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Courses


General Description

  • Students select one three-credit course (offered either in-person or 100% online). Students should expect to spend several hours a day on course-related assignments. Both credits and the grade earned post to the student’s UMD transcript and become part of their student record. The course cannot be taken pass-fail or audit. 
  • Classes are held weekdays, Monday - Friday, with meeting times varying according to the specific course. On the Terp Young Scholars application, students will be asked to select both a first and second-choice course in the event the first selection has filled. Course selection is processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • Before selecting a course, view each course description, meeting times, and sample syllabus. The course description features a link to the sample syllabus that lists specific requirements for that course. Students and parents are strongly encouraged to read the course syllabus in its entirety. Particular attention should be given to the material covered in the course and the times the course is offered. It is the student’s responsibility to review the course material and ensure they have the proper academic preparation to be successful in the course. 

Computers and Technical Requirements

  • Due to course content, some in-person courses may require students to bring a laptop to class. Laptop requirements are noted on the specific course description or syllabus.
  • Students who select a 100% online course should refer to Online Option  - Technical Requirements before applying.

Course Textbooks

  • Courses may or may not require a textbook. Most of the sample syllabi (which are based on a previous year’s offering) will indicate if a textbook is required. The Confirmation of Admission Process provides details on how to access this information. Textbook costs are not included in the Terp Young Scholars program package fee.

Accessibility and Disability Service

  • Students with a documented disability are eligible to receive the accommodations necessary to ensure equal access to UMD programs. Upon admission, students complete the Confirmation of Admission Process. Included in this process are directions on how to register with UMD's Accessibility and Disability Service.

Course Cancellation Note

  • Credit courses in Terp Young Scholars are part of UMD’s Summer Session. Courses follow University policies and procedures and are subject to change. The University reserves the right to cancel courses due to insufficient enrollment or for other reasons it deems necessary.

In Person


Examine the complex, changing, and ever-present representations of heroes and villains in American film with this in-person course. Beginning with a foundational understanding of how heroes and, conversely, villains have been defined through classic Hollywood film, we will explore how these definitions have shifted throughout the 20th and 21st century in various narrative genres, including westerns, war films, film noir, fantasy, science fiction, and, of course, superhero movies. In particular, we will be focusing on how the hero and villain maintain or disrupt specific cultural ideologies concerning race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability. This course will examine how these various ideologies have evolved throughout the 20th and 21st century, impacting the ways in which heroes and villains are both represented in American film and perceived by diverse audiences. Finally, we will examine our own complicated and sometimes troubling identification with these heroes, even when they might stand in stark contrast to our cultural values and identities. This course is offered through the Department of American Studies in the College of Arts and Humanities.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

If you dream of designing buildings, bridges, or parks, discover the possibilities in this hands-on course. This in-person course is designed to assist you in making an intelligent choice about a possible career in architecture. You will learn about careers in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. Get the chance to learn basic design principles while completing your own design project. You will work on your active learning design projects and interact with graduate students in architecture while getting a taste of what it's like to be an architecture student. Experience creative, innovative ways to view the world through architectural design thinking. This course is offered through the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

ARCH150 Studio Fee: $140. Covers the following: T-square; adjustable triangle; pencil sharpener; metal straight edge; tracing paper for draft design layouts; architectural scale; Sobo® white glue; self-healing cutting mat; white eraser; X-acto® knife with blades; Pentel Sign®, or thin nib Sharpie® pens; sketchbook, plain paper; assorted pencils; cardboard sheets; and white cardboard sheets. This is an additional charge to all registered students.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Every single year for over 50 years, we have produced more food per person than in the past, even though the population is growing.  Yet people are still hungry and children die from malnutrition, because the food does not reach all the people who need it. This course takes this on and explores the problem of world hunger and possible solutions to it. Issues we will cover include world demand, supply, and distribution of food, what are the options for leveling off world food demand, how we might increase the supply of food, and what are the mechanisms to improve its distribution. We will also look at the environmental limitations to increasing world food production.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Immerse yourself in writing for the stage, film, and television and also examine selected scripts, performances, and film and television clips as models for your own creative work. Students will complete frequent writing exercises, participate in workshops, and learn to apply scholarship to the analysis and critique of scripts.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Designed to help students develop leadership skills in order to identify their personal and professional purpose with an entrepreneurial mindset, and create strategies to develop their abilities and achieve their aspirations. Working in a collaborative group setting, students will identify solutions to problems they find meaningful to solve and will evaluate opportunities, conduct customer discovery, develop a business model, and present a venture pitch. This self-discovery course will introduce the "CEO of ME, Inc." framework and the strategic initiatives matrix and business model canvas, all useful to guide the choices that lie ahead, and to develop win-win relationships.

Course Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed (or be currently enrolled in with anticipated successful completion) high school algebra I and another high school math course, and two full years of high school science (i.e. biology, chemistry, physics, or other life or physical science) before enrolling in this course.

BMGT262 Supply Fee: $50. Covers materials used in the course.  This is an additional charge to all registered students.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

The environment is in the news almost daily- global warming, toxic waste, oil spills, loss of biodiversity. How can you understand these complex topics? What is the basis for your own behaviors and decisions regarding the environment? The science of environmental biology can help you make sense of the natural world around you and the impact you have on it. BSCI279E will explore adaptation and natural selection; organismic, population, community, and ecosystem ecology; and human impact on natural systems.

Course Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed (or be currently enrolled in with anticipated successful completion) high school algebra I and high school biology before enrolling in this course.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

This course introduces you to the computing field as a whole.  You will gain skills used across the spectrum of computing majors and learn about the great variety of routes into the various areas of study and employment in technological fields.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Why did the Silver Bridge between Ohio and West Virginia collapse on Christmas Eve, 1967? What caused the top of an Aloha Airlines flight to rupture, creating a convertible airplane? How do these kinds of massive structural damage occur, and how might we prevent them? This course will introduce students to topics of stress and strain and their importance in determining the safety and reliability of engineering structures. Some of the major structural failures worldwide will be identified and researched as to the circumstances leading up to the failures. Reasons for failures will be investigated and are expected to include engineering, social, political, ethical, and economic explanations. Other possible failures to be researched and analyzed would be the collapse of a walkway in Kansas City, the failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington, the collapse of a bridge on Interstate 95 in Connecticut, and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York after 911.

Course Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed (or be currently enrolled in with anticipated successful completion) high school algebra I and algebra II before enrolling in this course.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

An introduction to the basic practices, concepts and issues in Immersive Media Design. Conducted as a hybrid studio/lecture course, students will work collaboratively in teams to complete both research and practical projects, including surveying current artists and practice in immersive media; completing studio-based interactive projects that fuse computational media into physical objects; and working in teams to ideate and execute large scale, immersive media works.

Course Prerequisite: Students must have successfully completed (or be currently enrolled in with anticipated successful completion) high school algebra I before enrolling in this course.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Explore the basics of nutrition, activity & exercise, and human health. What is a calorie? What is metabolic rate? How do our daily activities alter our metabolism? What are the short- and long-term benefits of exercise? How do equity and access to food and physical activity affect health? Is sedentary behavior a greater health risk than being overweight? Students will learn through in-person lectures, class discussions, and activities.

KNES289F Supply Fee: $40. Covers materials used in the course.  This is an additional charge to all registered students.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Welcome to Social Psychology!  This course explores people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and how all these things are influenced and shaped by social factors and contexts. We will investigate and explore how we interact with ourselves, others, and the world around us. We will ponder the following questions: Who are we in groups? How does an individual function due to social factors and influences? How much of an individual's functioning is based upon that social influence? We will also ponder whether general differences exist, whether power always corrupts, and if violent media makes us violent.  This course is also about how social psychologists think, what they do, and what the results of their research mean.  This course will help you become a better critical thinker, writer, and consumer of science, so that when you see a social media post, advertisement, or an article purporting some promise, phenomenon, or fact, you're motivated to pause and question, perhaps find scholarly research, and learn that there's more to the story.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through in-person instruction must participate via the Commuter Option. No housing is provided.

Online


Immerse yourself in the writing of fiction and poetry that encourages creativity while expanding knowledge in this online course. Hone your writing craft in a nurturing, interactive environment while developing skills that help uncover your own distinctive voice. You will read great poems and stories from across cultures, refine your skill through close reading, radical revision, and the delivery of constructive criticism on peer work. Sessions emphasize assigned readings, writing, analysis, and discussions of craft. Students receive careful, detailed responses to their writing from both instructors and peers. Sessions are also devoted to studio time spent reading and writing. You will share your original writing in a supportive workshop setting and discover new approaches to revision. This course is offered through the Jiménez-Porter Writers' House in the College of Arts and Humanities. This course is open to both domestic and international students, and aims to amplify the voice of writers from across the globe.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Accounting has long been known as the language of business. Like any other language, accounting is an invaluable skill set that can be applied to every aspect of your life. Accounting teaches you a brand-new way of thinking which can be translated to any industry or career. This course will cover how basic financial statements are created, what each statement represents for a company, and how to interpret these financial statements to draw meaningful conclusions and make sound business decisions. This course is good preparation for future introductory accounting courses like BMGT220 Principles of Accounting I.

Course Prerequisite: Students must have successfully completed (or be currently enrolled in with anticipated successful completion) high school algebra I.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Designed to help students develop leadership skills in order to identify their personal and professional purpose with an entrepreneurial mindset, and create strategies to develop their abilities and achieve their aspirations. Working in a collaborative group setting, students will identify solutions to problems they find meaningful to solve and will evaluate opportunities, conduct customer discovery, develop a business model, and present a venture pitch. This self-discovery course will introduce the "CEO of ME, Inc." framework and the strategic initiatives matrix and business model canvas, all useful to guide the choices that lie ahead, and to develop win-win relationships.

Course Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed (or be currently enrolled in with anticipated successful completion) high school algebra I and another high school math course, and two full years of high school science (i.e. biology, chemistry, physics, or other life or physical science) before enrolling in this course.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Discover the world of Criminology. This 100% online course examines criminal behavior and the methods of its study; causation; typologies of criminal acts and offenders; punishment, correction and incapacitation; and the prevention of crime. This course is offered through the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

This course explores the rhetorical strategies employed by social media creators and the varied impacts of social media. Through rhetorical and cultural analysis, the course will look at how individuals and influencers craft identities in online spaces, how online communities form around in-group inclusion and out-group exclusion, and how social media might be wielded as both a tool of social change and reactionary backlash. The course will mix analytic and reflective writing with hands-on social media creation, allowing students to apply what they have learned through analysis to making their own media. No prior multimedia experience is expected.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Earth observations from space enable the mapping and monitoring of our changing planet. Drivers and outcomes of key global environmental change dynamics will be illustrated and discussed, including sea and continental ice loss, deforestation, ocean warming, urbanization, agricultural expansion and intensification, and vegetation response to climate change. This introductory survey course will focus on the big question: Why are Earth observations from space critical for monitoring our changing planet?  Students will gain an understanding of the capabilities offered by current Earth-observing satellite missions including how satellites view the Earth, what they can observe, and what significant problems can they solve.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Discover what it takes to be a world leader in this hands-on exploration of the field of international relations with this in-person course. Using the major theories of international relations, find out how the international system works in an intensive, interactive exploration. Learn why nations go to war and why they make peace and whether the nature of the international system is inherently hostile or inherently collaborative. Finally, consider how countries react when new issues, threats, risks, and opportunities emerge in the international arena. This course is offered through the Department of Government and Politics in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Philosophers ask difficult questions about knowledge, existence, and value. In this class, we'll learn how philosophers have addressed questions like the following. Are any of our beliefs so certain that they cannot be reasonably doubted? Where do our beliefs come from in the first place? Is the natural universe the product of intelligent design by a supernatural agent? How does your mind relate to your brain? What determines whether an action is morally right or wrong? Is it wrong to eat animals?

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

What are the psychological implications of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other structures of inequality in the United States? How do socio-cultural privilege and oppression influence individual and group thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? This 100% online course will take a current events focus to understanding multicultural and social justice issues in psychology with an emphasis on self-reflection, mental health, cross-cultural communication, and strategies for social change. This course is offered through the Department of Psychology in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Package Option: Students who select a course offered through 100% online instruction can only participate via the Online Option.

Course supplies: This course utilizes TurningPoint for student polling. To participate in a TurningPoint web poll, students must have a TurningPoint account. In addition, students must install the TurningPoint app on their mobile device or log in to TTPoll on a web-enabled device. Students enter the Session ID provided by their instructor. For assistance with TurningPoint registration, contact UMD’s Division of Information Technology at 301-405-1500 or itsupport@umd.edu. Students must provide their full name and UID. This is done after students have completed the Confirmation of Admission Process but before the start of the course.

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