People often say if you succeed at UMB, you can be successful anywhere. The school offers easy courses that can help you maintain and increase your grades. Courses that you wouldn’t have to burn a lot of candles to pass. Here are 10 of the easiest courses to take at University of Massachusetts, Boston.
1. PSYCH 101 – Introductory Psychology
A general survey of selected content areas in psychology, including personality and human development; physiological psychology; learning; intelligence; heredity and environment; and motivation and emotion. In addition, separately scheduled discussion sessions provide students with the opportunity to work concretely with constructs and methods as they apply to specific problem areas.
2. PHIL 207G – The Meaning of Life
Reading in this course centers around this question: Does life have meaning? If so, what is it? The course considers whether the question is coherent and whether religion, morality or the search for knowledge are possible answers to it. It also considers arguments that life is meaningless. Finally, discussions focus on what the rational attitude toward death should be. This course may count toward the major in philosophy. Capabilities addressed: Critical reading, critical thinking, clear writing.
3. HIST 214 – Modern World History
This course offers an examination for the processes of modernization and globalization since the late eighteenth century; their connections to imperialism, colonialism, and war; and their relationships to changing perceptions of society, politics, economics, gender, and culture in different regions of the world.
4. ART 293L – Photography I
An introduction to basic issues in photography. The mechanics of the camera, the techniques of the darkroom, and matters of creative and personal import are addressed through illustrated lectures, class critiques, and assigned lab hours. Some attention is given to the history of photography.
5. ART 281 – Drawing I
A comprehensive introduction to basic materials and techniques, with emphasis on drawing as a primary means for the description and interpretation of people and their environment. Problems in still life, landscape, and life drawing. Fundamentals of visual language are also addressed.
6. ANTH 366 – The Anthropology of Religion
A comparative study of religion, including belief systems, social functions, ritual processes. Religions of a variety of cultures are considered, and some emphasis is given to the development of modern anthropological theories of religion and on current methods of analysis and interpretation.
7. ANTH 107 – Intro To Archaeology
The study of the past through scientific analysis of the traces left behind by humans. This course introduces the history, theory, and methods of archaeological research through lectures and hands-on projects. Archaeological data are then used to examine such major transformations of human cultural evolution as the domestication of plants and animals and the origins of complex civilizations.
8. ANTH 105 – Introduction to Biological Anthropology
The study of human biological evolution and human population variation. This course introduces the history, theory, and methods of research in biological anthropology through lectures and hands-on exercises. Major topics include: geological time, classification, and the place of humans in the animal world; evidence for primate and human evolution; evolutionary theory and genetics; and discussion of the evolutionary forces involved in producing human population variation.
9. CAS EN 127 – Reading American Literature
Readings may include works of fiction, poetry, or drama composed in America from the colonial period to the present. Attention to a wide range of literary works and historical and cultural contexts.
10. AMST 250 – U.S. Travel and Tourism
Tourism is the world’s largest industry. We encounter tourists on Boston’s Freedom Trail, Harvard Square in Cambridge and on Cape Cod. In turn, we ourselves are tourists as we travel to Washington D.C., Disneyworld, and beyond. The tourist experience shapes our understanding of the past, our perceptions of ourselves and others, and our notions of the ‘authentic’ and the ‘exotic.’ Tourist encounters often place inequalities based upon class, race and ethnicity in sharp relief. Using history, anthropology, and cultural studies, this course explores the nature of tourism and how it affects and reflects U.S. culture.
