Europe Popular Destination for 2012 Spring Term
Europe will be a popular destination for Alma College students during May 2012 Spring Term.
A total of four classes will travel to the continent to study topics such as art and sustainability. Other Spring Term course topics include modern economics in India and Anolis lizards in Bermuda.
Spring Term is an opportunity for students to study one academic topic for an entire month. There also are non-departmental offerings. With the option of on-campus or travel courses, students must take two Spring Terms during their time at Alma.
Students kayak in New Zealand in 2010.
“Spring Term is very different from traditional courses,” says Mathematics Professor Mel Nyman, who is coordinating his fourth Spring Term trip to New Zealand and 10th overall. “Being with students 24/7 while traveling is a great opportunity for close interaction with everyone in the group.”
Nyman will co-lead the New Zealand Experience Spring Term course with Eric Calhoun, assistant professor of biology. He says he is excited for this year’s itinerary, which will be similar to the one from 2010.
“We are staying one night in Queenstown, and students will have the opportunity to ride the gondola up to Bob’s Peak and across to the Remarkables Mountain Range, which is one of the most scenic views in the country, if not the world!” says Nyman. “The farm stay, in which we tour farms, also is a highlight for students.”
Students in the course must reflect on the experience through a major paper, journal and pictures. Nyman says he hopes they will find an appreciation for many things as a result of traveling to New Zealand.
“I hope students gain an appreciation for the diversity on our earth, for differing cultures and for the multiple ways that societies organize themselves to provide for their citizens,” he says.
Students in Scotland in 2011.
Below is a roundup of this year’s Spring Term, which begins April 29 and continues through May 24.
International Trips
• Students in Dan Connolly’s art class will study art and architecture in Paris, France, while visiting sites such as The Louvre, Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Picasso Museum.
• Brian Doyle will take students to an indigenous Ecuadorian Amazon Kichwa community, where they will study medical ethnobotany.
• David Clark’s biology class will use observational and experimental techniques to research the Anolis lizards in Bermuda.
• Murray Borrello and Micheal Vickery will take students to sites in Italy, Spain, Scotland and England to study renewable energy, agriculture and sustainable communities.
• Students in Feler Bose’s economics class will meet with business leaders, politicians and philanthropists in order to study modern economic development in India.
Students visit the Roads to Freedom Exhibit in Gdansk, Poland, in 2011.
• Patrick Furlong’s history class will spend three weeks in London, researching World War II topics in the National Archives of the United Kingdom.
• Will Nichols and the Alma Choir will travel and sing in Ireland for two weeks.
• Mary Theresa Bonhage-Freund’s sociology class will travel to Peru and explore Incan archaeology and cultural ecology.
• As part of a cultural exchange with the University of Tainan, students in Carol Fike’s dance class will travel to Taiwan, where they will study classic forms of dance.
• Zhewei Dai’s course in China will focus on the stark contrasts of modern and ancient aspects of the country.
• Mel Nyman and Eric Calhoun will take students to New Zealand, where they will study the natural history, ecology, geography, flora, fauna, economics, politics, culture and other aspects of the country.
Domestic Trips
Several Spring Term classes will travel but stay within the United States. Integrative physiology and health science students will travel to Colorado, where they will study altitude physiology. Michael Sheldon’s theatre class will learn advanced stage combat techniques at the Atlanta Stage Combat Convention.
Students in Derick “Sandy” Hulme’s political science class will conduct hands-on archival research in the John F. Kennedy presidential papers in Boston. Business students will explore health disparities in Washington, D.C.
On Campus
Classes on campus also cover a variety of topics, including “The 24-Hour Media Challenge,” which explores multimedia production through field work while under time-constraints; “The Civil Rights Movement,” which is designed around the award-winning PBS series “Eyes on the Prize”; and “Environmental Literature,” which assesses how writers and filmmakers have portrayed the relationship of identity and environment.
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Posted: Wed, April 4th, 2012 at 1:12PM
