Recommended General Education Classes
Are you having trouble with what class you can choose to fulfill the general education requirement? Do you need a few more credits to fill your graduation requirement? In this blog, I will share some of the general education and no restriction courses I took that might be excellent choices for you！
The first class I would like to introduce is Theater 130: Contemporary Playwrights of Color, a three-credit course that fulfills the general education for AL and DU. The class is very invigorating and low stress. It teaches students about the theater movements of all races, and the body of literature by contemporary playwrights of color within a historical context. You will have a small amount of writing for this class two to three times a week. There are in-class discussions depending on what play you read for the semester, as well as the short responses for the after-class questions. You will write several papers with different module requirements, like self monologue and dramaturgy. I had Maegan Clearwood as my TH 130 instructor, and I had a wonderful class experience with her. Professor Clearwood is such an innovative and passionate teacher. She loves the subject she teaches, and she loves all her students. The class always starts with a brainstorm, followed by the course content and a play discussion. Students will be separated into different groups each time to exchange their ideas and thoughts for the discussion topic. The reading materials for this class are educational and historical, and I personally learned a lot from all of them. Professor Clearwood is also super understandable and encouraging; she can seek the sparkles in every student and helps them to develop their strong points in theater. As long as you are willing to pay attention to the lecture and put effort into the writings and discussion, you will receive a good grade and harvest a lot of useful knowledge from this class.
The next class I want to suggest is Plagues, Food, and People: Ecology of Food and Disease. This class is four credits, and fulfill the general education BS requirement. The class content is so fascinating. It includes knowledge about the ecology of major diseases related to food, from ergotism and the Salem Witch Trials to the Irish Potato famine to celiac disease and diabetes. It also talks about how people, microbes, and farming change our health and the environment. I took the class my first year, and I enjoyed the class in every possible way. Some people might think this course is dry, but if you like subjects that are related to this, you will 100 percent have a great time. As a 100 level course, STOCKSCH 171 only teaches simple concepts, but, amazingly, I was able to have a healthier diet and explain some of the common diseases after taking the class. The teacher I had was Daniel Coole, a kind and knowledgeable professor. I appreciated how he presented his class material, and how he filled each 75-minute lecture with interesting concepts. There are four exams, 10 quizzes, two or three short responses, and two 400-word papers in this class. As long as you do this activity carefully and make sure to attend the review sessions, you can receive a good grade.
The last class I want to bring up here is the Theater 140: Fundamental of Acting. This class has no restriction, so if you need some credits to fill your graduation requirement, you don’t want to miss it. It is such a great class to learn and experience acting, and it allows you to make friends with everyone in the classroom. The course activities are creative and low stress, focused on improvisation, theater games, monologues, and scenes. The class barely has any writing requirements, but it requires you to attend two plays during the semester and write two short reflections on them. The instructor I had was Vishnupad Barve. He was finishing his Ph.D. at that moment and graduated recently. He was an innovative and instructive teacher, and his class was always exciting. A couple of my friends who took TH140 with other instructors think the class is super interesting, and they would highly recommend other students to take the class.
I hope this short blog can help you with your future class enrollment!