Category Archives: Course Announcements

Course Announcements

LAS Blockbuster Courses

LAS blockbuster courses are exciting, co-taught, multidisciplinary courses for advanced undergraduates who want to learn how to apply content area knowledge in humanities, social science, and science to address real-world problems. Students will work with other highly-motivated students and outstanding professors from outside their majors to gain precisely the kinds of skills that employers are looking for.
 
Each course is designed to:
•        prepare students to deal with a deluge of information and distinguish fact, fiction, and opinion
•        improve students’ communication skills
•        engage students in problem-solving activities where they must think critically, approach arguments skeptically, and develop effective counter arguments
•        address issues and problems that are of particular societal relevance today, especially those that impact multiple groups in unequal ways
•        incorporate multimedia and online resources  to support and enhance learning
•        attract a large  mixed audience of undergraduates from a variety of majors in multiple disciplines
•        provide a model for an innovative approach to general education for the 21st century (LAS students will receive Gen Ed credit in two different disciplinary categories for each course)
 
Each course has been developed by an instructional team comprised of faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduate students who represent at least two of the following broad disciplinary areas: Humanities/Social Science/Science.  The professors have been recognized for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Course Announcements, Other departments

ECON class update

I would like to update everyone on a few ECON classes:
 
New online course offering for Spring 2013- Principles of Macroeconomics (Econ 103–CRN:  59090) is now being offered completely online for a limited number of students in the Spring of 2013. Same instructor as the face-to-face class, same material coverage, but with the convenience of learning on the student’s schedule. Second 8 weeks course. Only allowing 50 students to enroll. First come, first served. 
 
Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory (ECON 303) will no longer have a restriction to majors.  Non-major students will be able to sign-up for this class similar to the other ECON 300/400 level classes; restrictions will be lifted following the primary registration period, this semester they will open on Nov. 19th.
 
Economics at Illinois (ECON 198) will be the one class restricted to majors and will be offered for the first time this Spring (and every Fall and Spring semester).  Students who began Fall 2010 or after are required to take this class. 
 
The requirements to transfer into Economics remain the same.
Course Announcements

BTW Course

BTW 263: Writing in the Disciplines
3 credit hours
Advanced Composition

Section P
“Do the right thing”: Poor Advice for Business Writers?
How do we “do the right thing” when our business mission conflicts with a legitimate interest not our own? And, what does it mean to “do the right thing” through writing? Ethical conflicts abound among communities with a shared interest in addressing key issues facing the world today. Our goal will be to improve our understanding of how to use community engagement to communicate ethically and professionally; we will conduct case studies and develop our own plans for managing an ethical crisis involving multiple interest groups.

 

Course Announcements, International study, Other departments

Spanish Major/Minor

I’m sure you are aware it is even more possible to double major since now the Gen Eds. take up even less of the 120 hours to graduate. If a student does well in Spanish and enjoys studying the language, it just makes sense to add it as a second major. Please encourage your students to attend the Spanish Major Information meeting today at 4:00 in the Lucy Ellis Lounge of FLB.  Additionally, our SIP Year Abroad in Barcelona Program also makes is easy to complete the bulk of the major in one year abroad. We will have information meetings for that on October 30 at 4:00 and Nov. 6 at 5:00. Both are in the Lucy Ellis Lounge. Students interested in either of these two things can also send an e-mail to me requesting information.
 
For those who are not in LAS, there is one more Spanish Minor Information meeting this semester on November 13 at 5:00 in the Lucy Ellis Lounge of FLB.  Please let students know who might be interested. Students can send an e-mail requesting information about the minor if they cannot make the meeting or they can wait until next semester when meetings will resume.
 
The date the Major restriction will be lifted for all Spanish courses above the 100 level is November 30 at 9 AM. Please tell students they will always find this date within the details section of the course description.
 
Beth Chasco
Undergraduate Spanish Advisor
4004 FLB MC-176
Walk-in hours posted weekly on:
Course Announcements

ACES 199 – Sustainable Food Systems

Attached is a poster/handout with information about our second iteration of ACES 199, Sustainable Food Systems, to be offered in the coming spring semester. The class is open to any undergrad in any major; there are no prerequisites – save perhaps for curiosity and an interest in doing some systems-oriented thinking about food and related issues.
 
ACES 199 – Sustainable Food Systems – is a 3-hour class meeting for the full semester in a lecture/discussion format. Class size will be capped at about 50. Instructors and presenters will be drawn from all ACES disciplines; a preliminary list of course topics is available from Dr. Robert Hughes at hughesro@illinois.edu.
 
Please feel free to copy, post, hand out and otherwise circulate the poster as you see fit.