Undergraduate (UGS) Seminars

Transition to College

Objective:

•  Introduce students to scholarly and academic life at MSU.

Analytical Thinking, Cultural Understanding, and Integrative Reasoning

Objectives:

• Help students develop confidence related to the college transition
• Expose students to global learning and opportunities at MSU
• Introduce global problem solving in preparation for integrative studies coursework
• Introduce students to multiple ways of knowing and problem-solving

For more information, including a list of current programs and the application process, please visit the Office of Education Abroad website.

Academic Success

Outcome (Students Will): Create an academic success plan that includes strategies, campus resources, and support systems that are relevant to achieving your goals.
Supporting Outcomes:

• Organizing for learning
• Seeking help
• Building relationships
• Careers & majors
• Learning in college

Community Engagement

Outcome (Students Will): Create a community engagement plan to help to help facilitate your involvement in the university, expand your network, and enhance your sense of belonging at MSU.
Supporting Outcomes:

• Building relationships
• Getting involved
• Expanding your cultural horizon

Holistic Wellness

Outcome (Students Will): Create a holistic wellness plan for using strategies and campus resources to further develop awareness of, to promote, and to maintain your health and wellness in college.
Supporting Outcomes:

• Mental health and stress management
• Physical health
• Financial management/literacy
• Other health and wellness areas as individually relevant

All outcomes include an emphasis on self-awareness and self-advocacy.

• Detroit M.A.D.E.
• Dow STEM
• Spartan FLI
• TRiO
• RCPD & BOND
• University Advising
• College of Nursing
• Spartan Compass/REHS
• Academic Scholars Program/Honors College
• Data Science

Academic Preparedness

Objectives (Instructors Will): Provide resources and opportunities for students to build college level academic skills at MSU.
Outcomes (Students Will):

• Report increased ability in study skills, note-taking, reading comprehension, prioritizing tasks, and creating appropriate faculty/staff connections.

Academic Inquiry

Objectives (Instructors Will): Facilitate academic inquiry, which includes critical skills of discovering, exploring, and analyzing academic questions within a specific field of study, discipline, or topic.
Outcomes (Students Will):

• Analyze issues, ideas, and/or challenges from multiple cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives.
• Evaluate evidence based on reasoning and disciplinary norms to make and defend an argument.

Active Learning

Objectives (Instructors Will): Engage students in discussion and experiences that provide them opportunities to reflect on conflicting viewpoints and form opinions, strategies, and potential solutions.
Outcomes (Students Will):

• Explain how academic and social identities intersect with the class topic through reflection and diverse exploration of perspective.
• Develop professional relationships with peers and instructors within the academic classroom.

Sense of Belonging

Objectives (Instructors Will): Help students develop a sense of belonging in their academic community through inclusive classroom building, peer and instructor relationship construction, and interpersonal identity exploration.
Outcomes (Students Will):

• Explain how academic and social identities intersect with the class topic through reflection and diverse exploration of perspective.
• Develop professional relationships with peers and instructors within the academic classroom.

UGS 201-002 - Influencing the Spartan Undergraduate Student Experience at MSU

Students in this seminar will be active participants in designing the Spartan Undergraduate Experience. Researchers have uncovered many factors that help or hinder a college student’s ability to be successful, including (1) self-discovery of their purpose for obtaining a degree, (2) educational success including learning and academic success (e.g. grades), (3) developing a sense of belonging by finding supportive groups, (4) contributing to an empowered campus community through inter-cultural learning and positive civic engagement, and (5) developing well-being (e.g. mental, physical, emotional, cultural, spiritual, and financial). Through active participation in developing student profiles and providing feedback to leaders, instructors and staff at MSU, this course introduces students to research on college student success. Students will learn about the study of higher education, leadership in higher education, and how colleges and universities are addressing equity in student outcomes.

UGS 201-302 - Supporting Mental Health Takes All of Us: The Power of Community Driven Approaches

Many approaches to mental health are focused on the individual: self-care, self-compassion, individual therapy, and personal wellness practices. While these things are important, they often fall short without the power of community and peer support interventions. So how can we implement more relational and collective practices of mental health? In this seminar we will not only review scientific and real-world examples of these practices, but we will also plan and implement a largescale mental health promotion event on campus in collaboration with MSU’s University Health and Wellbeing. NOTE: In addition to contributing to event planning, students are required to attend some part of the event (date is October 15th) as part of enrollment in this course.

UGS 201-303 - Ethics, Genetics and Public Policy

Today we can do Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) for about $1000. Should government encourage or require individuals to have WGS so that individuals would know their vulnerability to various genetic disorders as well as the genetic vulnerabilities they could pass on to future possible children? Should individuals be legally required to reveal the results of WGS to future possible marriage partners? Should government pay for pre-implantation diagnosis of eight-cell embryos so that parents can choose embryos (fuure possible children) free of specific genetic disorders? If individuals have WGS and are told they have an enhanced risk for Type II diabetes, then fail to alter their eating habits and acquire diabetes, should they be required to pay all related medical costs because they were irresponsible with their health? Should parents be allowed to do WGS for their children? Or is that a violation of their privacy? Theseare some of the issues we will explore in this seminar.

UGS 201-305 - The Science of Learning

This seminar will address how people gain different types of knowledge, learn different types of skills, and perform under pressure - what happens when you really want to do your best and the outcome matters. Preparation for class will require reading, writing reactions to the readings, and occasional outside-of-class assignments. Class activities will involve discussing and debating the issues at stake, supported by deep knowledge of the outside readings and assignments. Issues will include similarities and differences in mind and brain activity across different kinds of knowledge and skill, attention and how it works, and the impact of difficult circumstances: multitasking, social scrutiny, anxiety, and pressure. Readings will cover a wide range, from scientific papers on choking under pressure, basics of skill acquisition, and how taking tests helps learning to dealing with academic worries and anxieties to excerpts from a novel called `The Art of Fielding' by Chad Harbach -- a novelist's take on how choking arises and can become a habit.

UGS 201-311H - Make an Impact: A Hands-on Approach to Addressing Inequity in Our Community

More than 37.2 million people, or 11.4 percent of all Americans, lived below the poverty line last year, according to the Census Bureau. Half of all American children will reside in a household that uses food stamps at some point during childhood. Health, food, income, and education are just a few of the systems of inequity that surround us. But what is inequity and why does it exist? Who is the most vulnerable in our communities? What are the best methods to discuss, research, and act to eradicate inequity? This course offers a starting place or an extension for Academic Scholars and Honors College first-year students who want to address systemic problems that are unfair and yet actionable. As a participant in the course, you will have a chance to study concepts and causes of inequity with experts at MSU, explore your own identity as a first-year student and social change agent, and work in a community organization that has a goal of addressing inequity. Students will spend part of their time in class and part of their time completing service hours (about 2 per week). Class will meet in Eustace-Cole Hall 207/208 through 11/13 and students will have until the end of the course to complete their community engaged learning hours.

UGS 201-317 - Spartans Will Explore & Create: An Introduction to Undergraduate Research at MSU

This course is for students interested in learning about undergraduate research and/or creative activities at Michigan State University and who have not yet started a mentored research project. Students will explore how research is conducted in a variety of fields and learn skills that are useful in all areas of scholarship, including research ethics, using journal citation managers, how to read scholarly literature and navigating MSU’s website to find research opportunities. By the end of the course, students will be ready to engage in a mentored research or creative experience.

UGS 201- 324 - How to do Nothing

What demands our attention and do we have a choice in where we direct it? This course will offer students the chance to examine that question by unplugging from technology for a series of extended class periods during which we will focus attention on various parts of our environment. Throughout the seminar, we will direct our attention toward our work, time, physical self, community members, and more through active listening and contemplative pedagogy. Readings, discussions, and reflections will guide and shape our explorations. Each class will meet in a different indoor or outdoor MSU space. Class readings will include “How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” by Jenny Odell. NOTE: Students will give their phones and other technology to the professors to store securely at the beginning of each class session to facilitate focused attention. This class meets 8 times during the term, as outlined in the syllabus. The first class session will meet in Beal Instruction Room in the Main Library.

UGS 201-328 - Dialogues Across Difference (MSU Dialogues)

MSU Dialogues offers a comprehensive curriculum aimed at educating participants on social identities, fostering relationships across diverse identities, and promoting greater equity and justice in society. Students will gain valuable insights into inclusive leadership, communication strategies, and community building to enhance both personal and professional growth. Topics covered include diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

UGS 201-738 - Islam, Muslims, and Islamophobia

This course aims to provide students with a working knowledge of (1) the religion of Islam and the core beliefs and practices that have defined Muslim communities; and (2) certain influential contemporary anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic discourses and sentiments. This course will feature guest speakers, an optional visit to a local mosque, and film viewings. This course is restricted to First- and Second-year students, but overrides can be requested through course administrators by emailing (lucasaly@msu.edu and jamesna1@msu.edu).

UGS 201-740 - Historical and Contemporary Antisemitism

This seminar will afford students from across the university the opportunity to learn about the historical roots and contexts of contemporary antisemitism, to define antisemitism, and to identify key tropes in the history of antisemitism. Antisemitism is at historic levels in the United States, and we know some students have also experienced it on our campus. This course will help students recognize antisemitism and understand its historical roots. Class is primarily online asynchronous with attendance required at one of three in-person events. This course is restricted to First- and Second-year students, but overrides can be requested through course administrators by emailing (lucasaly@msu.edu and jamesna1@msu.edu).

Academic Navigation

Objective (Instructors Will Be): Providing students opportunities to shift from unstructured exploration to focused exploration and tentative academic/career choices through major, minor, and certificates exploration.
Outcomes (Students Will): 

• Evaluate their academic engagement regarding major and minor confirmation, faculty/student engagement, internship and career interest affirmation, and upper-level coursework preparation
• Develop and refine a detailed graduation plan that allows the student to make tentative choices regarding their academic career by the end of their 2nd year.

Institutional and Community Navigation

Objective (Instructors Will Be): Expanding students’ resource bank with additional campus resources and the introduction of local city resources.
Outcomes (Students Will): 

• Develop a personal involvement plan that includes on-and-off campus, co- and extra-curricular experiences aligned with their values, interests, and aspirations
• [Re-?] Evaluate their connections with faculty/staff, university offices/resources, student organizations, and personal social circles

Personal Navigation

Objective (Instructors Will Be): Creating scaffolding opportunities for students to reflect on themselves in relation to developing confidence in their social identities, academic goals, and community building skills.
Outcomes (Students Will): 

• Evaluate what they have and desire to learn about themselves as they consider the larger questions of:
  • Who am I? What do I want my life to be?
  • What are my motivations?
  • What are my tentative choices for the rest of my journey at MSU?
• Develop an identity development plan that defines how their social identities intersect with their academic, career, and community relationships.

Goals

• Transition to College
• Analytical Thinking
• Cultural Understanding
• Integrative Reasoning

Objectives (Instructors Will):

• Introduce students to scholarly and academic life at MSU.
• Help students develop confidence related to the college transition.
• Expose students to global learning and opportunities at MSU.
• Introduce global problem solving in preparation for integrative studies coursework.
• Introduce students to multiple ways of knowing and problem-solving.