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Current Courses
2013 Service Learning Courses
SPRING 2013
FALL 2013
2013 Service-Learning and Community-Based Research Courses
ANTHROPOLOGY 241/SOCIOLOGY 244: Quantitative Research Methods
Professor Kjell Enge
This course focuses on quantitative data analysis. Students learn how to design, code, and analyze interviews and surveys. Selected databases and statistical programs are used to analyze current social issues and compare samples.
ANTHROPOLOGY 244/HISTORY 315/SOCIOLOGY 313: Fieldwork Practicum
Professors Susan Rose and Marcelo Borges
This course focuses on developing and applying students' qualitative research methods skills, including ethnographic fieldwork, oral history and interviewing, and demographic analysis. While readings and applied research will focus primarily on Mexican and Mexican-American workers and communities in Adams County, comparisons and contrasts with other Latino communities in the U.S. will be made. Issues to be explored: (im)migration, work, family, education, health, religion, social policy, and adaption to and reception of host communities.
EDUCATION 221: Education Psychology
Professor Elizabeth C. Lewis
An examination of physical, cognitive, linguistic, social, and moral developmental theories as well as theories of learning and the teaching and assessment practices in middle-school and secondary classrooms derived from those theories. The course also provides an introduction to designing, delivering, and adapting instruction for special needs students with a range of disabilities and for English Language Learners. The course includes an introduction to standardized tests and teacher-made assessments. In this course, students continue to develop their individual philosophies of education begun in EDUC 121 and to reflect on how their beliefs about learning, teaching, and assessment compare with those of major theorists. The course includes a 20-hour field experience in an area secondary school.
ENGLISH 212: Writing: Special Topics
Professor Claire Bowen
A course in analytical thinking and writing which develops expository skills through the exploration of such topics as literature, popular culture, sport in American life, and journalism. Seminars, workshops, group tutorials, or individual instruction.
This course fulfills the WR graduation requirement.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 111: Environment, Culture and Values
Prof. Mara Donaldson
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311: SUSTAINABILITY 301: Reducing Dickinson's Carbon Footprint
Professor Cornelius Leary
Dickinson College, along with several hundred other colleges and universities, has made a commitment to advance sustainability in higher education by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. Students in the course will work as a team to evaluate the climate action plans of Dickinson and other institutions, evaluate additional measures that could be taken to meet Dickinson’s target of zero net emissions by 2020, develop recommendations for action, and present their recommendations to senior officers of the college. To place their analyses and recommendations in context, students will be introduced to climate change science and policy and will explore the implications of climate change for environmental, social and economic sustainability. Students will gain practical skills for climate action planning and team work. They will also build literacy about sustainability and climate change.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 311/SUSTAINABILITY 301, Building Sustainable Communities
Professor Cornelius Leary
Many communities are embracing sustainability as a goal of community development, giving weight to social equity, economic security and ecological integrity as they work to build the capacity of their residents to improve the quality of their lives. In this practicum course we will learn about different conceptions and models of sustainability and community development through case studies and a community-based research project with community partners in Carlisle. The research project will help students develop skills for building sustainable communities, working in teams and working with community partners. Lab hours will be used for in-class exercises, guest speakers, field trips to partner sites, and fieldwork for the research project. There may be one or two weekend field trips.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 335: Analysis and Management of the Aquatic Environment
Professor Candie Wilderman
An interdisciplinary study of the aquatic environment, with a focus on the groundwater and surface waters of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. This course provides a scientific introduction to the dynamics of rivers, lakes, wetlands, and estuarine systems as well as an appreciation of the complexity of the political and social issues involved in the sustainable use of these aquatic resources. Students conduct an original, cooperative, field-based research project on a local aquatic system that will involve extensive use of analytical laboratory and field equipment. Extended field trips to sample freshwater and estuarine systems and to observe existing resource management practices are conducted. Three hours classroom and four hours laboratory a week.
FRENCH 364: Theatre as Public Service: Culture, Theatre, and French Society
Prof. Ian MacDonald
In 1953 French theatre director and actor, Jean Vilar wrote that theatre could be seen as a public service on the same level as gas, electricity and water. In this class we will explore the ways in which Vilar's vision of a National Popular Theatre in France fits with French attitudes towards Culture and its relationship to the State. We will read and study French plays from the Middle Ages to the present in order to better understand the role theatre has played in French society over the centuries. We will also study more recent history and analyze how theatre has taken on roles in education, therapy, and political action. We will consider ideas such as "le théâtre d'intervention" and "le théâtre-action" that have given rise to theatre practices with populations varying from at-risk-youth to the mentally and physically challenged in such non-traditional contexts as schools, nursing homes, and prisons. We will study a variety of theories and practices of this kind of theatre as public service. We will also undertake a French theatre performance project as a class in order to test some ideas about the role theatre can play in society. This course may include a service-learning component
HEALTH STUDIES 400: Senior Seminar
Professor John Henson
The focus of this year’s health studies seminar is on community health. The course will specifically examine efforts to improve community health status through the provision of health promotion programs to targeted populations. The educational goals of the course are as follows: to provide students with a deeper understanding of community health concepts/models; to specifically improve student's understanding of health promotion program design and management; to acquaint students with research skills required to assess health promotion program activities in a disciplined and unbiased way. To accomplish these goals, students will complete community-based research projects that are of direct benefit to both the community partners and to their own education. Seminar students will work in teams, with input from community partners, to identify appropriate research questions, and then carry out literature review, develop appropriate research methodology, and carry out research. At the end of the course, student research will presented publicly.
JUDAIC STUDIES 215/ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 215: Jewish Environmental Ethics
Professor Andrea Lieber
Since the 1960's many writers on environmental issues have blamed our contemporary enviornmental crises in part on a so-called "Judeo-Christian" worldview, rooted in the Hebrew Bible. Such writers assert that the biblical heritage shared by these two religious traditions, advocates an unhealthy relationship between humanity and nature, one in which human beings are destined to conquer the earth and master it. In this course we will explore Jewish perspectives on nature and the natural world through close readings of biblical and other classical Jewish theology, history and ritual practice, we will also examine the ways in which this motif is re-conceptualized in modern secular contexts (ie, Zionism, and the kibbutz movement). We will conclude by studying contemporary varieties of Jewish environmental advocacy. In addition to texts focused specifically on Judeo-Christian traditions, the syllabus will include other classic works of Environmental ethics foundational to the field of Environmentla studies.
POLICY MANAGEMENT 401: Policy Management Senior Seminar
Professor Jim Hoefler
This course will focus will serve as a capstone experience for Policy Management majors. It will echo the key principles covered in the Foundations class, including an appreciation for (1) fluid interdisciplinarity, (2) the contingent nature of knowledge, (3) connections to the wider world beyond the college, (4) principle-based models of leadership, (5) the meaningful application of ethics, and (6) the role of stakeholder values in problem analysis and decision making processes. Emphasis will be placed on acclimating students to the processes of complex problem solving that exist in a variety of contexts, including the public, non-profit, and private sectors, as well as in various comparative cross-cultural settings. "Policy Management" majors conclude their academic study of the various frameworks, orientations, stakeholders, and value sets that exist in different policy contexts by completing a comprehensive, hands-on policy management exercise.
PSYCHOLOGY 165: Psychopathology
Professor Suman Ambwani
An introduction to various psychological disorders and techniques of diagnosis and treatment. Students will work in area agencies serving clients with a variety of psychological disorders.
PSYCHOLOGY 375: Research Methods in Community Psychology
Professor Sharon Kingston
This course will emphasize gaining advanced knowledge and skills in the research methodologies of community psychology, answering the question: How does community psychology seek to scientifically understand relationships between environmental conditions and the development of health and well-being of all members of a community? Students will gain and practice skills in consultation and evaluation of programs to facilitate psychological competence and empowerment, and prevent disorder. Specifically, students will: (a) consider ways to assess and be responsive to the needs of people from marginalized populations with diverse socio-cultural, educational, and ethnic backgrounds; (b) become familiar with innovative programs and practices geared towards prevention and empowerment of disenfranchised groups; (c) apply learning (of theory and research strategies) to a problem in the community; and (d) develop skills in collaborating with Carlisle-area community members in identifying, designing, implementing, and interpreting community-based research.
PSYCHOLOGY 475: Seminar in Community Psychology
Professor Sharon Kingston
The practice of community psychology is typically directed toward the design and evaluation of strategies aimed at facilitating empowerment, preventing psychological disorders, and promoting social justice and change. The goal is to optimize the well-being of individuals and communities with innovative and alternative interventions designed in collaboration with affected community members and with other related disciplines inside and outside of psychology. This course is an advanced seminar that focuses in depth on special topics in the field of community psychology. Topics may include substance abuse and addiction, delinquency, stress and coping, prevention vs. intervention, social support, and program consultation and evaluation. Students will develop their understanding of topical issues by reading primary and secondary sources and participating in class discussions and direct engagement with a community agency.
RELIGION 215: Jewish Environmental Ethics
Professor Andrea Lieber
Since the 1960?s many writers on environmental issues have blamed our contemporary environmental crises in part on a so-called "Judeo-Christian" worldview, rooted in the Hebrew Bible. Such writers assert that the biblical heritage shared by these two religious traditions advocates an unhealthy relationship between humanity and nature, one in which human beings are destined to conquer the earth and master it. In this course we will explore Jewish perspectives on nature and the natural world through close readings of biblical and other classical Jewish texts. Emphasizing the way "land" figures as an important theme in classical Jewish theology, history and ritual practice, we will also examine the ways in which this motif is re-conceptualized in modern secular contexts (i.e., Zionism and the kibbutz movement). We will conclude by studying contemporary varieties of Jewish environmental advocacy. In addition to texts focused specifically on Judeo-Christian traditions, the syllabus will include other classic works of Environmental ethics foundational to the field of Environmental studies.
Offered every three years in rotation with the offering of ENST 111. This course is cross-listed as JDST 215 and ENST 215.
SOCIOLOGY 244: Quantitative Research Methods
Professor Kjell Enge
The quantitative research methods course introduces students to basic principles of social science research methodologies and statistical analysis. Students will use examples from scholarly research to understand concepts related to research design, sample selection, appropriate measurement, and survey construction. Additionally, students will apply these concepts to conduct introductory data analysis. Using elemental tools of descriptive and inferential statistics, students will learn to quantitatively assess social research questions in order to draw meaningful conclusions.
Prerequisite: 110 or ANTH 100 or ANTH 101. This course fulfills the DIV II social sciences distribution requirement and QR graduation requirement. This course is cross-listed as ANTH 241.
SPANISH 238: Spanish for the Business Professions
Prof. Erin McNulty
This Spanish course emphasizes the language of business. Students will study the lexicon and language skills appropriate to doing business in the Spanish-speaking world. Students will develop their Spanish skills in the context of working with local business owned by Spanish-speakers and/or business serving Spanish-speaking customers.
SPANISH 239: Spanish for the Health Professions
Professor Asuncion Arnedo
The coursework relies on developing skills in medical Spanish to tackle a pressing problem – the provision of culturally and linguistically competent healthcare to Spanish speakers. Coursework educates students in appropriate vocabulary for medical settings, an understanding of the importance of language and culture to medicine, and the problems that arise from a cultural divide in healthcare delivery. The class discusses language, public policy, anthropology, and sociology as such disciplines are related to cross-cultural healthcare.
Students are required to serve once a week in a setting where healthcare is being delivered to Spanish-speakers. Many students accompany nurse practitioners from Keystone Migrant Health to labor camps for migrant fruit workers to register clients for health service at Keystone’s clinic in Gettysburg. Students assist with filling out forms and paperwork for Spanish-speaking clients. Bilingual students may serve at the Wellspan Health Connect van in Biglerville as receptionists and medical interpreters and help with paperwork and medical interpreting during patient appointments. Other students will volunteer at the Hamilton Health clinic in Harrisburg serving as interpreters and providing document translation.
SUSTAINABILITY 301: Practicum in Sustainability: Building Sustainable Communities
Professor Neil Leary
Many communities are embracing sustainability as a goal of community development, giving weight to social equity, economic security and ecological integrity as they work to build the capacity of their residents to improve the quality of their lives. In this practicum course we will learn about different conceptions and models of sustainability and community development through case studies and a community-based research project with community partners in Carlisle. The research project will help students develop skills for building sustainable communities, working in teams and working with community partners. Lab hours will be used for in-class exercises, guest speakers, field trips to partner sites, and fieldwork for the research project. There may be one or two weekend field trips.
WRITING PROGRAM 211: Writing and Wellness
Professor Noreen Lape
This course uses a variety of disciplinary lenses to examine the link between writing and physical, emotional, social, and intellectual wellness. Starting with the work of research psychologist James Pennebaker in the 1980s, a multitude of studies have since shown the connection between expressive writing and wellness. Through the lens of social science, we will read Pennebaker's seminal research as well as articles by researchers who have further developed the writing and wellness connection. Through the lens of humanities, we will read autobiography in which authors self-consciously use writing to heal and fiction that represents writing as a healing practice. Theory will lead to practice as you deepen your investigations through service-learning and writing-intensive activities. Working with new groups of Dickinson students, you will learn to facilitate expressive writing groups in which students write and talk about the transition to college in order to assist them in achieving social and intellectual wellness. At the same time, you will learn journaling as a method of examining the connection between writing and wellness in your own lives. And you will write academic essays that explore writing and healing as manifested in the primary, secondary, and experiential sources you encounter in the course.
WRITING PROGRAM 211-02: Topics in Expository Writing
Professor Claire Bowen
A course in expository prose which focuses on the writing process itself emphasizing the organization of ideas and development of style. Seminars, group tutorials, or individual instruction.
This course fulfills the WR graduation requirement.