LAS – Liberal Arts Seminar
LAS 225 My Greek Odyssey: Discovering the Origins of Engaged Citizenship (4)
Prerequisites: CIV 110 and second year standing of 28 completed credits. This course offers students an opportunity to explore the birthplace of democracy and Western civilization, fostering their understanding of engaged citizenship. The course’s interdisciplinary focus will teach students the profound connections between history, philosophy, religion, gastronomy, sports, science, and current affairs. An introduction to the rich heritage of Greece will help students learn more about the world and themselves, thus enriching their individual journeys as engaged citizens. Through guided readings, lectures, discussions, self-reflections, and international travel, students will enhance their intercultural competency, reflect on global citizenship, and synthesize their newfound knowledge through creative cultural experiences. Students will be required to take the trip to Greece at the end of the semester. (GS, GPN, CTN)
LAS 425 Climate Change: Implications for the World (4)
Prerequisite: CIV 110 and 28 completed credits. What is climate change? Is it real? Does it matter? What can we do about it? Why aren’t we doing anything? Big questions that shape our future but involve very complex examination. This course examines the science and history behind global climate change before moving on to discuss consequences and implications for life on earth. In these examinations, our societal actions become a major driver, so discussions will include the psychology, ethics, economics and politics of our action/inaction. (GS, CTN)
LAS 426 Exploring the Origins of Color (4)
Prerequisite: CIV 210 and second year standing. Students will examine the history, science and cultural aspects for common colors including but not limited to indigo, the blue dye used in blue jeans, Tyrian Purple, the color of royalty derived from snails and cochineal, the red color derived from insect husks in South America. (GPN, WOC)
LAS 427 Modern Board Game Studies: Immersion & Design (4)
Prerequisite: CIV 210 and second year standing. This seminar course will first provide an immersive environment where the class will familiarize themselves with the knowledge and understand of modern board games, or so called “designer board games”, as well as explore the connections of their themes, mechanisms, etc. to academic disciplines (e.g., history statistics, art). In the second part of the course teams of students will work cooperatively to create their own modern board game from the ground up building on the content learned during the immersive experience. (WOC)
LAS 428 Ethnobotany: How Plants Save The World (3)
Prerequisite: CIV 210 and second year standing. Since our origins in the distant past, we humans have relied on plants for food, fuel, and fiber; we often use them in many other ways as well. Likewise, plants have adapted to us, and in some sense have changed our human nature through the interaction. Ethnobotany is the study of how people use plants, so it is the intersection of two distinct disciplines: Plant Biology (Botany) and Anthropology. This field is a subset of the study of humans using other organisms (not just plants) for material, cultural, and spiritual uses, a subject known as Ethnobiology. (GPC, GS, CTN, WOC)
LAS 429 Exploring Ecotones of Literature, Science, and History (3)
Prerequisite: CIV 210 and second year standing. What does it mean to be an ecologically- literate global citizen in Pella, Iowa? Explore the answer to this question and discover how perspectives of ecology, history and literature contribute to our understanding of the future and biodiversity of all life. Through popular science and history texts as well as short articles, novels, poems, films and documentaries, students will investigate the natural history of the current landscape and the once deciduous forest or tallgrass prairie of Iowa and its human and non-human communities. (GS, CTN, WOC)
LAS 430 Behind Bars: Revealing Chocolate’s Bitter Sweetness (3)
Prerequisite: CIV 210 and second year standing. This course explores the origins of chocolate in MesoAmerica as well as the modern status of edible art. Students will see the sweet and bitter interconnectedness of our world through the lens of a chocolatier. (GS, CTN)