Human Ecology Nondepartmental (HE)
HE 1110 - College Achievement Seminar (2 Credits)
Improves the study and learning skills of incoming first-year students. Emphasis is placed on acquisition of skills necessary to achieve academic success. Topics include time management, note taking, mapping, textbook comprehension, exam preparation, and exam strategies. The application of theory to the demands of Cornell course work is stressed.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: pre first-year Summer Program students.
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022
HE 1112 - Academic Well-Being Seminar (1.5 Credits)
This course provides students with practical tools to reflect on and enhance their academic well-being. Students create a personalized academic success plan and enact it in a supportive, facilitated, community environment. Literature and theoretical underpinnings that inform academic well-being will be discussed. Students will use reflections to develop plans and demonstrate growth. Outside-of-class assignments include readings, weekly writing assignments, and the development of strategies to effectively use tutoring and office hours in all their classes.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: first-year students. Recommendation from an advisor is required for enrollment. Students should contact their college for the most up-to-date information regarding if and how credits for this course will count toward graduation and/or be considered regarding academic standing.
Distribution Requirements: (KCM-HE, SBA-HE)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024
Learning Outcomes:
- Define what success means for them.
- Affirm their core values.
- Become comfortable using an iterative process in their learning, seeking and incorporating both internal and external feedback.
- Enact an academic success plan that is informed by their own agency and an understanding of common challenges faced by college students.
- Assess various aspects of well-being and apply them to their own lives.
HE 1115 - Critical Reading and Thinking (2 Credits)
In this course, students evaluate who they are as learners, explore different aspects of the science of learning, determine conditions that improve their well-being and learning, and identify strategies to recover from setbacks. Students will learn about evidence-based learning strategies, and will practice different approaches to time management, sleep and stress management, test preparation and study skills. Through self-reflection and teamwork, students will develop greater self-awareness and will be able to evaluate themselves and take positive steps in their academics and personal well-being.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: first-years and sophomores.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
HE 1150 - FWS: Topics in Health Equity (3 Credits)
Topics in the Health Equity First-Year Writing Seminar examine the biological, cultural, environmental, policy and societal factors that allow all humans to lead healthy lives, and the factors that create health inequity and equity. Students will engage with a variety of reading materials and writing styles to develop their communication skills and tools for achieving health equity for all humans. Topics vary by semester.
Enrollment Information: For Human Ecology and Brooks School students, this course will not count toward the total required HE credits or required HE credits outside the major.
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
HE 1151 - FWS: Topics in Sustainability & Society (3 Credits)
Topics in the Sustainability & Society First-Year Writing Seminar examine the dynamic and interconnected relationship between humans and the environment, with a focus on how humans shape, and are shaped by, the environment. Students will engage with a variety of reading materials and writing styles to explore diverse perspectives and possibilities for cultivating a resilient and sustainable society. Topics vary by semester.
Enrollment Information: For Human Ecology and Brooks School students, this course will not count toward the total required HE credits or required HE credits outside the major.
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)
Exploratory Studies:
(CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 HE 1152 - FWS: Topics in Technology and Human Flourishing (3 Credits)
Topics in the Technology & Human Flourishing; First-Year Writing Seminar focus on the role of technology in addressing societal challenges and enhancing the human condition, across various fields such as healthcare, design, or sustainability. Students will engage with a variety of reading materials and writing styles that analyze, inform and advocate for technology as a transformative tool for improving human well-being. Topics vary by semester.
Enrollment Information: For Human Ecology and Brooks School students, this course will not count toward the total required HE credits or required HE credits outside the major.
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024
HE 1200 - Partnership Program (1 Credit)
The Human Ecology Peer Partnership Program provides mentorship through a network of faculty and upper-class students to incoming students during their first semester. Students receive 1 credit S/U for their participation in the program. Students meet weekly for 2-3 hours with their mentors and every other week, the faculty partner meets with the group.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
HE 1800 - Blazing Your Trail in Human Ecology (1 Credit)
This 1-credit, S/U course is an advising seminar that orients new students to Human Ecology and Cornell, including knowledge and strategies of how to be successful in college. The class prioritizes opportunities for students to explore identity and belonging and situate their academic and career pathways within their contexts of their values and goals. Through readings, written reflections, and in-class discussions, students will develop a four-year plan, foster skills to direct their own learning, gain familiarity with Cornell's code of academic integrity, and learn strategies to balance academic success, health and wellbeing. Students also practice skills to engage responsibly with others across diverse perspectives and to be able to learn with and from their communities, both on and off campus.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: new students in Human Ecology.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will learn about strategies and resources to be successful in college and gain agency in navigating their academic pathways.
- Students will practice skills to communicate effectively, engage with diverse perspectives, and learn about cultural humility in preparation for community-engaged experiences.
HE 1850 - Introduction to Human Ecology (1 Credit)
This course introduces students to the mission, history, values, and curricular and co-curricular programs of Human Ecology. The course will complement learning within majors by offering a broader perspective on the framing of social problems through a multidisciplinary lens. Students are introduced to equitable community partnership practices. Finally, the course offers the opportunity to forge connections with peers and faculty across the College.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Learning Outcomes:
- Describe the mission, values, and history of the College of Human Ecology.
- Identify the scholarly areas of excellence within the College, specifically, health equity, sustainability and society, and technology and human flourishing.
- Explain the principles of community-engaged learning and identify engaged-learning opportunities in the College.
- Practice self-reflection skills to identify personal learning goals.
HE 2000 - Social Justice, Thriving, and the Human Experience (3 Credits)
The historic and current mission of the College of Human Ecology is to improve human life. This course will introduce students to the social, historical, economic, and political structures that create barriers to people being able to live good lives. In an effort to seek positive solutions, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the impact of racism and other forms of injustice, and identifies factors that confer protection from the impact of these forces, as well as structures that facilitate justice and support human thriving. With a focus on health, nutrition, design, and human development, and within the framework of the social-ecological model, the course will explore how social systems influence how people interact with their environments in different contexts and across the lifespan.
Distribution Requirements: (CA-AG), (CA-HE, D-HE)
Learning Outcomes:
- Critically evaluate and integrate scholarship from various Human Ecology disciplines that identify structural barriers to human thriving.
- Understand the evidence-based scholarship and peer-reviewed data that defines and examines racism and other interlocking systems that impact the human experience.
- Apply problem-solving frameworks to envision new approaches to mitigate social inequity and support pathways to human thriving for all people.
- Reflect on and integrate personal lived experiences with course material to inform and clarify one’s own perspectives.
- Develop skills to listen and respond in discussions where perspectives may not align.
HE 2210 - How College Works: Making Sense of Higher Education (3 Credits)
HE 2222 - Translating the Science of Purpose (3 Credits)
In recent years scholars have produced an abundance of research demonstrating the potential impact of having a sense of purpose in life. From increased psychological well-being and net worth to decreased risk of mortality, there is evidence that purpose is related to outcomes that matter to most people. Though these findings are well-documented in the empirical literature, there is a need for people to work with individuals and communities outside of academia to translate existing research into applications that are practical, relevant, and accessible. The primary aim of this course is to offer students an introduction to the science of purpose with the goal of being able to share this knowledge and co-create new knowledge with communities that might benefit from it. Students will be supported in developing skills for communicating about research with groups and individuals that might apply relevant findings in their own lives, organizations, and/or communities. Though our focus will be on translating the science of purpose in life in particular, we anticipate that these skills will be applicable for communicating about other types of research as well.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
Learning Outcomes:
- Identify different approaches to defining and measuring purpose commonly used by researchers.
- Articulate how purpose is linked to various outcomes including and evaluate cultural and societal factors that influence the pursuit of purpose.
- Develop effective communication strategies for translating the science of purpose to different audiences.
- Implement skills for communicating across differences in identity, position, and perspective to imagine and describe potential applications of purpose-related findings.
HE 2300 - Introduction to Clinical and Translational Science (3 Credits)
This introductory course explores the multidisciplinary field of clinical and translational science. It includes instruction and opportunities for application of translational science frameworks, underlying principles, and diverse methods of inquiry. Class meetings include: lecture, discussion, and small group activities. Students will be challenged to make translational science relevant to their educational and career goals.
Enrollment Information: Recommended prerequisite: research methods.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
Learning Outcomes:
- Identify core features, stages of translational science.
- Demonstrate an understanding of NCATS identified core competencies of a translational scientist.
- Reflect on the translational science principles highlighted throughout the course relate to one's educational and career interests.
- Demonstrate how translational science may be used to reduce health disparities in at-risk and historically marginalized communities.
- Identify the specific roles of community partners in conducting translational science.
- Identify and demonstrate a fundamental understanding of diverse methods of inquiry utilized in translational science.
- Demonstrate ability to effectively function in teams to apply key concepts of translational science to complex problems via in-class application activities.
HE 2400 - Internship Preparation (1 Credit)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025
HE 3100 - Mentoring in Higher Education (3 Credits)
The primary objective of the mentoring course is to encourage high standards of scholarship and leadership in the College of Human Ecology through peer mentorship. The program provides peer mentors with the opportunity to reflect on their practice while encouraging high quality achievement, professional ethics and devotion to services in this area of the sciences.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
HE 3300 - Proseminar for Introduction to Clinical and Translational Science (1 Credit)
This proseminar will include a small group of students participating in the BCTR Scholars Program (BSP) to meet regularly to discuss the connection between course materials and their experiences in the BSP program. This seminar will be semi-structured around the weekly discussion questions posted by BSP student to be responsive to their interests and the direction that they would like the discussion to move toward. Students will be expected to discuss how the course material may connect with their upcoming experiences in community agencies (BSP students are placed in agencies during the summer), and how the course and the BSP connect to their educational and career aspirations. Guest faculty and project leaders working with community partners will be invited to join these proseminars, and specific individuals will be recruited based on availability and BSP student's expressed topical interests.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024
Learning Outcomes:
- Reflect on the translational science principles highlighted throughout the proseminar relate to one's educational and career interests.
- Identify the specific roles of community partners in conducting translational science; identify and demonstrate a fundamental understanding of diverse methods of inquiry utilized in translational science; demonstrate ability to effectively function in teams to apply key concepts of translational science to complex problems via in-class application activities.
HE 3301 - BCTR Scholars Reflection (1 Credit)
The BCTR Scholars is a one-year scholars program offered through the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research for Human Ecology first-years, sophomores, and juniors. Students begin in the spring and complete a community-engaged summer experience. In this 7-week fall course, students will reflect on the learnings from the spring and summer and apply them to next steps for their community partner organizations and their own Cornell careers as students.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students enrolled in the BCTR Scholars program. Recommended prerequisite: HE 2300, HE 2400.
Exploratory Studies:
(CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024 Learning Outcomes:
- Identify and articulate their learning as translational researchers.
- Describe the application of their experiences to future course work and/or career aspirations.
- Understand the perspectives of researchers and practitioners.
- Communicate and/or collaborate effectively with community members and practitioners.
- Present their learnings to diverse audiences.
HE 4010 - Empirical Research (1-9 Credits)
For study that predominately involves data collection and analysis, or laboratory or studio projects.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
HE 4030 - Apprenticeship in Teaching (1-5 Credits)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
HE 4040 - Human Ecology Exchange Program (15 Credits)
Human Ecology students may extend their experience off-campus with exchange programs. Students should meet with their academic advisors or student development counselors to discuss their options.
Course Fee: Course Fee, TBA. Fees in addition to tuition may be required depending on program choice.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
HE 4050 - Independent Community Engaged Learning (3 Credits)
This course provides academic credit to students working with a community partner, working in an unpaid position, on an engaged learning project. Students are required to complete pre-engagement preparation, regular reflections, and to document the culmination of their experience.
Exploratory Studies:
(CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022 Learning Outcomes:
- Understand best practices for community-engagement and partnership.
- Communicate and/or collaborate effectively with community members and practitioners.
- Apply disciplinary learning and skills to community issues and/or human needs.
- Describe and reflect on connections between personal experience, community-engaged experiences, and academic theories, concepts, and ideas.
HE 4060 - Special Topics in Translational Research (1 Credit)
Translational research involves the bidirectional transfer of knowledge between research and practice. In this course, students will learn and apply research on a special topic within translational research and learn with and from community partners. Each section has a unique topical and partnership focus.
Prerequisites: Recommended prerequisite: students should have completed introductory coursework in psychology, human development, or sociology.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the bidirectional transfer of knowledge between research and practice.
- Understand the perspectives of researchers and practitioners.
- Communicate and/or collaborate effectively with community members and practitioners.
- Apply disciplinary learning and skills to community issues and/or human needs.
- Describe and reflect on connections between personal experience, community-engaged experiences, and academic theories, concepts, and ideas.
HE 4080 - Practicing Medicine (3 Credits)
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2021, Summer 2020, Summer 2019, Summer 2018
HE 4901 - Practicing Health Equity: Theory and Fieldwork in Brooklyn (2 Credits)
Last Four Terms Offered: Winter 2021, Winter 2020, Winter 2019
HE 5007 - Sustainability in Action: Radical ReUse (1 Credit)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022