MUS 116: Campus Band

Held in the Fall and Spring, campus band provides students with a lot, a little, or not much musical experience the opportunity to participate in rehearsals and refresh their musical prowess or just jam out. 

This is a one-credit course and covers a diverse selection of band repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to contemporary works. 

FOR 101: Michigan's Forests

In a class that highlights the different roles of Michigan's forests, students learn to identify trees in both historic and contemporary contexts and understand various concepts related to Michigan forests. 

For environmental biology and zoology senior Logan Sowerby, the class allowed him to identify different trees, and he still does so to some extent after taking this course in his freshman year. 

“I love trees and stuff, and I love nature, so I thought, well, this would be a good way to see if that's kind of what I want to do [for a career],” he said. “I liked it because it actually let me go out there and kind of envision myself doing this in the future. Like a part of my job.”

This one-credit asynchronous course lets students kick back and learn about the forests around them. Sowerby said the class is also a time-saver for students with busy schedules. 

REL 175: Religion in Film

Mixing two subjects, religion and film, this class allows students to study different aspects of religion in films and discuss them with peers. 

This three-credit asynchronous course covers non-fiction, documentary, animated and long-form contemporary movies, some of which may not have even been studied from a religious view.

Religion in film is not open to seniors. 

KIN 101N (301-303, 730): Intro to stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking and canoeing

Open to students of all walks of life, KIN 101 is a class curated for students who are willing to learn and engage with the process of different water sports. 

This one-credit class is in-person through its 301-303 sections and online through its 730 section. 

While the in-person course takes students out on the water, from early to mid-September, the online version is just as informative, providing students the opportunity to engage with classmates through different visual assignments on Padlet. 

For Trey Rouss, instructor of KIN 101, the class is taught through fun, but tries to answer two fundamental questions: “Should I be out here paddling today, and do I have a solution when things don't go the way I expected?”

“Our teaching is focused through experiential learning and collaborative learning,” Rouss said. “There’s lots of working with each other, lots of problem solving, and challenges.”

THR 101N: Acting I for non-theatre majors:

For those with a little pep in their step, this course offers improvisational, creative and monologue-and-scene-study exercises. 

This three-credit in-person class is open to students not in a theatre major to experience theatre in different forms and learn the basics of acting. 

HST 293: Witches, demons and the occult in pre-modern Europe:

A class that fills up quickly due to its name, HST 293 invites students to explore the history of European witch hunts, while also examining their religious and social contexts alongside evolving beliefs about magic, demonology, and the occult from the late Middle Ages to around 1700.

“The first half of the course is about magic,” instructor of the class, Liam Brockey, said. “From classical antiquity … from the Egyptians, the Romans, and the Greeks until about the 14th century.”

“The second half of the semester is about witch trials, so it’s really a course about gender and law.”

A standout assignment is for students to create their own book of spells. Some range from finding lost keys to getting MSU to win a football game, Brockey said. 

“It’s a good way of problematizing the certainties we have about science and the modern world,” Brockey said. “There are a lot of parallels between the way people think about healing and persecution of others.”