College Courses for High School Students

UHIS 121 - American Civilization I (3 credits)

American Civilization I surveys the history of the United States to 1877, with emphasis on how major economic, political, and social changes affected the lives and values of Americans. The focus is on how diverse peoples experienced and influenced the processes of colonization, nation-building, and sectional development. The class examines the kinds of evidence historians use to reconstruct the past and challenges students to think analytically about historical sources to learn how people made sense of and shaped American civilization.

USOC 245 – Race & Hip Hop (3 credits)

This course explores the contemporary emergence of rap and hip hop culture. The course engages students in listening to music, viewing DVDs, and reading books and articles related to rap, hip hop, and cultural values. Societal issues of social control and freedom of speech are examined. Students explore these issues with the intent to broaden their sociological imaginations.  

UENG 166 – Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (3 credits)

Although they have often lacked critical respect, science fiction, fantasy, and horror are vitally important genres in fiction and mass media, especially in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These genres offer ways to explore questions, dreams, and worries raised by technological innovation and scientific exploration. Texts can include novels, short stories, graphic novels, film, and television, and students will use a variety of critical approaches to study how these fantastical genres provide a lens to consider very human concerns. 

UENV 104 – Earth Processes as Natural Disasters (3 credits)

This course is a survey of Earth's surface processes that have a direct impact, often violently and without warning, on our global society. Information presented in this course integrates the principles of geology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography, and ecology and explores the many ways humans leave themselves susceptible to hazards driven by Earth's dynamic geologic and atmospheric processes. A series of case studies will be presented to students that outline each topic area covered. These include the broad topic areas of earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding, mass wasting, coastal hazards, subsidence, severe weather, mass extinction, wildfires, and global climate change. Designed for a general audience, this course is opened to all students who have a natural curiosity about events that often control our global existence.

UIS 101 – Intro to Personal Computers (3 credits)

This course introduces microcomputer applications as tools for productive automation of work. It introduces the computer system and the operating system. It instructs the student in the rudiments of three popular software applications-word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics. CSCI or CIS students may not take this course. This course does not satisfy the science distribution requirement.

UPSY 105 – Intro to Psychology (3 credits)

A general introduction to scientific psychology, including biological psychology, development, learning, memory, psychological disorders, and social psychology. Psychology majors must receive a “C” or better in this course to satisfy psychology major requirements.

UCJ 105 – Intro to Criminal Justice (3 credits)

A general introduction to the study of the American system of criminal justice.

UHIS 100 – Western Civilization I (Ancient World to 1300) (3 credits)

A study of select themes in historical development from ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations through Classical Greece and Rome to the Later Middle Ages. A humanistic analysis of the traditional and popular elements in social behavior.

UANT 105 – Cultural Anthropology (3 credits)

This course acquaints students with how anthropologists use a cross cultural approach to understanding shared human perceptions and behaviors, and teaches anthropological research techniques of ethnography and corporate culture analysis. Why are cultures different? This course looks at similarities and differences among world’s cultures in terms of technological levels, social organization, and ideology. Topics include symbolism, language, sex roles, economic systems, kinship, political systems, religion, warfare, and cultural change. Students get to explore local culture through experiential projects outside the classroom.

UMAT 101 – Fund Mathematics (3 credits)

This is a developmental mathematics course designed to review elementary algebra, to prepare students for further mathematics courses, and to develop problem-solving skills and critical thinking in mathematics. Topics include the real number system, linear equations and inequalities, exponents and polynomials, factorization, rational expressions, roots and radicals, and graphing. Because this course is developmental, it cannot count toward fulfilling the science distribution requirement. It may not be taken after completing any mathematics course with a higher number.

UPHI 110 – Critical Thinking (3 credits)

Techniques of critical thinking. Topics include analysis and systematization of ideas, uses of definition, methods of distinguishing valid arguments from fallacies, ways of improving statistical samples, strategies for presenting arguments clearly, equivalent ways of phrasing ideas, and legitimate versus inappropriate appeals to authority. The last weeks of the course are devoted to practicing what has been learned on topics such as medical ethics (e.g., euthanasia) and political theory (e.g., government regulation of business).

USOC 105 – Intro to Sociology (3 credits)

A general introduction to sociology covering empirically based theoretical insights on social groups, culture, institutions, social organization, stratification, deviance, social movements, and social change. The development of a sociological perspective through the application of core concepts, such as the sociological imagination and the social construction of reality, formulates the basic framework for this course.