Winter Quarter 2025 NSc courses
This is for informational purposes only. Areas of inquiry, degree requirements, fees, and course descriptions may change. Check the time schedule or MyPlan BEFORE you register.
Always refresh your degree audit after registering for courses or changing your schedule.
For more NSc courses, use the Time Schedule: http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/.
Astronomy
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/astro.html
ASTR 101A – Astronomy (5 credits)
RSN credit
Introduction to the universe, with emphasis on conceptual, as contrasted with mathematical, comprehension. Modern theories, observations; ideas concerning nature, evolution of galaxies; quasars, stars, black holes, planets, solar system. Not open for credit to students who have taken 102 or 301; not open to upper-division students majoring in physical sciences or engineering.
ASTR 101B – Astronomy (5 credits)
Online version of Astr 101. Check Time Schedule for details.
RSN credit
ASTR 150A – The Planets (5 credits)
RSN credit
For liberal arts and beginning science students. Survey of the planets of the solar system, with emphases on recent space exploration of the planets and on the comparative evolution of the Earth and the other planets.
ASTR 150E – The Planets (5 credits)
Online version of Astr 150. Check Time Schedule for details.
RSN credit
ASTR 210 – Distance and Time (5 credits)
SN credit
Space and time as basic concepts in physical science. How we define and measure them, how the concepts have developed over the centuries, and how modern measurements allow us to determine the size and age of the universe.
Atmospheric Sciences
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/atmos.html
ATM S 100 Climate Solutions (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Asynchronous Online with in person quiz session
This course presents visions of the future when the climate crisis is solved. Describes paths towards reaching these goals. Solutions include building a resilient society with clean energy, sustainable agriculture, climate justice, and a just transition for workers.
ATM S 101 Understanding and Predicting the Weather (5 credits)
Students learn the essentials about weather, including basic concepts on how to read the sky, and how to interpret weather information and forecasts from a variety of sources. The course covers origin and structure of the atmosphere, wind, rain, and snow storms, and other major weather features, as well as how weather forecasts are made and evaluated.
ATM S 111 Global Warming (5 credits)
Asynchronous Online with in person quiz sections
The course presents a broad overview of the science of global warming. It includes the causes, evidence, and societal and environmental impacts from the last century and recounts future climate projections and societal decisions that influence greenhouse gas emission scenarios and our ability to adapt to climate change. The course also presents ways to identify disinformation versus correct science.
ATM S 220 Exploring Atmospheric and Climate Science (1 credit)
This is a credit/no-credit course that focuses on current research in atmospheric and climate science and the related implications for public health, business, and environmental policy.
Biocultural Anthropology
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/bioanth.html
Bio A 206 – Plagues and People (5 credits)
Infectious diseases have shaped human culture, biology, and history, in a remarkable array of ways for different pathogens and different societies. Uncovers why, by considering in turn the biology, demography, and cultural history of epidemics. Students develop a broader understanding of biocultural approaches to human disease.
Bio A 208 – Sex and Evolution (5 credits)
Addresses the evolution of sexual reproduction and mating behavior, particularly as exhibited by humans. Focuses on concepts such as natural selection, sexual selection, and kin selection. Demonstrates how evolution can inform our understanding of sexual strategies, conflict, and orientation, as well as marriage, parenthood, and mate preferences.
Biology
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/biology.html
Biol 103 – Sex, Death, and Evolution (2 credits)
Evolution is the conceptual foundation for all the life sciences. Overview of theoretical and empirical evolutionary biology using examples that involve sex and/or death. Designed for non-majors.
Earth and Space Sciences
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/ess.html
ESS 100 – Dinosaurs (2 credits)
Biology, behavior, ecology, evolution, and extinction of dinosaurs, and a history of their exploration. With dinosaurs as focal point, course also introduces the student to how hypotheses in geological and paleobiological science are formulated and tested. Subscription to Top Hat required. Go to time schedule for details.
ESS 101 - Intro to Geology and Societal Impacts (5 credits)
Optional writing credit. Check Time Schedule for details and course times.
$25 course fee
Introduction to the processes, materials and structures that shape Earth. Emphasizes the dynamic nature of the earth's tectonic system and its relationship to physical features, volcanism, earthquakes, minerals and rocks and geologic structures. The course emphasizes the intrinsic relationship between human societies and geologic processes, hazards and resources. Not open for credit to students who have taken ESS 210. Optional field trips. No prerequisite classes required.
ESS 101B - Intro to Geology and Societal Impacts (5 credits)
To be arranged. Check time schedule for details.
ESS 102A – Space and Space Travel (5 credits)
$20 course fee
Writing credit.
Explores powering the sun, making of space weather conditions, observations from space and from Earth, Earth’s space environment, radiation belts and hazards, plasma storms and auroras, electron beams, spacecraft requirements, tooling up for manned exploration. Open to non-science majors.
ESS 106 – Living with Volcanoes (3 credits)
Explores volcanoes and volcanic eruptions on Earth and in the solar system. Examines how volcanoes work and how they affect the environment, life, and human societies. Illustrates principles using local examples of recent volcanism and ancient examples of mega-eruptions. Evaluates the possibility of predicting future eruptions.
Environmental Studies
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/envst.html
Envir 100 –Environmental Studies: Interdisciplinary Foundations (5 credits)
Diversity credit
Introduces environmental studies through interdisciplinary examination of the ethical, political, social, and scientific dimensions of current and historical environmental issues. Integrates material from different disciplines, and applies insights and methods to actual problems and situations at scales from the local to the global.
Envir 110 – Food and the Environment (5 credits)
Relates the production and consumption of food to the major areas of environmental science including energy use, water consumption, biodiversity loss, soil loss, pollution, nutrient cycles, and climate change. Studies the basic science and how food production impacts the key processes.
Envir 239 – Sustainable Choices (5 credits)
Introduces implications of and approaches to sustainability through models of sustainability, history of sustainability movements, and sustainability in action. Explores how our personal choices can affect broader change towards sustainability. Examines personal and global aspects of sustainability through issues such as food, energy, waste, water, population, consumption, design, and well-being.
Environmental Health
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/envh.html
ENV H 111 – Exploring Environment and Health Connections (3 credits)
Introduction to environmental health concepts. Examines current events to illustrate and better appreciate the relationship between environment and health and to explore whether an environmental condition is or is not an important threat to health. Emphasizes the roles of environmental scientists and related professionals.
ENV H 305 – Environmental Poisons and Public Health (3 credits)
Introduces concepts and tools that help students think critically about how environmental toxicants can impact human health. Covers basic principles and core concepts from toxicology, epidemiology, exposure assessment, risk assessment and risk management through a case-based approach that focuses on a selection of representative toxicants of current public health relevance.
Epidemiology
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/epidem.html
EPI 220 – STIs: Causes and Consequences (5 credits)
RSN credit
Examines the causes and consequences of sexually transmitted infections (STI). Discusses strategies to prevent STI with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. Explores new advances in STI epidemiology, treatment, and public health control.
Environmental Science and Resource Management
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/esrm.html
ESRM 101 – Forests and Society: Forests, Fire, and Society: Past, Present, and Future (5 credits)
Survey course covering forest ecosystems of the world, history of forestry and forest conservation, how forest ecosystems function, wildlife in forests, environmental issues in forestry, forest management, economics and products, and new approaches to forest management. Open to majors and nonmajors. Cannot be taken for credit if CFR 101 already taken.
ESRM 150 – Wildlife in the Modern World (5 credits)
Covers major wildlife conservation issues in North America. Some global issues are also treated. Examples of topics include the conservation of large predators, effects of toxic chemicals on wildlife, old-growth wildlife, conservation of marine wildlife, recovery of the bald eagle, and gray wolf.
ESRM 200 – Society and Sustainable Environments (5 credits)
Open to all majors period II registration
Introduces the application of social concepts and theories to understanding and managing urban, urbanizing, and wildland landscapes in a sustainable manner. Of particular interest are factors that shape patterns on the landscape and resulting social and economic benefits. Explores landscapes across the urban to wildland gradient.
Fisheries
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/fish.html
Fish 200A – Freshwater Ecology (3 credits)
Go to time schedule for details on 5-credit course option.
Offers students exposure to the complex relationships between freshwater ecosystems and human societies, including topics associated with freshwater biology, management, conservation, and sustainability. Focuses on key concepts in freshwater ecology, and delves into applied issues involving conservation and management.
Geography
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/geog.html
Geog 205 – Global Environment (5 credits)
Explores environmental systems using a geographic perspective that emphasizes spatial patterns of phenomena, relationships between different places, and interconnections between people and environment. Evaluates causes, consequences, and solutions to environmental problems. Topics include climate, atmosphere, water, ecosystems, and soils.
Informatics
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/info.html
Info 103 – Social Media, Ethics, and Automation (5 credits)
Optional Writing credit.
Explores ethical concerns involving automation on social media platforms. Students learn about social media phenomena (e.g., viral memes, parasocial relationships, harassment campaigns), experiment with computer programs (e.g., bots, data mining programs, recommendation algorithms), and apply ethics frameworks (e.g., Taoism, virtue ethics, Ubuntu ethics). No prior programming experience assumed.
Nutritional Science
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/nutrit.html
NUTR 200 – Nutrition (4 credits)
Examines the role of nutrition in health, wellness, and prevention of chronic disease. Topics include nutrients and nutritional needs across the lifespan food safety, food security, wellness, body weight regulation, eating disorders, sports nutrition, and prevention of chronic disease. May not be taken for credit if credit earned in NUTR 300.
NUTR 202 – Food Systems Research (5 credits)
RSN
Explores methodological approaches used to study food systems, nutrition, and health including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Discusses cross-cutting issues including research ethics, equity, and power dynamics of knowledge production as they relate to food systems. Recommended: NUTR 200.
NUTR 241 – Culinary Nutrition Science (5 credits)
Explores scientific principles behind modern culinary techniques that transform raw foodstuffs into prepared foods that have sensory appeal. Hands-on kitchen demonstrations show how physical and chemical forces acting on solids, liquids, and gases transform raw ingredients into foods with desirable taste, texture, and aroma. Requires access to a full kitchen to complete assignments. Cannot be taken for credit if credit earned in NUTR 441.
NUTR 303 – Food Systems II: Individual to Population Health (5 credits)
Open to all majors period II registration
Examines the food environment in the local community from the public health perspective. Explores where people get their food, what influences this decision, and various aspects of the local food movement, including access to healthy food, urban agriculture, farmers markets, and other public health nutrition initiatives. Includes a weekly discussion section. Prerequisite: NUTR 200.
Oceanography
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/ocean.html
Ocean 102 – The Changing Oceans (5 credits)
Aynchronous online course. Check Time Schedule for details.
Historical case studies of research on the ancient oceans, deep-sea exploration, climate change and the oceans, and human impacts on marine life. Students consider societal factors affecting progress in marine science, changing popular attitudes toward the oceans, and key current policy implications of marine science. Intended for nonmajors.
Ocean 121 – Deep Sea Vents: Volcanoes and Life in the Deep Sea (2 credits)
Examines the dynamic marine processes that shape the planet and cutting-edge oceanographic technologies used to explore the deepest oceans. Includes imagery of rarely seen submarine volcanic eruptions, hot springs, and novel life forms highlighting the interconnected geological-biological processes creating the most extreme environments on Earth.
Philosophy
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/phil.html
Phil 120 – Intro to Logic (5 credits)
RSN credit
Elementary symbolic logic. The development, application, and theoretical properties of an artificial symbolic language designed to provide a clear representation of the logical structure of deductive arguments.
Psychology
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/psych.html
Psych 202 – Biopsychology (5 credits)
Examines the biological basis of behavior, the nervous system, how it works to control behavior and sense the world, and what happens when it malfunctions. Topics include learning and memory, development, sex, drugs, sleep, the senses, emotions, and mental disorders. Prerequisite: PSYCH 101.
School of Marine and Environmental Affairs
https://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/smea.html
Smea 433 – Environmental Degradation in the Tropics (5 credits)
Writing
Considers theories and controversies of environmental degradation in the tropics, ecological and social case studies of Central American rain forests and Southeast Asian coral reefs, and implications of environmental management techniques. Offered jointly with JSIS B 433/Envir 433.
Statistics
http://www.washington.edu/students/timeschd/WIN2025/stat.html
Stat 220 – Principles of Statistical Reasoning (5 credits)
RSN credit
Introduces statistical reasoning. Focuses primarily on the what and why rather than the how. Helps students gain an understanding of the rationale behind many statistical methods, as well as an appreciation of the use and misuse of statistics. Encourages and requires critical thinking. Students may receive credit for only one of Stat 220, Stat 221, Stat 311, and Econ 311.
Stat 221 – Statistical Concepts and Methods for the Social Sciences (5 credits)
RSN credit
Develops statistical literacy. Examines objectives and pitfalls of statistical studies; study designs, data analysis, inference; graphical and numerical summaries of numerical and categorical data; correlation and regression; and estimation, confidence intervals, and significance tests. Emphasizes social science examples and cases. Students may receive credit for only one of Stat 220, Stat 221, Stat 311, and Econ 311.