In the Classroom
A Four-Year Honors College Curriculum: Broad and Innovative
The first year of the curriculum starts with an Honors section of University 101 with small groups. The curriculum includes required core Honors courses, service learning, plus study abroad and/or an internship. This may lead to a senior year capstone experience such as a thesis, a laboratory research project, or a one-to-one tutorial with a faculty mentor.
Honors Core: Learning Communities
The Honors core is designed as a leading edge laboratory for innovation in both course content and instruction modes. It is flexible and interdisciplinary. In small Learning Communities, two professors from different disciplines guide students through carefully synchronized courses that encourage students to explore together in dynamic learning units.
State-of-the-Art Instruction and Classrooms
Honors College professors are leaders in using 21st-century information technology creatively and effectively in their teaching. In wireless classrooms, Honors professors guide students to share information in collaborative projects, develop e-portfolios and websites to collect and showcase their work, and access library and internet resources.
"Reacting to the Past" Honors Style
One of the curriculum's most dramatic courses is the world civilization class, "Reacting to the Past." Here the professor's podium disappears and students take center stage. In acting and reacting to critical times in history, such as Democracy at the Threshold: Athens in 403 B.C. or Gandhi and the Fate of the Indian Subcontinent in 1945, students take on roles, immerse themselves in primary texts and fundamental debates, and write and deliver speeches. They literally make history come alive.