First-Year courses
Enrollment is closed for Fall 2024. Please check back again in February 2025 for next summer’s offerings.
Supported by a generous grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation as part of UMS TRANSFORMS.
Explore Reading and Writing
RLE 01: ENG 100 — College Composition (2 semesters)
Mary PlymaleLarlee | Department of English
Fall credits:
3
Participants:
Anyone
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Bonus:
Fulfills General Education Requirement
Fall credits: 3
Participants: Anyone
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Bonus: Fulfills General Education Requirement
Satisfy a graduation requirement while exploring the ways in which people use writing to make sense of the world and their experiences within it!
Throughout this class students will work individually and collaboratively to develop reading and writing strategies suitable for responding to research in the field of writing studies. End of term projects will emerge from iterative academic inquiry and will allow students to study the reading and writing they do as part of their everyday lives.
Practice Creative Research in the Arts
RLE 02: Successful Strategies for Visual Arts Majors
Andy Mauery | Department of Art
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Art History, art education, and studio art majors only
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Art majors only
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
A course for first-year and transfer students majoring in studio art, art education, or history of art, ART 104 will introduce students to effective strategies for success in the Visual Arts. Students will learn how to develop proficiencies in creativity, strong work practices, essential artistic and writing skills, and effective critical thinking.
Think Like a Professional Educator
RLE 03: Education: Reflection and action
Ezekiel Kimball | School of Educational Leadership, Higher Education and Human Development
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Elementary education and secondary education majors; child development and family relations; kinesiology and physical education; and undeclared students with an interest in this area only
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Bonus:
Fulfills a major requirement
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Elementary education and secondary education majors; child development and family relations; kinesiology and physical education; and undeclared students with an interest in this area only
Bridge week theme: Conservation Research
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Bonus: Fulfills a major requirement
Imagine being in charge of your own classroom the moment you walk on campus!Our Education and Child Development & Family Relations (CHF) majors will participate in our TeachLive simulated classroom (a classroom of avatar-students, some will have expected behavior – and some will not!) where they will experience the ups and downs of classroom life. After each session, students will debrief with their classmates and a skilled professional. Along the way, students will make connections with students in their major and learn more about the different opportunities in the field.
Students in the School of Kinesiology, Physical Education and Athletic Training will participate in experiential learning opportunities to build community, sense of place and engage in deep reflection about career opportunities in the variety of fields available to them upon completion of their undergraduate degrees. Students will be connected with upper class students within our School of KPEAT and the Health Professions Career Counselor on campus to support their transition to UMaine while focusing on their future career options.
Print in 3D and Explore Offshore Wind
RLE 04: ASCC Green Energy and Materials
Becky Fisher | Advanced Structures and Composites Center
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Anyone
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Anyone
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and. aMaine 4H Learning Center
Are you interested in a career tackling big societal problems? Want to work on collaborative team projects? Try engineering with the Advanced Structures and Composites Center. Through interaction with ASCC researchers, you will be introduced to projects in offshore wind technology and 3D printing that impact climate change, infrastructure, affordable housing and more. In this exploratory lab style course, you will think like an engineer by completing hands-on design and print/build tasks with your team. You will learn basic engineering principles, gain familiarity with the engineering design process, and practice communicating ideas to others. The course is focused on active participation, creative problem solving, and teamwork. No previous engineering or advanced math experience required.
Build Sustainability with Wood
RLE 05: Sustainable Wood Materials and Technology
Ling Li | School of Forest Resources
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Sustainable Materials and Technology, Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering technology, construction engineering technology, and civil engineering majors only
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Sustainable Materials and Technology, Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering technology, construction engineering technology, and civil engineering majors only
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Do you wish to seek solutions to move away from fossil fuel-based products? This RLE is for you to discover how to use sustainable wood materials to create bioproducts to meet our daily needs.
Joining this RLE, you will:
- Take part in a one-day field trip to see how the bioproduct and bioenergy research projects are formulated and conducted at different research centers and labs.
- Enroll in SFR 120 — Understanding Wood Lab to do a hands-on woodworking project to gain research skills like attention to detail, searching for information, problem-solving, and communicating results. (Note: it will count toward your degree for sustainable materials and technology students.)
Work on Real-World Business Problems
RLE 06: Business in Action
Buffie McCue-Quinn | Maine Business School
Fall credits:
3
Participants:
Business Majors only
Bonus:
Fulfills a major requirement
Fall credits: 3
Participants: Business Majors only
Bridge week theme: Success and Professionalism
Bridge week location: On campus
Bonus: Fulfills a major requirement
Have you ever been in a business and wondered why they did what they did? In this course you will work on business problems by engaging directly with them in a variety of settings. You will be invited to discover different decisions you can make and see how they might impact what happens with customers, coworkers, and owners.
Design New Computer Interfaces
RLE 07: Sketching with Hardware to Design Future Interfaces
RA Nimesha Ranasinghe | School of Computing and Informational Science
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Anyone
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Anyone
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and. a Maine 4H Learning Center
Are you interested in designing future digital interfaces? Using computing to experiment with sensors and actuators? This RLE uses physical computing technologies to design interfaces for future products. Learn basic coding and interface with sensors in a hands-on, project-based environments to design, build, and evaluate interactive systems using human-centered design principles.
Discover Maine’s Fish and Wildlife
RLE 08: Conserving Fish and Wildlife
Lindsay Seward | Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Wildlife Ecology Majors only
Becoming a Wildlife Ecology Major
Bridge week location:
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Wildlife Ecology Majors only
Bridge Week theme: Becoming a Wildlife Ecology Major
Bridge week location: Center for Ecological Teaching and Learning
Students will spend time in the Cobscook Bay region of coastal Downeast Maine to explore,
discover, and learn about fish and wildlife in streams, lakes, the ocean, wetlands, and forests and
work as past of a team to develop habitat management strategies on local private, state, and
federal lands. Students will continue their research and present their work during the Fall 2024
semester.
Test What’s in Your Oyster
RLE 09: Shellfish Aquaculture
Sara Lindsay and Paul Rawson| School of Marine Science
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
School of Marine Science majors only
Becoming a Marine Science Major
Bridge week location:
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Marine Science Majors only
Bridge week theme: Becoming a Marine Science Major
Bridge week location: Darling Marine Center
Learn about Maine’s shellfish aquaculture industry, firsthand while you explore the physical and biological environmental challenges that shellfish farms face, including the impact of species by species interactions. Discover and gain experience with the variety of research approaches that UMaine faculty and students use to conduct research in support of the industry. Then investigate how you can get involved in aquaculture research at UMaine and beyond.
Explore What You Eat
RLE 10: Play With Your Food
Eileen Molloy and Denise Skonberg | School of Food and Agriculture
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Anyone
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Anyone
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Foodie explorers will be able to get a taste of diverse topics in food science and nutrition by investigating a different theme about the food produce, create or eat each lab period. Each class will start with a question: what may we expect to observe or learn about for a particular food or dietary focus, and finish with a discussion of what the results of our activity may have revealed. We could explore the sensory attributes of food and sensory sciences, examine texture and color in foods, learn about sugar cookery by making candy, use food analysis to analyze beverages components, watch food production at work by taking field trips, and more.
Explore Maine’s Environment
RLE 11: Earth and Climate Field Discovery
Karl Kreutz, Seth Campbell, Sean Smith, Andrei Kurbatov, Alice Doughty | School of Earth and Climate Sciences
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Earth and climate science majors only
Bridge week theme:
Maine Landscape
Bridge week location:
On campus with field trips across Maine
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Earth and climate science majors only
Bridge week theme: Maine Landscape
Bridge week location: Off campus with field trips across Maine
Visit iconic locations in Maine to explore a range of Earth observations and work as part of a team to generate new knowledge. Learn how Maine’s landscape provides vivid examples of the forces that shape our planet and influence society. Use state-of-the-art technology on water, land, and from the air to see how Earth and climate scientists measure and understand the Earth system.
Explore Our Campus Ecosystem
RLE 12: EES 117
Kate Ruskin | Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Fall credits:
2
Participants:
Ecology and environmental science majors only
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Bonus:
Fulfills major requirement
Fall credits: 2
Participants: Ecology and environmental science majors only
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Bonus: Fulfills major requirement
This course offers an introduction to college and provides an interdisciplinary perspective on ecological and environmental issues. The course will examine ecological systems, the interrelationships between human activities and the environment, and the social, political, economic, and technological factors that affect the use of natural resources. Material is presented via lectures, field trips during class hours and special readings.
Dive Into Speech and Language Disorders
RLE 13: CSD 130.0001 Intro to Communication Sciences and Disorders
Jane Puhlman I Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Fall credits:
3
Participants:
Communication Sciences and Disorders majors only
Bridge week theme:
Skills for Success as a Communication Sciences and Disorders Major
Bridge week location:
On Campus
Fall credits: 3
Participants: Communication Sciences and Disorders majors only
Bridge week theme: Skills for Success as a Communication Sciences and Disorders Major.
Bridge week location: On Campus
This 3 credit course employs inquiry-based learning to delve into speech and language disorders. Students gain foundational knowledge and examine their impact on communication. They utilize diverse research materials to explore evidence-based practices. The course is designed to foster active learning, group brainstorming, and creative problem-solving.
Work in the Forest
RLE 14: Forestry Work Experience
Keith Kanoti | School of Forest Resources
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Forestry majors and Parks, Recreation and Tourism majors only
Skills for working in the forest
Bridge week location:
Tanglewood 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Forestry majors and Parks, Recreation and Tourism majors only
Bridge week theme: Skills for working in the forest
Bridge week location: Tanglewood 4H Learning Center
Gain hands-on work experience in University Forest working alongside upper-class students and Maine licensed foresters involved in timber harvesting, forest inventory, boundary line maintenance, precommercial thinning, and more. This work experience provides preparation for forest industry summer internships and future jobs. Join University Forest foresters in local professional meetings to build professional connections essential for a forestry career in Maine.
Course Bridge Week: A one-week field camp at the Tanglewood 4-H Camp and Learning Center in Lincolnville. Students are introduced to skills needed for working in the woods including tree identification, compass use, navigation, tree measurements, and environmental assessment. An ecological inventory will be made for a woodlot which will be the basis for writing a paper to explain the data. Field trip includes a visit to a saw mill and actively managed forests, or to assess tourism activities in the Camden area.
All students in the Forestry program and in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism program are required to take the Course Bridge Week and have the option to take the RLE course. Other students are also welcomed to take the Course Bridge Week and the RLE course
Hunt For Viruses
RLE 15: Rage of Phage
Sally Molloy | Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences
Fall credits:
4
Participants:
Microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, and biochemistry majors only
Bonus:
Fulfills major requirement
Fall credits: 4
Participants: Microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, and biochemistry majors only
Bridge week theme: Bacterial Genomes
Bridge week location: On campus
Bonus: Fulfills major requirement
Learn about the structure of DNA in genomes, with a particular focus on the role of viral genomes and their role in bacterial virulence. Develop skills in the extraction of nucleic acids from bacterial cultures and sequencing isolated DNA. Assemble bacterial genomes and hunt for viral/phage genomes that potentially contribute to bacterial pathogenesis. These bioinformatic analyses will be conducted in the fall.
Learn to Thrive in Nursing
RLE 16: Wellness and Mindfulness
Kelley Strout | School of Nursing
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Nursing majors only
Bridge week theme:
Stress Reduction
Bridge week location:
On campus
Bonus:
Fulfills a major requirement
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Nursing majors only
Bridge week theme: Stress Reduction
Bridge week location: On campus
Bonus: Fulfills a major requirement
Following a group bridge-week activity involving a weeklong Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) workshop, fitness, and belonging activities, this hands-on course focuses on holistic student success and well-being. Students will experiment with a range of health interventions available through UMaine Nursing’s WellNurse program, including fitness programming, mindful nutrition, massage therapy, wellness workshops, and more! In addition, students will be guided through the research process from the inside out, learning about research design, assessment, analysis, and evaluation using personal data collected via a free FitBit tracker in a series of classes involving both didactic and experiential learning.
Fight the Power
RLE 17: Exploring the History of Student Activism at UMaine Through the Archives
Frederic Rondeau I Department of Modern Languages and Classics
Matthew Revitt I Fogler Library Special Collections
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Anyone
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Anyone
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Interested in learning about former UMaine studentsʼ activism on campus? This course proposes an exploration of the history of the university made by the students. Situating UMaine in the historical context of activism in the US and the world, student projects will focus on different aspects of militancy such as Franco-American Identity; Civil Rights; Gay Rights; Gender Studies; Reproductive Rights; Student Protests in response to the Vietnam; and the Counter -Culture Movement. In collaboration with University Archivist Matthew Revitt, students will research the past of the University through the archives located in Fogler library. This RLE is for all first-year students interested in the past and the future!
Unleash Your CharisMATHic superpowers
RLE 18: CharisMATHic
Giovanna Guidoboni, Karissa Tilbury, Terry Yoo, Yifeng Zhu I Maine College of Engineering and Computing, Carlos Lück | University of Southern Maine
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
All MCEC majors: Engineering, Engineering Technology, Computing and Information Science, and Pre Engineering only
Bridge week theme:
CharisMATHic Superpowers
Bridge week location:
On Campus
Fall credits: 1
Participants: All MCEC majors: Engineering, Engineering Technology, Computing and Information Science, and Pre Engineering only
Bridge week theme: CharisMATHic Superpowers
Bridge week location: On Campus
Have you ever wondered how algebra, pre-calc, or calculus are useful in solving problems that really matter like climate change and accessible healthcare? Then come find your inner charismathics! Join a thriving community aiming to make the world a better place. Experience math as the universal language across disciplines and learn to use math as a virtual laboratory to explore and test solutions.
Play With Electricity
RLE 19: Lights and Buzzers and Motors! Oh My!
Jude Pearse | School of Engineering Technology
Fall credits:
1
Participants:
Anyone
UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location:
Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Fall credits: 1
Participants: Anyone
Bridge week theme: UMaine Immersion
Bridge week location: Campus and a Maine 4H Learning Center
Learn the many uses of electricity by working with devices that convert electrical energy into devices that blink, make noise and move machinery.
Enrollment is closed for Fall 2024. Please check back again in February 2025 for next summer’s offerings.
Supported by a generous grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation as part of UMS TRANSFORMS.