Credit Hours: 1.00. This course is the second half of the required course sequence taken by all students entering the Honors College. It has no prerequisites and is restricted to students accepted by the Honors College. Typically offered Spring.

Course Description: In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project.  This course is only open to 3rd and 4th year students.

​

With increased habitat fragmentation, air travel, and travel corridors, noise is ubiquitous and has an impact on both wildlife and people. In this course, students will design and conduct a research study about noise in the local community and discuss novel ideas to address these issues. The technical component of the course will cover properties of sound, techniques of qualitative and quantitative analyses, and basic R programming. No prior experience with R or computer programming required. Students will learn the fundamentals in this course. 

This course is for new members of the Honors College community, who entered as continuing students or transfer student. It is designed to help you hone fundamental learning outcomes of an honors education: interdisciplinary thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, research thinking, collaboration, and global awareness. Through this course, you will also engage with the pillars of the Honors College and develop community within the Honors College.

To accomplish these objectives, the course is simultaneously project-based and experiential. You will work in multi-disciplinary teams on applied research that emphasizes critical and multi-dimensional thinking about real-world problems. Through project-based learning, you will move your skills beyond identifying and understanding a problem to identifying and formulating solutions to that problem. The problem addressed in the course is local or global in scope and has social, economic, political, and/or environmental implications for our local and/or global community. The problem also begs an interdisciplinary, innovative solution.

​

Continuing in the vein of experiential learning and of building your honors ethos, you will attend events (some as a class, others individually) and participate in programs that embody the Honors College’s pillars: Community and Global Engagement, Leadership, Research, and Interdisciplinary Academics. You will curate a schedule of events that take place during the semester and reflect on these experiences.

This course will introduce the unique environments and the culture of the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador while integrating ecological topics including biodiversity, adaptation and evolution, biogeography, endemicism, and conservation biology. Students will learn about the history of the islands, explore diverse ecosystems in both marine and terrestrial environments, and will see wildlife species including giant tortoises, marine iguanas, frigatebird, sea lions, whales, Galapagos penguins, sea turtles, Darwin’s finches, sharks, and many more.

Students will also learn about human impacts on the islands resulting from climate change, invasive species, and tourism. The itinerary includes visits to Quito, Isabela Island, Santa Cruz Island, San Cristobal Island, and the Mindo Cloud Forest. Activities include hiking, snorkeling, a volcano walk, and a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station to meet with scientists and environmental educators. Students must be fully vaccinated and up to date against Covid-19 as defined by the CDC to join this program.

Independent Study - GIS Capstone Experience. Learning Outcomes. Understand the principle and value of using and curating geospatial information.

Interdisciplinary Honors - Independent Study. Credit Hours: 1.00 to 3.00. Individualized course of study undertaken with faculty supervision.

​

Current scholarly research projects in qualifying for credit include:  NASA Global Monitoring project, US Fish and Wildlife Service Automation of Endangered Bird Species project, Mongolian Sonic Practices project, and Wolf Park behavioral studies project.