Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

The listing below reflects the Hub units fulfilled by courses in the 2019/2020 academic year.

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  • CAS BI 325: Principles of Neuroscience
    Fundamentals of the nervous system, emphasizing synaptic transmission; hierarchical organization; autonomic nervous system; mechanisms of sensory perception; reflexes and motor function; biorhythms; and neural mechanisms of feeding, mating, learning, and memory. Three hours lecture, one hour discussion. Lecture portion meets with CAS NE 203. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS BI 349: Neurotoxins in Biology, Medicine, Agriculture and War
    Neurotoxins used as a lens to study the consequences of venom on mammalian physiological systems; potential clinical applications of neurotoxins; neurotoxins at cellular and molecular levels; mechanisms and possible impacts of neurotoxic pesticides; and physiological effects of neurotoxic chemical weapons. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Critical Thinking.
    • Quantitative Reasoning I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS BI 523: Marine Urban Ecology
    Marine Urban Ecology is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that aims to understand how human and ecological processes can coexist in human-dominated systems. Topics, ecosystems, and organisms associated with urbanization in the Greater Boston area. Also offered as CAS GE 523. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS BI 531: Ichthyology: Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution of Fish
    A comprehensive introduction to fish biology and systematics. Emphasis on phylogenetic relationships, ecology, and behavior. Labs include morphological studies of specimens and behavioral studies of live fishes. This course is a prerequisite for the field course. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • CAS BI 539: Coral Reef Dynamics: Shallow Waters, Deep Time
    Tropical reefs-- diverse, complex, and ancient-- exhibit lawful cycles of growth, degradation, and regeneration. Explore these through observations on the Belize Barrier Reef in fossil reef environments and through laboratory experiments. Insights are applied to reef conservation in today's changing world. Also offered as CAS ES 539. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • CAS BI 541: Coral Reef Resilience and Restoration
    Caribbean coral reefs have fallen into ruin. Students develop methods to restore reef health by applying genomics, life history theory, landscape ecology and climatology. This course is an advanced follow-on to CAS BI/ES 539 (Coral Reef Dynamics), and includes field work in Belize. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS BI 546: Marine Megafaunal Ecology: Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and Surrounding Waters
    Marine macrofauna: whales, seals, seabirds, fishes, turtles, jellies, and people in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Evolution, food webs, and distributional ecology; physical and human influences on foraging and movement behavior. Student research builds ecosystem-based science for Sanctuary management. Effective Fall 2019, this course is part of a Hub sequence.
    • Part of a Hub sequence
  • CAS BI 550: Marine Genomics
    Covers the evolution of genomes, the architecture of gene networks, and the connection between genotype and phenotype in marine organisms, as well as the technical development of modern genomics. Student research projects utilize modern genomics experimental approaches. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS BI 569: Tropical Marine Invertebrates
    Explores the diversity of marine invertebrates, including body plans, feeding biology, reproductive strategies, and developmental programs. Field biodiversity surveys and behavioral studies in shallow water tropical marine environments, especially seagrass beds and mangrove. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • CAS BI 578: Marine Geographic Information Science
    Introduction to marine geographic information systems and spatial analysis for conservation, management, and marine landscape ecology. Comparative examples from Gulf of Maine and tropics. Solve problems in coastal zoning and marine park design, whale and coral reef conservation. Also offered as CAS GE 578. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS BI 591: Bio-Optical Oceanography
    This field- and lab-based course explores how the optically active constituents in seawater affect the in-water light field, and in turn, how field optics and remote sensing can facilitate the study of marine biogeochemistry, biological oceanography and water quality. Also offered as CAS ES 591. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS BI 593: Marine Physiology and Climate Change
    Explores the range of physiological responses marine organisms exhibit in response to climate change. Investigates phenotypic plasticity exhibited across different organisms and how this plasticity can influence an organism's resilience to its changing environment. Also offered as CAS ES 593. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS CC 101: Ancient Worlds: Core Humanities 1
    An interdisciplinary study of the origins of civilization, from Mesopotamia and the Hebrew Bible to the development of Greek civilization through Homer, tragedy, and the philosophy of Plato. We consider the contrasting values of the different cultures that have contributed to our own worldview with particular relation to the tension and or cooperation between the individual and society. Students also explore the nature of creativity in the works studied and by engaging with the visual culture of ancient Greece and the relation of beauty and power in the Parthenon and works at the MFA Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • CAS CC 102: The Way: from Antiquity to the the Medieval World: Core Humanities 2
    How to live: examining Aristotle, Confucius, Laozi, the Bhagavad-gita, Virgil, and the Gospels, students compare Biblical and Classical, and explore Eastern, views of "The Way," or the best human life, concluding with Dante's Divine Comedy. A focus on writing and oral / signed communication leads to an exploration of the nature of communication, while a study of Western and Asian art at the Museum of Fine Arts brings out the contrast of traditions and deepens Core's overall study of the relation of the individual to culture and to nature. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: First-Year Writing Seminar, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
    • First-Year Writing Seminar
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • CAS CC 111: Origins: the Big Bang, Earth, Life, and Humanity: Core Natural Sciences 1
    The origins of the physical world, a scientific parallel to CC 101. Explores how the fields of astronomy, earth science, biology, and anthropology help us to understand, from a scientific perspective, our place in the cosmos. Topics include Big Bang theory, evolution of the stars and earth, evolution of life, and the origins of human life and society. Assignments include computer-based and experimental laboratory work as well as team-based investigation and original research. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Quantitative Reasoning I
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS CC 112: Religion, Community, and the Birth of the Social Sciences: Core Social Science 1
    Examines the religious basis of society alongside various attempts to reform it (St. Augustine, Luther and Calvin, John Locke), early European attempts to understand other cultures (Spanish missionaries in Latin America, Jesuits in China) and concludes with twentieth-century social scientists analyzing religious experience (William James, Durkheim, Evans-Pritchard). We discuss what is a just war, whether we have natural rights, and whether tolerance is a utopian ideal, with a particular focus on the nature of critical thought and the various modes of argumentation employed in the works studied Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS CC 201: The Renaissance, Rediscovery, and Reformation: Core Humanities 3
    Reading Petrarch, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Descartes, we examine the revival of the Classics and explore the new interest in the physical world and the nature of authority. Topics studied include the rise of national literatures, the origins of modern political and scientific thought, and the beginning of the novel. A study of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Bach's music adds to our understanding of the foundations of the modern world, and a focus on writing and research complements our concern with authorship and its multiple modes of communication. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing, Research, and Inquiry; Research and Information Literacy.
    • Writing, Research, and Inquiry
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS CC 202: From Enlightenment and Romantic Revolt to the Modern World: Core Humanities 4
    Through Voltaire, Kant, Austen, the English Romantic Poets, Whitman and Dickinson, as well as the music of Beethoven, we examine questions of social hierarchy and what it means to know, the relation of subjectivity to reason, and our relationship with nature. Then, from the radical perspective of Nietzsche, returning to 20th-century America with W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk, and ending with Virginia Woolf's Modernist response to World War I, we see the roots of the modern world's questioning of what is knowable and our revaluation of the moral and philosophic bases of human life. The final semester of the four-semester Core Humanities sequence. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS CC 211: Power, Political Forms, and Economics: Core Social Science 2
    Builds on CC 112, considering the major events and processes that have shaped the modern world, and looks at the roots of these changes in the works studied in first year Core. Ideas of human rights and self-determination, the relation of the individual and society, and the relation of power and economics to society. Readings are drawn from classic works of social and political theory: Thucydides, Ibn Khaldun, Hobbes, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Weber, Adam Smith, Marx, Durkheim, and Malinowski. The course is writing intensive. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Writing-intensive Course.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS CC 212: Reality, Science, and the Modern World: Core Natural Science 2
    Studies the paradigm-shifting scientific theories of quantum theory and relativity that created a new world view and forced the 20th century into a new understanding of our relation to reality. Examines chaos theory and parallels these ideas with current debates and discoveries in science, such as climate change and the phenomenon of allegedly "junk science". Considers the role of science in the modern world, how we know what we know, and the nature of truth in a 21st century context. Effective Fall 2018, this course carries a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Critical Thinking

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