Jan 24, 2019
The Class: “The 1960s: Causes and Effects”
The gist: The 1960s is one of the most interesting, controversial, and discussed decades of the 20th century. The music, social changes, moon landing,…
Innovative Teaching and Learning
Jan 18, 2019
Built for Speed, Engineered for Precision
By Bryan Hay Things weren’t going quite as planned for Carolyn Pye and her teammates. Their miniature aluminum-framed dragster, representing the skills…
Jan 17, 2019
The Class: “A Plastic World”
The debate: Plastic: the greatest technological advancement of the 20th century or an ecological scourge? Plastics, or polymers, are so pervasive in our…
Jan 7, 2019
The Class: “Bread”
By Bill Landauer What’s it about? Whether it’s the bag of Wonder you find on the grocery shelf or the marble rye your grandmother baked, bread sops…
Dec 27, 2018
The Class: “The Year 1971-72 in Music, Art, and Literature”
By Bill Landauer Take us there: The war in Vietnam is hurtling toward its ambiguous end. The nation is still bruised from the Kent State massacre the year…
Dec 19, 2018
The Class: “Spectacles of Revenge”
By Kathleen Parrish The backstory: It was Shakespeare who wrote, “And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?” Who hasn’t fantasized about raining…
Dec 15, 2018
The Class: “The Dog Course”
By Kathleen Parrish What’s it about? Humans’ complicated relationship with dogs. While they may be good for us—some scientists believe without them…
Dec 12, 2018
The Classes: “Baseball: The One Constant through All the Years” and “Baseball”
By Mark Eyerly What’s the focus? Both courses provide a historical perspective on baseball, through which students explore economics, statistics, racism…
Dec 5, 2018
The Class: “Psychology and the Media”
The gist: It can be tricky to navigate a media-saturated world, where a constant stream of information is carefully crafted to influence and shape beliefs…
Dec 5, 2018
The Class: “Coffee”
By Bryan Hay What’s it about? More than a delivery system for caffeine, coffee has been a highly traded commodity for centuries, generates wildly different…