College (COLL)

COLL 0010 Pre-First Year Program in WRIT/MATH/BIOL

In this course, students will participate in a month-long academic program that covers Writing, Math, and Biology. The Writing course focuses mainly on writing about literature, students will learn general principles and strategies for good writing in various disciplines and genres. “Place and Belonging” will introduce students to a range of writing about the ways our social and geographical locations shape our sense of self and our personal feelings of connection or alienation. Students will read a short novel, stories, essays, and poems by authors from the U.S. and abroad. All these works are attempts to give written form to the relationships between people and the places they inhabit. The Math course will be based on a diagnostic exam and will either: cover Sets, Logic, Number Theory for students with little math experience or interest; Intense Algebra and Pre-Calc Review, Introduction to Limits for students who are may or may not be confident in their math preparation and could benefit from a review of Algebra and PreCalculus; Covers a quick Pre-Calc review, Limits, Derivatives for students who have taken AB Calculus and are confident in their performance; or Derivatives, Applications, Integrals for students who have taken BC Calculus and are confident in their performance. The Biology course will include cellular respiration, genetics, and molecular biology. This course will use lectures, class discussion of current topics, group work, practice questions, quizzes, and lab to help students understand important concepts and develop skills needed to succeed in college-level biology courses.

Summer Term

0-1 Course Unit

COLL 0020 Pre-First Year Program in WRIT/MATH/PSYC

In this course, students will participate in a month-long academic program that covers Writing, Math, and Psychology. The Writing course focuses mainly on writing about literature, students will learn general principles and strategies for good writing in various disciplines and genres. “Place and Belonging” will introduce students to a range of writing about the ways our social and geographical locations shape our sense of self and our personal feelings of connection or alienation. Students will read a short novel, stories, essays, and poems by authors from the U.S. and abroad. All these works are attempts to give written form to the relationships between people and the places they inhabit. The Math course will be based on a diagnostic exam and will either: cover Sets, Logic, Number Theory for students with little math experience or interest; Intense Algebra and Pre-Calc Review, Introduction to Limits for students who are may or may not be confident in their math preparation and could benefit from a review of Algebra and PreCalculus; Covers a quick Pre-Calc review, Limits, Derivatives for students who have taken AB Calculus and are confident in their performance; or Derivatives, Applications, Integrals for students who have taken BC Calculus and are confident in their performance. The Psychology course introduces students to the scientific study of human moral psychology. It will cover several topics central to our understanding of humans as moral beings, including: What is morality? What role does morality play in social life? How do people make moral judgments? Is there such a thing as true altruism? Why do people sometimes behave immorally? What is the nature of human evil (and is there such a thing)? What role does morality play in political disagreement? Lectures will provide an introductory overview of research in these and other topics, and will be accompanied by readings that will enhance students’ understanding. Beyond the topics covered above, this course will also help students better understand the nature of hypothesis testing in psychological research, the strengths and weaknesses of different experimental designs, how to detect confounds in experimental designs, how to draw accurate inferences from data, and how to communicate scientific findings.

0-1 Course Unit

COLL 0050 The Theory and Practice of Work

This course will provide an opportunity to consider your internship experience using specific analytic frames to connect theories of work to practice. The readings will enable reflection on your internship from ethnographic, organizational, and civic environment perspectives. Finally the course will offer you a place to reflect on your workplace’s dynamics and your own career goals to prepare you for meaningful engagement in the workforce following graduation.

0.5 Course Units

COLL 0100 College Foundations: Kite

This course is focused on key concepts important to the human experience. From our position in a twenty-first-century American university, we will consider together the following questions that people have engaged with throughout the world over time: How should we live, and live together, despite our differences? What gets to count as knowledge and how is it passed on to others? To whom are we connected and obliged in this world, and how do we express those connections and obligations? When bad things happen, how do people find meaning in suffering? What is the role of art and artists in the world? How do we change and transform ourselves and our world over time? Assigned readings, viewings, and listenings, while not comprehensive, will draw from a range of cultural contexts. This course will introduce you to some ways that the humanities and the qualitative social sciences approach the past and present of humanity as well as how we might meet the twists and turns of the future. 

1 Course Unit

COLL 0135 The Art of Speaking

This course is designed to equip students with the major tenets of rhetorical studies and peer education necessary to work as a CWiC speaking advisor. The course is a practicum that aims to develop students' abilities as speakers, as critical listeners and as advisors able to help others develop those abilities. In addition to creating and presenting individual presentations, students present workshops and practice advising. During this ABCS course, students will practice their advising skills by coaching and mentoring students at a public school in Philadelphia.

Fall

1 Course Unit

COLL 0200 College Foundations: Key

This course is focused on key concepts important for discovery and making quantitative, evidence-based statements about the world in which we live.  Students will investigate universal phenomena through the lens of scientific inquiry and data analysis.  How do we make sense of the natural and physical world in which we live? How do we, as global citizens, obtain deeper insights into its complexities?  What is the role of evidence, intuition, hypothesis, and scientific theories?  How do we form sound arguments or detect errors in flawed arguments?  How do data play in the modern world?  How do we collect, analyze, and interpret data?  Is there a limit to our capacity to understanding the world? These are questions that humanity has grappled with for millennia, yet they remain critically important today.

1 Course Unit

COLL 0201 Introduction to AI: Concepts, Applications, and Impact

The goal of the course is to enable Penn students to navigate the opportunities and challenges of AI by giving an overview of how AI works, how it is applied, its limitations and where it might be headed. The concepts underlying AI will only be introduced at a basic level but students will gain an intuitive understanding and feel empowered to use it with greater confidence. Exercises with easy to use AI-based tools will enable students to explore data and carry out experiments with some of the leading AI products. The various ways in which AI carries risks for individuals and our society will be discussed. By understanding the origin of the different risks, students will gain an understanding of the possibilities for mitigating them. Finally, the myriad applications of AI in the real world will be surveyed with an eye towards emerging trends. Thus the course is a self-contained attempt at “everything you need to know about AI before stepping into the real world”. Students will also be better prepared to use AI during college: in their selection and performance in courses, for research projects and internships.

Fall

.5 Course Units