Spring 2027 Quest 2 Courses

ABOUT UF

UF Quest invites students to consider why the world is the way it is and what they can do about it. Students examine questions that are difficult to answer and hard to ignore in a world that is swiftly changing and becoming increasingly more complex. In UF Quest 2, students draw upon the biological, physical or social and behavioral sciences to explore pressing questions about human societies and/or the planet.

THE UF QUEST 2 REQUIREMENT

Students who enter UF in or after Summer B 2021 are required take one UF Quest 2 course to complete the UF Quest 2 requirement and/or to satisfy 3 credits of the General Education requirement in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Biological Sciences, or the Physical Sciences (see the UF Quest Requirement page for more information). Students must first complete the UF Quest 1 requirement before taking a UF Quest 2 course. Some UF Quest 2 courses may also fulfill the International (N) requirement and/or count toward the Writing requirement.

UF QUEST 2 COURSES

Click on the links below to learn more about the individual courses and to access course syllabi, which will be posted at least 3 days before the semester begins. Click the Campus or UF Online button to filter by program or type in the search field to look for a particular subject, topic, instructor, etc.

CAMPUS HONORS UF ONLINE

CAMPUS

AEB 2280: World Agricultural Policy

Instructor: Jared Gars, Food and Resource Economics
Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous
The Pressing Question: How can agricultural and environmental policy be used to address emerging food security and environmental threats around the world?

AEB 2284: How Do We End Poverty?

Instructor: Xumin Zhang, Food and Resource Economics
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: What is poverty, and how can we eradicate it by synergizing economics, human capital, the environment, and human well-being?

AEB 2452: Agritourism and Food Systems

Instructor: Misti Sharp, Food and Resource Economics
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How might we reconnect the world with agriculture and food systems through Agritourism?

AST 2005: Are We Alone? Searching for ET Life

Instructor: Naibi Marinas, Astronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: What is life, what are the conditions necessary for life, and where can we find those conditions in the universe?

AST 2023: The Art and Science of Astrophotography

Instructors: Elizabeth Lada, Astronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How do the disciplines of art and science converge in astrophotography to help us explore and express our relationship with the cosmos?

AST 2031: Knowledge and the Universe

Instructor: Michael Rutkowski, Astronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How can different people view the same evidence yet form or retain different conclusions?

AST 2032: Nature of Time

Instructor: Zachary Slepian, Astronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: What is the nature of time and space?

AST 2034: Stars and the Nuclear Arms Race

Instructor: Naibi Mariñas, Astronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How do cosmic events that took place billions of years ago and millions of light years away, affect our lives and humanity today?

BCN 2598: Foundations, Principles and Applications of Sustainable Development

Instructor: Jason von Meding, Construction Management
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions: What is the relationship between society, the built environment, and the natural environment? What does it mean to develop in a sustainable way?

BSC 2460: Can We Design “Better” Humans? Should We?

Instructor: Brian Harfe, Biology
Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous
The Pressing Question: Humans can be created with specific “designer” characteristics, but should we? We will examine the technologies behind how the human genome can be modified and discuss the controversies surrounding these technologies.

COM 2380: Collaboration with AI for Better Communication

Instructor: Won-Ki Moon, Advertising
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How can experts/scientists apply AI-powered services/programs in communicating (social) scientific problems for the public?

COM 2382: Siri is My Superpower: Communicating with Artificial Intelligence

Instructor: Michael Harmon, Dial Center
Format: 100% Online
The Pressing Question: How do we with communicate with AI, as explored through the ideas of who is a communicator, who is a mediator, and what is intelligence?

EME 2042: Creating Enabling Technologies for Differently Abled People

Instructor: Nigel Newbutt, Teaching and Learning
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions: How and why can technology be used, designed and applied to benefit people with disabilities? What are the ethical and moral implications for designing technology for disabled groups without their input and guidance? What are the dilemmas facing disabled groups and why should technologies be used?

ENY 2211: Bite Me?

Instructor: Cynthia Lord, Entomology and Nematology
Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous
The Pressing Questions: What are the emerging issues in vector biology and disease epidemiology? What can be done to manage or prevent the occurrence of arthropod-borne diseases?

ENY 2250: Biodiversity in a Changing World

Instructor: Jennifer Weeks, Entomology and Nematology
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How are humans altering the number, relative abundance, and distribution of species on Earth via changing land use, urbanization, globalization, and climate change and how are these changes impacting ecosystem services and the human experience?

EUS 2150: Europe’s Food Environment

Instructor: Agata Kowalewska, European Studies
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Can Europeans sustain traditional food culture, competitive levels of food production, and improve population health while achieving the goals of Agenda 2023 and the European Green Deal?

FYC 2331: An Ounce of Prevention

Instructor: Katherine Sims and Tennisha Riley, Family, Youth and Community Sciences
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How can examining root causes of social problems allow us to leverage prevention science to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities?

GEO 2230: Living with Rising Seas

Instructor: Katherine Serafin, Geography
Format: 100% Classroom 
The Pressing Question: How can humanity adapt to sea level rise?

GEO 2301: The Next Pandemic

Instructor: Gabriela Hamerlinck, Geography
Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous
The Pressing Questions: What social, political, biological, and environmental factors led to historic disease outbreaks? What would happen if our planet experienced a pandemic today? How can we prepare for the next disease pandemic?

GLY 2040: Is the Planet Dying?

Instructor: Alessandro Forte, Geological Sciences
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Is the severity of the current global loss of biota sufficiently great to be regarded as a “mass extinction”, comparable to other “great dying” episodes that are identifiable in the geological record of the past 550 million years of Earth’s history?

GLY 2110: Climate Change Science and Solutions

Instructor: Andrew Zimmerman, Geological Sciences
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions: What is the evidence for global climate change, how will it affect us and what can we do about it? Further, how is modern science done and used in society?

HFT 2491: Robots: Threat or Opportunity?

Instructor: Nasim Binesh, Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How are robots changing our society, and how can we prepare for a future of robots amongst us?

HSC 2249: Health Mythbusters

Instructor: Amber Emanuel, Health Education and Behavior
Format: 100% Online
The Pressing Question: How can we navigate and debunk prevalent health myths to make informed and evidence-based choices for our well-being?

HUN 2192: Feeding the Planet

Instructor: Sarah Brunnig, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How do we feed a growing global population in the face of nutritional, environmental, and economic challenges?

IDS 2151: Plants for Human Medicine

Instructor: Satya Swathi Nadakuduti, Environmental Horticulture
Format: Hybrid
The Pressing Question: Can we explore plants for human medicine to address current societal health problems?

IDS 2214: Our Home in the Gulf

Instructor: Rebecca Burton, Gulf Scholars Program
Format: 100% Classroom
The Essential Question: How can we address the environmental, economic, and social challenges of the Gulf region in a way that helps its communities become more resilient in the long term?

IDS 2294: Changing Clothes

Instructor: Melissa Mellon, University Writing Program
Format: 100% Online
The Pressing Questions: How might consumers write to advocate for sustainable strategies in the fashion industry? To which target readers might consumers communicate their concerns?

IDS 2334: Chemistry in the Cocina Latina

Instructor: Namodhi Wijerathne, Chemistry
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How does the understanding of the science behind food and cooking help us make sense of our current multicultural society?

IDS 2438: Why Maps Matter

Instructor: Ryan Good, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Format: 100% Online
The Pressing Question: How can we more critically consume maps to increase our understanding of the world we inhabit?

IDS 2751: Privacy in the Digital Age

Instructor: Angela Bacsik, University Writing Program
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions: Whose interests are served by privacy protection and whose interests are served by surveillance? How does ubiquitous data collection and use create challenges for individuals and for social structures? What kinds of limitations might be needed and why?

IDS 2935: Environmental DNA: Hidden Biodiversity and Environmental Decision-Making

Instructor: James Skelton, Plant Pathology
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How should environmental DNA research reshape biodiversity knowledge and conservation, and what scientific and ethical limits must guide its use?

IDS 2935: Is Outer Space Getting Crowded?

Instructor: Thomas Anderson, Food and Resource Economics
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Through the lens of economics, how do we govern scarce and valuable resources used in the development of outer space?

IDS 2935: Language in Mind

Instructor: Edith Kaan, Linguistics
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How does language interact with other aspects of cognition: thought, perception, and action?

IDS 2935: Love's Labor's Lost?

Instructor: Emily Hind, Spanish & Portuguese
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How do we take care of ourselves and one another on the planet now?

IDS 2935: Peace Communication

Instructor: Anisah Amunega, Dial Center
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: What becomes possible when dialogue engages not only the mind, but also the heart and gut in moments of polarization?

IDS 2935: Science and Society

Instructor: Connie Mulligan, Anthropology
Format: 100% Classroom
Pressing Question: Why is science often controversial?

IDS 2935: Should I Be Eating This?

Instructor: Richard Tovar, Public Health and Health Professions
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How are dietary trends such as low carbohydrate plans, detox programs, and intermittent fasting influenced by cultural norms, media messaging, economic factors, and psychological motivations?

IDS 2935: Sports as Social Science

Instructor: Drew Brown, African-American Studies
Format: 100% Online
The Pressing Questions: What can we learn from sports? How can sports be used as a lens into broader social phenomena?

IDS 2935: The Disney Empire-Media, Culture and Global Influence

Instructor: Eric Esterline, RTV
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How does the content and products created and distributed by a global media empire shape identity, behavior, and culture in an interconnected and rapidly changing world?

ISS 2100: What's Love Got to Do with It?

Instructor: Jessica-Jean Stonecipher, University Writing Program
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: What is romantic love, and how do the experiences, expectations, discourses, and desires related to romantic love help us to understand ourselves and others?

JOU 2380: Future Food

Instructor: Kelsi & Keri Matwick, Journalism
Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous
The Pressing Question: What do we eat, and how can we eat for a more sustainable future?

LIN 2008: Language and Computers

Instructor: Zoey Liu, Linguistics
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Can AI handle all ways of speaking all languages?

PLP 2311: What are Plants Talking About?

Instructor: Samuel Martins, Plant Pathology
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Are plants crying out for help and we can’t hear? Do plants talk? Do plants remember? Do plants see?

PLS 2002: Biological Factors Affecting Food Systems

Instructor: Kara Riggs, Agronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How do we grow healthy crops and sustainable food systems that support the local communities that they serve?

PLS 2030: The Evolution of Eating

Instructor: Rosalie Koenig, Agronomy
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Can science create new technologies that will address present bottlenecks in agricultural production while securing a healthy, equitable diet and minimizing impacts to the environment?

SDS 2041L: What If There Was No Stigma in Mental Health?

Instructor: Amber Moss-Lazarczyk, Human Development and Organizational Studies
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions: What if there was no stigma related to mental health problems in the U.S.? How would our lived experiences be changed and what outcomes would improve?

SPT 2520: Ficcion vs Realidad?

Instructor: Antonio Sajid Lopez Mendez, Spanish & Portuguese Studies
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions:
- How do shared fictions shape the political and socioeconomic associations of ethnic groups in regions dominated by Hispanic elites?
- In what ways do stereotypes and prejudices become embedded in popular culture, and how do they justify the exclusion of certain individuals or groups?
- How do fictions portray, embed, or question stereotypes, and what impact does this have on societal norms and behaviors?
- What are the implications of these shared fictions for democracy, citizenship rights, human rights, corruption, and violence in Latin America? How can a critical examination of fictions and social behaviors lead to personal reflection, cultural and political analysis, and the development of ideas to combat stereotypes and foster inclusive societies?

SWS 2801: Unintended Consequences in the Environment

Instructor: Yang Lin, Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: Why do human decisions often result in unintended consequences on the environment, and how can we better predict and prevent them?

HONORS

APK 2322: Exercise as Medicine

Instructor: Anna Gardner, Applied Physiology & Kinesiology
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Questions: If exercise is medicine, why is our society plagued by inactivity and its associated negative health consequences? What entities do or should play a role in promoting an active lifestyle among Americans? What should this role be?

PHY 2032: Energy and Society

Instructor: Greg Stewart, Physics
Format: 100% Classroom
The Pressing Question: How will we meet our energy needs based on available resources in a way that is environmentally friendly, economically viable, fair, and politically attainable?