GN_HON 2461H (Environment: From Molecules to the Cosmos) and GN_HON 2462H (Energy: From Particles to Civilizations) are designed to introduce students to some of the important big ideas in science. These courses integrate innovative ideas from biology, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and physics, and explore their importance in today’s world. With exciting lectures, labs, discussions, and small group activities, these two courses have no prerequisites and fulfill the General Education requirement for a lab science course.

These course have no prerequisites and fulfill the General Education requirement for a lab science course. They are designed for non-science majors. Science majors are welcome but should be aware that the courses do not count toward their major course requirements.

The courses are designed with these guiding principles:

• Every student can enjoy science, regardless of his or her background.
• Science knowledge is always changing and everybody can learn more
• Science literacy is imperative to be an informed citizen
• Doing science is a fun and creative process!

GN_HON 2461H: Environment: From Molecules to the Cosmos

This course covers how the world was made, how environments formed, how life evolved, and how it all works together to sustain our life on Earth. We will explore the big ideas of birth, change, cycles, connections, and how we interact with the natural environment in a combination of lectures, discussions, and labs. We’ll also examine the nature of science and how science issues are covered by the media.

GN_HON 2462H: Energy: From Particles to Civilizations

This course explores the world of particles and forces and how they work together to form the world around us. In a combination of lectures, discussions, and labs we’ll talk about and experiment with big ideas including thermodynamics, the laws of motion, electricity, magnetism, atoms and molecules, and even the nature of science itself. Woven throughout the course are discussions of how things as small as microorganisms and as large as human civilizations use the energy available to them, and the implications of that use for the future.