Courses
PaSSS students take six credits (two courses) during the first summer and up to twelve credits (four courses) during the following two summer(s).
CAS 100A Effective Speech
Instructor: William White
Credits: 3.00
Schedule #: 6621
Section: 621
June 29–August 10, 2022
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10:30 a.m.–noon
Room 209, Adler Athletic Complex
This general education course explores how people use techniques of oral communication to address practical, professional and civic problems. It is designed to introduce students to principles of effective public speaking, implemented through the design and presentation of individual speeches. Class size is limited to ensure that scheduled meetings can support students in focusing on the development of public speaking skills through in-class activities, collaborative learning, peer critiques, and examinations of various communication practices. Drawing upon concepts from the study of both rhetoric and communication science, the course aims to foster habits of ethical self-reflection alongside practical speaking skills. To that end, course content centers on the diverse ways that students participate in practices of citizenship and civic engagement. Linking content to practice, students are expected to demonstrate course concepts through the situational, generic, and ethical choices they make in composing their major speech assignments.
HIST 021 American Civilization Since 1877
Instructor: Jared Frederick
Credits: 3.00
Schedule #: 6438
Section: 621
June 29–August 10, 2022
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 2:00–3:30 p.m.
Room 209, Adler Athletic Complex
An historical survey of the American experience from the emergence of urban-industrial society in the late nineteenth century to the present. This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. HIST 21 seeks to introduce students to salient events, developments, and themes of United State history since 1877, including westward expansion and the decline of the Native American, the industrial revolution, urbanization, immigration, Gilded Age culture and politics, the labor movement, imperialism, Progressivism, segregation and African-American response, the women's movement, World War I, the Great Depression and New Deal, World War II, post-war prosperity, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the disillusionment of the 'Seventies', the Reagan revolution, and America in the post-Cold War era. The social and ideological diversity of the American experience is a prominent theme of HIST 21. Students learn how to "think historically", developing their capacity to identify and analyze key themes and issues from the past, critically assess primary sources, and sharpen their skills in marshaling data and concepts, and expressing them cogently in discussions and in writing.
HUM 100N Foundations in the Humanities: Understanding the Human Experience
Instructor: Samuel Findley
Credits: 3.00
Schedule #: 2315
Section: 621
June 29–August 10, 2022
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Room 209, Adler Athletic Complex
This course is an introduction to great ideas, themes, creations, and values in the arts and humanities, emphasizing the development of students' basic interpretive and close reading skills as applied to historically significant works in the various disciplines. The course introduces students to interpretive skills for analyzing and understanding historically significant works in the visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture), the performing arts (theater, film, dance, music), history, literature, and philosophy. Students demonstrate their basic understanding of the disciplines encompassed in the course by interpreting key works in the various fields. The course stresses introducing students to these fields, as well as interdisciplinary connections between them, through broadly synthetic interpretations of important works within their cultural settings. The course will develop students' understanding of different historical periods by examining a variety of cultures, traditions, and aesthetic movements. The course promotes critical conversation among students, for example, by providing lectures that introduce and frame topics for discussion (this pedagogical practice is suggested as one possible approach, not as a requirement). The course also stresses the improvement of students' writing and critical thinking skills through such means as essay exams, group work, oral reports, and/or term papers, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
GAME 160N Introduction to Video Game Culture
Instructor: William White
Credits: 3.00
Schedule #: 2174
Section: 621
June 29–August 10, 2022
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:00–10:30 a.m.
Room 209, Adler Athletic Complex
This course is a comparative introduction to the nature and history of video games as cultural artifacts, from Pong to online role-playing. It introduces students to academic discussion on and creative work in new digital forms including hypertexts, video games, cell phone novels, machinima, and more. Students will survey major debates over the meaning and value of video games, and study some of the major theoretical terms and perspectives developed to elaborate the cultural and sociological value of video games. The course extends students' skills in literary interpretation to a variety of new objects, and makes them aware of the role medium plays in aesthetic development and production. Students will leave with a far sharper understanding of how the interpretive tools used in the humanities can be extended to include new media, and with a sense of the historical role video games have played and will continue to play in global cultural production. Because the course is historically focused, it will spend significant time looking at the differential development of video games in three major regions: the United States, Europe, and East Asia (especially Japan).
BBH 101 Introduction to Biobehavioral Health
Instructor: Tracey Elkin
Credits: 3.00
Schedule #: 9171
Section: 621
June 29–August 10, 2022
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:00–10:30 a.m.
Room 101A, Adler Athletic Complex
BBH101 is an interdisciplinary study of health that emphasizes: (1) Conceptualization of health as being influenced by a variety of factors including biology, environment, psychology, and social influences; and (2) The concept of health as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease. The first section of the course is a study of the foundational principles of health including a basic overview of the nervous, endocrine, immune, cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive systems as well as basic principles of genetics and psychology. The second section of the course is focused on risk factors and health-related behaviors. The importance of nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and environmental risk factors are studied. The final component of the emphasizes population health by addressing relevant health conditions such as diabetes, substance abuse and addition, cardiovascular disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.
Academies
Math Academy
Participation in the Math Academy is mandatory for all PaSSS students
Dates: July 8–August 5
Days: Fridays and TBD
Times: TBD
The Math Academy is a remote-learning support program that helps prepare you for your first required math course in the upcoming fall semester. The Math Academy works with you at your current math level. Instructors will help students develop strategies for working in a self-paced environment with accompanying course materials.
You will develop study skills to help you learn mathematics in all forms of course delivery. The Academy will also help prepare you to successfully complete the math courses required in your academic program. Classes will be taught by Penn State faculty and tutoring and mentoring will be available. Participation in Math Academy will help you to get ahead and to succeed in your math coursework in the fall semester.
