First Year Seminars
2011-2012
Fall 2011 | Spring 2012 | Summer 2012

Spring 2012:

FYS 101R - Sustainability in American Culture

(AH) GEP

TuTh, 2:30PM - 3:45PM

Fine Arts Rm. 530

Rita Turner

This course explores the concept of sustainability, and how it is presented in popular American culture. We will examine cultural conversations and beliefs about the environment and about pressing environmental challenges, investigating how attitudes toward these issues get presented, debated, and constructed in American culture, through such media as books, movies, television, poetry, art, and news stories. Students will be expected to critically analyze readings and viewings, to discuss and reflect upon their own environmental attitudes and experiences, and to produce creative writing, digital stories, research presentations, and a final essay exploring an issue of their choice related to sustainability in American culture.

FYS 102K - Passive-Aggressive Behavior

(SS) GEP

TuTh, 8:30AM - 9:45AM

Math & Psychology Rm. 105

Karen Freiberg

This semester long course will provide information about the developmental pathways to passive aggressive (P/A) behavior, or to a passive aggressive personality as well as identifying five distinct and increasingly pathological levels of passive aggressive behavior. The course will help students distinguish between situational and pathological passive aggression and identify specific reasons why people use passive aggressive behaviors. Passive aggression will be examined across the lifespan and in four distinct contexts; home, school, marriage and extended family. Students will learn the different ways that passive aggressive behavior is exhibited across these settings.

FYS 102M - Conflict Resolution Education: Handling Conflict Constructively

(SS) GEP

We 4:30PM - 7:00PM

Academic IV Rm. 110

Sue Small

A key component to successful and meaningful educational experiences is related to conflict resolution education. This course introduces students to the broad field of CRE (including social and emotional learning, anti-bullying programs, peer mediation, negotiation processes, expressive arts, restorative justice programs, and bias awareness programs). The course provides students with examples of programs and encourages them to consider how they can support and utilize these programs first in their personal lives, and then as future leaders. Throughout the course there are opportunities for reflection about how the principles of CRE apply on an individual level in one’s life. There are many applications for CRE across careers from the business world to public service. 

FYS 103C - Issues in Biotechnology 

(S) GEP, (S) GFR

TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM

Biological Sciences Rm. 461

Nessly Craig

Through directed readings, class discussions, and student presentations, this seminar will focus on understanding these various aspects of modern biotechnology with an emphasis on its scientific basis. Practical demonstrations and visits to UMBC labs using biotechnological techniques will be an important part of the course to illustrate how the methods theoretically discussed in class are actually done.

FYS 103D - Global Warming

(S) GEP, (S) GFR

TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM

Physics Rm. 107

Raymond Hoff

First Year Seminars are open to any student in their first year at UMBC.

FYS 103L - What is the world made of?

(S) GEP

TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM

Sondeim Rm. 209

Laszlo Takacs

A historical approach will be used to explore how the concept of matter developed from the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers through the modern concepts of elements, atoms, and molecules to our current view of elementary particles and how the matter of the universe evolved since the Big Bang. The development of practical materials will also be studied from the use of native metals and early pottery to modern materials engineering and ultimately the atomic-level control of nanomaterials. Although the unifying theme of the course is science history, substantial excursions will be made into the relevant areas of physics, chemistry, and materials science, especially when discussing current understanding and practice.

FYS 104D - Paris: The Happy Years

Culture (GEP)

TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM

Information Technology 231

Alan Rosenthal

Looking back nostalgically after the horrible slaughter of World War I, the French called the period before the war la Belle Epoque the beautiful era, the happy years. Those thirty or so years saw not only peace, but an explosion of artistic achievements, remarkable technological innovations, and a pleasurable way of life that produced the Paris of legend. Modern art, new literary movements, stunning advances in science and medicine, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and much more came from this era. But was it uniformly happy? Beneath the glittering surface lay problems that plague us to this day, such as unpopular military actions far from home, political demagoguery, yellow journalism, toxic bigotry, the tension between church and state, and widespread poverty. We will explore both sides of this momentous period, with Paris as our focus.

 

For More Information, Please Contact:
Jill Randles
Assistant Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
jrandles@umbc.edu | (410) 455-3715