First-Year Discovery Seminars

Starting your UW journey as a first-year student? Join one of our Discovery Seminars! These small, discussion-based courses are designed to help you hit the ground running. You’ll get to know a supportive faculty member, connect with classmates from across majors, and get an inside look at the resources that will help you thrive at UW. It’s a chance to earn credit, build community, and step into Autumn quarter feeling confident and connected. 

All Discovery Seminars meet in-person, Tuesday through Friday, 9:30am-12:20 pm. Students will earn 5 credits towards their UW degree. 

students walking in the quad during Autumn quarter

ARTSCI 160 A: How to Be a Person

What does it really mean to “just be yourself”?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 
three students looking at an open laptop screen together, smiling

ARTSCI 160 B: Latino Sci-Fi and A.I.

What happens when the future goes wrong and who gets to imagine something better?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 
Students playing a game in red square

ARTSCI 160 C: Game On: Learning, Strategy, and Play

What can games teach us about how we learn, think, and solve problems?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities
Student toy designs

ARTSCI 160 D: Designing Play

What does it take to turn a playful idea into a real product you can hold in your hands?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 
Bird sitting on a branch singing

ARTSCI 160 E: Music, Birdsong, and the Limits of the Human

What happens when you really listen to the world around you? 

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities
two students dressed in husky gear holding UW themed cupcakes

ARTSCI 160 F: Bilingual Advantage

Have you ever wondered how speaking more than one language shapes the way you think, connect, and move through the world?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 
Students in a dance studio

ARTSCI 160 G: Experiencing the Arts

Do artists really see the world differently or do they learn how to notice what others miss?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 
Three students looking at a phone together in a residential hall.

ARTSCI 160 H: Beyond Doomscrolling

What if you stopped doomscrolling and learned how AI, memes, and digital culture actually shape your world and how you can shape them back?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities
Student taking photos in Pike Place Market

ARTSCI 160 I: On the Move

What if walking through a city could be a form of art?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 
A group of 5 students sitting at a table with their laptops open, chatting and smiling

ARTSCI 160 J: My Writing Story

How does a new campus give you a chance to rewrite your relationship to writing? 

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities 

students visiting mount rainier

ARTSCI 161 A: Politics and Poetics of Life

What if animals, plants, and technologies were not just background to human history, but active participants in it?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences 
Peaceful protesters facing police on bikes in downtown Seattle

ARTSCI 161 B: Policing and Public Life in Seattle

Who controls public space, and why does it matter?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences 
Supreme Court building

ARTSCI 161 C: Civil Rights and Law

What do you need to know about the law to understand your rights in today’s world?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences 
Students prepare for the UW canoe journey.

ARTSCI 161 D: Native UW

How do place, community, and responsibility shape Indigenous futures on campus and beyond?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences 

Students laying down in the Planetarium

ARTSCI 162 A: AI and the Quantum Universe

What is the universe made of and how do we figure that out?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Sciences
video game illustration

ARTSCI 162 B: Insights Through Gamification with Artificial Intelligence

What if you could turn big, complex questions into games and use AI to explore possible answers?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Sciences
image of a brain

ARTSCI 162 C: This is Your Brain on Drugs

In this class, we’ll explore the topics of neuropharmacology – drugs that affect our brains. Learn more...

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Sciences
Two students chatting in a UW residential hall

ARTSCI 162 D: The Interdisciplinary Science of Swearing

Why do swear words exist in every language, and why do they affect us so deeply?

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Sciences
Two students looking at equipment and an open laptop in a math lab

ARTSCI 162 E: Math in Motion

What if math felt more like building, exploring, and creating than memorizing formulas? Read more...

General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Sciences