Spring 2020 ACE Courses

The United States was founded by breaking away from an empire, yet has grown into an imperial power. This course explores territorial expansion, the development of a pluralistic American state with varied internal borders and cultural realms, and the emergence of the United States as a world power. Examining American history through lenses used by creative artists, historians and social scientists, students consider such topics as global trade, slavery, urbanization, and war.

ACE Component: Students will conduct research on Native American history and activities in the local area and provide recommendations around how to recognize, honor, and celebrate historical and continued contributions of local Native Americans.

Students in this course examine technology, the mass market and consumerism, and the increasingly complex relations between identity and material goods. They also explore the images, institutions, and stories of environmental, feminist, and Civil Rights activists in the context of Cold War America. Topics and texts range from Yosemite National Park and Japanese internment camps to Adrienne Rich’s poetry and prose, Freedom Summer, Las Vegas, and the Mall of America.

ACE Component: Students will produce ten-minute podcasts by students, for students on issues relating to the upcoming election. They will work with Emily Shields, Executive Director of IA and MN Campus Compact. Four podcasts will be selected and compiled into a special episode of the Compact Nation podcast.

This course traces the path of invertebrate evolution from single-celled protozoans to the most primitive chordates. Emphasis is placed upon major breakthroughs in design that enable organisms to exploit new ecological habitats. Laboratories are designed to introduce students to the major invertebrate groups via observation of living animals and through dissection.

ACE Component: Students will conduct a literature review on various topics involving invertebrate species and prepare public education and awareness materials for select audiences, including River Bend Nature Center and Northfield Montessori.

The course brings together students from across the environmental studies areas of emphasis to explore complex environmental problems connected to community needs. The course satisfies the experiential component requirement.

ACE Component: In cooperation with a community partner teams of students will participate in a project fulfilling an identified local need, such as research, planning and execute a community event, inventorying and documenting various features of natural environments, etc. This term students will work on action steps related to the City of Northfield’s Climate Action Plan and sustainability initiatives.

This topics course will investigate local community natural resource management (water, forestry, etc.) using case studies from around the world.

ACE Component: Students will work with the City of Northfield on the annual tree sale, including generating more educational materials, marketing, promotion, and assisting with planting.

Collectively the intersectional impacts of climate change comprise one of the today’s gravest challenges and warrant multivalent and anticipatory responses from a variety of disciplines. This arts and humanities topics course examines what theological worldviews have to offer by way of texts, traditions and communities. With an aim to center the perspectives and voices of those most negatively affected we’ll ask what resources theological ethics bring to bear on questions of ecojustice, biodiversity loss, climate adaptation and migration, public health, economies, energy policies, lifestyle choices and the like. Our ethical queries will employ a variety of normative frameworks including contemporary perspectives on stewardship, deep ecology, environmental virtue, and contemplative ecology.

ACE Component: Students will create dialogue guides around climate change topics and facilitate dialogues with constituents at local congregations.

This course presents the fundamental principles of exercise testing and prescription for both healthy and special needs individuals. Students explore techniques for assessing fitness and prescribing exercise using a variety of ergometers for improvement of health fitness parameters. Students also utilize case studies and laboratory experiences. Topics include health/medical histories, submaximal graded exercise testing, and assessment of strength, flexibility, pulmonary functions, and body composition.

ACE Component: Students will work 1-1 with two St. Olaf clients (faculty or staff) to assess several health factors (e.g., strength, endurance, flexibility, nutrition, blood pressure, body composition) and then prescribe exercise regimens and dietary advice over the course of 12-weeks. Clients are reassessed at the end of the 12-weeks.

Students explore the theory and practice of Public History as they learn to identify and interpret history for the public. Using readings, workshops, site visits, and individual and collaborative projects, students explore how ownership and funding influence decisions regarding what is preserved; how the past informs the present; how the present may oppose the past; and how cultures engage in remembering their pasts in ways consistent with the common good.

ACE Component: Students will work with local nonprofits and hitsorical societies to generate grant proposals for public history projects.

The course explores the biosocial experience of addiction, a condition that is both rooted in brain processes as well as powerful social patterns. We trace the feedback loops produced by the biological and the social, examining how the body changes with prolonged exposure to psychoactive substances and how factors like capitalism and inequality enhance the capacity and desire to use drugs. We will also explore the ways that treatment modes help human beings to negotiate the often powerful hold of addiction. We will learn more about the wide-ranging experience of drug use through conversations with community organizations responding to addiction, and how academic knowledge can help practitioners heal the damage caused by addictive substances.

ACE Component: Students will create educational and awareness information about addiction geared towards college-aged students.

We will consider contemporary and enduring questions relating to aging from many different perspectives: biological, psychological, social, economic, ethical, technological and political factors that relate to aging. Questions we will address include: What changes do people experience as they age, and how can societal institutions best serve this population given evolving population trends? What role should older adults play in society? How should end-of-life be handled?

ACE Component: Students will volunteer at FiftyNorth (formerly Northfield Senior Center) and participate in joint classes with the members from FiftyNorth.

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.

ACE Component: Students will work with businesses and organizations to research and generate marketing plans.

An introduction to principles, methods and resources for effective and creative music teaching through the piano. Students observe demonstration teaching at various levels and in individual and group settings, engage in peer teaching, analyze and perform teaching literature, and discuss topics such as technical development, learning stages and styles, and studio management.

ACE Component:  Students will work with Greenvale Park Community School to provide piano education opportunities.

Individuals, communities, and organizations have found ways to address even the most egregious state abuses of human rights and other injustices. Using comparative analysis, this course considers cases and theories of nonviolent personal and political resistance and the factors that appear to contribute to people taking action and to successful responses. Students research and analyze cases of their choosing in light of the literature.

ACE Component: Students work on social action projects that address an injustice with various community partners or for the general public good.

This course prepares students with tools for understanding how research studies in psychology are conceptualized, designed, and ethically conducted, and how data is analyzed, interpreted, and disseminated. Students apply this understanding in independent and small group research projects. In the process, students develop critical reading, thinking, and scientific writing skills.

ACE Component: Students will be conducting various surveys and program evaluation for the Northfield Area YMCA.

Students explore seven major challenges affecting the world’s people including population, resource management, economic integration, information, technology, conflict/security, and governance with an emphasis on their relation to global citizenship and human rights. This course examines issues from social science and global problem-solving perspectives with particular attention to how culture and place affect human experience. Students engage in discussions, forums, a global village activity, and an action project.

ACE Component: Students design community-based action projects that work to address one of the major challenges in the course.

Social work majors continue to study the methods and skills of generalist practice. They 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 assess macrosystems and develop plans for implementing change that are reflective, scientific, just, and grounded in the liberal arts.

ACE Component: Students will work with the St. Olaf Financial Aid office to research and create a resource that would address student needs that are not covered by the college (health care costs, additional course fees, etc.).