This is a case study of the development of a new Core curriculum course at the Iowa State University (ISU) College of Design (CoD). It relates an overview of the creation of the course and sample learning exercises that activate a large lecture class. Historically, the CoD separated first-year students into discipline specific studies, narrowing, we believe, their perspectives about design. A Task Force analyzed learning outcomes of the first year programs, and proposed a more interdisciplinary conception of design education. The CoD committed itself to creating a Core foundation year of design studies, which students in Architecture, Landscape Architecture (LA), Community and Regional Planning (CRP), and Art & Design (A&D) including graphics, interiors, and studio arts would share. We established learning new outcomes first, content and method second. The faculty envisioned enriched preparation for each discipline via a common core of drawing, studio projects, cultural studies and sciences that would serve as a platform for upper division studies. Faculty from all departments would be (and are) involved in Core teaching for the beginning design student cohort. Design Studies 183x: An Introduction to Design Culture (Dsn S 183x) is one of the new core courses. Supported by university and collegiate grants, Susan Bradbury, CRP; Mike Martin, LA; John Cunnally and Gary Tartakov, A&D; and Gregory Palermo, Architecture, developed and offered the course experimentally. Fall of 2004, it became a required course for all CoD curricula.