ACADEMIC CIVIC ENGAGEMENT COURSES 2009-10
Tentative as of September ’09
Academic civic engagement is an approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to learn in the community and to apply academic knowledge and tools to address community issues. Below is a sampling of courses that will include an integrated civic engagement component. The Center for Experiential Learning provides support, consultation and training for faculty teaching courses with an ACE component.
FALL 2009
American Conversations- Remaking America: 1865-1945
AMCON 201
Eric Fure-Slocum and Judy Kutulas
Students will explore immigration, migration and ethnicity in the early-20th-Century U.S. by examining the impact of immigration and migration in local classrooms during that time period. Working with the Northfield Historical Society, students will develop a curriculum with primary sources that could be used by teachers and students in local schools.
Eco-Logic: Consumption and its Consequences
GE 111
Susannah Shmurak
As part of their final research projects, first-year students enrolled in an environmentally-focused writing seminar at St. Olaf will research possible actions St. Dominic might take to make their operations more environmentally-friendly and heighten their students’ awareness and understanding of environmental issues. St. Olaf students will make a presentation to interested staff about ways to save energy and resources and will devise classroom activities to teach students about select environmental issues.
English Language Learners
EDUC 246
Heather Campbell
A small group of students from the class will likely participate in conversation groups with Somali women in Faribault in partnership with Rice County Growing Up Healthy.
Environmental Economics
ECON 242
Rebecca Judge
The cap-and-trade carbon emissions bill that has recently passed the House of Representatives (H.R.2454 - American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) will be considered by the Senate this fall. All students enrolled in Econ 242 will be required to provide a critical economic analysis of the act, and to summarize this analysis in a two-page letter to their senators urging whatever action is indicated as a result of their research, basing their arguments on the research. This expression of public scholarship will required.
Environmental Policy & Regulation
ECON 232
Rebecca Judge
Students will be required to analyze and provide comments on both a bill before Congress and a proposed rule under consideration by the EPA. These comments will be entered into the public record. This expression of public scholarship will required and individual. The web site, www.regulation.gov will serve as a resource informing students of both the proposed rules and their comment periods.
Ideals to Action: Cultivating Social Change
IS 216
Eric Fure-Slocum
Students will explore social change academically and practically. Students will work on "social change projects" for various community organizations. Specifically, students will be required to create plans for developing, improving, implementing or marketing a program or initiative that would help to foster social change.
Inclusive Practice with Individuals and Families
SW 254
Naurine Lennox
Each student in the class will meet with persons at the Northfield Retirement Center that they do not know and engaged in conversation, learned about nursing home/care center, and told a short personal story to engender a reciprocal story from their “partner” elder. Students will participate in a training with Story Circles International and will reflect on their experiences in class.
Marketing
MGMT 250
Sian Muir
Student teams will develop marketing plans for one major product (or service) for various local for profit and nonprofit organizations. Students will present their recommendations to the community partners at the end of the semester. Students will also complete “Branding Northfield” assignments in collaboration with the Northfield Economic Development Authority and the Northfield Enterprise Center.
Marriage and the Family
SOAN 260
Ryan Sheppard
Students will explore different facets of family violence in partnership with the HOPE Center and will produce educational materials that the organization can utilize with its clients.
INTERIM 2010
Christianity and Social Power (tentative)
REL 2XX
Peder Jothen
SPRING 2009
American Conversations- Democratic Vistas: 1800- 1900 (tentative)
AMCON 102
Susannah Shmurak & Jim Farrell
American Conversations- Pursuit of Happiness: 1920- Present
AMCON 202
Eric Fure-Slocum
Arts Management (tentative)
MGMT 229
Sian Muir
Asian American Experiences
ARMS 250
Rika Ito
Students will conduct oral history projects with Vietnamese refugees who came to Northfield since 1975 through support of the Northfield Refugee Committee.
Community Engagement in Social Work
SW 381
Mary Carlsen
Students will understand community-based research project as a social work practice of planned change. Students will complete community-based research projects for agencies/organizations/departments for a need or benefit that they request.
Conservation Biology (tentative)
EVNST 226
Stephanie Schmidt
Economics of the Public Sector
ECON 371
Economics of the Public Sector
A long-standing assignment in Econ 371 has been for students to engage in research examining the efficacy of a particular government program (e.g. public health care, food stamps, police protection, etc.). This year, students from Econ 371 will work with the Northfield Community Action Center (CAC) as it evaluates the relative merits of its many programs. Specifically, the Northfield CAC has proposed to undertake a “cost-benefit” analysis of its programs, and students from Econ 371 will have the option to work with the CAC in this as a form of public scholarship. The end-product of this activity will be a research document that provides an economic assessment of CAC programmatic components.
Ethnographic Research Methods
SOAN 373
Chris Chiappari
Students will complete community-based research projects in collaboration with T.O.R.C.H. (Tacking Obstacles Raising College Hopes). Students will learn research, political, civic engagement skills; community-based research experience; and knowledge of Northfield and Rice Co.
Evaluation of Social Work Practice and Programs (tentative)
SW 274
Devyani Chandran
Math of Biology (tentative)
MATH 236
Urmila Malvadkar
Students will complete community-based projects in partnership with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (or another environmentally oriented nonprofit organization).
Senior Seminar: Environmental Studies (tentative)
ES 399
Schade, John