German

This course focuses on conversation by exploring Berlin in historical, economic, social and cultural terms. It is all about the acquisition of German language skills for practical testing in authentic country-specific situations. Students improve their linguistic and cultural ability to act during their stay at the Humboldt University by gathering information about Berlin on the basis of material (reading and listening) from the press, radio, television and the Internet, and exploring and discovering Berlin life through themed city walks and projects.

By studying vocabulary and grammar intensively, as well as practicing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, students revise and develop what was learned at level A1, improving communicative competencies. This makes students better prepared for studying and daily life in Germany and enables them to proceed to level B1. The A2 level is split into two consecutive courses, the A2.1 course covers the first half of the level and the A2.2 course covers the second half of the level.

This is a beginning German course for people with no prior knowledge of German. An intake is not necessary. In this course, students learn the basis of German grammar. Students build a vocabulary in order to read and understand simple sentences. Students also learn to: introduce themselves; ask for directions; order food and drinks; make purchases at a shop.

This course covers the topics of mechanics, theory of relativity, thermodynamics, optics, waves, and electricity. Through the course students learn to identify physical correlations, implement findings in physical equations, estimate by orders of magnitude, create physical modelling, and how to handle multimedia elements. This course includes a lecture, small group discussions, and experiments.

This course introduces students to the following topics of hydrochemistry and hydraulics: transient pumping tests, the nature of groundwater, physical and physical-chemical properties and typification of groundwater, physical-chemical processes in groundwater movement, basics of mass transport, and drinking water protection. The lab portion includes excursions to local pumping sites.

This course explores the fundamentals of thermodynamics including heat, energy, and the first two laws of thermodynamics. The course examines applications of thermodynamic principles such as power and refrigeration processes. The course reviews topics including thermodynamics properties of gases and liquids, real substances, quasi-static state changes and technical processes, exergy, gas mixtures, combustion, and air humidity. The course represents the lecture only.

This course covers the following topics: basics of air traffic control; structure and organization of airspace; rules, services, procedures to ensure the safe use of airspace; basics in surveillance systems; basics in communication systems; basics in radio navigation systems; basics in satellite navigation systems; basics in area navigation systems; development trends.

This course takes a look into the history of literature to examine how conceptions of plantings, gardens, and greenhouses in literature have always been imaginative spaces in which transgressions of traditional attributions could take place. The seminar deals with current narrative texts and poems by Ulrike Draesner, Valerie Fritsch, Thomas Hettche, Marion Poschmann, Silke Scheuermann and Jan Wagner, in which plants play a central role. Among other things, the course investigates the contexts in which plants appear with which ascriptions, which knowledge and natural concepts are negotiated with them and with which literary processes the inherent dynamics of plant processes are made visible. The seminar also examines the function of literary plants as critical reflection figure of the human-nature relationship.

The seminar provides a critical perspective on the recent evolution of the global agri-food system and its impact at global, (trans)national, and local levels. The classification and critique of dynamics is done through theories of International Political Economy, Global Governance, and Political Ecology. In addition, the course examines the scientific-theoretical positions between interpretive and positivist approaches, which are central to the current debate on the challenges and sustainability of the agri-food system. Specific topics include: the globalization of the food system; competing policy paradigms of sustainable agricultural policy; actors and approaches to governance of food security; the increasing importance (and impact) of transnational companies in the system; the agricultural system in the context of trade liberalization and WTO; the political economy of food aid; the implications and composition of international agricultural support (including the role of "agrarian philanthropists"); new challenges of financialization of food production; current resource and environmental conflicts; and the political economy of seeds and biotechnology (Green Revolution). In addition, the seminar deals with alternative "bottom up" agricultural and nutrition models (e.g. food sovereignty), proposals for better governance and their feasibility in today's globalized world.