Welcome to Modes of Inquiry (MOI) at Loras College. Â The MOI course is a part of the First Year Experience and is intended to help facilitate the successful transition of new students into Loras College. Â Students are introduced to the college mission, expectations, opportunities, and resources. Â While each MOI section has many common elements, they all have a different topic they will explore.
For Fall 2014, this MOI section theme is “Tiniest of History Makers”. Â This semester’s topic is based on the book Napoleon’s Buttons” 17 Molecules That Changed History. Â Here is the topic description:
Would Napoleon have conquered Russia if only his army’s jackets had different buttons? Could Europe have explored and colonized the world if vitamin C hadn’t been discovered? How did olive oil shape the ancient world? Empires have risen and crumbled based on the discovery of a few molecules. We don’t often appreciate the role molecules play in our lives, even though they make up everything in the universe. Adding an atom here, subtracted an atom there, is all it takes to make the difference between male and female sex traits, between a harmless molecule and an explosive one, between food and clothes. This class, we will explore the importance of these molecular discoveries and how history might have come out differently a those discoveries had not taken place. No science background is required, just an active interest in how science and history collide.
The online course syllabus can be found here.