This course explores and examines the basic principles and curricular and instructional practices in early childhood education. Students begin this examination by taking a close look at the young child through readings and discussion, classroom observations and field-based experiences in an early childhood setting. The course also traces the historical and intellectual roots of early childhood education. This leads students to consider, compare and contrast a variety of programs and models in early childhood education.

This course is designed to give FMS majors and minors a solid grounding in the primary methods of our field. In other words, what are the broad approaches scholars have taken to the study of media, and what specific methodological strategies have proved most effective? We begin with theory as one such method—one that zooms out to ask broad questions about the essential nature of a medium. Our history unit shifts the focus to how media are impacted by and implicated in the progression of time and culture. Finally, our criticism unit features strategies for analyzing individual media objects.

This course consists of laboratory investigations of neuroscience research questions linking brain and behavior. In each semester, students may take on different questions in behavioral neuroscience from the effects of endocrine disruptors on behavioral development to the role of oxytocin in social behaviors. Students will spend the first portion of the semester learning techniques, discussing relevant articles, and developing research proposals. This will lay the foundation for open-ended research in the second part of the semester.

Topics course: This seminar approaches studying the nervous system by examining the mechanisms that have evolved to solve problems encountered by animals in their natural environment. Topics covered include behaviors related to orientation and migration, social communication, feeding and reproduction. Prerequisites: NSC 230 or BIO 363 and either BIO 200, NSC 210, or permission of the instructor. BIO 362 is recommended but not required. Enrollment limited to 12.

A duet form of movement improvisation. The technique focuses on work with gravity, weight support, balance, inner sensation, outer awareness, and touch, to develop spontaneous fluidity of movement in relation to a partner. Prerequisite: at least one previous dance technique course or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 25.

We will take skills and insights gained in introductory production courses and develop them through the creation of one 10-minute project. We will learn by making work as well as by researching, reading and watching films. We may take this opportunity to learn the conventions of our chosen form or we may decide that our content demands formal experimentation and risk-taking. The course will be structured by the projects each student brings to it. Prerequisite: Introduction to Video Production. Required application at https://www.smith.edu/academics/film-media-studies/apply-fms-282.

Media studies approach media industries as sites of power struggles in which hierarchies of power in the modern world are reproduced. This course will explore these power struggles and the scholars’ on-going attempts to understand them by examining the economic, political and socio- cultural implications of industrialized media ecosystem. The aim is to understand the past and the present of this industrial system and to survey the future possibilities.

Media studies approach media industries as sites of power struggles in which hierarchies of power in the modern world are reproduced. This course will explore these power struggles and the scholars’ on-going attempts to understand them by examining the economic, political and socio- cultural implications of industrialized media ecosystem. The aim is to understand the past and the present of this industrial system and to survey the future possibilities.

Trending their fandom’s names on Twitter, funding the big screen adaptation of their favorite shows via Kickstarter, and in some cases, getting out on the streets for physical protests—Media fans and fandoms have become more visible in the digital age. However, fan practices pre-date the widespread use of the internet. This course will explore the past and the present of media fandom alongside the ways in which fans have been represented and studied.

Trending their fandom’s names on Twitter, funding the big screen adaptation of their favorite shows via Kickstarter, and in some cases, getting out on the streets for physical protests—Media fans and fandoms have become more visible in the digital age. However, fan practices pre-date the widespread use of the internet. This course will explore the past and the present of media fandom alongside the ways in which fans have been represented and studied.