Honors Courses, Fall 2012 BIOL 1104 HIST 1112 H MUSI 1100 H HONR 1101 HONR 2101 HONR

3101 HONR 4101 HONR 4102 Organismal Biology Honors Lab Survey of World Civilization II Music Appreciation Mudbugs and Crawdads: An Introduction to Astacology My Wittgenstein Literature, Drama, and the Art of Classical Mythology Senior Capstone I Senior Capstone II MWF 12 M 3-5 MWF 9 MWF 10 F2 T 3:30 R2 tutorial tutorial Davis Davis Starostina Denmon Davis Dickman/ Hughes Gianfalla Rollins Rollins

Information for Honors Students and Advisors To remain in the Honors program, each Honors student must take at least one Honors course per semester and earn a C or better. Students may complete an Independent Research Project once per year in order to earn Honors credit for a regular course. To earn an Honors Degree at the Bachelor level, a student must successfully complete twelve Honors courses. At least two of these courses must be 3-4 credit-hour courses (excluding Independent Honors Research Projects). A student must also complete a Senior Capstone Project. HONR seminars meet for one hour once per week. HONR 1101/2101/3101 are open to all Honors students. Course numbers are simply used to distinguish the courses. They do not reflect level of difficulty. HONR 4101 is required of all Honors seniors graduating spring 2013. HONR 4102 is required for all Honors seniors graduating fall 2012.

Course Descriptions BIOL 1104: Organismal Biology/Honors Lab Davis

This course will be similar to BIOL 1104 Organismal Biology but will incorporate an honors component into a lab that is specifically for honors students. The lab will focus on experimental study of organisms using the scientific method in addition to identification of organisms, requiring multiple lab reports. Students will also participate in and lead discussions of scientific papers addressing environmental concerns and conservation initiatives for studied organisms. HIST 1112 H: Survey of World Civilization II Starostina

In addition to standard requirements for this course, Honors students will write a 7-15 page research paper based on primary and secondary sources. Students will conduct research throughout the course and will acquire a better understanding of the discipline of history. I plan to make this course a writing intensive course to develop students writing skills. The course will also contain interdisciplinary elements, and students will be reading short stories to see how writers represented their epoch in fiction.

MUSI 1100 H: Music Appreciation

Denmon

This course is designed to encourage and assist students in listening to music so that they may achieve the greatest enjoyment and highest level of aesthetic appreciation. Students will undertake an extensive listening program of representative example of many types and genres of music, in addition to studying the broad historical scope of Western musical development. Students may be expected to complete written assignments, projects, and/or presentations to satisfy course requirements. HONR 1101: Mudbugs and Crawdads: An Introduction to Astacology Davis

This course will be a short course into astacology, the study of crayfishes. Students will become familiar with the physiology, behavior, and life history of crayfish with a special emphasis placed on those species occurring in North Georgia and Western North Carolina. A portion of this course will be discussion-based, reviewing current conservation threats to crayfish populations. A majority of the course will be lab-based, pertaining to the collection and identification of crayfish. A major component of this course will be a field study conducted by the class to survey and describe a crayfish population. In a team atmosphere, the class will develop a report of the data collected and construct a poster suitable for presentation at a scientific meeting. HONR 2101: My Wittgenstein Dickman/ Hughes

The basic topic of this course is the examination and practice of Wittgensteins later philosophy of language(s) in order to enrich our experiences of diverse forms of life and culture. We intend to approach this topic from two angles: a) the close and painstaking reading of Wittgensteins later major work, The Philosophical Investigations; and b) exploring repercussions of Wittgenstein in literature, philosophy, and art. The goal is to provide each student with enough tasteful hermeneutic license and empowerment to formulate their own interpretations, appropriations, and applications of My Wittgenstein. Through this, they will come to see that other enigmatic texts (like the Hebrew Bible, the Zhuangzi, Moby-Dick, or Modernist poetry) share the same generative potency for a surplus of meanings. What makes this course particularly stimulating for honors students is that the course is less about a particular topic and more about their ownership over their discourse. Who we are is in a large part how we speak and what we say, and Wittgenstein is persistent in stimulating reflexivity about our linguistically shaped practices. As Wittgenstein puts it To imagine a language is to imagine a form of life. This course is crucial for an elite liberal arts education, because knowing Wittgenstein sets one apart as a thinker. Wittgenstein stands among the most influential philosophers of all time, in the ranks of Plato and Nietzsche, with influence on the developments in fields as vastly different as the history of physics (Thomas Kuhn), linguistics and anthropology, and literary criticism. HONR 3101: Literature, Drama, and the Art of Classical Mythology Gianfalla

This course will cover mythology in several ways: by reading epics, including the Aeneid and either the Iliad or the Odyssey (or selections from each); by reading selections from Ovids Metamorphoses; by reading Greek tragedies in which outcomes are determined largely by the influence of mythological

figures; by studying Classical art and architecture related to mythology; and through performance, something that was particularly important to Ancient Greece. Students will read and discuss the use of mythology in literature throughout the semester as well as art and architecture influenced by mythology, and they will complete the following assignments: a research paper on a text of their choice; a mythology portfolio, for which they would collect and creatively display modern day references to mythology to show the lasting influence of Classical mythology in 21st century society; and a class performance of a Greek tragedy to encourage understanding of the value of drama in Ancient Greece. A potential venue for performance could be a Classics Day at Young Harris College organized in conjunction with interested student groups. Ultimately, the course will make students even stronger readers and critical thinkers through their identification and understanding of the significant role Classical mythology plays in Western societyan influence that continues today. HONR 4101/4102: Senior Capstone I/II (tutorial) Rollins

Honors students take HONR 4101 the semester prior to the semester in which they intend to graduate. They take HONR 4102 the semester during which they intend to graduate. A student graduating in the spring would take 4101 in the fall and 4102 in the spring. The Honors capstone project should be the high point or crowning achievement of an honors students academic career at Young Harris College. Since each academic discipline has its own modes of inquiry and means of presenting knowledge, honors capstone projects will vary by discipline. Honors students may choose one of the following options for their honors capstone projects: (1) Engage in substantial exploration of a topic related to your major program of study (your major). This project must go above and beyond what is required of non-honors program majors pursuing the B.A. or B.S. degree in your field of study. (2) Engage in a substantial exploration of a topic unrelated to your major program of study. This could be something related to your minor, or simply a discipline that interests you. Honors program students must publically present their capstone work in the interest of contributing to the body of knowledge of the community. The forum and method of the presentation will be designed by the student. For example, a student might choose to lecture in an undergraduate class or to read his or her work as part of a campus symposium. Each honors program student will select the members of a faculty committee that will advise the student through the project and assess it upon completion. One of the members will be the faculty member working most closely with the student in his or her major, one member will be the honors program director, and one member will be another faculty member of the students own choosing.