The Objectives and Learning Outcomes of this course directly support the University's mission: Kentucky State University is a public, comprehensive, historically black land-grant university committed to advancing the Commonwealth of Kentucky, enhancing society, and impacting individuals by providing quality teaching with a foundation in liberal studies, scholarly research, and public service to enable productive lives within the diverse global economy.

Any student who requires an accommodation due to a documented disability may contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at (502) 597-5076, or visit the DRC office, to arrange for reasonable accommodations. The student is required to obtain verification from the DRC and deliver the signed DRC document to the instructor specifying the accommodations. The student is encouraged to complete this process at the beginning of the semester since an approval for accommodations is not retroactive. The accommodations become effective upon receipt of the DRC approval by the faculty member from the student.

This class will take make connections between innovations that worked in concert or built on each other to result in the foundation of our contemporary industrialized, technology-driven, “westernized” culture that even cultures that developed apart from Western influence now resemble (including the world’s two most populous non-western nations: China and India). This course will examine design and systems thinking as they were used in the past to create the pre-technological world that ultimately created contemporary culture. Topics such as inventions, mathematical and scientific reasoning, artistic products, forms of literacy and developing worldviews will be discussed. Skills incorporated will be conversations, networking, and thought experiments.

The objectives of this course are intended to indicate the general level of achievement to be attained by the average student. Through progress of the course, the student will: