Course Descriptions - Honors

The Honors Seminar is an in-depth exploration of a specific topic using various avenues or techniques of inquiry. The topics will cover a wide variety of issues based on faculty expertise and interest.Students must be members of the Honors Program, members of Phi Theta Kappa, have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5, or have instructor permission.

Students will be engaged in the investigation of the state of a specific scholarly question under the guidance of a faculty member. Research projects will focus on using discipline-appropriate resources and literature to understand the origins and development of a particular scholarly topic within the context of the relevant discipline(s), significant approaches to the topic, and current avenues that are being used to develop the topic. This course may be repeated for credit.

Students will assist in an ongoing scholarly research project under the guidance of a faculty member. Students will learn data-collection and/or analysis using discipline-appropriate methods that contribute to the objectives of the research project. This course may be repeated for credit.

Students will be engaged in an original research project under the guidance of the faculty member. Research projects will: have clearly communicated purposes and objectives, have well-defined discipline-appropriate methods, be ambitious in scope, have a reasonable chance of completion within the agreed-upon timeframe, require use of discipline-appropriate scholarly literature, require use of advanced concepts, build upon current scholarly understanding, and result in work suitable for conference presentation or publication. This course may be repeated for credit.

Students will be engaged in the production of an original creative work under the guidance of the faculty member. The creative work will: use discipline-appropriate methods, be ambitious in scope, have a reasonable chance of completion within the agreed-upon timeframe, and require use of advanced concepts and technique. The result should be of a quality suitable for presentation, production, or publication. This course may be repeated for credit.

The Honors Capstone course provides a culminating experience of a student's academic life. Students develop and implement a project that integrates their undergraduate experiences while helping them to prepare for their intended career paths. Students will work with two (Honors and High Honors) or three (Highest Honors) faculty to develop an integrative project that incorporates two (Honors and High Honors) or three subjects (Highest Honors) the student has studied over the course of their college career. Projects must demonstrate student competency in each of the four NHCC Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) as well as student ability to establish short- and long-term goals. Approval of the Honors Program and instructor permission.