A working library of seminar topics for instructors building their own courses.
Each topic includes a slide deck, a one or two-week plan, and a downloadable digital notebook — ready to adapt to your students, your schedule, and your standards.
Science & Society
Where empirical evidence meets values, tradeoffs, and policy. Students wrestle with data — and with what to do about it.
Can We Generate All Our Electricity from Renewables?
A data-rich investigation into wind, solar, and the path to a renewable grid. Students examine costs, capacity, global comparisons, and the social tradeoffs of large-scale energy transition.
The Ethics of Genetic Editing
CRISPR, designer babies, and the line between treatment and enhancement.
AI and the Future of Work
Automation, displacement, and what humans uniquely bring to the workplace.
The Plastics Problem
Microplastics, recycling myths, and the global supply chain of disposability.
Pandemics and Public Trust
What recent pandemics taught us about communication, expertise, and collective action.
Civics & Democracy
The institutions, rights, and tensions that hold a self-governing society together — and where they strain.
Free Speech in the Digital Age
Platforms, moderation, and the First Amendment's modern test.
Voting Rights and Access
From the Voting Rights Act to today's debates on ID laws, mail-in ballots, and gerrymandering.
The Role of the Supreme Court
Judicial review, lifetime appointments, and questions of legitimacy.
Immigration in America
Borders, asylum, citizenship, and the recurring American debate.
Local Government and Civic Action
Why local politics shape daily life more than students realize.
Ethics & Identity
Questions about what we owe each other, who we are, and how we live together across difference.
Justice and Punishment
Rehabilitation vs. retribution, the death penalty, and what prisons are for.
Identity in a Connected World
Social media, public selves, and how identity forms under constant performance.
Should We Eat Less Meat?
A two-week investigation into meat consumption, production, climate impact, and ethics — held together by a storytelling-with-data lens. Students examine global data, weigh competing priorities, then build a partner visual argument.
Religion and the Public Square
Faith, secularism, and the boundary between belief and policy.
Economy & Work
Markets, labor, inequality — the economic systems that shape opportunity and constraint.
The Cost of College
Student debt, ROI of degrees, and alternative paths.
Inequality in America
Wealth gaps, mobility, and the policies that move the needle.
The Future of Money
Crypto, central banks, and what currency really is.
Housing and the American Dream
Why homes cost what they do, and who can still afford them.
Arts & Culture
How art, music, story, and media shape — and are shaped by — the cultures that produce them.
Who Owns Culture?
Appropriation, appreciation, and the global flow of cultural ideas.
The Power of Storytelling
Why narratives shape belief — in film, politics, and history.
Art and Activism
When art moves the world — protest songs, murals, and the politics of beauty.
Media Literacy in the Algorithm Era
Why what you see online is what an algorithm thinks you want.
Global Affairs
The world beyond the local — power, exchange, conflict, and the ties that bind nations together.
Globalization and Its Discontents
Trade, jobs, and the cultural backlash.
China's Rise
What a multipolar world means for trade, technology, and security.
Climate Migration
When the weather makes a place unlivable, where do people go?
The United Nations at 80
Does international cooperation still work — and what's the alternative?
A working reference for ASU Prep seminar instructors.
The seminar course isn't a content course — it's a discussion practice. Students wrestle with big questions, build evidence-based viewpoints, and learn to disagree without diminishing each other. Each topic in this library is a complete week (or two) of that practice: a slide deck of data and prompts, a structured weekly plan, and a digital notebook students use to reflect and engage.
The library is built to be remixed. Take what works for your students, your standards, your week. Adapt the notebook. Reorder the days. Add your own readings. The foundation documents — Seminar Purpose, Rules of Engagement, Sentence Stems, Academic Integrity — should travel with every topic you choose. The rest is yours to shape.
Foundation documents
These four documents define how seminars run. Every instructor should read all four before adapting any topic.
- Seminar Purpose — what seminars should and shouldn't do
- Rules of Engagement — student and facilitator commitments
- Discussion Sentence Stems — scaffolding language for participation
- Academic Integrity — including AI-use guidelines
Slide deck source
The slide decks used in this library are produced by the Center for RISC at the University of Chicago and accessed through their online library. Notebooks, weekly plans, and facilitation notes are produced by ASU Prep.