First-year Learning Communities
Choose your own adventure at Brooklyn College!
Fall 2012 Learning Communities
In order to create the best possible First College Year experience for you, your first semester is designed primarily around First-year Learning Communities. This cluster of two linked courses reserved just for first-semester students makes it easier for you to meet new friends and learn about many college resources. From the beginning of the semester, students who participate in First-year Learning Communities more easily form study groups, share notes, and prepare for exams.
Of students who participate, 85 percent find First-year Learning Communities a highly positive experience and would recommend it to their friends.
Take a look at our top Learning Community choices to discuss with an adviser at your registration appointment. For more information on each class, visit the Core Curriculum website.
Aristotle to Acconci
- Introduction to Art
- Knowledge, Reality and Values
Code and Language
- Composition 1
- Computing: Nature, Power and Limits
From Ancient to Modern Worlds
- Classical Cultures
- Shaping of the Modern World
Green Revolution
- Geology: The Science of Our World
- People, Power and Politics
How's the Water? Urban Waterways and Neighborhoods
- Geology: The Science of Our World
- Shaping of the Modern World
Signs of Life
- Composition 1
- Science in Modern Life: Chemistry
Solve It: Understanding the World Through Numbers and Letters
- Composition 1
- Thinking Mathemtically
Sounds and Language
- Composition 2
- Music: Its Lanugage, History and Culture
The Soundtrack of Language
- Music: Its Language, History and Culture
- Spanish 1
Vital Signs
- Composition 1
- General Chemistry
Who Am I, Who Are We
- Composition 1
- Knowledge, Reality and Values
The World and You
- Geology: The Science of Our World
- People, Power and Politics
Learning Community Highlights
Green Revolution
This Learning Community integrates the People, Power and Politics Core Curriculum course, the Earth and Environmental Sciences (geology) Core Curriculum course, and Psychosocial Development and the College Student around the theme of environmentalism. It will examine the relationship between social systems, ecological systems and the role geology plays in what you eat and use every day. It will investigate how cultural, political, technological and economic practices, institutions and systems shape not only human relations but human-nonhuman relations. In focusing on the New York region and Brooklyn in particular through the PlaNYC topics of land, water, energy, transportation, air and climate change, this community will document the local and global dimensions of the interactions between human and earth systems.
How's the Water? Urban Waterways and Neighborhoods
On March 2, 2010, the EPA designated the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn as a Superfund site, signaling a new future for the canal and its neighborhood. This Learning Community integrates history and geology to explore the current state of the canal. During the semester, you will apply concepts in history and earth and environmental sciences to understand the natural and human history of the canal and Brooklyn. This will enable you to articulate a vision for the future of this historic water body and its neighborhoods.
Vital Signs
This Learning Community will be of interest to students who want to explore the sciences. It will be especially beneficial if you have an interest in an allied health profession.
Goals of the Learning Community Program
Students in first-year Learning Communities will:
- learn about the many college resources available for first-year students;
- strengthen their ability to think critically and creatively;
- strengthen their ability to express their thoughts orally and in writing;
- learn to integrate and synthesize learning across the boundaries of individual courses; and
- develop a sense of community and appreciate individual and social diversity.
Additional Learning Community Support
First-year Seminar: INDS 1011, Foundations for College Success and Lifelong Learning
The First-year Seminar is the perfect introduction to life at Brooklyn College as well as the perfect complement to the rest of your classes. Here you will learn everything you need to know to ease the transition from high school to college, developing self-awareness and self-reliance through learning the most practical skills for success. This course covers such vital topics as time management, value of the liberal arts, higher-level thinking, strategic learning, social and emotional intelligence, academic and career planning, diversity and wellness. Through in-depth presentations and on-site workshops, you will discover all the critical campus resources, including the library and its extensive CUNY-wide databases, Center for Academic Advisement and Student Success, the Magner Center for Career Development and Internships, the Learning Center (student tutoring), SERVA (student volunteerism) and the BC Health Clinic. In addition, you have opportunities to experience the many resources at your disposal as a Brooklyn College student beyond campus, with guided trips to local cultural institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn Botantic Gardens and Brooklyn Academic of Music. Along with the friendly and knowledgeable instructor, you’ll receive hands-on weekly support from a peer mentor. You’ll also be personally introduced to a first-year academic adviser and librarian who can help you throughout your college experience. Essentially, this seminar is the statistically proven fast-track to improved student success, placing you well ahead of the college learning curve.
Peer Mentoring
The Brooklyn College Peer Mentoring program aims to enhance your experience as a first-year student, providing individualized support and practical advice on everything you need to know about Brooklyn College. Both friendly and knowledgeable, peer mentors are successful upper-class students who work to ease your transition from high school to college by demonstrating positive study habits, sharing skills, guiding students to resources and opportunities on campus, and helping to promote autonomous decision making. In addition to providing weekly in-class group workshops, they coordinate social events on campus, alert you to important deadlines and opportunities, and guide you to the right path for academic success.
First-year Thursdays
Come experience what it’s like to be an active member of the Brooklyn College community during First-year Thursdays. These club-hour faculty panels, peer mentor events, performances and films are designed to welcome you to campus and to help you discover what Brooklyn College has to offer beyond the classroom. Join us for First-year Thursdays to become quickly involved and familiar with the campus while laying the foundation for a rewarding, engaged college career.
