| MLA Course Descriptions |
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| 60000 Level Courses (61200-61299) 61203 ROMANTIC ATTRACTION & CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS Teaches students how to think critically about psychological research on romantic attraction and close relationships. The course goal is to educate intelligent consumers of media information and misinformation, teaching them to separate scientifically valid from invalid claims about the causes and consequences of initial romantic attraction, deepening close relationships, sex differences, problems that occur within close relationships, and effective versus ineffective strategies for resolving conflicts in close relationships.
*61233 CONTROVERSIAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Our relationship with the Earth is changing at an unprecedented rate. The pace of change is accelerating not only from our advancing technology, but also from world population growth, economic growth, and increasingly frequent collisions between expanding human demands and the limits of the Earth's natural systems. The course introduces students to controversies in environmental policy and science. The readings of leading environmentalists, scientists, and policymakers, reflect a variety of viewpoints and are selected for their liveliness and substance. Major areas of study include environmental ethics, water resources, energy, global climate change, and population.
*61243 ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE EARTH Ecology is the study of the interaction of organisms with their environment. This course will explore many aspects of the ecology of the earth. The environment includes both physical (global air patterns, soils, etc.) and biotic (competition, predation, etc.) parameters. Specifically, the course will explore the paleohistory of the earth, biomes of the world, the physical forces of today's biosphere, the dynamics of natural communities and populations, and the global effects of man's presence on planet earth.
61253 CREATIVE WRITING: ADVANCED FICTION WRITING This is a course in fiction writing, where students will be expected to produce two full-length short stories (about 35-50 pages of writing). Given the time parameters of a course, our focus will be short fiction, but if anyone is working on a novel, they can submit those pages as well. Our primary goal will be to provide each other-virtually-with a rigorous, supportive audience for our writing. To get to and through our fiction, we'll read contemporary fiction writers and do shorter, focused exercises on setting, characterization, etc. to help us generate prose and understand how stories are put together. In addition to reading and writing fiction, primary responsibilities of this course will involve careful reading and responding to texts we read, student writing, and attending a reading in your community. While I will respond extensively to drafts and revisions, as a member of the class you'll assume the responsibility of responding to writing by your classmates.
*61263 THE US ECONOMY: ANALYSIS AND OUTLOOK The study of economics involves the learning of abstract theories about the workings of the economic system and the study of various policy tools that may be used to guide the economy toward specified targets. The course will focus on the historical development of the theories developed to explain our major economic issues, on the controversies surrounding these theories, and on the different policy conclusions that arise from the different theories. The major economic issues on which the course will focus include inflation, unemployment, business cycles, economic growth and development, international trade deficits and surpluses, federal government budget deficits and surpluses, income distribution, and globalization.
*61273 ETHICS, MENTAL HEALTH, AND SOCIETY Contemporary approaches to the study of mental health emphasize disorders of the brain as the source for abnormal thinking and behavior. This course examines the ethical considerations inherent in this approach as it applies to the development of new treatments. The major objectives of the course include: an understanding of the journey from basic to clinical research; a familiarity with the ethical issues surrounding animal and human clinical research; the challenges that come with industry-sponsored research; and the ethical concerns with proposed treatments for psychological disorders in the future that may include cloning, gene-therapy, and stem cell research.
61283 A WORLD OF WEATHER: FUNDAMENTALS OF METEOROLOGY Do you have a fascination with the Weather Channel? Are you interested in a non-mathematical treatment of the principles of meteorology and climatology? In this course, you will be introduced to the excitement of weather as it happens, by working with current weather data delivered via the Internet. The course objectives are to develop a working understanding of general meteorological and climatological processes, develop an understanding of the spatial and temporal variability of these processes, and begin to understand how these factors influence the climate of a region. The course covers the composition and structure of the atmosphere, the flows of energy to, from, and through the atmosphere, and the resulting motions produced from small to planetary scales. The physical principles of atmospheric phenomena are stressed in the understanding of weather’s impact on humans, particularly with severe weather, as well as climate change.
*61293 LEADERSHIP: AN HISTORICAL AND LITERARY STUDY This course examines a broad spectrum of leadership issues through the study of historical and literary (both fictional and non-fictional) leaders in a wide variety of societies and historical eras. The study centers on the use of cases from the Hartwick Humanities in Management Institute. Because the cases all focus on well-known leaders, the case represents only a small fraction of the materials (books, movies, etc.) that are available to the student for his/her analysis. Additionally, the course challenges the student to view leadership from multiple perspectives (theoretical, as well as academic). Students will be required to rent movies to supplement the written cases. Students are advised to join Netflix.com or blockbuster.com to rent movies during the semester. Some of the movies are difficult, but not impossible to find at your local rental shop. Joining one of these services will save the student time and likely money.
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