Approved Courses

To view the current list of courses approved as satisfying a requirement, you should visit Bearings and use the course info screen to search in the designation area you desire. These lists will be updated as the new distribution requirements are implemented and course offerings change.

  1. Mathematical, Computational, or Statistical Reasoning
    • This designation area includes:
    • An economics course studying models of household, firm, and government decision making.
    • A geology course covering mathematical models of groundwater flow and contamination.
    • A math course where students use statistical tools to analyze the census (and its problems) as well as results of polls and surveys presented in the media.
  2. Inquiry in the Natural Sciences
    • This designation area includes:
    • A biology course which visits the rocky intertidal to collect data from which to design an experiment.
    • A chemistry course with labs on the kneading of bread dough and the use of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze flavors.
    • A physics course where students compare models of the earth’s climate to observations of climate, both modern and ancient.
  3. Exploring Social Differences
    • This designation area includes:
    • An anthropology course examining the ways in which African populations in the 21st century creatively deal with their different social and natural environments.
    • An education course exploring the ways in which schools reproduce and/or mitigate social class differences.
    • A religion course studying how Islamic women resist set gender roles while still managing to remain within the accepted forms of social expectations.
  4. International Perspectives
    • This designation area includes:
    • An Asian studies course studying the role of mass and popular culture in China’s transition from a centrally controlled socialist state to a more open society.
    • An archaeology course on the religion and cult practice of ancient Greeks, placing the culture within the cosmopolitan mix of the ancient Mediterranean.
    • An history course considering the rise of ethnic and racial divisions in South African society and the continued legacy of apartheid divisions.
  5. Visual and Performing Arts
    • This designation area includes:
    • A music course in which students perform rhythms on drums and vocally, as well as composing a piece at the end of the semester.
    • A theater course where students work in small groups to develop and present three short original theater pieces and adapt a myth for a final performance project.
    • A visual arts course in which students create drawings, models, and presentation materials in response to architectural design problems.