Spring 2017 ACE Courses

American Conversations students will work with Project Friendship, a local nonprofit celebrating its 50^th anniversary, to distill oral histories into social media stories for the group’s web site and outreach. This project gives AmCon students the opportunity to craft compelling and useful stories, delving into a unique set of sources. This experience also allows students to think comparatively about 19^th-century voluntary organizations, a focus in AmCon 102 coursework, and contemporary nonprofit groups.

Solving complex environmental problems and generating creative work requires the integration and application of multiple ways of knowing. Team projects connected to community needs bring the department’s three areas of emphasis into conversation within an experiential learning framework. The course attends to the nature of environmental inquiry and creativity, one’s own perspectives and values, and how to use one’s knowledge and skills to contribute in personal, civic and work related roles.

Students in the Environmental Studies 399 course will work on projects to help with the restoration of the Engeseth-Rinde addition to the Prairie Creek Wildlife Management Area in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. We will also develop projects to encourage environmental education and recreational uses of the area. Results will be made available to the DNR, Northfield Shares, as holder of the Engeseth-Rinde endowment, interested faculty/students at Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, and the Friends of Prairie Creek website.

This course introduces the key elements of marketing principles. Topics include evaluating market opportunities; buyer behavior; market segmentation, targeting, and positioning; market strategy and planning; development of marketing mix; and marketing organization and control. Students are challenged to apply the principles learned in class to current and real world marketing issues. The course includes readings, case study analysis, in-class exercises and group projects.

Students in this course were asked to develop a presentation about psychology to teach to students in a local elementary school.  Topics were selected by students from one chapter of the course textbook.   Read more about the “Students Teaching Students” project, which has been ongoing to approximately ten years, on the project website.

See also: Muir, G. M., & van der Linden, G. J. (2009). Students teaching students: An experiential learning opportunity for large introductory psychology classes in collaboration with local elementary schools. Teaching of Psychology, 36(3), 169-173.

For the ACE component of this class, student groups will conduct research projects for on-campus and off-campus constituents.  In addition, the entire class will assist with education-related research for a preschool in Northfield.

All children, adults, and families experience stressful life events. This seminar examines how stressors shape behavioral and biological development. For the ACE project, students will work with community partners to reduce stress-related risks and foster healthy development in the Northfield community.

What is the role of language in our society? What is the impact of bilingualism in the U.S.? Students explore such questions from current Spanish socio-linguistics research. Through analysis of data, students examine issues of language contact, variation and change, language and gender, language and power, and/or language planning. May be repeated if topic is different. This course includes the study of at least one substantive literary work.

Students assess strengths and problems of diverse groups, organizations, and communities and use the systems perspective to help client systems frame goals and plans for social change. Students develop plans for implementing change that are reflective, scientific, just, and grounded in the liberal arts.  For example, in the past, students participated in a project for Rice County Foster Care to create a more “Foster Care Friendly” Rice County.  Other activities may involve engaging in participant observation activities with community based organizations to better understand the processes for facilitating groups and decision making. The course will conclude with a public presentation of the activities that engaged students.