<p>I'm a junior, and this semester, I'm hoping to step a little past my ILR/humanities comfort zone. Does anyone have recommendations for an interesting science course for non-majors, or one that does not require too much technical experience? I was planning for a science career until about junior year of high school, so I have a certain level of background knowledge, but nothing that would prepare me for a hardcore science class. </p>
<p>My own search of the course catalog revealed some cool-sounding courses, mostly in Bio & Society, but I'd value some personal experience if anyone can share. Many thanks.</p>
<p>Astro 1101 was an easy but interesting way to fulfill a science req. You learn some cool facts, and exams are mainly based on Blackboard questions that you do for homework.</p>
<p>there’s a wines course in CALS that delves much more into the science behind oenology and viticulture, as opposed to the hotelie wines course. that’s definitely on my to-do list. i think there’s a chemistry requirement but i’m not sure. i know you make your own wine in lab though! that’s cool. :)</p>
<p>Take a course in evolutionary biology and behavior. Frankly, it’s a crime that one can graduate college without having a firm understanding of evolution.</p>
<p>I also wouldn’t worry too much about a course being a non-major or major course in certain divisions of biology. The bio courses I took were for majors and required intro biology as a pre-req, but I never took intro biology and had no trouble getting As as a diligent ILRie. Obviously with chemistry or physics, you are gonna need the pre-reqs.</p>
<p>I wish this course was offered when I was an undergrad:</p>
<p>Although it’s not really “science”, I recommend CS 1114, Intro to Computing using Matlab and Robotics. Most fascinating class I’ve taken at Cornell so far, and it inspired me to become a CS major.</p>
<p>Earthquake! is a lot of fun. I took it as did many of my non-science major friends. When I took the class, it was full of Hotelies. I would definitely recommend this class.</p>
<p>Here is a gem I found and is definitely unknown amongst non-science majors: Evolutionary Biology 2780. Technically it’s the version of evolution for majors, but unlike other bio courses, it’s based on concepts, not memorization, which makes it more like a class you would be familiar with (and a lot of the bio majors freak out about not having a memorization class). If you can, try and get accepted into the “Writing in the Majors” section like I did. That writing section nets you an extra credit (so 5 credit course), but the workload is not bad at all. A short writing assignment every couple weeks (1-2 pages) and a reading assignment every week (really not that bad, except when you have to write the 1 (and only 1) main paper of 8pgs). If you do the work for the class, it’s probably the easiest A I’ve gotten at Cornell (plus it’s 5 credits). If you can’t get into the writing section, it’s still a great class without too much work, but you definitely learn a lot. Especially for non-science majors, this class is a great exposure to a “real” science class because you are learning evolution at a science-major level, but the nature of the material is such that it suits those who are in a more liberal arts type program in how you should approach learning and studying the material. I think there is a requirement for having intro biology and I took AP in high school. If you don’t meet that requirement, I would say still try and enroll and hopefully they don’t catch you (Cornell never seems to check prereqs from my experience) since having a biology background is definitely not important at all for this class.</p>
<p>PS. In case you were wondering, I’m an econ/govt double major.</p>