Members of the Adult Learning Program at Columbia-Greene
Community College in New York studied Current Issues of the Mid East
with a Professor of History at the college.
SLEEP: Unlocking the Mystery Enveloping One-Third of Our Lives
is the title of a course at the Berkshire Institute for Lifetime
Learning in Massachusetts. During January and February members
will be studying five different aspects of this topic – Overview
of Sleep Medicine – Insomnia: Causes and Treatment – Sleep
and Breathing: Sleep Apnea and Beyond – Narcolepsy, Parasomnias
and Circadian Rhythm Disorders with Emphasis on Geriatric Issues –
Review and Look at the Future: Roundtable Discussion.
Members of the Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement
will be studying How We Once Did Things: How Humans Managed Before
Heat Engines & Mass Production. This course will look at aspects
of history that reflect technology – and how we have been constrained
by it and how we managed to transcend some obvious limitations.
Members of the Institute for Continuing Learning at
Young Harris College in Georgia were introduced to Archaeoastronomy,
a course that looked at certain celestial/terrestrial alignments that
ancient cultures may have used to determine important times of the year.
With field trips to the planetarium and Georgia Guidestones, a site with
stones whose openings are positioned so that the sun shines through a
certain way at the equinoxes and solstices, members found much to discuss.
This fall, members of the ILR at Nicolet College in
Wisconsin studied the burning question, How Hot Will It Get, Anyway?
They discussed questions about the warm-up of our planet and whether human
activity contributes to higher temperatures. They got the facts about
climate change and the effects of human behavior from a zoologist who
worked for the DNR and the Department of Environmental Protection in Florida.
Defining America: The Supreme Court Shapes our Everyday Life
is the title of a course being given at the New School Institute
for Retired Professionals in New York City this semester. In
this course, using a case simulation format in which students assume the
role of attorneys and the court itself, they will turn their attention
to some of the following issues: affirmative action in college admissions,
limitations on abortion rights, the right to die, assisted suicide, the
use of capital punishment in cases involving minors, limitations on the
right of eminent domain, profiling in the name of national security, providing
handicapped access, keeping “slime” and other offensive material
off the Internet, gun registration and control, religious use of public
property, the use of vouchers for parochial and private education, and
equitable funding of public school in poor areas.
The Prehistoric Caves of France will be explored by members
of the ILR at American University in Washington, D.C.
this fall. They will survey the prehistory of France from 450,000 B.C.
to 50 B.C. This workshop will look at photographs and other material displayed
in museums and caves such as Tautavel, Lascaux and Niaux, as well as more
recently discovered sites such as Chauvet and Cosquer.
Members of the ILR at Bradley University in Peoria,
Illinois toured Chicago by Segway earlier this fall. After they were trained
on how to operate the Segway, they embarked on a tour of Millennium Park,
Daley Bicentennial Plaza and Park, Buckingham Fountain, the museum campus,
Lakefront Bike Path and a variety of Chicago Skyline photo stops. The
trip combined Chicago history with futuristic transportation.
Members of the ILR at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio
will be exploring Inside the Manhattan Project this fall. They
will discuss the historical perspectives of the organizational, scientific,
political and military development of nuclear energy during World War
II.
Members of the Learning in Retirement program at the
University of Michigan Ann Arbor are taking a course entitled Out
of the Box and Into the Evidence: Trying to Explain War. They will
begin with the early advocates of the scientific study of war. From there
they will look at the post WWII peace research movement and the way it
played out during the cold war.
The Lifelong Learning Institute in Chesterfield, Virginia
is offering members a course entitled Anatomy and Physiology of the
Balloon, or How Do We Breathe? This class is a simple introduction
to the way humans breathe. The class will focus on Chronic Obstruction
Lung Disease, which includes Asthma, Emphysema, Chronic Bronchitis and
Restrictive Lung Disease like Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Swedenborg and His Influence is the title of a course being
given at the McGill Institute for Learning in Retirement
in Montreal this fall. A man overlooked by history, Swedenborg invented
the airplane 200 years before the Wright Brothers and unlocked the secrets
of the unconscious 150 years before Freud. The study group will focus
on the achievements and abilities of this remarkable man.
Members of the Montreat College Center for Adult Lifelong Learning
in North Carolina had Fun With Words. The class included eyebrow
raisers, vocabulary development, word games, spelling and comicography.
This course explored the many thought-provoking topics on words.
Dracula! In Fact, Fiction, and Fun! Is the title of a course
being given at the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement
in Asheville. Participants will delve into the history of vampires and
their treatment from early history to contemporary films and even to the
theme park, Dracula Land!
The OLLI program at George Mason University in Virginia
is offering members a chance to study about Operas of Love and Lust.
Grand opera is not always about poor heroines dying of unrequited love.
This course considers two heroines who shape love in unexpected ways,
Turendot by Giacomo Puccini and Salome by Richard Strauss.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University
of S. Maine in Portland held a lecture this fall on Intelligent Design
vs. Evolution: Behind the Controversy. The speaker characterized
intelligent design/traditional creation and evolution/natural selection
and how they differ. He also gave a brief history of controversies over
creationism in the US which set the stage for the turn to Intelligent
Design by opponents of evolution because of legal rulings concerning the
separation of church ad state in the US. Attendees listened to various
issues in the debate including the nature of science and the difference
between science and metaphysics – the issue of whether science in
general and Darwinism in particular are committed to materialism and/or
atheism – various positions intermediate between intelligent design
on the one hand and a materialistic neo-Darwinism on the other, such as
theistic evolution.
Mining in Arizona was the title of a program offered to members
of OLLI at Yavapai Community College in Arizona. They
took an in-depth look at the industry that made Arizona a state and in
the course covered the history of mining , the way it has changed over
the years, the current status of mining and the future of the mining industry.
Seniors Active in Retirement (SAIL) at Collin County
Community College in Plano, Texas is offering members an Introduction
to the Theatre. This six-week lecture class is designed to be an
introduction to the theatre for both the seasoned arts patron and those
who have always wanted to attend but never have. Each week theatre artists
will visit the class to lead a discussion on a specific aspect of the
theatre. Participants will visit with everyone from playwrights to artistic
directors to set designers to critics and attend the opening night of
a local theatre performance.
The World is Flat: What Does That Mean? Members of Senior
Learning Unlimited at the University of California Davis, will
be studying this topic using the new book The World is Flat,
by Thomas L. Friedman. The author identifies ten flatteners that have
converged to dramatically change economic life in the 21st century. Members
will learn how some companies are adapting to this newly leveled playing
field and discuss the challenges these new trends are presenting to America
and the world.
The Things We Learn Along the Way is the title of a new course
at the University for Seniors program at the University
of Minnesota Duluth. In this class participants will share the things
they leaned that gave their lives direction, purpose and meaning. Members
will relate those memories, insights, and experiences that served as a
foundation for their philosophy of life and comprise their legacy.
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