In this course, students will continue to become acquainted with German-speaking cultures, while deepening their ability to analyze cultural material critically. Work on critical analysis will include numerous writing assignments and class discussion of films, articles, short stories, essays, and more. Review of complex grammar issues will be provided as well. After successful completion of this course, students should enter German 320. Prerequisite: German 240 or equivalent.

Is the universe eternal or did it have a beginning in time? Is matter made up of atoms or is it continuous? Is logic a universal language or is it limited by its cultural circumstances? How does the body carry the soul? These are just some of the questions posed and answered by Muslims, Christians, and Jews writing philosophy in Arabic throughout the medieval Islamic world. This course introduces students to the central texts, themes, and authors of the Arabic philosophical tradition as well as the translation and reception of Greek philosophical writings that lie at its start.

Image you are eating a veggie burger, but you cannot tell it from the beef burger. That is the advantage of modern food science. During this seminar, we will talk about tasty sustainable burgers, personalized nutrition foods, and 3D food printers. We will also explore together how nanotechnology, gene editing changing the foods we eat, and find out why gut microbiota and probiotics can enhance human healthy dramatically.

Microbes come in all shapes and sizes. Some microbes are tiny assassins lying in wait. Some make our Valentine's Day chocolates. Still other microbes are used by scientists to solve some of the world's most challenging scientific problems. We will explore the diversity of this microbial world and examine how microbes influence our lives in positive and negative ways.

What is spatial thinking? Whether it is an outbreak of a disease, the discovery of a new species, the path of a tornado, or the location of the nearest pizza place, knowing about where things happen is important to how we understand and relate to our local environment and to the world at large. This course will help students develop problem-solving skills, cultivate critical thinking skill, and foster data literacy skills, through employing cutting-edge technology to address real-world problems.

We have all heard of greenhouse gas emissions and its scary big brother: climate change. How are scientists combating this problem and moving towards a cleaner, greener future? In this seminar, we will investigate innovative technologies that use energy from renewable sources. From buses that run on water, to energy harvesting sidewalks, we will explore the function, feasibility, and limitations of renewable energy solutions.

Around the globe, bee populations are in trouble. As about one third of the human food supply is reliant on bee pollination, this in turn spells trouble for us. In this course, we will explore the incredible diversity of bees, the primary threats facing their populations, and the strategies scientists (including those at UMass Amherst) are developing to help bee populations.