The class will be organized around a lecture and a discussion component. Students 
will be expected to participate in discussions, prepare brief writing assignments, 
and work through the theoretical issues presented in lecture and in the readings 
pertaining to our dependence on and interaction with insects in today’s world.  
Students will learn to articulate and reflect upon the complex interaction of 
insects in culture, humanities and the arts.   

This course meets the following General Education Abilities by accomplishing the 
specific learning objectives listed below:  

Communicate effectively through writing 
• Adapt writing to circumstances and audience 
• Interpret content of written materials on related topics from various disciplines
• Produce writing that is stylistically appropriate and mature 

Communicate effectively through speech 
• Adapt communication to circumstances and audience 
• Communicate in various modes and media, including the proper use of appropriate 
technology 
• Produce communication that is stylistically appropriate and mature 

Critical Thinking (Engage in complex thought, analysis, and reasoning) 
• Consider and engage opposing points of view 
• Support a consistent purpose and point of view 
• Analyze arguments

Moral Reasoning (Ethics) 
• Recognize the community and the greater common good in addition to individual 
needs and goals, especially as they apply to insects
• Contribute to the eradication of arthropod stereotypes and prejudices that exist 
in society, either in crude forms or in more sophisticated and sometimes pseudo-
scientific ones
•Judge and understand ethical behavior in social applications

1.  Who am I?  Why am I here?
Ability to recognize the aesthetic qualities of literature and the arts as valid and 
meaningful expressions of the human experience 
 2.  What is an insect?
 3.  Use and abuse of DDT
 4.  Silent Spring 1
 5.  Silent Spring 2
 6.  Since Silent Spring
Ability to discern the impact and role of insects in science, artistic and literary 
production and achievement upon the formation and development of world societies 
 7.  Silent Sperm!!!
 8.  Biological Control 1
 9.  Biological Control 2
10.  Insect Structure
11.  Insect Physiology
12.  Chemical Ecology
13.  Insect Ecology
14.  Biodiversity
15.  Isoptera:  Termites
16.  Ephemeroptera:  Mayflies
17.  Odonata:  Damselflies and Dragonflies
18.  Blattodea:  Roaches!!!
19.  Orthoptera:  Crickets and Grasshoppers
20.  Hemiptera:  True Bugs and Aphids
21.  Coleoptera:  Beetles 1
22.  Coleoptera:  Beetles 2
23.  Lepidoptera:  Moths and Butterflies
24.  Insect / Plant Interactions
25.  Mimicry
26.  Mantodea:  Mantids and Phasmida: Stick Insects
27.  Insects in History
28.  Diptera:  Flies!!!!
29.  Diptera:  Mosquitoes; Malaria
30.  Siphonaptera:  Fleas; Bubonic Plague
31.  Ethnoentomology
32.  Insects in the Arts
33.  Forensic Entomology
Ability to discern the impact and role of insects in literature and the arts upon 
our understanding of the human condition
34.  Ticks, Scorpions, and Mites
35.  Spiders!!!
36.  More Spiders and Silk
37.  Hymenoptera:  Solitary Wasps
38.  Hymenoptera:  Solitary Bees
39.  Hymenoptera:  Honey Bees
40.  Pollination
Ability to communicate with others in English, both verbally and nonverbally, in an 
articulate, clear, and coherent manner 
41.  Hymenoptera:  Social Wasps
42.  Hymenoptera:  Ants 1
43.  Hymenoptera:  Ants 2
Ability to analyze and explore rhetorical, ethical, and systematic methods of inquiry