Honors Option Examples

PSY 101: Students were required to identify, view, and analyze two films (writing a paper on each film) in terms of 1) how well the film characterized the real disorder or neurological problem being featured in the film, and 2) how these depictions might influence the public’s view of real-life individuals with these disorders.

MKT 300: Students worked on an extensive, research driven marketing plan which included specific recommendations for product, pricing, promotional, and distribution policy for a Fortune 500 company.

ACC 202: The student did a business plan for a new company that included sustainability initiatives with costs, with a teammate, in written form and in an oral presentation to a panel of judges.

TE 491: The student prepared and implemented multiple lesson plans integrating drama activities. She also conducted pre and post interviews with teachers and parents to assess the value of drama integration in non-drama content courses.

HNF 260: The student submitted a written report on nutrition in schools. Reviewed changes in school lunch standards, impacts of hunger on student attention, attendance and academic performance, and discussed the approach of using school gardens as a hands-on way to teach students about nutrition, healthy food choices and cooking skills.

NUR 330: The student submitted a power point presentation on the current nursing research pertaining to the role of the nurse in improving outcomes for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The focus was on how nurses can educate and impact the caregivers of these patients.

ANS 305: Students completed an extra PowerPoint to help train future students in ANS 305 as they monitor pregnant cows who are ready to give birth. Students assembled pictures and videos to provide examples of cows starting parturition, delivering a calf, and cleaning the calf after. This guide will be used by students in future courses as they complete shifts at the MSU beef farm during the calving season.

MC 387: The student completed a special honors seminar on Holocaust testimony, including reading about the history of testimony, its current vogue, and methods of approaching testimony critically. Students concluded with a presentation of a Holocaust testimony and evaluation of its value to understanding Holocaust experience.

CHE 316: The student was asked to design, perform, and analyze the results of an experiment of his/her own choice, unrelated to the experiments in the unit operations lab. To complete the credit, he had to follow the experiment with a concise report, including the motivation and objective of the study, the experimental approach and design, the results, statistical analyses, discussion and conclusions.

LIN 200: The students organized themselves in groups and created a new language, after meeting with the faculty various times during the semester. The new language had to obey universal principals associated to natural languages. The groups developed a phonological system, a morphological system, a vocabulary and a syntax for the novel language. They also presented the new language to the other groups.

GEO 206: The student created a series of concept caches that reflect the various Earth spheres. These caches involve photographs she took of the respective spheres, along with detailed geographical location information and discussion. These caches will be submitted to the Wiley website.

COM 225: The student completed a thematic content analysis of Taylor Swift songs incorporating the research on relational expectations, social exchange theory, relational stages, betrayal and love attitudes in her analysis.

GSAH 230: The student completed a ten page research paper on the differences between educational opportunities for undocumented and documented immigrant students to the United States. Her paper displayed an incisive grasp of the realities facing immigrant children and drew upon a wide range of materials.

SOC 216: These students worked on team projects in which they identified a form of gender inequality, designed an intervention to challenge that inequality, and then wrote a paper summarizing the experience. The intervention was conducted on people outside the classroom

HA 291: The student created an 8×10 tripartite brochure about European and Euro-American family photography that discussed its historical progression and its cultural values. She envisioned this brochure to be a handout that would accompany a European photography exhibit about family.

PHL 344: Students rehearsed and then performed one-act plays on medical ethics as readers’ theatre for the rest of the class.