This course introduces the role of political and sociocultural factors in appropriate, effective and ethical counseling, and in mental health more broadly. This is a theoretical, practical and experiential course that will focus on expanding awareness of your own values and biases; developing critical thinking and awareness of differing experiences and worldviews; and increasing your sensitivity to how sociocultural identities influence prospective clients and others.

Officially, autism is a psychological and neurodevelopmental diagnosis as well as a disability. It is also a life experience, identity, and-for some-a source of power and point of pride, as part of a broader neurodivergence movement. In this discussion-centered course, we will read work about autism primarily by autistic writers (and illustrators) and will spend much of the course planning and carrying out scholarly and creative projects related to autism and/or other aspects of neurodiversity.

Officially, autism is a psychological and neurodevelopmental diagnosis as well as a disability. It is also a life experience, identity, and-for some-a source of power and point of pride, as part of a broader neurodivergence movement. In this discussion-centered course, we will read work about autism primarily by autistic writers (and illustrators) and will spend much of the course planning and carrying out scholarly and creative projects related to autism and/or other aspects of neurodiversity.

Animation is an art of transformation, metamorphosis, and amalgamation. Animation is both anti-technology and hyper digital. Animation is subversive, magical, and expansive. In this course, students will be introduced to an array of foundational animation ideas and techniques. Students will gain hands-on experience with stop motion animation, hand drawn animation, 2d digital animation, sound recording, and hybrid analog/digital techniques. The course will include screenings and discussion, technical demos, studio work, and critique.

In Advanced Animation Projects, students will create long-form, independent animation projects. We will begin with ideation and pre-production, moving into production, post-production, professional practices, and ending with a screening & critique. This course is well-suited for advanced Div II and Div III students with prior animation experience and an interest in creating a robust, semester-long animation project. Students should expect to work a minimum of 10 hours per week outside of class time. Students will need an external hard drive.

We are going to organize and host an outreach event for LGBTQ+ young folks who are interested in STEM called Queer Science. While preparing for this, we will learn about teaching pedagogy, educational evaluations using quantitative and qualitative assessments, science communication, mentorship, and community organizing across the Five Colleges. We will interrogate these pedagogical foundations and create our own aspirational vision for Queering STEM education.

Learn the foundations of bioinformatics with a hands-on class using data from the guts of bees (collaboration with Dr. Jennifer VanWyk!). We will explore how to analyze microbial population data from a large, diverse array of microorganisms by sequencing and analyzing 16S rRNA gene amplicons. This type of dataset is extremely common in environmental microbiology, medical microbiology, and even applies to other ecology fields. This course will focus heavily on coding using RStudio and large spreadsheets. The final report of this course will *hopefully* be published in a peer-reviewed journal!

Learn how to assemble a genome of a parasite that infects bees (collaboration with Dr. Jennifer VanWyk!). We will analyze shotgun metagenomic data to understand this parasite's functions in the guts of bees by annotating specific proteins, functions, and enzymes. This type of data set is extremely common in environmental microbiology and medical microbiology. We will focus heavily on using KBase and spreadsheets, while occasionally learning about python and submitting jobs to slurm clusters. The final report of this course will *hopefully* be published in a peer-reviewed journal!

We are going to build and develop a video game to help reinforce environmental engineering principles centered around wastewater treatment! Everybody poops but the cleaning process is often "out of sight and out of mind!" To help younger generations learn about the complex microbiology which cleans and remediates such a vital part of our daily lives. we're going to develop an interactive game!

When designing costumes, projections, sound, lighting, or scenery, do theatre designers read and hear musicals any differently than a director or an actor? To what does a designer respond? Theme, character, dialogue, stage directions, place, time, rhythm, flow, music, and arcs all play into a designer's process of discovering the visual and aural possibilities of musicals on stage. How does a designer sift through the body of a script to discover clues of the physical nature of the play?