NST1090: Science of Sport

4 NST1 Credits

From the first recorded event at the ancient Olympic Games in 760 BC to the present, humans have long been captivated by sports. Humans are competitive by nature, and while sports are thrilling to both watch and play, sports are also a powerful demonstration of science. Every sport from soccer to cricket, baseball to softball, football, swimming and track and field all involve a complex symphony of science, technology, engineering, and math. This course will explore the science that underlies sport, specifically incorporating the traditional scientific disciplines of anatomy and physiology, physics, psychology, biomechanics and math. We will explore the systems of the human body that make it possible for a pitcher to throw a baseball at 100 mph, a marathoner to run 26.2 miles in just under 2 hours or a figure skater to land a quadruple axle. We will explore how science contributes to the limits of human speed, strength and endurance. We have accumulated considerable amount of information that contributes to our understanding of health, the human body and human performance in relation to sport and exercise. We will explore a range of topics from the effects of exercise on heart rate, oxygen consumption, muscle function and fatigue, joint mechanics, metabolism and concussion. Importantly, we will put the concepts we learn in class into practice in the lab and on the field to test them and collect and use data to critically analyze athletic performance and the underlying scientific principles that define it.

Prerequires: None

SCN3640 Science and Innovation
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsAn examination of the concepts, principles and policies related to research and development activities with examples from the history of the subject from its Greek beginnings to modern times. Successful and failed R&D projects from multiple disciplines will be explored as a driving force for innovation. The complex relationships that the scientific and engineering enterprises have to the innovation process will be examined with respect society, industry, and political motivations.

Prerequisites: NST10%%

LIT4616 Shakespeare's Sex
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsShakespeare's works have long held a privileged position in the histories of sex, gender, and eroticism. In this course, we will consider how Shakespeare helps us "think sex" in its various bodily, psychological, political, textual, and historical dimensions. What counts as "sex" in Shakespeare's world(s)? What desires, relations, and practices are rendered perceptible-and/or imaginable-through his poetry and plays? Which categories, identities, and emotions mattered when Shakespeare and his contemporaries imagined sex and its meanings, and how do these align with, and diverge from, those which inform our present lives and erotic relations? To explore these and related questions, we will read four major plays and two works of poetry: Romeo & Juliet, Othello, As You Like It, Cymbeline, The Rape of Lucrece, and selections from The Sonnets. Drawn from across the Shakespearean canon, such works will allow us to consider how differences of genre and literary form shape erotic possibilities, as well as how issues of race, gender, status, religion, reputation, and ethnicity intersect with sexual meanings, both in that era and our own. To enhance our appreciation of these works and their erotic possibilities, we will routinely consider modern, cinematic adaptions of the plays we read, as well as select screen biographies (Shakespeare in Love, All Is True). Finally, we will attend to the curious case of Shakespeare's sex: not only what we know-and don't know-about the playwright's (sexual) biography, but why his erotic relations continue to arouse interest and speculation, some four hundred years after his death.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

LIT4609 Shakespearean Bodies
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

What kinds of bodies are represented in Shakespeare? Which bodies "matter," to whom, and on what terms? How are embodied meanings forged and contested on the Shakespearean stage, and how are such meanings informed by differences of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, religion, and bodily ability? In this course, we will consider how Shakespeare helps us think about bodies in their various material, political, textual, and historical dimensions. To do so, we will read six major plays: Antony & Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Pericles, Richard III, and Titus Andronicus. Drawn from across the Shakespearean canon, these works will allow us to consider how differences of genre enable and constrain certain kinds of bodily thinking, as well as how issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and violence intersect with bodily meanings, both in that era and our own. To enhance our appreciation of these works, we will routinely consider modern, cinematic adaptions of the plays we read, as well as relevant works of literary criticism. Throughout, we will discuss the relevance of these works to our understanding of bodies today; consider how modern conceptual categories can inform and inhibit our understanding of bodies past; and explore how stage drama, as a representational medium which privileges the performed body, allows us to think about the various processes through which human bodies assume cultural meanings.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

NST2085 Socio-Ecological Prairie Systems
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

**NST2085 AND LVA2085 are two separate courses and students are held responsible to register for the course that they would like to receive credit for.**

Socio-ecological systems (SES) are linked systems of people with nature, emphasizing that humans must be seen as a part of, not apart from nature. This course will explore the nature of the prairie, both as a socio-ecological system and as a subject for exploration and contemplation for visual and literary artists. Before the Euro-American (un)settlement of the North American middle west-about 150 years ago-the tallgrass prairie extended for approximately 145 million acres from Canada to Texas. Now, after several generations of overgrazing, plowing, and the intensities of agricultural production, there remains less than 5% of what some scientists call our most endangered ecosystem. We will investigate how prairies function, study the causes and consequences of related ecological patterns and processes in prairie landscapes, describe both the loss and restoration of prairie environments, and appreciate the potential for the role of the arts in naming, analyzing, and imagining solutions relating to the examination and repair of prairie systems. Studying SES allows for the development of important skills for future leaders, such as approaches for incorporating uncertainty, nonlinearity, and self-reorganization from instability. Transdisciplinary approaches will be employed to address complex temporal, spatial, and organizational scales to investigate real world challenges.

Prerequisites: NST1 and FCI1000 and WRT1001

SES2000 Socio-Ecological Systems

4 Credits

Special Topic Descriptions: https://babson.sharepoint.com/:w:/s/SESTeachingFaculty/EWYrFfzN_uZDhS_m8w-TmAcBP35aZg1XkbeRQAjsQ7HapQ?e=pc4LSt&CID=4F7F0C1A-ED6A-4E61-9AB9-A0476C8E2B98

This co-taught course will integrate across the social sciences and ecological sciences to focus on socio-ecological systems(SES), which are linked systems of people with nature, emphasizing that humans must be seen as a part of, not apart from nature. These connected systems are complex, adaptive, and are governed by feedbacks within and between social and bio-physical processes. Studying SES allows for the development of important skills desperately needed for future business leaders, such as approaches for incorporating uncertainty, nonlinearity, and self-reorganization from instability. Students will be taught systems thinking and how to identify and develop an understanding of the interdependent and interrelated structures and feedbacks of dynamic systems. Transdisciplinary approaches will be employed to address complex temporal, spatial, and organizational scales to investigate real world challenges. Beyond just social impact businesses or corporate social responsibility, teaching system dynamics for sustainability allows students to develop as system change leaders.

This course will directly address the new integrated sustainability theme and will provide a strong background for all of our students in integrative systems thinking, ecological integrity, and structural injustice. Students will be introduced to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Planetary Boundaries Framework, resilience strategies, and leverage points for systems-based change for sustainability. Students will also learn concept mapping techniques as a way of visually representing complex systems, their relationships, and indirect connections and feedback effects. The skills learned can then be expanded and built from in subsequent elective courses. There are multiple content versions of this course including Climate Systems, Food Systems, Natural Disaster and Resilience Systems, Prairie Systems, Urban Systems, and Water Systems that are offered across different semesters.

Prerequisites: NST 10XX and FCI 1000 and WRT 1001

SPN4640 Spanish Cinema and Culture
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course is designed as a conversation class, with a strong cultural component. The major course materials are contemporary Spanish language films and supplementary readings. Through the lens of ethical questions and concerns that surface in these films, students will study issues relevant to the history, culture, and politics of contemporary Latin America and Spain. Films and readings serve as the basis for debate, discussion, and written analysis. This course aims to ease the path towards greater fluency through improvements in accuracy and more spontaneous communication.

Open to students with an Intermediate level of Spanish, or higher.

Prerequisites: SPN4620, or equivalent proficiency as demonstrated through a placement test.

SPN2200 Spanish I

(Formerly SPN1200)
4 General CreditsThis is a fast-paced introductory course that prepares students for further study of the language. Through engaging, meaningful activities, students will learn to accomplish real-world communicative tasks. The course incorporates a wide variety of interactive and authentic materials to put language into practice. As the course adopts an intensive and immersive approach, it is recommended for students with some previous exposure to language learning and/or the highly motivated rank beginner.

SPN4610 SPANISH II
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsThis is a fast-paced advanced beginner course. The course rapidly expands control of basic grammatical structures and vocabulary, with special attention to speaking and listening. Students consolidate their ability to communicate in Spanish through a wide range of highly communicative and interactive activities that encourage the development of real-world skills and abilities. Spanish II is the second course in the Proficiency Sequence, a program of study designed to bring students to proficiency in 4 semesters.

Prerequisites: SPN2200 Spanish I (formerly SPN1200), or equivalent proficiency as demonstrated through a required placement test. Not open to fluent speakers of Spanish.

SPN4620 Spanish III
(Formerly Borderlands)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This course will provide an in-depth review and expansion of Intermediate-level Spanish grammar and vocabulary through oral and written practice. Through the use of selected readings, films and music, students will continue to develop their ability to communicate proficiently in Spanish. Supplementary materials will provide a jumping off point for discussions of immigrant experiences in the U.S., Spain, and Latin America. The course will explore the factors that motivate migration, as well the implications (economic, political, artistic, musical, culinary, linguistic, etc.) of immigrant experiences and cultural exchanges throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

Prerequisites: SPN1200 or SPN2200 (Accelerated Elementary Spanish at Babson), or equivalent proficiency as demonstrated through a required placement test. Not open to fluent speakers of Spanish.