Transition Experience (TREX) Courses

Many students wonder if they have what it takes to earn that four-year degree. The College of Arts and Sciences has specifically designed courses that will help you transition from your high school successes to a college student on the path toward graduation.

Our Transitions Experience (TREX) courses will help you understand how to think critically, reason analytically, and make connections between disciplines—all skills needed to be successful in college.

You will learn these skills in courses that are as engaging as they are informative. Interested in why Paris is known as the “City of Lights”?  Want to learn how your dinner choices influence the world around you? Ever wonder what it would be like to participate in a medieval battle? Can’t seem to figure out if why so many professional athletes end up in legal trouble? Want to better understand what happens while you sleep? All these topics and more are addressed in our TREX courses.

TREX Courses Fall 2012-13

• From Idiot to Citizen:  Education for Democratic Citizenship
• Imagining Paris:  Past, Present, Future
• Intro to Creativity for All Majors
• Kings, Prophets, and Storytellers
• Myth as Reality
• The Mythbuster Experience
• The Medieval Warrior: Past and Present
• Nutrition, Nature and Nations - Food for Thought
• Popular Culture Meets Communication
• Science Fiction and Philosophy
• Sleep on It
• Sport and American Society
• Sport and Modern Society

From Idiot to Citizen:  Education for Democratic Citizenship

Dr. James Schul
This course will explore the nature of citizenship education in a democracy and how students are being prepared for citizenship while here at Ohio Northern University.  Through in-depth readings, classroom discussion, presentations, experiential activities, and other instructional methods, the students will explore some of the following key questions:  What is the difference between citizenship education in a democracy and citizenship in a totalitarian state?  What must citizens be able to know and do in order to be effective citizens?  How can students maximize their civic education while here at Ohio Northern?
 

Imagining Paris:  Past, Present, Future

Dr. Roseanna Dufault
In this course, we will explore the “City of Lights” from many angles.  We will examine historical aspects in unusual ways; famous events, people, monuments, and trends will come into question.  What was Paris like in the past?  How did it come to be one of the world’s most famous cities?  Why is the Eiffel Tower so evocative?  What is it like to live in Paris now, as opposed to visiting as a tourist?  Is Paris as we know it sustainable?   What will Paris be like in the future?

Intro to Creativity for All Majors

Dr. Denise D’Arca
This course is based on the premises that creativity is an ability that can be developed, and that it's a useful tool for every person(not just those in the arts). Topics to be covered include application of the creative process in various contexts (including the student's major), brainstorming and problem-solving techniques, the science of creativity, and myths or barriers to creativity and how to overcome them. Everybody can be creative.

Kings, Prophets, and Storytellers

Dr. Raymond Person
This course examines select stories of Israel's kings and prophets in Samuel-Kings and Chronicles, including a discussion of how these stories may have been transmitted in oral tradition.
 

Myth as Reality

Dr. John Lomax
Most people unconsciously employ two forms of reasoning to make sense of what they experience, subjective and objective.  Both forms of reasoning derive conclusions from premises, but their premises are inherently different.  The main premise of subjectivity is that the desires and actions of persons engender the world that we experience.  The main premise of objectivity is that the things that we perceive function in accordance with the intrinsic nature of those things.  Thus the main questions of subjective reasoning are “Who did it?” and “Why?”  The main questions of objective reasoning are “What is it?” and “How does it work?”  Both forms of reasoning can explain everything that people experience, but the explanations differ radically.  This course will examine subjective reasoning as a way to know the world and analyze the myths that people use to express their sense of reality.  We will explore myths in text and image to discern the function, range and impact of myth in the lives of individuals and communities, from antiquity to the present.

The Mythbuster Experience

Prof. Richard Miller
This course will investigate the myths that have been “busted” by innovators and inventors in the past and present, and the ones hoped for the future. We will use critical thinking applications and investigations to study urban legends and media, and make and justify decisions by collecting and gathering data.   We will also investigate today’s myths that influence societal institutions (economics, education, family, politics, and religion) and their degree of impact. Students will be involved in a hands on mythbusting experience as part of this class.
 

The Medieval Warrior: Past and Present

Dr. Lisa Robeson
The Western ideal of the warrior hero developed during the Middle Ages in ways that still inform Western ideals of military heroism. This course explores the ideal of the warrior hero in the Middle Ages using the tools of different academic disciplines, including history, literature, art, and archaeology, and then examines the transformation of the ideal in modern culture, focusing on contemporary literature, art, and film.
 

Nutrition, Nature and Nations - Food for Thought

Drs. Vicki Motz and Catherine Young
This course explores what we eat, why we eat it, and the personal, regional, and global ramifications of our food choices.  Students will critically analyze information regarding worldwide practices in growing, marketing, regulating, and consuming of food.  Come prepared to read, write, think, discuss, and eat!
 

Popular Culture Meets Communication

Dr. Jennifer Walton
The objective of this course is to introduce students to a variety of communication concepts and processes that will help them succeed in different tasks in the academic, disciplinary, professional, and civic arenas. Popular films will be used to illustrate and explain communication concepts, allowing students to make real world connections in communication through the lens of popular film. We will spend the semester engaging in discussions and assignments that will foster an environment of creative and critical thinking.
 

Science Fiction and Philosophy

Dr. Errol Katayama
This course aims to develop and facilitate critical thinking skills by examining a number of philosophical issues (such as, the nature of reality, person, mind, and space and time, as well as ethical and political issues related to technology) through science fiction thought experiments.
 

Sleep on It

Dr. Megan Kraynok
Do you ever wonder why you don't go to sleep until 1 AM when you know you have class the next morning?  What is happening when you sleep? Why is sleep important? Why you dream? This course will investigate what normal and abnormal sleep looks like from birth to late life. We will examine sleep habits, sleep disorders, what happens when we get enough sleep (or not), and what sleep researchers are investigating today. We will also monitor our own sleep to figure out how we can sleep better, feel better, and perform better!
 

Sport and American Society

Dr. Russ Crawford
This course will examine history of the rise of sport in America from the Colonial Period to the present.  It will discuss the influence of sport on society and of society on sport, as well as examine the influence of technology, economics, politics, race, class, and gender on sport.
 

Sport and Modern Society

Dr. Bob Carrothers
Sports have become an integral part of modern societies, both in the U.S. and around the world.  To ignore sports or treat it simply as a diversion, is to ignore a fundamental element of domestic and international culture which leaves the picture of these societies incomplete. The goal of this course is to apply the critical lens of various academic disciplines (sociology, psychology, biology, business, and others) to all aspects of sports in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of these endeavors and of society as a whole.