2008-2009 Courses
Freshmen Learning Communities Fall 2008
Learning communities courses are designed and taught by teams of faculty members from different disciplines. Courses are integrated across disciplines and relate to a common theme. The professors are selected for their dedication to under-graduate teaching and their talent in the classroom. Students learn, live, study and grow as part of a small community within a large metropolitan university setting.
1. Frets, Flutes, and Physics [LALC-FFP] 11 credits
How is the varying spacing of frets on a guitar determined? How do small holes enable a flute to produce different notes? How can a trumpet produce dozens of different notes even though it has only three valves? This learning community focuses on the connections between musical instruments and underlying physical and mathematical principles. Participants in this community will use these principles to design, build, and demonstrate a musical instrument. This community will fulfill one mathematics and one laboratory science requirement.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- PHS 110: Fundamentals of Physical Science (SQ)
- MAT 142: College Mathematics (MA)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar
Librarian: Christopher Mehrens
Faculty: Robert Culbertson (Lead), Michael Oehrtman, Christine Gillette, Janice Meyer-
Thompson, Stephen Krause, Dale Baker.
Faculty Disciplines: Physics, Mathematics, English, Music, Engineering, Education
General Studies Credits: SQ, MA
2. Human Development: Relationships and Sexuality [LALC-DRS] 7 credits
This learning community will explore themes related to close interpersonal relationships and sexuality across our human life span. We will examine how our close relationships and sexuality change as we develop. These themes will be pulled from broader topics introduced in CDE 232 and will be tied into ENG 111 assignments as well. The integrative seminar will give students the opportunity to think about these themes in greater depth with guest speakers, videos, discussions and active learning exercises.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- CDE 232: Human Development (SB)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Linda DeFato
Faculty: Amy Reesing (Lead), Karen Dwyer
Faculty Disciplines: Family and Human Development, English
General Studies Credits: SB
3. Individual Consciousness and Community [LALC-ICC) 7 credits
Psychologists and effective leaders agree on two primary factors that facilitate the building of positive relationships with other people: 1) The awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses and the ability to relate them to others; 2) the empathy for the needs, emotions, and motivations of other people and the ability to communicate about them. The goal of this learning community is to provide an opportunity to answer the question “Who am I?” Students will seek to understand how their personalities affect their relationships with other people, while developing a unified psychological vocabulary, which will allow them to communicate about this phenomenon more effectively, precisely and academically. The course will provide a general introduction to the branches of psychology and to methods used by psychologists, along with strategies about how to apply this knowledge to everyday life. Students will learn how to present themselves effectively in the writing of personal narratives where they will explore the richness of the English language.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- PGS 101: Introduction to Psychology (SB)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Lydia LaFaro
Faculty: Eva Szeli, (Lead), Dana Tait
Faculty Disciplines: Psychology, English
General Studies Credits***:SB
4. Medicine, Culture and Healing [LALC-MCH] 11 credits |
This learning community examines health maladies and their implications from biological, cultural and cross-cultural perspectives. Students get a foundation in biology and biomedical studies and are introduced to the important issues that are posed by the diseases and illness that have ravaged humankind. The first semester medical anthropology class sets a context for the learning community by showing the importance of differences among disease, illness and sickness. Health and disease are examined from the perspective of the ecological, social, political and cultural factors that affect well-being. Cultural models are presented as frameworks for assessment of the factors involved in the social causations of illness, and used to guide development of cultural sensitivity in provider responses to specific health problems and ethnic populations. The second semester focuses on Chinese medicine and provides background for understanding the concepts and diagnoses in that tradition. Some attention is also given to comparative reflections on how Chinese traditions differ from those in Ancient Greece and modern Western Biomedicine. Students in this LC will also gain valuable information research skills that will provide them with a competitive advantage throughout their college careers by learning how to effectively search for, retrieve, cite and evaluate relevant resources. This community may fulfill one lower division Science and Society requirement. See http://clas.asu.edu/students/degreerequirements/scienceandsociety.htm
Courses*
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- BIO 188: General Biology II (SG)
- ASB 294: Medical Anthropology (C)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Olivia Sparks
Faculty: David Capco (Lead), Michael Winkelman, William Martin
Faculty Disciplines: Biology, Anthropology, English
General Studies Credits***: SG, C
4. Overcoming Difference: Stereotypes, Social Stigma and Sameness 1 [LALC-ODS-1] 7 credits
This Learning Community’s aim is to enhance students’ appreciation of diversity and increase their respect for groups, which too often fall into the category of “other” or “them.” According to their personal interests, students will select an all-too-often stereotyped, stigmatized group on which to focus their thinking and writing. Over the course of the semester, through seminar discussion, guest speakers and their English compositions, students will learn about the issues surrounding stereotyping and stigmatization. Students will also learn how to break down pejorative stereotypes and replace stigmatization with respect and openness to learning about the commonalities that bind us all together. To the extent, we are able to highlight the sameness between us as opposed to emphasizing the differences; we dismantle the barriers that, after all, are mainly superficial.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology (SB)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: JoAnn Mulvihill and Juliann Couture
Faculty: Lisa Grey Whitaker (Lead), Kimber Knutson
Faculty Disciplines: School of Social and Family Dynamics, English
General Studies Credits
5. Overcoming Difference: Stereotypes, Social Stigma and Sameness 2 [LALC-ODS-2] 7 credits
This Learning Community’s aim is to enhance students’ appreciation of diversity and increase their respect for groups, which too often fall into the category of “other” or “them.” According to their personal interests, students will select an all-too-often stereotyped, stigmatized group on which to focus their thinking and writing. Over the course of the semester, through seminar discussion, guest speakers and their English compositions, students will learn about the issues surrounding stereotyping and stigmatization. Students will also learn how to break down pejorative stereotypes and replace stigmatization with respect and openness to learning about the commonalities that bind us all together. To the extent, we are able to highlight the sameness between us as opposed to emphasizing the differences; we dismantle the barriers that, after all, are mainly superficial
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Writing
- SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology (SB)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: JoAnn Mulvihill and Juliann Couture
Faculty: Lisa Grey Whitaker (Lead), Kate Weinkauf
Faculty Disciplines: Social of Social and Family Dynamics, English
General Studies Credits
7. Race and Gender in American Sports and Media [LALC-RGA] 7 credits
This learning community will investigate some of the ways in which race and gender are depicted by American media. In the Film and Media Studies course, we will emphasize two questions: how racial and gender identities are formed, and how cinema has contributed to these definitions. In addressing these questions our goal is to become more literate about the power of Hollywood to shape images of race and gender and to analyze how these identities influence the experiences of individuals and groups in our society. Students will read articles and apply their concepts to classic and contemporary films. In the English course, students will develop their writing skills by applying the ideas of social identity studied in the FMS course to media representation of American sports.
Courses
- WAC 101: Learning Community Composition I: Critical Writing on Sports, Media and Society
- FMS 270: Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema (HU, C)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Julie Tharp
Faculty: Aaron Baker (Lead), Selena Nakanoz
Faculty Disciplines: Film and Media Studies, English
General Studies Credits: HU, C
8. Southeast Asia: Global Crossroads [LAC-SEA] 10 credits
This Learning Community will introduce students to one of the world’s most complex global communities. Southeast Asia is a region that hosts major Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian societies as well as the world’s largest Muslim nation. This Learning Community invites students to take integrated courses in the fields of Southeast Asian Religions (REL 294), Southeast Asian Literatures in Translation (FLA 294) and an Introduction to Southeast Asia (HST/ASB/POS/REL 240). Themes of history, geography, anthropology, and politics will be integrated into deeper explorations of religion, literature, and society. An important focus will be the engagement of Southeast Asians with the global community as members of world religions, participants in the global economy and global diasporas, actors in regional and world politics, as well as contributors to the global exchange of art and ideas.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- HST 240: Introduction to Southeast Asia (HU, SB, G, H)
- REL 294: Religions of Southeast Asia (HU, L, G)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Jenny Mueller-Alexander
Faculty: Juliane Schober (Lead), James Rush
Faculty Disciplines: Religious Studies, Foreign Languages, History, English
General Studies Credits***: HU, L (2), SB, G, H
9. We the People: How Americans Shape their World 1 [LALC-WTP-1] 7 credits
American political life is constantly being reshaped by the people contributing to it. This freshman Learning Community challenges the notion that American political life is created only by headline-makers. Ordinary men and women make history as well. In this class, students will hear some of their voices. Students will engage a variety of text (e.g., newspapers, novels, poetry, movies, music, speeches, visual arts) from the Founding Fathers through the Bush presidency and will be encouraged to find an outlet to express their own political voice.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- POS 110: Government and Politics (SB)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Ed Oetting
Faculty: Sarah Fedirka (Lead), Rick Herrera
Faculty Disciplines: English, Political Science
General Studies Credits***: SB
10. We the People: How Americans Shape their World 2 [LALC-WTP-2] 7 credits
American political life is constantly being reshaped by the people contributing to it. This freshman Learning Community challenges the notion that American political life is created only by headline-makers. Ordinary men and women make history as well. In this class, students will hear some of their voices. Students will engage a variety of text (e.g., newspapers, novels, poetry, movies, music, speeches, visual arts) from the Founding Fathers through the Bush presidency and will be encouraged to find an outlet to express their own political voice.
Courses
- ENG 111: Learning Community Composition I
- POS 110: Government and Politics (SB)
- LIA 194: Integrative Seminar**
Librarian: Ed Oetting
Faculty: Rick Herrera (Lead), Dana Tait
Faculty Disciplines: Political Science, English
General Studies Credits***: SB
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NOTES:
Science & Society requirement: http://clas.asu.edu/students/degreerequirements/scienceandsociety.htm
Fall ENG 111 equals ENG 101, or ENG 102, or ENG 105 or Literacy & Critical Inquiry (L)
**Integrative Seminar is a 1-credit course
***General Studies: To receive "L" credit students must have completed ENG 101/02 or ENG 105.