Honors Program Courses
SPRING 2016
*Non-Honors students with a 3.5 GPA are invited to email aubreylord@weber.edu for a departmental override to register for an Honors course.
Note: Click on the Course Title to access a course syllabus. Click on the Course Number to see posters designed to promote these classes. Visit the WSU Course Catalog for a list of Honors classes. Content will be added as it becomes available.
| Course Number | Course Title | CRN | Description | Time | Day | Room | Instructor(s) |
| H CHEM 1220 | Principles of Chemistry II | 30105 | Chemistry is the science of understanding how atoms and molecules rearrange themselves to transform one substance into another. In this class we will discover some of the magic of why reactions take place, how fast they occur, and how they reach equilibrium. We’ll discuss how metallurgy and explosives enabled the Industrial Revolution, and how electrochemistry underlies the current Information Revolution. | 9:00-10:15 HYBRID | TR | WB 111 | Chuck Wight |
| H ENGL 2010 | The Power of Persuasion: Writing to Win | 32095 | Do you believe the "pen is mightier than the sword?" We'll study the people and pens who have changed the world, and learn to use our pens--in whatever form they may take--to do the same. | 9:30-10:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Sylvia Newman |
| HNRS PS1500 | Physics for Politicians (and the Citizens Who Vote for Them) | 32057 | What physics does a future president, legislator, or municipal official need to understand in order to best serve their community? More important, before you vote on an issue or for a representative, what do you need to understand about how energy is produced and the forces of nature; or how research is funded and what constitutes "good" science? This course will be based on contemporary issues in physics, based largely on accessible news items found in the New York Times (available for free on campus) and other outlets. | 9:00-10:15 | TR | SL 240 | Adam Johnston |
| HNRS HU2010 | Mapping Our Way Home | 31775 | Do windows and a roof make a home? Does a family? What is “home”? What represents and defines it, and what can it represent and define? This course will explore the idea of “home” as a space that is lived, perceived, and conceived. In seeing how other writers can call displacement, full-body casts, memory, and subway systems (among many others) “home,” students will be guided to also redefine the concept through personal, critical, and creative writings. | 1:30-2:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Janine Joseph |
| HNRS HU2010 | The Beat Goes On: The History and Pop Culture of Mid-Twentieth Century America | 31790 | From On the Road to the Summer of Love to Woodstock with several stops in between, this class explores the events, trends and personalities that illuminate this explosive time in America. Central to the class is a “field trip” to San Francisco where the students explore many of its neighborhoods that are on the forefront during these decades of change—places like North Beach, Berkeley and Haight-Ashbury. The class will also examine what of this revolution in thought and action has endured, as well as what has not, into Twenty-first Century America. | 10:30-11:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Carl Porter & John Sillito |
| HNRS CA2020 | Text and Textile: Learning the Creative Process | 32213 | Practice the creative process by improving your writing skills, and at the same time, learning to dye fabric. We will combine these two creative skills, fabric and text making, in a final project. No sewing required. | 10:30-11:20 | MWF | Meet in Honors Center for first class | Judy Elsley |
| HNRS PS2030 | Adventures in Mathematics | 31792 | No math required! Use hands-on activities to discover the secrets of math, from 0 to infinity! | 10:30-11:45 | TR | LI 227 | Brad Carroll & Todd Johnson |
| HNRS SS2050 | The Rich and the Rest of Us: Causes and Consequences of Inequality and Poverty | 31797 | The rise in income inequality and wealth inequality in the United States over the last three decades is a critically important phenomenon. It would be difficult to find a major newspaper that isn’t printing several stories about inequality every week. Many of the 2016 presidential candidates are speaking about the issue of economic inequality. Honors SS 2050, The Rich and the Rest of Us, will explore the causes and the consequences of inequality and poverty. | 5:30-8:20 | T | LI 227 | Mike Vaughan |
| HNRS SS2110B | The Meaning of Life | 31800 | Why are we here? Is life a test, an illusion, a battle, a game, a giant cosmic mistake? Is there even a point to any of this? Explore with us the wonderful variety of answers produced over 5,000 years of ancient and medieval history. We’ll read some of the most influential texts in Western history (The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Bible, Plato, Thomas Aquinas...) charting their answers to humanity’s biggest question. We’ll put great ideas in their historical context to see the amazing confluence of personalities, events, and ideas that came together to form the intellectual tradition we’ve inherited. | 12:30-1:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Marc & Katie Nelson |
| HNRS 3900 | Religion in Early Spain | 31805 | Learn about how Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together for over 800 years in Spain, the rich cross-cultural exchange between all three cultures, the eventual disintegration of their convivencia, and the repercussions of this cultural past in today’s Europe. This class fulfills upper-division Spanish credit and European Studies credit. | 8:30-9:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Electra Fielding |
| HNRS 4920 | Correlation and Convergence: Thinking Outside the Disciplinary Box | 31807 | This new course is designed especially for Aletheia students in their junior or senior years. In this class, students from a variety of majors will explore issues in their own fields. The class will thus offer students the opportunity to design and structure some of the course curriculum. As a result, each student will have a broadened and deepened understanding of their major when they finish the course. Besides these self-selected materials, we will also discuss common items including an excellent graphic novel, a film, and some photographs and artworks. These materials will direct our thinking to places where different knowledge and discourse converge to produce a fuller understanding of the integrated world. | 12:00-1:15 | TR | LI 227 | Christy Call & Gary Dohrer |
| HNRS 4990 | Honors Senior Project | 31810 | TBA | TBA | LI 225 | Judy Elsley |