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.
Arts and Humanities
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
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
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 A&H
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
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 A&H
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
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
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 A&H
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
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
Social Sciences
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 SSc
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 SSc
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 SSc
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 SSc
Natural Sciences
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 NSc
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 NSc
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 NSc
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 NSc
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 NSc