Needing a New Class?

Is this you in class? Are you wishing that you hadn't taken those three Gen Eds? If you're having second thoughts about your course selections, Flyby has you covered. We've gone through the course catalogue and picked out some of the strangest classes offered this spring. The descriptions below are our best guesses of what these Gen Eds (plus a bonus Applied Physics course) might have to offer.

Fat Chance (Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning 14)

Flyby Course Description: Is this serious? Fat chance. Bad puns aside, this class sounds like a Harvard version of "The Biggest Loser." We expect it will challenge students, or "contestants," to celery-eating contests and physically demanding treks across the Yard. An added bonus for freshmen—anything's better than eating at Annenberg.

Cultural Agents (Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 13)

Flyby Course Description: In this class, students will learn spatial reasoning and critical thinking skills through class-wide games of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?". If you have nostalgia for your childhood or struggle with basic multiplication, we're confident that this is the class for you. By finding the elusive villain all over the world, we fully expect students to come out of the class with a working knowledge of both world geography and times tables.

Privacy and Technology (Computer Science 105—Satisfies Culture and Belief)

Flyby Course Description: This class on privacy is being taught by Professor Waldo, made famous in the classic children's series "Where's Waldo?". Once students are able to find their professor, they will discover the methods of stalking, using both standard social networking sites and more historical methods such as MySpace (a relic of the ancient past). The class will culminate in a final project in which students will be responsible for the cyber-stalking of another student for an entire week.

Introduction to Soft Matter (Applied Physics 225)

Flyby Course Description: (N.B.: This is not even a Gen Ed, but it does sound fun.) After all the hard work and time necessary for other SPU courses, this course offers a playful return to earlier methods of learning. It consists of a general introduction to the world of Play-Doh. (No, philosophy majors, we didn't misspell Plato.) Students in this course will discover the many different uses of the multicolored, mysterious substance, building sculptures and exploring the different properties of each Play-Doh color. The final project consists of the creation of a medieval castle (with possible extra credit for those who use LEGOs).