Exploration: The General Education Requirements in the College (PART 2)

Last time I wrote about the courses I took to fulfill the Foundational Approaches portion of the College's General Education Requirements. Here is part two, on the Sectors of Knowledge:

Sectors of Knowledge

Society: I’m really interested in media, so for this requirement I took COMM 130, Mass Media and Society. The class looked at the evolution of media throughout human history and also considered where different media are headed. It was also a great opportunity to work with someone like Professor Turow, a very accomplished scholar and public figure.

History & Tradition: HIST 023 -- double counted with Cross Cultural Analysis.

Arts & Letters: I’m currently taking COML 100 (The Global Novel). This is my first English class in college and it’s been such a welcome change from what I’m used to! I’ve been able to employ the analytical skills from math classes in our class discussions and papers and I hope to do the reverse this in my math classes!

Interdisciplinary Humanities & Social Science: For this requirement I took HIST 012 Globalization and its Historical Significance -- check out my earlier blog post on the class!

Living World: I took classes the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years and PSYC 001 (Psychology 100) was one of them. It was my first true science course while at Penn and looked at the brain and psychology.

Physical World: I am currently taking GEOL 125, Earth Through Time. When I was young, I was obsessed with dinosaurs, and a big part of Earth Through Time has been committed to learning about the earliest forms of life on Earth. We are just beginning to talk about dinosaurs so I am very excited to continue.

Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences & Mathematics: When it came time to fill this requirement I decided to do something a little bit different and take PHIL 025, the Philosophy of Science. We talked a lot about what it means to truly ‘know’ something and what it means for something to be a fact-- particularly relevant today!

That’s just a brief introduction to the classes I took to fulfill the Gen Ed Requirements. The great thing about the College is that given the amount of choice, everyone’s coursework will be totally different. It comes down to what you want to have learned and be well-versed in after four years.

Matthew S, C'18