Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 3

Description: THE SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT ***** This course is intended as an introduction to environmental studies and the concept of a sustainable environment for students from all divisions on campus. The course will focus on the scientific basis for our current environmental situation, on social and cultural attitudes and values relating to the environment as represented in literature, history, and public policy, and on the constant interaction among these various approaches. ***** Open only to freshman. ***** Also offered as ENST 101. ***** Enrollment limited to 15. ***** Instructor(s): Isle, Sass.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: TECHNOLOGICAL DISASTERS AND CATASTROPHES ***** This spring semester seminar is open to all majors and is taught by Dagobert Brito of Economics and Robert Curl of Chemistry. Through the technology produced by the scientific revolution, we now control forces of previously unimaginable power in a world of instant communications and vast complexity. But how well do we control these enormously powerful forces? We all know that sometimes things go wrong with disastrous consequences. How does this happen and what can be done to prevent catastrophes? The course will utilize a case study approach. We will study such disasters as the Columbia space shuttle, Exxon Valdez, Bhopal, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the AIDS epidemic, and the collapse of Enron in order to develop general ideas about the causes and control of disasters and society's reaction to them. As a seminar course, class periods will be used primarily for discussion. We intend very few lectures, but there will be videos and occasional brief presentations by outside experts. ***** Course offered Spring 2005. ***** Instructor(s): Curl, Brito.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: WAYS THE WORLD IS WEIRD: PHILOSOPHICAL LESSONS OF MODERN PHYSICS ***** The "philosophy of physics" may sound abstruse or even intimidatingly technical, but the path we will investigate is one already well-trodden by all of us. This course is not so much in physics as about physics: about how the world astonishingly differs from our expectations. These expectations seem trivial, obvious and beyond dispute. Consider: all events are caused, time flows forwards, the past is fixed, the future is open, the world is a mechanism made of autonomous bits existing independently of human thought. In a non-technical yet scientifically rigorous, philosophically motivated, writing intense context, drawing on accessible essays from philosophers, scientists and popular authors, we will come to see that contemporary physics gives us good reason to question every one of these commonplace ideas.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: THE SACRED IN FRANCE: FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT ***** Open only to freshman. ***** Enrollment limited to 15.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group II

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 3

Description: ISSUES IN ENERGY ***** Energy lies at the heart of this century's humanitarian problems: energy is central to improved quality of life, economic, social, geopolitical, and environmental development. Prospects of forward looking and long-term solutions to abundant, cheap, efficient, safe and clean energy will require major scientific and technological leaps. Using critical analysis and creative thinking, students will be asked to address real world energy problems using chemistry, physics, and engineering concepts as basis of their reflection. Moreover, it will examine the social and economical nature of the energy problems in the context of sustainable environment. The course will emphasize active participation of students to address ill-structured problems which mirror real-world problems in energy. ***** Enrollment limited to 20.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: THE EVOLUTION WARS ***** This course will examine the concept of evolution from scientific, historical, cultural, social, and religious viewpoints. We will enter into these debates with the understanding of evolution not simply as a scientific paradigm, but also as a central, world-shaping idea with profound implications for social organization, theological discourse, and cultural self-awareness. Open only to Freshmen. ***** Enrollment limited to 15.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: THE CLASSIC OF CHANGES IN ASIAN AND WORLD CULTURE ***** Over the past two millenia or so, the Yijing (I-ching; Classic of Changes) has been, with the notable exception of the Bible, the most widely read and extensively analyzed book in all of world literature. How do we account for its transcultural spread and enduring influence? What aspects of it can it be compared to other "classic" works as a document of truly global significance?

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: ADVANCES IN BIOTECHNOLOGY: SCIENCE FACT AND FICTION ***** Recent progress in biotechnology and bioengineering is dramatically changing our lives. This course will discuss examples from science fiction literature and movies, such as cloning, tissue engineering, and bionanotechnology. We will examine how these new biosciences really work and what societal impact we might expect to see from them in the future. As a final project in this course, students will write a short story featuring biotechnology. Open only to Freshmen. ***** Enrollment limited to 15.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: THE PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS OF TIME TRAVEL ***** Time travel has long been a popular notion of science fiction. We will try to understand some of the various things "time travel" might be taken to mean, and we will discuss and write about a variety of arguments concerning the possibility of time travel. We also touch on issues of causation, explanation, physical laws, personal identity, and other matters of mutual interest to physicists and philosophers. Open only to Freshmen.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: THE IDEA OF THE MODERN ***** This seminar will examine some of the ideas that underlie and constitute the major classification concept of the past century, the modern. We will consider such topics as the triumph of secularism, critique of foundationalism, break with representation along with other experiments in the arts, existentialism and the absurd, changing notions of the family and of human sexuality, and the view from the margins. Open to freshman only. ***** Enrollment limited to 15.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: INTRODUCTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE ***** This course is intended as an introduction to environmental studies from all divisions of the campus. The course focuses on attitudes and values relating to the environment as represented in environmental history and environmental literature. ***** Also offered as ENST 201.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1

Description: CENTURY SCHOLARS PROGRAM ***** No description. Repeatable for Credit.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, AND COGNITION ***** An examination of the history of information technologies perceived as media transfers from oral to written, to print, and to electronic communications, and as multiple media interfaces. In that context, the course explores the categorization and organization of knowledge. The construction of self, national identities, education, authority, censorship, etc. ***** Also offered as HIST 210, LING 210, and ANTH 210.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: INTRODUCTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE ***** This course is intended as an introduction to environmental studies from all divisions of the campus. The course focuses on attitudes and values relating to the environment as represented in environmental history and environmental literature. ***** Also offered as ENST 301.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: COMMUNICATION, COGNITION AND CULTURE ***** A team-taught course that addresses the nature of information technologies and their influence on culture. It focuses on orality, the manuscript culture, the print revolution and the electronic communication which culminates in high-speed powers of computation and simulation, and the creation of global information structures. The influence of these modes of communication on the following issues will be explored: imaging and visualization, memory, self and community, censorship and social control, authority, science and medicine, education, nationalism and ethnicity, and virtual reality. This is strictly a discussion course.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group II

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 3

Description: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: RICE INTO THE FUTURE ***** This course addresses science, technology, and policy elements of environmental issues. Students use the campus and local community as a laboratory in which to do projects to reduce environmental impacts, enhance sustainability, or resolve environmental problems. ***** Also offered as ENST 302. Repeatable for Credit.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: CREATING AND MANAGING CHANGE ***** UNIV 309 offers an opportunity to understand and grow the capacities associated with leadership. The class combines theory and practice with an emphasis on learning how to build and sustain a powerful team. This class is required for a Leadership Rice Mentorship or the Leadership Certificate. ***** Enrollment limited to 65. ***** Instructor(s): Lieberman.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1 TO 3

Description: LEADERSHIP RICE SEMINAR ***** This series of seminars explores leadership development in more depth. Students should come away with a better sense of how to impact their communities and construct an authentic life. Open to students accepted into the Leadership Certificate program, as well as those interested in Leadership Rice but unable to take the fall course. ***** Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. ***** Instructor(s): Lieberman. Repeatable for Credit.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1

Description: CREATIVITY SEMINAR ***** The purpose of this seminar is to deepen our understanding of the creative process and to explore ways in which individuals can mine their own creative capacity. In addition to weekly assignments (no more than one hour long) participants will design a creative project that grows from one's own interests and develop it during the semester. ***** Instructor(s): Lieberman.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Description: ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP ***** This fall semester seminar, for all majors, is taught by Rice alum and entrepreneur Kraettli Epperson of R7 Solutions. The class includes a series of panel discussions with Houston-area entrepreneurs and a group project to develop a business plan. Students who have some professional work experience- particularly with some exposure to an entrepreneurial organization- will find this course most satisfying. ***** Instructor(s): Lieberman.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: GENETICS: BIOLOGICAL, CULTURE-HISTORICAL, AND ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES ***** The course uses an interdisciplinary perspective to examine the claims and counter-claims made regarding genetics and new technologies for identifying and manipulating genetic material. The course will cover biological basics of genes, DNA, and sequencing techniques; cultural and historical aspects to genetics, including essentialism and eugenics past and present; ethical issues arising from new genetic technologies; and policy issues. Not open to Freshmen. ***** Also offered as ANTH 314 and BIOS 307.

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 3

Description: PRACTICUM IN STATE POLITICS ***** Texas Legislative Internship Program- Rodney Ellis Interns