responsibility for each of us to optimize the learning of everyone
– explore Anishinaabe and Sto:lo concepts of storytelling as pedagogy and source material
– hone our critical thinking skills
– improve our ability to develop and ask good questions
– write and perform a story similar to those within Anishinaabe and Sto:lo practice

Provides a multidisciplinary examination of bilingualism as a societal and individual phenomenon. Considers language vs. dialect, diglossia, state language policies, language rights, indigenous languages and linguistic minorities. Explores bilingualism and biculturalism as human experience and as indexes of identity. Includes a field work project focused on linguistic diversity in the Pacific Northwest.

See a video course description at http://vimeo.com/111889921; use password “Slavic”

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the underlying theme that unites all fields of biology. In this course we will cover the basic principles of evolution, explore ways in which evolutionary theory can be applied to human biology and behavior, and consider how evolutionary thinking might guide the development of social policy. We will consider questions such as these:

-Why are women and men different?
-Which is more egalitarian: monogamy or polygamy?
-Why do step-parents and step-children often have more conflicted relationships than biological parents and biological children?
-When do people cooperate, when are they selfish, and why?
-What can we do to reduce the rate of spousal abuse and homicide?

My goal is to help students learn selection thinking; that is, to help them learn to reason like evolutionary biologists. I hope to help students pose questions, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and critically evaluate the quality of evidence. After taking this course, students will be able to:

-Apply evolutionary theory to human interactions, especially those involving social conflict, and make predictions about how the divergent interests of the parties involved will affect their behavior.
-Design observational studies and experiments to test these predictions.
-Interpret and critically evaluate graphs and tables showing data on behavioral patterns in humans and animals.
-Provide evolutionary interpretations of various human social institutions, such as laws, wills, and social policies.

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the underlying theme that unites all fields of biology. In this course we will cover the basic principles of evolution, explore ways in which evolutionary theory can be applied to human biology and behavior, and consider how evolutionary thinking might guide the development of social policy. We will consider questions such as these:

-Why are women and men different?
-Which is more egalitarian: monogamy or polygamy?
-Why do step-parents and step-children often have more conflicted relationships than biological parents and biological children?
-When do people cooperate, when are they selfish, and why?
-What can we do to reduce the rate of spousal abuse and homicide?

My goal is to help students learn selection thinking; that is, to help them learn to reason like evolutionary biologists. I hope to help students pose questions, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and critically evaluate the quality of evidence. After taking this course, students will be able to:

-Apply evolutionary theory to human interactions, especially those involving social conflict, and make predictions about how the divergent interests of the parties involved will affect their behavior.
-Design observational studies and experiments to test these predictions.
-Interpret and critically evaluate graphs and tables showing data on behavioral patterns in humans and animals.
-Provide evolutionary interpretations of various human social institutions, such as laws, wills, and social policies.

In this class, the first in a two quarter sequence, we will examine the fossil evidence for the evolution of humans, using modern evolutionary theory as the underlying theoretical paradigm. This quarter, we begin by revisiting evolutionary theory, musculoskeletal anatomy, and rudimentary biomechanics and then move to the early hominin record. Spring quarter will be devoted to the fossil record of genus Homo and to developing an understanding of the major themes in hominin evolution.

To better understand the key factors that control the present earth’s climate, this course examines episodes in the earth’s past when extreme climate conditions existed. Dramatic changes in the earth’s climate have resulted from natural variations in solar insolation, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, rates and pathways of ocean circulation, plate tectonics, and the evolution of vascular plants and, in modern times, the burning of fossil fuels. The impact of these factors on climate through interactions between the atmosphere, oceans and land will be evaluated. The processes that produced past climate changes will be discussed as a framework to evaluate modern and future climate change resulting from human activity.

The class will utilize lectures, in-class problem solving, discussion of scientific papers and weekly homeworks to learn the material on both a qualitative and quantitative level. Students are expected to have had enough science-based coursework to feel comfortable solving quantitative in-class and homework problems using basic algebra and, in some cases, using the spreadsheet program Excel. Honors students will work as multi-student teams on a project to quantify the impact of human CO2 emissions on atmospheric CO2 levels in Seattle.

Class Web Page: https://catalyst.uw.edu/workspace/paulj/13956/

How do we understand the ethical and political dimensions of the food system for animals, humans and the environment? How does animal agriculture operate as a dominant institution fraught with complex interspecies social relations? What are the impacts of animal agriculture on humans, animals, and the environment and what movements for justice are working to mitigate these impacts? This course explores issues of justice for humans, animals and the environment in animal agriculture primarily in the United States. Framed at the outset by George Orwell’s 1984, the course asks students to explore how discourse operates powerfully across space and time to shape processes of production and consumption and policies related to the meat, dairy and egg industries. The second part of the course contextualizes how agricultural and food policies are shaped. Next, we consider literature on climate change and the environmental impacts of industrial ‘livestock’ production. This provides context for Part 4, which aims to understand the way these production practices affect human laborers and surrounding communities. The fifth part of the course is dedicated to taking seriously the lives and deaths of animals at the center of the meat, dairy, and egg industries. Finally, the course concludes with a unit on social and environmental justice activism and explores the trend toward repressive policies limiting access to spaces of animal agriculture. In response, students spend time at the end of the quarter synthesizing all they have learned to envision practical alternative pathways forward (for food production, consumption and policy) that take seriously the plights of humans, animals and the environment. Assignments for the course include an in-depth final project (which students will design themselves and which can take a multi-media format), reflective entries for the Honors Portfolio, and a couple of short critical response papers. Additionally, there will be an optional service learning component for the course.

Explores the causes and patterns of global poverty and links this with the urgent need for care and care ethics in our lives and in society broadly. The course connects academic inquiry on the interconnections between global poverty with the theory and practice of care ethics and caring practices through a research project or through service-learning in the community. We will examine how care work is being intensified and simultaneously devalued, we will explore the ways in which care is a public rather than a private matter and we will think about our responsibilities to care in collaboration with for those who are near and those who are across the globe. Students will learn about the possibilities and challenges of caring across distance (geographical and social) and about how to respectfully engage with people in different places. Finally, we will explore current efforts to construct alternative ways of caring for our society and our world. Learning Goals: i) understand geographical patterns and causes of global poverty; ii) learn about geographies of care in a global context; iii) conduct either a research project or service-learning/action research to think through concepts of collective responsibility to society.

Why cows? This course will focus on the history of cattle as a lens to explore patterns in human-animal interaction from the Palaeolithic era until today. Our principal goal is to gain insight into the use and conception of animals in various societies, past and present, not least our own. To keep the topic within manageable bounds, we will focus on just one type of animal: the cow, since, arguably no animal has had a greater impact on the evolution of human societies and the environment in world history. We will concentrate on three broad geographical and chronological areas — the ancient world, Western Europe, and the Americas — but with forays into other periods and regions, including India and East Africa.

Assignments: Class participation (20%), in-class presentation (20%); Weekly 1-page response papers (35%), 8-12 page final paper (25%).

Course website available at: https://catalyst.uw.edu/workspace/jwalker/47208/

This 10 week seminar/discussion is an intense interactive discourse about college life. Emphasis is given to the 2004 Tom Wolfe novel, I am Charlotte Simmons which chronicles the college experiences of an 18 year old low-income undergraduate female, Charlotte Simmons, during her first semester at DuPont College. The second book is the 1965 (republished 2012) novel, Stoner by John Williams, about the college life of English professor William Stoner. The seminar will mainly explore the trials of Charlotte as she deals with issues such as sexuality, acceptance and rejection, narcissism, grade inflation and deflation, depression, disclosure, fraternity/sorority culture, glorification of student-athletes and elitism. Amazingly, Professor Stoner’s life in many ways are similar to Charlotte’s but from a generational and gender point of view.

The two novels, I am Charlotte Simmons and Stoner critically explore situations which have real-world implications for the well-being of any college student. Our discussions can and will become sensitive and intense. Students should not enroll unless they are prepared to take matters as acceptance and rejection, classism, sexism, acculturation, aspects about coming of age, also issues of self-esteem and the results of risk-taking.

TEACHING METHODS
This 5-credit seminar meets twice a week and all students are expected to be in attendance. Any absence must be excused. A complete reading of I am Charlotte Simmons and Stoner is required. Read the novels and not about the novels.

Teaching Approach: The Socratic Method is employed. This gives voice to the students which comes from Charlotte herself and from the students’ impression of Stoner (and speculation of what Stoner probably thinks of them.)

Final Paper: A 5-7 page, double-spaced, type-written paper in 12-font with title page and proper margins with APA style references as appropriate is due on the last day of the week of instruction. No late papers will be accepted!

Attendance: If absence cannot be helped, notify the instructor. However, too many absences can and will result in a failing grade.

No Lap-tops, Smart Phones or Use of Electronic Equipment while Seminar is in session! Please put these items away during the seminar. Connecting to the Internet while class is in session is strictly prohibited and this includes texting. The instructor is interested in what YOU think, not what some else has written in cyberspace. Note-taking can be done by pencil and paper and/or be audio-recorded.

Occasional Pop Quizzes: There will be unannounced quizzes. These will be one-two page in-class responses to a question taken from the Charlotte Simmons Discussion Guide. Individual feedback will be given but will not be graded, just remembered.

Occasional Group Exams: These are also unannounced administered in the style of the ancient TV quiz show, The GE College Bowl!

Individual Participation: This is informed participation. Students are expected to provide comments, insights and opinions based on the substance of the material, and not rhetoric.

An exploration of the philosophies which have shaped the Black Liberation Movement, the Feminist Movement and the Gay Rights Movement in the United States. We will begin by looking at the ideological roots of these movements in earlier centuries then trace their development through their 20th century manifestations. Similarities and differences in these social theories will be analyzed along with the historical contexts in which they were and are invoked. We will also consider the political ramifications of utilizing particular paradigms to argue for social change.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
To provide an overview of the sociopolitical philosophies which underlie the Feminist, African/American, and Gay movements in the United States.
To situate these paradigms in their historical context.
To assess which theories, concepts and arguments transcend the particular features of the individual movements and apply across their differences and which do not.
To develop the students’ ability to analyze, formulate and defend theory.
To assist students in examining their own sociopolitical beliefs and goals.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Black Power Ideologies, John McCartney
Readings Packets (available at Prof. Copy, 42nd & U. Way)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
– Class participation (30%): Be present and prepared for discussion. This means having each day’s readings completed by class time and coming with some ideas about them and about any assigned questions. Participation includes both thoughtful comments and active, respectful listening and an appropriate balance between them. One absence is permitted without affecting your participation grade.
– Weekly response papers (30%): Each week questions or topics related to the readings will be given on which you will write approximately 2 typewritten pages. Graded credit/no-credit.
– Group project (15%): Guidelines to be announced.
– Final exam (take-home essay) (25%)

This class provides a survey of Muslims living in non-Muslim contexts, but primarily in the US and Europe. This course explores the historical journey(s) of this religion/culture and its eventual settlement in the western world and North America. We will explore the diversity of Islam in the US and in Europe, and will explore and compare the experiences of Muslims in the US and other parts of the western world. Discussions over gender roles, transnational ties, radical versus moderate Islam will be examined and explored. The larger question posed by the class deals with the compatibility between Islam as a religion and a culture, and modernity and western democracies.

Do you ever find yourself in situations where you would like to teach something to someone else? Do Powerpoint and Prezi only go so far? How might you imagine new scenarios to help other people learn? This class will be a series of teaching practice sessions, interspersed with great literature from education and reflective writing.

Many theorists believe that social change begins inside classrooms, or in transforming classrooms into spaces where students take charge of their learning. How can we re-imagine notions of “school” and “expert” to open new ways of exchanging information and power? Together, we’ll envision some utopian scenarios of ideal learning communities. Then, we’ll work with realistic “case studies” or “portraits” that ask us to teach in difficult situations. This class will be a lively, hands on, on-your-feet atmosphere in which you will begin the journey of becoming a teacher- whether that teaching happens in classrooms, workplaces or in your community.

Music can be heard all over our planet. It finds its place in the chants of a shaman healing their patient, accompanies television commercials to help sell a product, helps create an atmosphere at social events, and accompanies societal rites of passage. Its inspiration can also be found in nature, for example, as a bird singing in our back yard or in the Amazon rainforest. Academically, music weaves its magic into many fields, making it an interdisciplinary powerhouse. It is present from the hard sciences through the most esoteric arts. Examples include recording technology in engineering; the use of music for healing in medicine and psychology; the study of sound production and building of musical instruments in physics; copyright and performance rights in law; and its use as a teaching aid in education.

In this experiential course we will examine some of the universal themes emerging from the use of music and its influence on humanity and our world. Our ten week journey will utilize various lenses through which we will explore the topic, including scientific and academic research, observation of collective human experience, and your own personal experience both in and outside of class. Our time together will be partially modeled on the goals and objectives of collaborative teaching/learning communities. Activities will include class visits from guest experts and group and individual research opportunities along with weekly musical explorations facilitated by the instructor. During this process we will also examine how it affects and empowers our own lives.

This course presents a survey of architecture from about 750 to about 1789. Examples are drawn from the traditions of Western and Islamic architecture during the periods usually termed the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque, with particular interest in the formation of and interaction between these traditions.

Recommended preparation:
This is an undergraduate upper division and graduate level class, and as such we assume you are responsible students who attend class regularly and plan ahead for assignments and exams. We recommend that you read and review the assigned material before the lectures in which it will be covered. Because the lectures do not directly follow the order of the text, it may be useful first to read an entire chapter or set of chapters in anticipation of the lectures dealing with the material covered. Although Arch 350 is not a prerequisite for the class, the material covered in it is helpful for understanding the course content of Arch 351. Required text: Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, Architecture, from Prehistory to Postmodernity, Second Edition (New York: H.N. Abrams, 2002).

Class assignments and grading:
There will be two tests, two take-home writing assignments, and approximately 215 pages of required readings.

Test responses will be evaluated for accuracy, thoughtfulness and clarity. Assignments will be evaluated for thoroughness, quality of ideas, and clarity of presentation (this can include writing and graphics). Each test and assignment will be given a percentage score. Final percentage grades will be calculated according to the weighting below and then converted to the University’s 4.0 scale using a curve. This means that your final grade will be assessed relative to the performance of the others in this class.

Assignment 1: 20 % of course grade
Assignment 2: 20 % of course grade
Test 1: 30 % of course grade
Test 2: 30 % of course grade

Continuation of CHEM 145. Includes laboratory. Together CHEM 145 and 155 cover material in CHEM 142, 152, and 162. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: CHEM 152, 155 (5 credits); 145, 155, 162 (10 credits).

For chemistry majors and otherwise qualified students planning three or more quarters of organic chemistry. Structure, nomenclature, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds. Theory and mechanism of organic reactions. Studies of biomolecules. No more than 4 credits can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: CHEM 238, CHEM 336.

Basic programming-in-the-small abilities and concepts including procedural programming (methods, parameters, return values), basic control structures (sequence, if/else, for loop, while loop), file processing, arrays and an introduction to defining objects.

Continuation of CSE 142. Concepts of data abstraction and encapsulation including stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees, recursion, instruction to complexity and use of predefined collection classes. Prerequisite: CSE 142.

Provides a historical understanding of the twentieth century and major global issues today. Focuses on interdisciplinary social science theories, methods, and information relating to global processes and on developing analytical and writing skills to engage complex questions of causation and effects of global events and forces.

SIS 201 is intended to prepare students to think critically about the world and formulate their own ideas about important international issues. The course covers the major events and trends of the twentieth century, including the world wars and the Cold War, decolonization, democratization, and approaches to economic development; and current issues that stem from twentieth-century processes, such as globalization, failed states, the “war on terror,” and changes in the international distribution of power.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Learn to think critically about complex issues and identify connections between events
Write an analytical paper that formulates a causal argument about political or social phenomena

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION:
Lecture 3 times a week, plus two sections a week.

RECOMMENDED PREPARATION:
Reading a newspaper daily.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS & GRADING:
Reading of 150-200 pages per week, several short papers and a longer research paper.
Several short papers, one research paper, class participation, final exam.

This course provides an historic and critical overview of modernism and modernist designs in terms of aesthetic, technological, social, and spiritual concerns in the built landscape. While we will begin our explorations in the late nineteenth century and end with contemporary work, the focus of the course will be on the period between approximately 1915 and 1985. Moving between practice and theory, between design as a creative art and as a way of thinking, we will consider a number of modernisms within the context of modernist art and architecture as well as cultural modernisms.

Law and Science have been integrally related since the 17th Century, although there are references dating back to ancient times. Scientific advances have frequently spurred law and law has often modified the progress of science. This survey course will consider how this linkage has developed, persisted and become ever more pivotal as technology and innovation have advanced. First the course will consider the role of science and technology in the Courtroom, particularly in the context of criminal law and investigation. Second will be an exploration of the way that science influences law making and regulation, including examples of how “bad science” may lead to enactment of laws that promote, rather that protect against injustice. This will include examination of science and law on individual rights, in the context of education, reproductive decision-making and determination of parenthood, and privacy. Finally, we will consider science from the global perspective and consider the global justice issues arising from disparities in access to innovation.

Second quarter in the calculus of functions of a single variable. Emphasizes integral calculus. Emphasizes applications and problem solving using the tools of calculus.

Covers the material of MATH 124, 125, 126; 307, 308, 318. First year of a two-year accelerated sequence. May receive advanced placement (AP) credit for 125 after taking 135. For students with above average preparation, interest, and ability in mathematics.

Introduction to proofs and rigor; uniform convergence, Fourier series and partial differential equations, vector calculus, complex variables. Students who complete this sequence are not required to take MATH 309, 324, 326, 327, 328, and 427. Second year of an accelerated two-year sequence; prepares students for senior-level mathematics courses. Prerequisite: 2.0 in MATH 334.

Basic principles of electromagnetism, the mechanics of oscillatory motion, and experiments in these topics for physical science and engineering majors. Lecture tutorial and lab components must all be taken to receive credit. Credit is not given for both PHYS 115 and PHYS 122.

How do we experience live music? What have writers, philosophers, and artists said about its power? This experiential learning course will introduce students to the Winter 2015 season at the Seattle Symphony. Students will complete readings and short response assignments in a variety of genres over the quarter, based on their attendance at a series of pre-selected concerts. We will also engage with the artistic staff at Benaroya Hall for their insights into programming, performance, and other topics. All assignments will be appropriate for the Honors portfolio.

The concerts and dates are listed below. Students will purchase their tickets either through the Symphony’s Campus Club (a $25 pass allows you to go to any concert for the rest of the season if seating is available) or through the Teen Tix program ($5 per concert). The instructors will organize signups for the Campus Club and will purchase all tickets for the quarter. Contact Claudia Jensen (cjensen@uw.edu) if you have questions or concerns about paying for the tickets.

The list of concerts we plan to attend is as follows (and note that most are on Thursdays, but there one Friday concert and one Sunday concert; all performances are at Benaroya Hall):

Sunday, Jan. 18 (concert at 2:00 pm; Mozart, Weber, Beethoven)
Thurs., Jan. 29 (concert at 7:30 pm; Rachmaninov, Ives)
Thurs., Feb. 5 (concert at 7:30 pm; Beethoven Violin Concerto and other works)
Thurs., Feb. 26 (concert at 7:30 pm; Mozart, Beethoven)
Friday, March 13 (short concert, starts at 7:00 pm; Sibelius)

This honors seminar seeks to explore the interface between poetry and the healing arts and science. In an age when technology dominates our daily experience, the emotional parameters of illness are often overlooked. The human brain has not changed in the last ten thousand years in its need for expression surrounding fear and grief. We will discuss the limbic system and correlates of functional MRI in understanding patterns of brain activation.

Students will start by acquiring basic poetic craft and techniques to bring music and emotion into language. The history of poetry in medicine will be examined: its value in retrospective reflection, as a tool for teaching compassion to medical students, and as a vehicle for expression in mentally and physically afflicted patients. Renowned physician-poets will be discussed and each student will participate in vocalization of a selection of their poems. Examples of cross cultural traditions of poetry will be briefly reviewed. The format of the class will be in a round table, workshop tradition with constructive, collegial critique. Each student will be required to generate “in-class” writing as well as writing assignments, and to create 3 poems; the first about personal experience of illness or injury, the second about an illness suffered by a friend or loved one that has affected the student’s life, the third about environmental or societal illness. An editor, co-editor and graphic design artist will be chosen by the class to produce a 30 page book of poetry for publication by the University by the end of the seminar.

A group reading at the University Bookstore or Seattle venue, in which all students must participate, will be graded as the final examination.

My role will be as its facilitator and guide to provoke thought, to generate innovative poems, and to open minds and hearts to the possibilities of poetry for self exploration in the realm of illness, death and healing.

In this one-credit seminar, we will explore strategies for speaking effectively about one’s own experiences, skills, and interests in a variety of contexts (e.g., academic, workplace). We will focus on content selection and organization, delivery techniques and methods (e.g., impromptu, extemporaneous), Q&A sessions, and design and use of visual aids. Students will have opportunities, in a relaxed small-group environment, to practice strategies learned in class through the presentations they make to their peers. Students will also gain experience evaluating their own presentations and providing feedback to peers on their presentations. Students will receive instructor feedback to help them improve their skills and prepare for future speaking opportunities.

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand and describe the differences among the various delivery methods of oral presentation
• Create and organize presentation content for a given audience and situation
• Design visual aids that enhance your message
• Deliver effective presentations, with and without visual aids, within a specific time limit
• Employ specific strategies to help manage the anxiety that can accompany oral presentation
• Listen attentively, ask thoughtful questions, and provide feedback on peers’ presentations

Required Assignments

Students receive credit by attempting each of the required talks/presentations and submitting a one-paragraph reflection after each presentation:

• Impromptu talk (2 min)
• “Pitching” an idea (2 min)
• Describing a past accomplishment (3 min)
• Articulating your skills (4 min plus Q&A)
• Presenting the whole “picture” (5 min plus Q&A)