Curriculum Overview

Develop fundamental expressive skills in "observation and thinking" through programming.

The goal of this course is to observe and express phenomena and problems around us from the perspective of "information," and to acquire the basics of programming, which is the means to do so. Processing will be used as the programming language, and the content is designed so that even beginners can learn step by step from the basics. In the first half, students will acquire skills by creating an original game based on Breakout, and in the second half, they will apply those skills to create an app that visualizes their own life logs and encourages improvement. By broadening their perspective from the limited world of games to the wider world of "everyday life," students will cultivate the habit of "observation and thinking" and the ability to express themselves, refining their own ideas and communicating their value to others.

Develop comprehensive expressive skills to integrate ideas into a unified system.

Building upon the foundation laid in the first semester, students will spend seven weeks creating an "Augmented Reality Rube Goldberg Machine." This is a truly unique Future University course, where students will learn the concepts of sensors and equipment control, while also developing their ability to integrate creativity and construction skills into a single system. The course aims to cultivate "prototyping," which involves repeated prototyping and evaluation; the experience of "creating something from scratch" through their own ingenuity; and the acquisition of an autonomous attitude of "learning how to learn." These will form the foundation of their learning, which will continue until their graduation research in their fourth year. While pursuing a balance between the reliability of the mechanism and the "charm" that captivates viewers, students will shape their own unique story that connects the physical and virtual worlds.

Understanding the meaning of differential and integral calculus

Studying mathematics at university begins with tackling unfamiliar problems for which there are no model answers. Simply memorizing formulas will inevitably lead to hitting a wall. To move forward, a solid foundation is needed to accurately utilize specialized knowledge, such as differential and integral calculus, which are the tools of mathematics. We strive to create classes that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their mathematical strengths or weaknesses, by providing detailed explanations of the fundamental meanings of formulas learned in high school and how they are actually used. We conduct short review sessions after each lesson, and provide meticulous support to students who feel uncertain, in collaboration with the Meta-Learning Lab.

Think logically and then take action.

Building upon what you learned in the first semester's "Introduction to Text-Based Programming," this course will focus on more practical programming using the C language as a theme. In the exercises, you will be given a problem and required to create a program from scratch that satisfies the given conditions. Therefore, you will need to think of your own solution (=algorithm) and work through the exercises through trial and error. Through this process, you will gain an understanding of the C language grammar and solidify the deterministic and computational thinking skills necessary for programming and future graduation research.

Dialogue time to learn from diverse teachers

Communication classes are a time to acquire a broad perspective on communication using English as a tool. You will learn about digital literacy, project planning methods, and collaborative work such as discussions and presentations, and hone your ability to communicate responsibly and effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. These are fundamental classes that support learning at Future University. What you need is proactiveness and a willingness to take on new challenges. Our faculty members come from a variety of specialized fields and will support your learning using original textbooks.

Make claims based on evidence.

At university, the ability to interpret written texts and the writing skills to produce clear and concise statements are essential. In "Science and Technology Literacy," students learn how to read and write scientific and technological documents, and engage in writing exercises to acquire these skills. The course progresses from small units, covering topics such as vocabulary usage, sentence structure, and paragraph organization. Finally, students choose a science and technology topic of their own interest and write a long-form report. Senior students (teaching assistants) provide support throughout the class.

At Future University Hakodate, we conduct a course feedback survey for each course at the end of each semester. Courses that receive particularly high student satisfaction ratings in these surveys are designated as "High-Satisfaction Courses."

Highly Satisfying Courses as Chosen by Future University Students