Course Selections
First Year Seminar Course Selections for Fall 2009 Registration
Welcome First Year Student!
The following is a list of First Year Seminar (FYS) course offerings for the Fall 2009 semester. All First Year students are required to register for a First Year Seminar course of their choice. This course will help you:
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- learn effective strategies while you transition from high school to college,
- explore an exciting topic of your choice in a small-group and collaborative setting,
- strengthen your academic skills while learning how to make the most of your new environment and the possibilities it offers.
As FYS instructors, we look forward to making this journey with you and getting to know you - both inside and outside of class.
Sincerely,
Karen F. Palmunen, First Year Seminar Coordinator
The 2009 First Year Seminar Team
**BE PREPARED TO COME TO ORIENTATION/REGISTRATION WITH YOUR FIRST YEAR SEMINAR COURSE SELECTED**
Fall 2009 First Year Seminar
Course Descriptions:
Beauty and the Beast: Romance to Reality
Instructor: Karen Palmunen 2:00-2:50 MWF
"Beauty and the Beast" is a story of emotional transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is a tale with enduring elements that remain constant, despite historical and cultural
change. In this course, we will critically examine this story from its roots in the "Cupid and Psyche" myth, through its literary genesis as Beauty and the Beast in the French salon tale, and its twentieth-century translation into film. Using Beauty and the Beast as a model, you will learn to analyze fairy tales on a number of levels and from various critical perspectives and learn to write a fairy tale yourself. Through reflection on the story's theme of personal growth and appreciation of self in a new context, you will reflect on your own transition needs as a first-year college student. Together we will help you develop important academic skills and support your social and emotional journey through the first year experience.
Food for Thought/Thought for Food: On the moral significance of
what and how we eat
Instructor: Agnes B. Curry 9:00-9:50 MWF
If we are what we eat, then in this age of factory-farmed, genetically engineered, prepackaged and globally distributed foods, what are we? This course raises first the question of the human significance of food. Through self-exploration and reflection, essays, and film, the course will explore how food is "meaning not just nourishment, ritual not just consumption, ceremony not just act, familial and social relationship not just individual ingestion." Then the course will consider some of the profound and troubling implications of relatively recent changes in the way food is produced, distributed, and presented to us. We will see how our food choices have global effects, and consider how to respond in such a world.
EveryBODY's Talking
Instructor: Laurie Costa 9:00-9 :50 MWF
Have you ever considered how many ways you communicate on a daily basis? Do men and women communicate differently? What helps and hinders personal communication with friends? Can body language send the wrong message? How does advertising effect female's self image and eating habits? This course will explore the answers to these questions and more. Emphasis will be placed on Body Language by David Lambert, Deborah Tannen's You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, Branded by Patti Smith as well as Eve Ensler's play, The Good Body, Further, students will closely examine excerpts from film, television, and magazines in order to detect patterns in communication, both spoken and unspoken. For example, films such as Freedom Writers, American History X, Finding Forrester, Killing Us Softly: How Advertising Impacts Women and others will be analyzed. By acquiring a better understanding of the various ways of communicating, students will improve their communication skills and their abilities to analyze advertising, film and interviewing
Can You Paint Sounds?
Instructor: Mary Whitney 9:00-9:50 MWF
Have you ever wondered why two people can look at the same painting, read the same poem, or listen to the same piece of music and experience totally different things? Can we change the way we look at art or listen to music? What is your definition of art and can it be changed? Come explore these questions and more in a first year seminar investigating creativity and the brain. Everyone is creative in some way. This seminar will try to help you explore your style of creativity and to understand how this style may influence many areas of your life, including learning style and career choice. We will also explore how expanding our knowledge of creativity can help us succeed in college and beyond. We will have discussions with many different artists (visual, literary, musical, etc.) and will explore what science can tell us about the brain's roles in creativity.
Together Everyone Achieves More - An Adventure Approach
Instructors: Mike Gessford and Justin McGlamery 11-12:15 TR
An exploration of the background, philosophical basis, ethical issues, and theories of adventure and experiential education. This course will help to explain the "why" behind the "what" we experience as we interact with various groups and teams. Students will also reflect on their own personal interactive styles as well as how they fit into their larger group. There will be a merging of intellectual, social, physical and emotional types of learning as students are encouraged to go beyond their perceived boundaries. Course Goals: 1) To provide the student with an understanding of the uniqueness of the adventure education model in the use of personal and group reflection as a skill used to transfer learning. 2) To provide the students with the experience as a participant in a wide variety of adventure education activities. Fun is contagious. Laughter creates an immediate sense of togetherness. Together we build teams.
"Perfecting the Mind"
Instructor: Joanne Ronalter 12:30-1:45 TR
This course is specifically designed to prepare first year college students to transition into college by working smarter, not harder. "Perfecting the Mind" students discover the qualities to become a master college student and learn success skills that enhance their ability to listen effectively during lectures, take accurate notes, solve problematic situations, and most importantly, increase their reading speed and comprehension. Through innovative and hands-on experiences and a self-evaluation process, students will determine their learning, reading, and problem solving styles while becoming motivated to acquire, develop, and practice reading and academic skills needed to succeed in their college courses, personal lives, and careers.
No Room at the Inn: Homelessness in America
Instructors : Marylou Welch & Sister Beth Fischer 2:00-3:15 TR
Did you know that in 2007, 33,000 people in Connecticut were homeless at some point during the year and that 13,000 were children? This course uses a service-learning approach to help students understand the needs of this population and deepen their knowledge of the roots of homelessness and the life experience s of homeless persons. Students will have the opportunity to work with homeless people who are seeking support and health services. There will be an emphasis on issues of ethics, social justice, mental and physical and spiritual wellbeing in weekly discussions and reflections.
What Makes You Tick: An Exploration of Motivation
Instructor:Rick Halstead 11:00-12:15 TR
Why do people engage in certain activities? Why are some people drawn to danger and adventure while others do everything possible to remain where they believe they will be safe and secure? Why do some people go out of their way to help others while others look the other way? The answer to all the preceding questions rests in understanding human motivation. This course has been designed to introduce first year students to the concepts that help explain the reasons behind individual behavior. Over the course of the semester students will be involved in a series of individual and small group activities aimed at bringing principles of motivation to life. As the semester progresses students will explore behavior-related areas that include: eating, aggression, expressions of love, response to stress and anxiety, creativity, achievement, risk taking, and self control. This is a great course for any student who wishes to understand themselves and those around them better.
21st Century Plague: Is Humanity at Risk?
Instructor : Jessyka Scoppetta 1:00-1:50 MWF
Avian Flu! SARS! Pandemic Influenza! Media hype on the evening news or a looming catastrophe? This course will look at what history, literature and film have to say. Albert Camus's novel The Plague will engage you as we explore the psychological effects and philosophical questions raised in the wake of a seemly unstoppable disease. We will also investigate how Hollywood envisions a post-plague world by examining recent films such as Children of Men, Blindness, and I Am Legend. Finally, we will examine past epidemics such as bubonic plague, smallpox, and the Influenza of 1918 and the world they helped shape to gain a better understanding of the causes and consequences of infectious disease, including the emergence of public health departments and medical professionals, the problems of containment, control and ethics, the dangers of misinformation, and the effects of fear. Most importantly, this course will explore the human condition in the wake of a devastating event like an infectious outbreak and seek to answer the question: how do we react to catastrophe events and why? Despite the lessons of past, will humanity survive if this threat is realized in the future?
The Salem Witch and American History
Instructor: Jennifer Cote 9:30-10:45 MWF
Course Description: This course will examine the Salem Witch crisis of the 1690s as a way to understand various aspects of US history: gender roles, frontier life, warfare, and the place of ‘outside' groups like slaves and Native Americans. We will examine the role of Salem in the public consciousness in American folklore, and how that story differs from the historical reality. We will also explore the idea of Salem as an example of public history: What does it mean to make Salem, a site of tragedy, a tourist destination? In addition to reading secondary and primary sources, we will also watch movies and take a field trip to Salem itself.
Psychopaths and Maniacs: Mental Illness, Stigma, and Prisons
Instructor: Tonya Rondinone 1:00-1:50 MWF
Course Description: Society's misconceptions and stigmas about mental illness have left aware of the plight of those with mental illness. Police officers have become crisis intervention workers. Correctional officers have become the new face of mental health care workers. Probation officers lack the needed resources to assist their clients. Prisons have become our new asylums.
This course will explore stigmas related to mental illness, society's response to deinstitutionalization, and the lack or services available to those who suffer from mental illness. Guest speakers from law enforcement, corrections, and the judicial system will present the challenges of managing a population they were not prepared or trained to work with.
Beam Me Up Scotty! Science through Science Fiction
Instructor: Ellen Anderson 11:00-11:50 MWF
"Science fiction has special relevance to life in our transitional times." (Jack Williamson, author,professor emeritus, former president of the Science Fiction Writers of America). This art form experiments with the future, allows exploration of alternative tomorrows, and demonstrates that all possibilities are thinkable. Your life as a first year student will be filled with many transitions: leaving the comfort of your past environment, negotiating new relationships, defining your priorities, and meeting new challenges. Science fiction can teach us that while change may not be comfortable, it is inevitable. It invites us to play with the future. College will enable you to experiment with your own future, explore alternatives and gain knowledge and skills you need to face the future. With the help of many campus resources, you will begin to create and live your own future during your first year experience.
