{"id":739,"date":"2020-05-18T06:56:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T13:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/first-year-seminar\/?page_id=739"},"modified":"2020-07-20T11:15:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T18:15:16","slug":"framework-and-topics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/first-year-seminar\/framework-and-topics\/","title":{"rendered":"Framework and topics"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Year Seminar framework and topics<\/h1>\n

NAU program guides communication, academic discovery<\/h2>\n

Each course of First Year Seminar (FYS) 121 is guided by an ambiguous and enduring question relevant to the human experience. To guide students toward engaging in this complex, multi-disciplined inquiry, facilitators develop essential questions that guide the units of the course. The essential questions build on one another toward the culminating event of the course\u2014answering the meta-questions.<\/p>\n

Offered weekly, writing-as-thinking exercises are used to build two skills that are needed to successfully engage in the three core writing experiences:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. to provide continuous practice searching for effective, concise ways to communicate the thinker\u2019s ideas<\/li>\n
  2. to grapple with the intellectual complexity of the content<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In-class discourse is also used regularly for two purposes:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. to prepare thinkers to practice and develop verbal arguments and perspectives on course material<\/li>\n
    2. to build the Socratic seminar-style skills necessary to meaningfully participate in the Visiting Scholar event, which requires students to use an outside perspective on the course\u2019s meta-question<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Below is a list of topics currently offered, often in the form of a course’s meta-question:<\/p>\n