Spotlight on Courses

Corvallis Campus 

Find the day/time and CRN details for these courses in the OSU Schedule for Fall 2025.

CE 311H Fluid Mechanics

Instructor(s): Merrick Halloer & Bryson Robertson

Focuses on fluid properties, fluid statics, fluid motion, conservation of mass, momentum and energy for incompressible fluids, dimensional analysis, civil engineering applications.

ECE 201H DC and Transient Circuits

Instructor(s): Nadia Najim

Examines and employs techniques for the analysis of linear circuits, including circuit laws and theorems, DC circuit responses, first-order circuit behaviors, operational amplifier characteristics, and applications. Explores fundamental semiconductor devices and device fabrication.

ECE 370H Computer Organization and Assembly Programming

Instructor(s): Ryan Gambord

Explores computer organization, how major components in a computer system function together in executing a program, and assembly language.

HC 407 Forbidden Topics: Enter the Speakeasy for Hard Conversations

Instructor(s): Dennis Adams

What's the one topic that you would never dream of bringing up in the classroom or at the dinner table? Let's talk about that one!
If you think some ideas are above scrutiny, do not take this class. On the other hand, if you crave the invigorating feelings that come from free inquiry and constructive disagreement, this course is for you! We'll discuss the most difficult issues of the day using innovative approaches to dialogue.

HC 407 What School Taught Me About Sex

Instructor(s): Susan Gardner

We will examine how sex and gender are implicitly and explicitly taught and reinforced through K-12 education in the United States. Discussions will focus on how the lessons we learn about our gender, sex, and sexuality were influenced by formal schooling.

HC 407 Disclose? Divest? Can Finance Change the World? 

Instructor(s): Brian Gibbons

This course offers an interdisciplinary exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) and language models through the lens of ChatGPT. Students from different majors will gain an understanding of how AI works, its limitations, and its potential applications. Through hands-on projects and discussions, students will develop skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and communication.

HC 407 The Big Ones - How Natural Disasters Shaped Us (and what we can do about them)

Instructor(s): Anne Trehu

We will study and discuss the historical and geologic context of famous natural disasters and their impact on society using a 2018 book by Dr. Lucy Jones from which the course title is taken.  We will examine how actions by individuals and groups affected the impact of the disaster, for better or for worse, and what lessons we can draw from the past to better mitigate the impact of future natural disasters affecting Oregon.  

HC 407 Intro to 3D Scanning for Historic Preservation

Instructor(s): Todd Kesterson

Provides an in-depth exploration of 3D scanning and photogrammetry technologies, with a special focus on their application in historic preservation. Students will gain practical experience with scanning technologies, processing software, and the social and ethical considerations of documenting and preserving cultural heritage.

HC 407 Collaborating with AI

Instructor(s): Jason McCarley

We will review scientific research on the psychology of human-AI collaboration, including the relative strengths and weaknesses of human and AI teammates, and will practice recommended strategies for teaming with AI. Topics will include: generating and evaluating ideas; summarizing ideas and reaching consensus; making decisions and predictions.

Ecampus

Find the day/time and CRN details for these courses in the OSU Schedule for Fall 2025.

FW 345H Global Change Biology

Instructor(s): Lisa Ellsworth

Global Change Biology is the study of the impact of climate change on natural systems and actions to mitigate (slow) or adapt to climate change. Global climate change is having dramatic effects on natural resources including fish and wildlife populations and their habitats. Students will gain an understanding of the role that natural ecosystems (oceans, forests, wetlands, grasslands etc.) play in regulating the climate; how land use affects the earth’s climate; how climate change will affect fish, wildlife and their habitats; and the role that managers and researchers can play in mitigating and adapting to climate change. 

PSY 201HZ General Psychology

Instructor(s): Ameer Almuajbid

Scientific study of behavior and experience. Neuroscience; sensation and perception; conditioning, learning and memory; thinking, problem solving, language, intelligence, and consciousness. 

WR 227HZ Technical Writing

Instructor(s): Emily Elbom

Introduces students to producing instructive, informative, and persuasive technical/professional documents aimed at well-defined and achievable outcomes. Focuses on presenting information using rhetorically appropriate style, design, vocabulary, structure, and visuals. Gathers, reads, and analyzes information and learns a variety of strategies for producing accessible, usable, reader-centered deliverable documents that are clear, concise, and ethical.

HC 407 Fiction Meets AI: Crafting Stories with AI Magic

Instructor(s): Wayne Harrison

This course introduces students to the art of fiction writing using large language model AI tools to enhance creativity. Students will learn how to prompt AI to support idea generation, build compelling plotlines, create dimensional characters, write engaging dialogue, and craft emotionally resonant figurative language. Through hands-on work and revision, we’ll explore how to collaboratively shape scenes that emphasize tension, voice, and subtext, then use AI to deepen conflict, raise stakes, and expand emotional and narrative complexity. Students will leave not only as stronger writers but also as more discerning and ethical users of creative AI tools.

HC 407 The Quest for Happiness

Instructor(s): Marta Kunecka

Be immersed in the wisdom of Western and Eastern thought as we explore varied ideas of "happiness" through the ages. By closely examining the works of chosen philosophers, we will explore the concept of happiness in order to understand its essence. The analysis of the studies emerging from the field of positive psychology will help us understand how these concepts can be applied in our lives.   

HC 407 (How) Is a Better World Possible? Politics Between Utopia & Dystopia

Instructor(s): Philipp Kneis

Would a better world be possible? In fact, one of the oldest problems for political and social theory is how to create an ideal state. Yet this quest for utopia has always come at the price of dystopia. An ideal state for whom? Every utopia, it seems, is someone else's dystopia. Even the most well-meaning ideas for creating a better society will have unintended consequences.
This colloquium class will address some of these problems. We will survey key utopian ideas, dystopian fears, and discuss how to develop sustainable solutions for concrete political and social problems while anticipating possible unintended consequences. 

HC 407 Jazz Literature: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"

Instructor(s): Damien Weaver

This course explores the concept of "jazz fiction." By this, we mean novels and stories that are not only about jazz, but those which strive to be jazz in their attempts to imitate, evoke, or metaphorically suggest the music in narrative form. We are also interested in the notion of call-and-[reader]-response; that is, how authors attempt to involve the reader as active participants in the creation of the work. Features of the course include jam session-style discussions, creative writing exercises, and a final collaborative project. Much music will also be played throughout.

OSU-Cascades Campus

Find the day/time and CRN details for these courses in the OSU Schedule for Fall 2025.

HC 407 Experiential Learning in Literature and the Environment

Instructor(s): Bradley Martin

Students will learn the foundational thinking that underlies environmental literature and its diverse perspective on in society.  Students will gain an understanding of environmental literature from excerpts of authors such as:  Carson, Leopold, Muir, Nash, Lopez among other environmental journals and articles.  Students will gain experiential learning through exploring a local environmental organization (or environmental phenomena).  Students will then compare/contrast the organizations mission and activism with the environmental philosophies of authors discussed in class.  

HC 407 Curating Climate Change: Ethics, Education, and Ecology in the Oregon High Desert 

Instructor(s): Rebekah Sinclair

In this class, students spend a full day at High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon learning about and reflecting on how ethics, education, and ecology come together to address the impacts of climate change in the Oregon high desert (OHD). Students learn about OHD ecosystems from experts in biology and traditional ecological knowledge (Ecology), reflect on the moral and societal issues that contribute to desert ecological harms and changes (Ethics), and learn firsthand from museum curators the various pedagogical practices that allow them and science communicators to convey these ideas to the public (Education). 

HC 407 Origins and Evolution of Domestication

Instructor(s): Bruce Seal

During the course, we will explore the origins of plant, animal, and microbial domestication by analyzing evolutionary genomic and sociological aspects of domestication.  Domestication can be defined as "a distinctive coevolutionary, mutualistic relationship between domesticator and domesticate" that can be "distinguished from related but ultimately different processes of resource management and agriculture" during human history.  The origins of domestication continue to be an active area of scientific investigation that impacts present-day agricultural production and companion animal/plant interaction with humans.

BI 221HZ Principles of Biology: Cells

Instructor(s): Pat Ball

Introduction to fundamental biological concepts and theories about the chemical and molecular basis of life, structure and function, transformation of energy and matter and information flow at a cellular and molecular level. 

COMM 111HZ Public Speaking

Instructor(s): Nicholas Dahl

Emphasizes developing communication skills by examining and demonstrating how self-awareness, audience, content, and occasion influence the creation and delivery of speeches and presentations. 

PSY 202HZ Introduction to Psychology II

Instructor(s): Chris Wolsko

Introduces science and application of psychology. Emphasizes psychological concepts, theories, and principles related to: Personality, Social Psychology, Health and Well-Being, Motivation and Emotion, Disorders, Therapies, Lifespan Development, and related topics.

WR 121HZ English Composition

Instructor(s): Catherine Snyder

Engages students in the study and practice of critical thinking, reading, and writing. Focuses on analyzing and composing across varied rhetorical situations and in multiple genres. Applies key rhetorical concepts flexibly and collaboratively throughout writing and inquiry processes.