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Catalog Description: This course introduces students to poetry from a range of perspectives including, but not limited to: the poet’s life; the application of categories of analysis such as race, gender, and nationality; poetry as literary craft; and the aesthetic appreciation of poems. To “experience” the literary medium of poetry in the fullest sense, students are required to write about, memorize, orally interpret/recite, and compose their own poetry.

Rationale: This course, along with Introduction to Drama, will add a fundamentals course appropriate for non-majors to the Level-One offerings in English. Our present Level One offerings are split between the course designed for majors (which inappropriately attracts many non-majors due to its three GE attributes), and theme-based courses offered only during Interim that do not systematically introduce students to the basics of literary form. This course will fill that gap by investigating the concept of genre, exploring the literary and performance aspects of poetry, and providing a varied historical and stylistic sampling of poems in English.

As is appropriate to the study of poetry, the course will integrate oral-performance instruction and assignments. To reflect the general education goals of the class, we are applying for ORC and ALS-L credit attributes.

English 124: Introduction to Drama

Catalog Description: This course introduces students to literary analysis through dramatic texts and performance. Activities may include trips to see local productions, student in-class performances, staged readings, and viewing filmed productions. Plays are drawn from varied genres, two or more historical periods, and both traditional and experimental approaches.

Rationale: This course, along with Introduction to Poetry, will add a fundamentals course appropriate for non-majors to the Level-One offerings in English. Our present Level One offerings are split between the course designed for majors (which inappropriately attracts many non-majors due to its three GE attributes), and theme-based courses offered only during Interim that do not systematically introduce students to the basics of literary form. This course will fill that gap by investigating the concept of genre, exploring the literary and performance aspects of drama, and providing a varied historical and stylistic sampling of plays in English.

As is appropriate to the study of drama, the course will integrate oral-performance instruction and assignments. To reflect the general education goals of the class, we are applying for ORC and ALS-L credit attributes.

Biology 263: Limnology

Catalog Description: Limnology is the study of inland waters and includes their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. The course focuses on biotic processes and interactions set within the abiotic habitat of lakes and streams. Students examine current management problems facing freshwater environments by focusing on human-induced changes to aquatic habitats and their biotic consequences. Investigative laboratories introduce students to aquatic habitats and biological processes within them. Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126. Offered Fall Semester.

Rationale: Limnology is the study of inland waters and includes their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. A limnology course has never been taught at St. Olaf. There is considerable student interest in the study of freshwater ecosystems because of the diversity of aquatic habitats and aquatic recreational potential in Minnesota, and the degree to which these ecosystems are being degraded by human activities. This course will expand student horizons beyond terrestrial ecosystems. The emphasis will be on the biological aspects of limnology, but these cannot be taught without including the chemical and physical aspects of aquatic environments. As such, this course embodies the emphasis on interdisciplinary learning that is one of the key missions of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

This course will increase the diversity of elective courses available to biology and environmental studies students by adding a level two elective to our current course offerings. Besides offering another course to the “organismal” side of our curriculum, a limnology course may provide the “hook” that expands our students’ interest in courses like ecological principles, field ecology, vertebrate biology, animal physiology, invertebrate zoology, analytical chemistry, and physics. By offering it in alternate years, students will have the opportunity to take either limnology or invertebrate zoology twice during their tenure at St. Olaf.