CORE

What is causing a rapid decline in global pollinator populations? The answer is of immediate concern because many human crops are pollinated by bee, butterfly, bird, or bat species. Recent bee declines will be used as a model to understand...

What are the roots of the current climate crisis? Can religious, economic, cultural, political, and/or biological worldviews help us understand the challenges? The course will introduce concepts in systems thinking, which emphasize an interdisciplinary approach to addressing climate change. The...

An introductory course that immerses students in exploring the ecology of the Florida Keys ecosystem. Suitable for non-majors. Biology majors should sign up for Biol 304. An off-campus course taught at the J.N. Roth Marine Biology station in Florida every...

Explores conflict, violence and peace in human interaction with animal life. Perspectives from animal behavior, sociology, ethics, religion, agriculture, and conservation will illumine the precarious balance humanity faces in sustaining or exploiting lives that share this planet with us. A...

Designed to introduce students to the basics of personal finance. A survey course of personal and family financial planning with an emphasis on financial recordkeeping, planning your spending, tax planning, consumer credit, making buying decisions, purchasing insurance, selecting investments and...

A survey of organic chemistry and biochemistry designed for nursing and other allied health majors. A laboratory component will involve chemical experimentation, research skills, and experimental design. A Natural World course in the Goshen Core. Prerequisite: two semesters of high...

This course examines documentary as an art form and powerful storytelling tool. As distribution outlets like Netflix, hulu and YouTube become more popular, the access to documentaries is at a record high. The number of households without a paid cable...

How do people with diverse identities live together in a vibrant community? Students will acquire perspectives and skills to prepare them to thrive in their intercultural experience whether in the college community, the local community or the global community. Students...

Career and Calling is a continuation of the first semester Core 100 experience with a focus on vocation, leadership, and career development. The course explores how to shape a life of meaningful work and vibrant purpose now and in the...

In this course, students practice crafting and presenting speeches and essays using the tools of critical reading, analysis, active listening, rhetoric and research, with the purpose of developing their voices to participate in academic conversations. Taken in the fall or...

Explores the influence of physical activity and dietary choices on risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and mental/emotional disorders. Examines personal, genetic, attitudinal and behavioral components of wellness. Taken in fall or spring semester of first year.

An exploration of biblical themes and narratives alongside the modern application of the Bible in religion, culture, and politics. Students will develop diverse socio-historical, literary, and contextual interpretive skills. This course should be taken by the end of the second...

Humankind has built an amazing civilization on planet Earth by exploiting fossil fuels. Now we confront the challenges of climate change and our impact on other species. The concept of energy is key to identifying and prioritizing solutions. Youll research...

This course will investigate the economic, envrionmentall, cultural and biological reasons for infectious disease patterns throughout history and around the globe. Students will consider research-based, culturally relevant solutions for preventing future outbreaks of infectious disease. A Natural World course in...

How does religion function as a force for transformation and change in society, or a source of stability? And how does the political world feed back into the world of faith? This course examines the impact of religious beliefs, religious...

Why is Christianity growing so rapidly in most parts of the world while it appears to be declining in Europe and North America? This course will investigate assumptions about secularization and globalization. It will look especially at Catholicism, African Indigenous...

This course asks the question what does it mean to be an American? through the lens of diverse stories from Mennonite and Amish groups from the first days of European presence in North America to today. White or black, buggy-riding...

How do we think about “home” and represent “home” to one another? Is it where we are from, or where we are, or both? How does it relate to where we are going? We will explore these issues at the...

How has the definition of being human changed over time–along with societal developments in biology, technology and spirituality? And how is that changing definition of humanity reflected and explored in literature, film and other arts? A Research & Writing and...

In this course we’ll study rap as the poetry it is, paying attention to features such as rhythm, rhyme, allusion, and wordplay. We’ll also think about how rap’s seemingly extra-poetic features-its musicality, its performativity, its close reliance on sound technology-invite...

How have artists addressed environmental issues in the past and also today? What role does visual art play in grappling with our impact on the environment? In this course, students will learn about a variety of artistic movements and how...

Can or should Christians participate in war? What form should the responsibility to pursue peace take? From early in the tradition, Christians have struggled to answer these questions. In this course we examine how concepts of pacifism, just war, and...

An introduction to computers and programming for students with no prior programming experience and little mathematics preparation. A programming language is used to explore conditional expressions and recursion and to perform computational problem solving. Students will gain an understanding about...

This course explores the relationship between literary art and visual media. Recent versions of the course have focused on a single major author (e.g. Emily Dickinson) as represented via text, image, and popular media such as television and film. An...

Why is Shakespeare still relevant today across a diverse range of cultures and contexts? This course investigates the relationship between selected plays and their adaptations in film and popular culture. Students will develop skills in reading and interpreting texts of...

Students will focus mostly on recent texts defined and marketed ascomics or graphic novels. They will work to determine the cultural meaning and significance of the unique qualities and learn how to employ the language of comics to tell their...

In the sequential SST format: This is the introductory course that is taken on campus and orients the students for their immersive courses and to the theme for the sequence of courses. It may introduce the students to an aspect...

In the semester-long SST format: Students learn from a variety of perspectives as they relate to a new culture in an immersive context and, in the process, learn about themselves. This course develops understanding and skills for communicating and working...

In the sequential SST format: Students learn from a variety of perspectives as they relate to a new culture in an immersive context and, in the process, learn about themselves. This course develops understanding and skills for communicating and working...

In the sequential SST format: This course includes a volunteer placement in an immersive community setting with an organization that serves the community, plus reflection on learnings and an immersive community research project. This real world mode of learning will...

In the sequential SST format: This is the capstone course for sequential SST and includes a final capstone project. It will focus on one local theme or issue shaped by global forces. Students will explore a topical question historically, politically,...

In the semester-long SST format: This is the capstone course that begins in orientation, continues through the retreat on SST and finishes on campus after SST with a time for reflection, synthesis and preparing a capstone project that is publicly...

Why do humans long for utopia, yet consistently fail to produce it? To what extent do we assert our individual freedom in creating the communities we live in, and to what extent do we recognize our lives as resting on...

How does radical social, political and economic change occur and what are its consequences? Examines the major political “revolutions” in world history from the French Revolution to Cuba and beyond, as well as addressing the larger revolutionary changes since 1500,...

Why do we remember the past? How do we talk about those that have died and can’t talk back anymore? How do we judge their good and terrible choices that still affect us? This course explores how wrestling with these...

Aren’t the United States as divided as never before? Aren’t those on the other political and cultural team not just wrong, but actually evil? And is there any way left to live a happy and authentic life and still care...

The Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition has undergone a profound transformation during the past 50 years moving from a largely white, Euro-American denomination into a truly multi-cultural, global church. Drawing on the research projects of the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism...

Students will interpret, create, and value quantitative information in personal, professional, and societal contexts to solve problems, understand phenomena, draw conclusions, and make decisions. The types of quantitative information students will be able to interpret and create include computations, measurements...

An introduction to the study of data science focusing on the fundamentals of statistics through practical applications of work with data. Students will learn to think critically about data, where it comes from, and how it is used to support...

An introduction to the study of data science focusing on the fundamentals of statistics through practical applications of work with data. Students will learn to think critically about data, where it comes from, and how it is used to support...

An introduction to mathematical modeling using graphical, numerical, symbolic, and verbal techniques to describe and explore real-world data and phenomena. Emphasis is on the use of linear, quadratic, exponential, logarithm, and polynomial functions to investigate and analyze applied problems and...

Symbolic, graphical, numerical, and verbal representations of linear, quadratic, exponential, logarithmic, power, polynomial, rational, and trigonometric functions to model real-world phenomena and the use of data to fit and verify models. Recommended background: three years of high school algebra and...

Concepts of calculus emphasizing applications in the natural and social sciences. Topics include differential calculus of one and two variables and integration. Prerequisites: three and one-half units of high school mathematics including trigonometry, Math 170, or a minimum ALEKS score...

Western Music and Expression is an Artistic World course that engages students in listening to, interpreting, and reflecting on music in the Western tradition as a form of human expression. Through historical and cultural perspectives, students explore how music has...

This course examines the varied stories, and their musical dramatic portrayals, in selected examples from music theater, from Monteverdi’s Orfeo to the more recent musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and beyond. The complex problem that acts as a...

This class will examine principles of social change and the role music plays in social movements with a particular focus on social movements working toward racial justice. The course will address questions such as these: How has our understanding of...

(Cross-listed from Art 355 and Thea 355 ) Arts in London is an interdisciplinary Artistic World Perspectives study-abroad course that examines the relationship between artistic representation and interprestation within one of the world’s most influential global cities. Using London as...

Students will actively reflect on ethical issues which are present in health care for practitioners and consumers. The focus will be on the process of ethical inquiry rather than decision outcomes. In the process of analyzing bioethical issues, student will...

Living Ethically will focus on ethical decision-making as well as ethical being, drawing on historical and contemporary forms and structures in ethics as well as contemporary applications of ethical frameworks. Students will be encouraged to identify the bases for their...

An introduction to astronomy, with emphasis on basic sky patterns and their historical explanations. Considers the Copernican revolution, simple Newtonian physics, and contemporary understandings of stars, galaxies and cosmology. Includes a field trip to a Planetarium and (weather permitting) an...

How can and should humans relate to nature? This question raises vigorous, passionate, and political discussion. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students explore (a) how information is generated, refined, and debated in scientific disciplines, (b) how science, archaeology and other disciplines...

This course addresses the questions, when and why are people violent, and when and why are they peaceful? How does nonviolence address the destructive force of violence and stand as an alternative? A Peacemaking course in the Goshen Core.

How do peacemakers sustain their work for peace and justice over a lifetime without burning out? This course examines spiritual paths of peacemakers: theories, teachings and practices for sustaining active nonviolence and peacemaking. A Peacemaking course in the Goshen Core.

Explores the potentially constructive nature of conflict, the destructive nature of violence and the relationship between the two. Examines various patterns of communication, conflict and violence and what is needed for transformation. Students will reflect on their own conflict styles,...

A study of both the influences of culture on human behavior as well as universal characteristics all individuals share regardless of culture. This course seeks to examine how an individual’s cultural background influences behavior and thoughts and relationships. Biological, sociocultural,...

Given competing truth claims, how do we learn to appreciate religious diversity, open ourselves to new learning, and yet remain relatively grounded in faith? This course examines historical and contemporary religious life in the USA, with attention to conflicts that...

This course explores how diverse cultures understand nature and how religions engage environmental problems in an era of rapid environmental change. We examine how religious and philosophical systems interpret humanity’s relationship to the nonhuman world, consider how ideas of the...

This course explores how diverse religious traditions engage issues of health and medical care. How do religions understand health and disease, and how do they pursue well-being and healing? What does spirituality have to do with the body, and can...

This course explores how diverse religious traditions engage issues of health and medical care. How do religions understand health and disease, and how do they pursue well-being and healing? What does spirituality have to do with the body, and can...

This survey will focus on a particular theme or area of religious experience as a window into the world’s major religious traditions. Possible themes include: death, the human condition, or worship and ritual. This course is designed to provide students...

This course introduces students to the critical thinking skills they need to understand statistical topics that they may encounter in the popular media or their future careers. Students will learn to critically evaluate the statistical information they encounter during everyday...

This course will examine how public perceptions and constructions of youth have evolved over time by asking (and answering) the following questions. How are contemporary youth more or less similar than preceding generations? Where does “youth culture” come from and...

This course is a study of the individual through the life cycle within the social environment. Foci include physical, psychological, social, cultural and religious factors in the development of the self. Dimensions of diversity (including but not limited to gender,...

Through a careful analysis of US policies and practices related to the protection and empowerment of children, this Social Work elective addresses the socio-historical roots, inequalities, professional roles and responsibilities, and contemporary realities of what it means to care for...

This Social Work elective explores the normal aging process, the unique challenges experienced by older adults, and the US societal context related to aging. Course content engages a range of issues present in our current context of the rapid growth...

History, elements, and methods of theater performance. Includes script analysis, developing a performance vocabulary, idea generation/research, theater games/exercises, production work and performance critique. Class members will create and present a public performance that explores a current campus or regional social...

This class engages the individual and social conflicts that emerge around gender identity. Through the work of activists, scholars, philosophers, and writers–historical and contemporary–students will better understand gendered experience and identity in a patriarchal context. Within the framework of feminist/gender...