Week 1 - June 23-28 Session

 

Rebels, Hipsters, and Visionaries: The Beat Generation.  Dr. Penny Vlagopoulos / Humanities
In this course, we will examine the radically innovative fiction, essays, memoirs, and poetry written by Beat authors in the context of the social and political climate of the Cold War era. We will also watch films and listen to the jazz music that informed the larger culture of the period. Poetry and excerpts from longer works by Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson, and Diane DiPrima, among others, will be assigned. Visual works will include documentaries about the Beats and the 1950s more broadly, as well as an episode of Mad Men that poignantly explores the unique difficulties faced by ambitious women in that period. As we formulate critical and creative responses to this movement, our goal will be to consider its lasting effects on American literature and culture.

How To Be Your Dog’s* Best Friend.  Dr. Adam Fox / Social Science
(*Replace with your pet horse/hamster/cat/rabbit etc.)
How does your dog see the world? What techniques can you use to improve your relationship with your dog? How do trainers get their dogs to dance on America’s Got Talent? How can dogs sniff out bombs and drugs? Science has a lot to say about the answers to these questions. In this course we will discuss basic learning processes that will help you understand your dog’s behavior, train new behaviors, reduce unwanted behaviors, and improve the relationship you have with your pet. The course will involve hands-on animal training in the laboratory and observational experiences in the field, including a visit to a horse farm where students will observe humans interacting with and riding horses in order to observe and identify the principles we are discussing in action. Students completing the course will have a basic understanding of behavioral principles that underlie the behavior of all organisms, and a knowledge base for how to observe, interpret, and change the behavior of their pet, as well as a broad sense of how these principles are applied to solve real-world problems.

Crime Scene Anthropology. Dr. Mindy Pitre / Natural Sciences
This course introduces students to the field of forensic anthropology. Through hands-on activities students will learn how to identify, collect, analyze, and interpret human skeletal remains found at crime scenes. We will cover a variety of topics that pertain to crime scene investigation, including how to determine post mortem interval (PMI) by examining insect development and succession, how to build a biological profile (i.e., genetic ancestry, sex, age, and height) from the human skeleton, and how to properly handle forensic evidence at crime scenes. The course will culminate in a mock crime scene during which students will locate, record, map, collect, and analyze skeletal material and associated evidence to solve a crime.

The Chemistry We Taste. Dr. Samuel Tartakoff / Natural Sciences
Every person has experienced the joys (and disappointments) of taste and smell. Some of our earliest memories are connected with the flavors and textures of food. However, most people don’t realize that there are molecules responsible for every flavor and aroma. In this course, we will be looking at the molecules found in sweeteners, spices, and herbs. We will examine the chemistry of texture (how do you make a perfect meringue?) and taste (can you trick your taste buds into thinking lemons are sweet?) And, of course, no class on food would be complete without taste-tests and culinary experimentation!

The course will go over the background chemistry that relates to 3D molecular structure, functional groups, and basic organic chemistry. We will use this background to explain why molecules taste the way they do (for example, the main flavor molecules found in ginger, peppercorns, and chili peppers are almost identical.) To illustrate these concepts, students will conduct lab experiments, one involving making fruit scents and the other in which we will extract a natural flavor molecule from orange peels, cinnamon, or cloves. In discussing these molecules, we will also cover some of the history of the spice trade and the far-reaching consequences of the search for delicious flavors. The course will also look at how our bodies detect sweetness and what different molecules can trigger this sensation. This theme will cover artificial sweeteners, additives that can increase or decrease sweetness, and how the temperature of food affects our sensory perception. The second theme will focus on the textures of foods and a discussion of why protein behaves the way it does in food and cooking. We will conduct a similar set of experiments to make various types of ice cream and gelatin, and further discuss the relevant chemical properties involved. Completion of high school chemistry recommended, but not required.

Your Playlist: Musical Taste and Personal Identity in the Digital Age. Dr. Bethany Cencer / Humanities
What styles and genres of music do you typically listen to? How does the music you listen to reflect who you are as a person? In this mini-course we will explore how contemporary technologies of distribution and consumption influence our musical tastes. Your generation grew up with laptops, the internet, and streaming media including iTunes, YouTube, and Spotify. We will consider how these technologies have encouraged “omnivorous listening,” in which diverse types of music are equally consumed and valued. Moreover, within this world of omnipresent phone and internet access, visual listening has become an everyday activity. In music videos, camera angles and movement, visual narratives that may or may not relate to the lyrics, and provocative choreography significantly impact our aural reception of new releases. We will evaluate how these visual aspects impact our overall musical tastes through analyzing music videos by artists such as Post Malone, Janelle Monáe, Sam Smith, Beyoncé, and Kendrick Lamar.

One of our class projects will be to analyze your own playlist, to better understand how it represents you. By paying attention to the types of music you “ingest” on a daily basis, you will develop a richer awareness of how your personal identities and values are implicated in the self-curated soundscape of your life.

 

Week 2 - July 7-12 Session

 

Short Story Writing. Paul Graham, M.F.A. / Arts
This course is designed to improve our storytelling abilities so that we are more vivid and enthralling on the page. Stories of all kinds, from realism to fantasy, are welcome in this workshop. We will learn essential techniques of good fiction, complete in-class writing exercises, experiment with writing in various locations on campus, and complete at least one story over the course of the week. At the conclusion of the week, we will have an opportunity to share excerpts from our completed works in a reading.

The course will balance lecture, discussion, and free-writing time, but students will need to be writing on their own outside of class hours to complete their manuscripts in time.

Medicinal Plants: an Introduction.  Dr. Aswini Pai / Natural Sciences
The overarching goal for the course will be to expose students at the high school to an introductory college level course about medicinal plants in the context of their traditional and contemporary uses. The one week course will be a mixture of traditional lectures, hands-on activities, and at least one set of discussions. Students will imbibe some lab and discussion skills in addition to exposure to the content. Course content will show plants are used as cultural artefacts in traditional medicine, examine different traditional systems that documented and compare with the Native American tradition of oral passage of knowledge, and examine tinctures, balms, diffusions, infusions, poultices, and powders from different systems of medicine. Also discussed will be the issues of patenting, biopiracy, and intellectual property rights.

Death and Medicine. Dr. Leah Rohlfsen / Social Sciences
This course will concentrate on examining how we die. We will focus on the importance of medicine, health care providers, and the health care system in death and our dying experiences. The course will start by examining the historical evolution of how we die (causes as well as place of death and rituals regarding death). This will include an examination of the socially constructed nature of the definition of death, including an examination of the Harvard criteria (respiratory death, whole-brain death, brainstem death) and how medicine has blurred the line between life and death. We will then examine perceptions of death among individuals in society (death denial, death obsession) as well as among health care practitioners specifically (death as a failure, etc). For the remainder of the course, we will focus on the role of modern health care and medicine in how we die including discussions about the role of medical technology in life extension, passive and active euthanasia, and alternative to euthanasia such as palliative medicine.

Students will come to understand the importance of looking at death not just as a biological process but one that is shaped by history, culture, policy, economics, and the media. They will leave with a better understanding of our health care system and the challenges that health care practitioners face when dealing with matters of death and dying. They will appreciate the complexity of end of life decisions and the implications those decisions have on the rest of society. Finally, they will have an understanding of what the sociological perspective is.  

Physics of Musical Instruments.  Dr. Catherine Jahncke / Natural Sciences
In this short course we will explore the concepts behind sound production in stringed instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments. The course will focus on concepts and hands-on lab activities, however, we will look at some simple mathematical relationships. Each day the overall format of the course will involve a mixture of the following: presentation of material, group activities, group worksheets, and group experiments. Each day, there will assign be assigned reading and homework problems due the following day and drawn from the texts. On the last day of the course we will work in small groups to apply the concepts we have learned by building a simple musical instrument—a three note wind chime tuned to a chord. Overarching goals for the course include a basic understanding of musical instruments, waves, and vibrations as well as a basic understanding of how scientists approach problem solving.

Hip Hop Culture & Society.  Dr. Melissa Proietti / Humanities
Hip Hop as a culture is virtually inescapable in today's world, but what does it mean to live and do Hip Hop? In looking at the historical development of the Hip Hop culture students in this class will learn about the five recognized elements of Hip Hop as it has developed into a global knowledge base. Each element will be studied in the context of their historical developments, social meanings and global impacts, which will all take todays reality of Hip Hop into consideration. The five elements of Hip Hop which will be studied are Emcing (rapping), DJing, Bboying/Bgirling (breakdance), Graffiti writing and Knowledge and students will learn the ways these different art forms developed into different knowledge systems. Students who take this course will be able to locate Hip Hop historically, critically analyze Hip Hop as a source of cultural identity and will be able to form opinions about the evolution of Hip Hop culture from the lives of those born in social and economic marginalized conditions to its current representation in suburbs and upper class communities.

Week 3 - July 14-19 Session

 

LGBTQ+ Youth Inclusion.  Dr. Jessica Sierk / Humanities
Attending to the needs of LGBTQ youth in school settings is of the utmost importance. Not feeling safe or included in the school environment can result from bullying, harassment, and exclusion, and can lead to decreased school achievement, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and dropping out of school. This mini-course will examine how schools currently address LGBTQ+ youth, and will look for potential solutions.

The main goal is for students to be able to recognize institutional oppression in the form of LGBTQ+ exclusion. This mini-course will look at how LGBTQ+ issues are or are not addressed in the realms of sexuality education, literacy instruction, and anti-bullying programming, among others. Students will also be asked to reflect and relate to this new knowledge by drawing on their own schooling experiences. What policies and practices for LGBTQ+ inclusion have been implemented at the school(s) they’ve attended thus far in their education? How do schools perpetuate heterosexism and binary gender roles? What are the differing effects of ignoring, demonizing, stigmatizing, excluding, and including LGBTQ+ youth? What does it mean to be an ally and why is that role important for LGBTQ+ inclusion?

Astronomy: A Window to the Universe.  Jeff Miller, M.A. / Natural Sciences
People have studied the motion of the stars and planets for many millennia. Modern day astronomers continue to study the universe without straying very far from the Earth. What have all these observations told us about how the universe works? How do astronomers (and other scientists) attempt to answer their questions by modeling, observation and experimentation? After completing this mini-course, students will get a glimpse into the scientific process where we attempt to understand the operation of the world around us.

Students will use physical models, computer simulations and/or actual observations with binoculars and telescopes (weather permitting). Students will examine the mechanisms for why the stars rise and set, why different constellations are visible throughout the year, the phases of the moon, eclipses, and what can be learned from studying the light from stars and galaxies. Weather permitting, daytime observations will be undertaken to measure the diameter of the Sun, a sunspot, the Moon or a lunar crater; additional possibilities include nighttime observing sessions.

Bots, Trolls, and Fake News: Dis/information in Digital Age. Dr. Allison Rowland / Humanities
In this course, we will survey the ways in which public messages circulate on digital media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Reddit. We will consider the influence of fake news, memes, bots, and trolls; how these agents structure and constrain the public sphere; and the ways in which power is mobilized and maintained on these mega-platforms. Case studies under consideration will include Russian meddling in the 2016 national election and meme representation of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. By the end of this course, students will have an understanding of the complex and often gendered, sexualized, and racialized ways in which power is enacted on digital megaplatforms. In addition to required reading and participation in discussion, the week will culminate in a group presentation where students forward a series of national policy measures for regulating contemporary digital media platforms.

Toys and Child Development  Dr. Laura Mills-Smith / Social Science
Play is a critical mechanism for development, especially in childhood. In this mini-course, we will explore various kinds of child play and their implications for physical, cognitive, and social development. In addition to offering a brief introduction to topics in developmental psychology, this course is designed to give students opportunities to practice oral, written, and visual communication skills while applying academic ideas to a real-world issue. Students will design and manufacture their own toy and create an educational handout detailing the learning opportunities the toy offers.

We are Farm: Biodiversity, Agriculture, and Community. Dr. Sara Ashpole, Dr. Kate Cleary, and Mr. Samuel Joseph / Natural Sciences
This short course will explore how agriculture and biodiversity can be managed together in a landscape. The course will apply the principles of experiential learning, utilizing SLU's Sustainability Program property and the Environmental Studies Living Lab, and students will take one field trip to Little Grasse Farm to see sustainable agriculture and food systems in action. Students will learn to recognize the links between a healthy, sustainable food supply and biodiversity conservation, learn about the range of farming practices, from industrial to sustainable, and apply interdisciplinary approaches to design sustainable, biodiversity-friendly home gardens. Students will participate in hands-on activities in farming and restoration ecology and apply principles learned to design a proposal for a sustainable, biodiversity-friendly garden at their high schools.