Inquiry 1000 is a one credit hour, small group, discussion-based course designed to engage lower division students in the discovery, exploration, and analysis of ideas that faculty members, across a variety of disciplines, study and investigate. This course fulfills the Core Course requirement in Area B. It is suggested that students take COMS 1100 before taking this course.
Each year, INQR 1000 will have a programmatic theme which can be used to create coursecontent. The academic theme is determined using student surveys and faculty input. The theme for 2016-2017 will be "Humans and Heroes”. What is a Hero? Heroes give us wisdom, deliver justice, offer hope, and provide direction. But aren’t all heroes just humans who, given a set of circumstances, have stepped up to solve a problem? INQR 1000 courses will consider various social, economic, health and political problems from numerous perspectives and discuss, as a class, heroic and sometimes controversial solutions.
All courses will be seminar format, 18-20 students per course with an end of term capstone event—INQR EXPO—an academic festival showcasing student work via posters, photos and videos.
At the conclusion of the course, the student will be able to:
Humans & Heroes
INQR Expo
INQR Expo
"The thing I appreciated the most about my INQR class, was the discussions my professors led. It helped me think deeper about the topics we were learning and helped me understand the movies we watched more. I also enjoyed the EXPO because it allowed me to explore the other classes and different topics in a brief period of time."
--Jessie Yuan
"The inquiry is a great way for students to do research and have questions answered on a certain topic. I believe this course will help guide us as students to help solve problems and it is great way to inspire students on what they want to do in the future"
--Kishan Bhagwandas
"Inquiry 1000 is a class designed to enhance the research abilities of new college student while providing them with an enriching learning experience that allows them to obtain insight in prospective careers. This course is valuable due to the fact that it prepares students for real world inquisition, analysis, and communication in areas of their interests."
--Brandon Edwards
Taught by: Leeper
Augusta University hopes to produce graduates who are well trained in their chosen fields. And while a solid foundation of knowledge is essential, those students who understand how to be effective advocates for themselves, their ideas and the things they value will be leaders in those fields. In this course, students will explore theories about what makes advocates effective and they will apply those principles to an issue of significance to them.
Taught by: Gilbert
Linville
In this course, students will explore how play (experiential learning activities) affects academic, social, and emotional development. By engaging in various levels of play, students will learn about themselves, how play engages learners in discovery, and how the hidden brain affects how we see ourselves and others. Plato once said, "You can learn more about someone in one hour of play, than in a year of conversation.” What can you learn about yourself and the world around you? Come play with us and discover your inner hero!
Taught by: Bennett
This course is designed to explore how athletes navigate social activism within sport or their lack of activism. Recently, athletes have used the sporting world as an avenue for social activism. This has been seen and perceived as both positive and negative. This class is designed to explore social activism, or "inactivism", and how athletes use or do not use their platform to navigate their social justice agendas.
Taught by: Chatto
In this course, students will explore the origins of human walking, examine the ways people walk, and explore the lives of people who have lost the ability to walk. Students will research ways people use walking to improve the human condition through physical, psychological and social ways.
Taught by: Diehl
In this section, we will be studying works where heroes become villains. Instead of considering anti-heroes (who are really just villains we root for), we will discuss men and women who cross the threshold of villainy. We will also consider the question: can these men & women become heroes again?
Taught by: Griffith
This course will explore crime fighting from the comfort of their armchairs focusing on popular solved and unsolved cases. Using critical thinking, we will address the modern crime fighter focusing on techniques, technology, and popularity of crime in media.
Taught by: Weiss
Students will identify the key ethical questions pertaining to a contemporary ethical issue, as well as develop a well-supported ethical argument for their position, and anticipate and respond effectively to a counter-argument.
Taught by: Armstrong
Plato argued that people’s values are fundamentally shaped by the stories they encounter as children. With that in mind, we will investigate the values found in five recent animated films that focus on issues of technology, utopia, and the hero: WALL-E (2008), The Lorax (2012), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013), The Lego Movie (2014), and Big Hero 6 (2014). Our guiding question will be ‘What values would a viewer of these films carry into college?’
Taught by: Gess
Barker
Grounded in the challenge of equal opportunity and justice, the local educational context will be used as a platform to develop the skills of research, investigation, questioning, critical analysis, and civil discourse. Using commonly available free apps and GPS technology, students will create resources that accurately chronicle and illuminate challenges and celebrations of urban education in the Augusta area.
Taught by: Huggins
During this course, students will explore the concepts of persistence and grit, on both a personal and societal level. Students groups will produce a project which highlights the attributes of persistence and grit of individual(s) in our community and share this ethnography with students, faculty and visitors at the end of term EXPO.
Taught by: Ratan/Gray
This is a one credit discussion- based course designed to introduce students to the topic of immigration and immigration policy. Students will 1) learn about the history and politics of migration using a comparative global perspective 2) examine the evolution of immigration policy in the United States, 3) distinguish between immigrants and refugees, and 4) engage in an experiential learning opportunity that will help them understand some of the challenges facing immigrants.
Taught by: Andrews
How do we picture our heroes, and why? From the ancient Gilgamesh to Superman and Luke Skywalker, mankind has always had heroes. Often, our most enduring heroes began as commoners, an everyday Joe or underdog. Each culture and each era depicts their heroes differently. Through a survey of historic and iconic paintings, sculptures, photos and films, this course will explore how and why we depict our heroes the way we do.
Taught by: Meyers/Connolly
This course will cover modern-day heroes of sport who were later outed as drug cheats: Topics covered will include the treatment of athletes as heroes/celebrities in culture; Media treatment during the course of various outings, trials, and suspensions; Performance enhancing drugs and their mechanisms of action; and ethics in sport and performance.
Taught by: Logue
In this course students will investigate the strange history of modern medicine and the extreme measures doctors took to treat their patients. Students will use literature searching, primary sources, and pop culture to ask how our modern medical practices were shaped by the heroic age of medicine.
Taught by: Kornegay
In this course students will engage in dialogues and inquiry about medical ethics through studying major medical research - and the humans behind it. They will explore ethical questions and quandaries to develop their own moral code and compass
Taught by: Kemp
Eisenman
Different professions are portrayed in a variety of way by popular media. Because of this, the public has misconception of what professionals actually do. Over the course of the semester, students in this INQR 1000 course will critically analyze the portrayal of teachers, police, doctors, etc. in public media and how these portrayals influence public perceptions.
Taught by: Nowatkowski
Students will explore hazards and dangers associated with social media and the Internet. Once the students determine several hazards and dangers that directly affect them, they will explore methods and techniques to mitigate these hazards and dangers.
Taught by: Hunt
What is a hero in today's society? Students in this course will explore what makes a "real" hero and develop plans and strategies for becoming one themselves.
Taught by: Holland
In this course students will explore scientific research regarding the ketogenic diet in terms of health outcomes and athletic performance. Students will discuss how the ketogenic diet differs from the recommended USDA diet and their views and concerns of these differences.