In order to build a greater sense of UNH as a community of learners among first-year students and to better prepare new students for learning, the Discovery Program provides a strong academic focus during the first year.
Inquiry 444 and Inquiry Attribute Seminar
Taught by pioneering faculty, inquiry courses take a single topic, such as cloning, global warming, nutrition, human rights or the origin of life, and examine it from multiple perspectives. Inquiry courses prepare first-year students to succeed at the college level by helping them become active, independent thinkers who look at subjects and challenging problems from a number of viewpoints. All inquiry courses are small and involve experiential learning, e.g., learning by doing. Inquiry courses are designed to encourage students to reflect on their learning processes, to develop their own strategies to address questions, problems or subject matter in their coursework, and to effectively convey and present the results of their inquiry.
Current Inquiry 444 and Inquiry Attribute courses
First Year Writing (ENGL 401)
English 401 is designed to help students become better able to use writing for academic, professional, and personal goals. The course is part of a university-wide effort, lasting all four undergraduate years, which offers multiple opportunities for students to develop their writing skills. The Undergraduate Composition Program also shares with the wider university community a commitment to developing the habits of mind that constitute critical thinking. Specifically, the program encourages students to move beyond a passive view of learning, where knowledge is simply received, to one where students assume the intellectual and ethical responsibility to construct meaning—to frame interpretations, to explore multiple perspectives, to defend assertions, and to relate the new to the known.
