Favourite First Year Courses
Hey there future students,
Did you know that all of King's degrees, from Business to Chemistry, all come with required Foundations and Breadth courses? While they may seem scary at first, these courses are actually the perfect way to challenge your personal strengths and discover new academic passions you didn’t even realize you had. Foundations courses consist of English, History, Philosophy and Theology. You'll gain important skills like how to critically read and analyze your textbooks and academic articles, wrestle with ideas, engage a variety of perspectives, and skilfully communicate these thoughts in those oh-so-important academic papers. Breadth courses include Fine Arts & Second Language courses, Natural Science courses and Social Science courses. Through these courses, you'll get a broad overview of a variety disciplines and see how major themes like faith, belief, ethics, and more can play out in different disciplines, and how these diverse discipline relate to each other. Plus you may find out you love a subject area that you never knew about previously! To help you to choose which Foundations and Breadth courses to take, here's a few student favourites!
HIST204: The West and the World 1500-Present
History 204 focuses on western history from the year 1500 to present day. This course is mandatory for all students at King’s and one of the course I enjoyed most while in my first year. My professor for the course was Dr. Vaudry; who is an incredibly engaging instructor who uses stories, movie clips and other visuals to really help you grasp the importance of the events you read about in your textbook.
ENGL214: English Literature and Academic Interpretation I
Another course that all students take during their time at King’s is English Literature and Academic Interpretation I (also known as ENGL214). ENGL214 and 215 are two mandatory English classes intended to help students critical assess literature and to perfect their paper writing. Instructors of this course take the time to address the different formats for academic papers and help you learn to write with proper format regardless of if you’ll be writing papers for a bachelor of science or arts degree.
GEOG201: Physical Geography
A favourite among art students who are required to take two natural science courses, physical geography offers a playful introduction to the elements that make up our planet. Famous for having the best field trips, this course features a two-day overnight trip to Jasper. What better way to learn about the earth than to venture out into it?!
PSYC250: Basic Psychological Processes
People: Can’t live with em’ can’t live without em’…so why not understand them a little better? Science majors at King’s are required to obtain social science credits and a popular choice is basic psychological processes (PSYC250). This course includes insights on human perceptions, motivation, learning habits and relationships.
ECON203: Principles of Economics I
This course is mandatory for PHE and commerce students as well as a viable social science credit for science majors curious about how the economy works. Economics can be a scary word, but the principles of Economic I course at King’s is anything but scary. This course is easy to understand with the thorough teaching style of Dr. Kits and will leave you feeling accomplished when you can explain the impact of changes in oil prices on the economy to your family and friends.
No matter what Foundation or Breadth courses you end up in, and regardless which professor is teaching the course, I can almost guarantee that you’ll end up loving the class you’re in. These courses bring students of all degrees together; when I took HIST204, it was the only class I had with my friend in biology and ECON203 is how I met some of my best friends. Course registration is now open for the 2017/18 school year, make sure you pay your tuition deposit and start registering in classes. Your future best friends and future favourite university courses are waiting!
Stay Golden,
Marissa