Every culture bears unique sensibilities to sounds. People cultivate distinctive ways of hearing, understanding, and relating to them in their everyday life. These sensibilities are also reflected in the processes of sound- and music-making. Different instruments are devised to encapsulate distinctive cultural values not only acoustically but also visually in their material forms. This course explores diverse music cultures of the world through the lens of critical organology (the study of musical instruments).

American schooling continues to fail Black and brown learners. As a result of cognitive psychology and education research, we have excellent understanding of human learning, its social and cultural nature, and the varied approaches to teaching, testing and assessment that lead to success. There is strong evidence that implementing these ideas would improve learning for all, including those who are under- resourced.

The Advanced Ecology Practicum provides an opportunity for students who are conducting (or interested in conducting) ecological or environmental research to learn from each others' work and pursue more advanced topics in ecology and conservation. We will explore issues of research question development, experimental design, data analysis, scientific writing and communication of results. The class will workshop student projects at various stages of progression, visit local field sites, and explore related topics in the ecological literature.

Stress is a daily part of our lives that has become an intense subject of interest among scientists and the medical community. The body's responses to stress are linked to multiple health problems, but stress can also be overused as an explanation. In this course, we will examine the scientific evidence for the links between stress and human health issues such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. This will include readings of primary scientific research papers and coverage of basic physiological mechanisms in humans and other animals.

This course (combining NS: 150, 250, and 350) examines agriculture as a set of ecological systems and issues, focusing on organic and/or sustainable methods, and agroecology. It refers to ecology in the sense of interactions between organisms (e.g., pests and predators) and the larger sense of environmental impacts (e.g., pollution; climate change), along with key related social issues and solutions.

What are space and time? This course will follow the evolution of the scientific understanding of these concepts which are so fundamental to our experience of the world and of ourselves. Our journey will trace the intellectual paths of physicists who grappled with these questions, including Newton and Einstein, taking us from the conceptions of space and time familiar from our daily experiences to the modern understanding of four-dimensional spacetime as described by the special theory of relativity.

In this course we will examine how narrators and narration drive and impose structure onto short stories. By doing so, we will begin to consider the role of the narrator in our own creative work. We will study the role narrators play into the function of the stories they tell, whether they feature in those stories or not.

This introductory course explores principles of playwriting by reimagining familiar fairytales, classic myths and personal narrative. Primary considerations are creating clear narrative arcs, rewriting traditional archetypes, developing dynamic characters, and cultivating a vocabulary for the critical analysis of dramatic literature. Assignments will include writing at least three original short plays, and one critical essay centering on the adaptation of a classic parable for the contemporary stage. Research and revision are vital aspects of the curriculum.

This critique and discussion-centered seminar is open to Division III students concentrating in visual arts, in their first or final semester of Division III. Class sessions will provide a platform for exposure, discussion and meaningful criticism of student work in process. While texts and essays, written by artists and art-theorists, will inform class conversations, students are encouraged to contextualize their work, articulate ideas behind their work, and engage in writing about their work.

This production workshop is open to all students in their first or second semester of Division III who are working with moving image. The class will integrate the procedural and formal concentration requirements of the College with the creative work produced by each student. Pre: Pro: Post will assist each student in identifying, developing, and advancing each project's pre-production (e.g. research, writing, and project development), production (e.g. recording and creation), and post-production (e.g. editing and installation) workflows.