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About Discovery Seminars

Discovery Seminars are intensive, five-credit, month-long classes designed to meet the needs of incoming freshmen. Emphasizing interdisciplinary study, focused inquiry and writing, Discovery Seminars give you the chance to jump-start your freshman experience the month before Autumn Quarter begins.

  • Interact one-on-one with some of the UW’s most engaging professors
  • Learn research basics and scholarly inquiry skills
  • Engage in active learning in a supportive, challenging environment
  • Earn five credits before regular classes begin
  • Experience small classes limited to 25 students
  • Meet other entering freshmen
  • Gain early access and orientation to campus and residence halls
  • Work with departmental and Gateway Center advisers to learn about possible majors, educational opportunities at the UW, and how the University works.

Discovery Seminar professors have worked together to establish shared, stimulating goals and strategies for these special classes. The intense interaction provides both a sense of belonging and responsibility as you confront the new rigors and opportunities of your University experience.

A list of available seminars appears on this site. Discovery Seminars are offered for freshmen only and run from Aug 25-Sept 19, 2008.


 

 

 

Courses  
Bad Love  
Comparative Animal Behavior  
Contracts of the Heart: Gift and Sacrifice  
CSI: Seattle  
Digital Expression  
Digital Improvisation  
Emergence of the Modern Middle East  
Exploring Cultural Diversity Through the Performing Arts  
Fictionalizing Autobiography: A Writing Studio  
Food for Thought: An Ethics for Living  
Fossils, Evolution, and Creationism  
From Jerusalem to Seattle: Discovering the Middle East in our Midst  
From Quarks to the Cosmos  
Global Warming: Introduction to the Science  
Indistinguishable from Magic: New Technologies, Science Fiction, and Us  
Last Stands: Little Big Horn or the Battle of Greasy Grass  
Learning From Ants and Bees: The Science of Biological Swarms  
Modeling the Universe  
Modern Topics in Astronomy for Non-Science Majors  
Negotiating the City: Studies in Fiction  
Numbers and Reason  
Oceans and the Global Environment: Taking Physics and Chemistry Outdoors  
Perception and the Arts  
Slavery and Slave Trading in the 21st Century  
The Creative Process  
The Tourist Gaze: Understanding Global Communication  
When Politics, Religion, and Biology Meet: The Controversy Over Stem Cell Research  
Why Lance Always Wins: The Physiology of Exercise