The majority of adults are able to read fluently, however, learning to read can be challenging. As children learn to read, the process is dependent on a number of skills and requires a great deal of adult guidance. We will focus on the development of the complex skill of reading, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and higher-order processes that contribute to decoding and text comprehension.

Indoor rock climbing is designed to give students experience on indoor climbing walls focusing on technique and strength development. Students will spend time at the Hampshire rock wall and local rock climbing gyms with the goal of becoming more efficient climbers. Classes will include technique and strength activities/drills in an effort to challenge students at their ability level. When weather becomes warmer, we may spend one to two days outside climbing to explore how indoor skills apply to outdoor scenarios. 5-College students will be graded pass/fail.

The downhill skiing course is designed to give folks experience navigating downhill terrain regardless of experience level. For folks with little to no experience, we will start ground up, building foundational skiing skills over the course of 4 weeks. Students can choose to participate in a formal lesson or learn in a more applied way through experience. For those with preexisting ski skills, you will have the class time to get as many runs in as possible with a group who will provide technical feedback and good company.

Develop your skills as a leader in the outdoors that will apply to your own adventures or leading trips for others. The Outdoor Leadership class will focus on leadership theory and skills with the goal of developing strong facilitators, risk managers, community members, and stewards of outdoor spaces. While this course is not solely focused on sport skill development, we will spend much of our time outdoors leading and participating in different outdoor activities like skiing, hiking, snow shoeing, land navigation, backpacking, and orienteering.

Do you rely on "smart" phone apps and GPS to get where you're going? Learn how to navigate in the ways of our ancestors, using pathfinding, terrain association, map reading, compass skills, orienteering, celestial navigation and other techniques to travel distances across new terrain. This class will be held outdoors and will require up to 1 to 4 miles travel, on foot, on and off trail. We may on occasion use cross country skis, snowshoes, bicycles or canoes to travel. There will be one night navigation session held at a day and time TBD in April. 5-College students will be graded pass/fail.

Students in this class must have previous experience canoeing on moving water. Students in this course will work on developing and refining their Class II whitewater canoeing abilities. This class will run March 28th-May 9th, with an initial class meeting on January 31 to discuss the course and answer questions. This class is from 10:00-5:30, with the high likelihood that several class days will meet earlier in order to accommodate dam release timing.

This course is an opportunity to experience many activities that make up outdoor adventure. Students will be introduced to natural areas in the Pioneer Valley and Western Massachusetts. In the winter, activities may include snowshoeing and cross country skiing. During warmer months, students will canoe, hike, climb, and do trail work. This course is an opportunity to get out each week and learn new outdoor adventure skills. No experience with any of the outdoor activities is required to participate in this class! There will be one required overnight Friday May 2-Saturday May 3.

This course introduces students to fundamental topics in linear algebra. We will use Python to visualize concepts, implement algorithms, and perform calculations that would be intractable by hand. No prior Python experience is required. The focus of the course will be on applications in a variety of contexts, though there will be some theory as well. Topics will include systems of equations, vectors, matrix algebra, linear independence, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and matrix factorization.

What is energy? This course will cover the concept of energy in the contexts of theoretical and applied physics. Starting with the idea of energy as a way to explain the interactions of elementary particles in fundamental physics, we will then explore the role of energy in physical processes on larger length scales.

Cells are the foundation of all life. The structures and processes inside cells determine how life functions (or dysfunctions). We will discover what is known about how cells work through a combination of primary literature, laboratory research, and textbook readings. We will also discuss what is still not known and how scientists work to find the answers. The class structure will be divided into one day of lecture and one day of problem set review. Students that take Cell Biology will also be enrolled in Cell Biology Laboratory (NS-246), the laboratory component of the course.