There are many courses at Carleton that work in the Northfield and surrounding communities. The list below contains the courses that are currently supported by Academic Civic Engagement Resources through the ACT Center and the Dean of the College. It is by no means comprehensive and does not include many ongoing courses.

Spring '12

Advanced Ceramics - ARTS 330 - Kelly Connole (12 students)

Students in this art course will create over 500 bowls for a yearly event to highlight the problems that hunger creates in society. The event is called Empty Bowls and includes a fundraiser selling the handmade bowls with soup provided by the Carleton community for the Northfield Food Shelf. Students will do research and design publicity based on hunger in a local context in collaboration with the Northfield Community Action Center. Bowls are a fundamental skill in the field of ceramics and the bowls that students made for the event were designed as tokens to remind participants to give back.

Plant Biology - BIOL 236 - Susan Singer (31 students)

Both the Northfield School District and Prairie Creek, a local Charter school, have made substantial changes in their school lunch programs to emphasize healthy food choices and local food sources. Students in this course will study the nutritional effects of various plant-based lunches, and will create trading cards to teach students about healthy snacking.

Topics in Virology - BIOL 370 - Debby Walser-Kuntz (19 students)

The course will focus on the most recent developments in HIV-related research, including implications for HIV-treatment and vaccines and the impact of viral infection on the immune system of the host. Students will work on one of three projects. One group will meet with Northfield and Faribault high school students interested in medical careers and organize a career event for them. Another group will work with the Gender and Sexuality Center to develop educational materials, and another will partner with Daniel Groll's Bioethics class to prepare a presentation on ethical issues in mother-child transmission of AIDS and refusal of medication.

Classical Mythology - CLAS 111 - Clara Hardy (3 of 31 students)

We will study a selection of the most famous Classical myths through close reading of Homer, the Greek tragedians, Ovid and other ancient sources. In addition we'll discuss the most prominent of modern modes of myth interpretation, in an attempt to determine how myth speak - both to the ancient world and to us. The course's civic engagement component will involve working with local 4th and 5th graders.

The Oresteia Project: Visualizing Greek Tragedy - CLAS 224 - Clara Hardy and Ruth Weiner (19 students)

The course will focus on Aeschylus’ famous tragic trilogy as an entry-point into and case study of the production, both ancient and modern, of Greek drama. All students enrolled in the course are required to participate in some way (e.g. acting, dancing, costume, lighting, dramaturgy, etc.) in the term's Players' production of a new adaptation of the Oresteia. As a civic engagement project, participants will also work with students from the local charter school, ARTech.

Teaching Reading in the Content Areas - EDUC 386 - Cathy Oehmke (3 students)

The course provides a theoretical and practical foundation for helping secondary teachers learn to provide specific instructional support for secondary readers. The course will cover instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.  Students for this class will partner with students from the Prairie Creek Community School to work on reading skills.

Senior Seminar - EDUC 395 - Anita Chikkatur (11 students)

This is a research and design seminar for educational studies concentrators. It focuses on a contemporary issue in American education. Recent seminars have been on educational reform and reformers, service learning, literacy leaders in education, education and the emotions, and personal essays about education. Some off campus work with public school students and teachers is an integral part of the seminar.  The academic civic engagement component for this class will focus on charter schools.

Environmental Law and Policy - ENTS 310 - Kim Smith (5 of 15 students)

This seminar will examine topical issues in domestic and international environmental law and policy. Students will aim to understand how environmental laws work to achieve policy objectives, with attention also to debates about the role of markets and community-based environmental management. This year, students will be looking at a policy analysis of the Ames Mill Dam in downtown Northfield. They will examine the current environmental issues surrounding the dam as well as its history.

The French Art of Living: Tradition, Myth, Reality - FREN 349 - Cathy Yandell (22 students)

Through literature, art, architecture, and theory, students will explore French notions of what it means to live well, from Renaissance sumptuousness to existentialist questioning to the depiction of immigrants’ lives in contemporary Paris. The program will examine the ways in which the physical environment fashions attitudes and practices that define the good life (urban and rural settings, the north and the south, housing projects and seascapes). Whenever possible, course readings and student writing will be linked with experiential learning in Paris and southern France. Students will volunteer in the banlieux (primarily diverse low income school districts) of Paris. 

Introduction to Statistics - MATH 215 - Bob Dobrow (55 students total, 2 sections, 4 students did additional independent study projects)

Students will analyze member surveys of satisfaction and interest in Northfield Senior Center. Practical aspects of statistics, including extensive use of statistical software, interpretation and communication of results, will be emphasized. Topics include: exploratory data analysis, correlation and linear regression, design of experiments, basic probability, the normal distribution, sampling distributions, estimation, hypothesis testing, and two-way tables.

Place, Politics, and Citizen Mobilization - POSC 209- Pat Cavanaugh (11 students)

This class will explore concepts of democracy, power, identity, and sense of place as we examine cases of citizen mobilization. The class will research a current case study of an environmental controversy that gave rise to citizen mobilization. Some students will look at the Wind Farm proposals in Red Wing, Minnesota and their impact on endangered species in that area. The class will examine the conflicting views of different environmental organizations. Another group will research in depth the political backgrounds of five different foods and prepare materials for tabling in Sayles to educate students on the political impact of these foods.

Language and Deception - PSYC 375 - Mija Van Der Wege (9 students)

In this course, students participate in the development of a local episode of Mental Engineering, a television program based in the Twin Cities that brings together academics and commentators to analyze advertisements. This year, the Carleton students will work in three groups to prepare for and perform a mock episode of Mental Engineering, to be hosted by the host of Mental Engineering, John Forde. Two of the performances will be done with students from The Key, a local youth center. The project enables students to apply insights that they have developed from course material to an analysis of advertisements.

Global Religions in Minnesota - RELG 289 - Shanna Sippy (10 students)

This course examined how global religions adapt to and transform the disparate local communities where their practitioners make home. Students supplemented historical and theoretical instruction with hands-on research with living communities in Minnesota including Muslims in Faribault, Hindus in Eagan, and Cambodian Buddhists in Hampton. The studies and experiences may be published online.

Ethics of Civic Engagement - SOAN 285 - Adrienne Falcón (19 students)

In this course, students will discuss the ethical questions that arise when they engage with others in research, service, organizing, or policy work. Students will read and talk about the meanings and forms of civic engagement and use these readings to reflect upon their own research or service projects. Gaining insights from sociological and practice based readings, we will examine different perspectives on the ways that power and privilege relate to civic engagement. Each student will take on a project based on their own interests.

Methods of Social Research -  SOAN 240 - Annette Nierobisz (13 students)

The course is concerned with social scientific inquiry and explanation, particularly with reference to sociology and anthropology. Topics covered include research design, data collection, and analysis of data. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are considered. Student will demonstrate their knowledge by developing a research proposal that is implementable. The class will partner with the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation and partake in interviews examining the direction of development in the downtown area. The class will also interview Carleton alumni currently living in town about the state of Northfield's "knowledge-based economy" and through examining quantitative data they will compile a presentation on the subject.

Washington D.C.: A Global Conversation (2 courses) - POSC 288/289 - Greg Marfleet (22 students -off campus)

Students will participate in a seminar involving meetings with leading Washington figures in areas of global policy making and regular discussions of related readings. Barbara and Greg will take students to Washington DC where they will be doing internships with DC policy organizations.Students will engage with leading scholars and practitioners in the field of political communication to learn how mass media, particularly TV news, influences politics. We will be especially attentive to United States news coverage of international events in new and old media and its importance in international relations, domestic perceptions of global political concerns (e.g. climate change and universal declarations of human rights). Our seminar readings will draw on research in political psychology and democratic theory.

Winter '12

Ireland: The Origin of the Troubles - HIST 245 - Susannah Ottoway (21 students)

This course examines the roots religious and political tensions and violence in modern Irish history, focusing on Anglo-Irish relations. Students will share their research by giving presentations and timelines to Northfield High School's World History classes.

Performing Politics - DANC 255 - Stuart Pimsler (15 students)

This course focuses on individual identity and community-based art, using movement, theater, writing, and voice to explore how politically influenced performance art. Students in this class perform regularly, and will participate in a final performance open to the public. The course will also hold several community workshops in Faribault, one with high school students and another with diabetes patients.

Introduction to Peace Studies - SOAN 236 - Nader Saiedi (25 students)

Peace studies is an interdisciplinary exploration of how harmony and violence function collectively. With an appreciation of the various understandings of peace, this course will study the relationship of peace to modernity, the state, cultural violence, religion, patriarchy, militarism, and much more. Students will have the option of participating in a weekend-long workshop at Carleton facilitated by the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a Quaker initiative focused on creating peaceful spaces and relationships, particularly in prisons, where the project was started by inmates. After completing the training, students will write a reflective essay on their experience and how it informed their understandings of the concepts discussed in class.

Anthropology of Health and Illness - SOAN 262 - Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg (8 of 23 students)

In this course students partnered with HealthFinders and Growing Up Healthy. Students working with Growing Up Healthy conducted library-based research to better understand specific subpopulations (such as the Somali population in Faribault) and specific issues (such as refugee mental health, or culturally specific presentation of symptoms) of relevance to GUH's goals. Those working with HealthFinders helped developed and administered surveys to English and Spanish speakers. Students also organized and led focus groups and did participant observation of waiting rooms.

Field Investigation in Comparative Agroecology - ENTS 261 - David Hougen-Eitzman (12 students)

This course succeeds a two-week visit to China over winter break, where students studied leaders in China's emerging sustainable agriculture movement. Site research included visits to Chinese farms and conversations with sustainable agriculture researchers. This term, the class will develop a curriculum for a variety of age groups of elementary school students. The curriculum will focus on discussing the basics of and differences between agriculture in the US and China. Hands-on activities will be used, including growing squash plants under different nutrient treatments.

Multicultural Education - EDUC 238 - Anita Chikkatur (4 of 25 students)

This class explores theories and strategies for how to teach and learn in a way that respects differences of race, culture, social class, gender, and sexuality. A small group of students in this class will participate in a project to interview Somali parents in Faribault about their views on early childhood education.

Human Reproduction and Sexuality - BIOL 101 - Matt Rand (35 students)

Countering widespread misconceptions about sexuality, this class studies the biology of sex to better understand many aspects of the reproductive process. Participants in this course will work with different groups of local public school students, from elementary to high school ages. Project topics will range from movies to state sex education standards.

Immunology - BIOL 310 - Debby Walser-Kuntz (35 students)

Students will become familiar with the immunology-related primary literature and apply course concepts to real-world problems. Groups will explore one of the following topics in depth: asthma and air pollution, type 2 diabetes and the role of the immune system, or exercise and immunity. Each topic represents an active area of immunology research and a public health issue that can be explored in our local community. Students in the course will write a research paper that requires analysis and synthesis of experimental evidence. Simultaneously, they will also gather and analyze data from the community--including interviews and discussions with their community partners--to gain practical information related to their topic. In collaboration with the community partners, the students will develop a finished product to be used by their community partner.

Statistics: Concepts and Applications - MATH 215.01 and 215.02 - Katie St. Clair (64 students)

This course emphasizes helping students interpret statistical information. The class focused on a statistical problem of the Northfield Senior Center's wish to survey 50- and 60-year-olds about their needs from the senior center and their decision to participate in the senior center. After using this example as a thought experiment, the class shared their findings with the Northfield Senior Center.

Winter Independent Studies: TORCH PSEO, SCOPE, Northfield Senior Center

Independent studies with ACE components include students serving as teaching assistants for high schoolers from TORCH taking online college courses, working as interns in the middle school's SCOPE history enrichment program, and supporting the Northfield Senior Center in designing a questionnaire to meet the needs of local seniors.

Fall '11

Audio Workshop - CAMS 275 - John Schott (16 students)

Geology of Soils - GEOL 258 - Mary Savina (20 students)

Statistics: Concepts and Applications - MATH 115 - Katie St. Clair (23 students)

This course emphasizes helping students interpret statistical information. The class focused on a statistical problem of the Northfield Senior Center's wish to survey 50- and 60-year-olds about their needs from the senior center and their decision to participate in the senior center. After using this example as a thought experiment, the class shared their findings with the Northfield Senior Center.

Experimental Economics - ECON 266 - Lauren Feiler (8 students)

In this course, students will learn how experiments can test and improve economic theory. In addition to studying a range of experimental research, students will create their own economic experiments. The course's civic engagement component centers on a partnership with Be The Match, a national marrow donation registry. Students' goal will be to develop an economic understanding of the decision to donate bone marrow.

Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood - CGSC 385 - Kathy Galotti (11 students)

 Memory, perception, attention, problem-solving, and conceptual thinking are all developing rapidly between the ages of 6 and 11. This course will study how academic and social contexts can affect these developments. Key to students' understanding of cognitive development in middle childhood will be their observation of elementary schoolers at Sibley Elementary.

Masquerades in Africa - HIST 282 - Thabiti Willis (13 students)

Currently on display in the Gould Library is an exhibit featuring the practices studied in this course: masquerade rituals, their cultural meanings, and the histories they recreate. Students will be creating a second exhibit for the library, to present the imagery and interpretations they discovered during the term. Additionally, the class will host fourth and fifth graders visiting from Prairie Creek Community School to share their exhibit and explain the work that went into making it.

Measured Thinking: Reasoning with Numbers about World Events, Health, Science and Social Issues - IDSC 100 - Neil Lutsky (18 students)

In public, professional, personal, and academic life, numbers are essential elements of information and arguments. Students in this class will learn about the use and misuse of numbers for social, political, and scientific purposes. The class will host Running the Numbers, an exhibit of photographer Chris Jordan's work. Following his artistic style, the students will help middle school art classes visually represent important numbers.

Ecosystems Ecology - BIOL 221 - Daniel Hernandez (20 students)

This course studies the Earth's major ecosystems.  Students will learn about the processes that constitute ecosystems, as well as the contemporary issues affecting various ecosystems. For the course's civic engagement component, the class will partner with St. Olaf students to organize trips for Greenvale Park Elementary third graders to learn about the ecosystems of Minnesota, while also studying decomposition, herbivory, pollination, and food webs.

Nonviolent Social Change: Theory and Praxis - RELG 276 - Terrance Wiley (10 students)

Nonviolent direct action has created major social and political change across the planet in the last century. This class focuses on the emergence of the theory of nonviolence and the social movements that nonviolent theory helped create and shape. Students in this class will have the opportunity to participate in a weekend-long workshop led by the Alternatives to Violence Project. Those who attend will be trained to participate in nonviolence workshops in prisons both locally and worldwide.

Educational Psychology - EDUC 234 - Deborah Appleman (22 students)

Educational Psychology brings together theory and classroom experience to help Carleton students form a better understanding of teaching and learning.  Carleton students act as classroom assistants and tutors in local schools, giving them a context with which to understand their studies.  This experience also gives students a chance to reflect upon education and its practices in a hands-on and practical manner.

Race, Immigration, and Urban Schools - EDUC 340 - Anita Chikkatur (6 students)

This course explores the important role that public schools, particularly in urban areas, have played in the American national imagination as the way to socialize students about what it means to be American and to prepare them to participate as citizens in a democracy. One group of students is working with a newly created theater class at Northfield High School for students learning English as a Second Language, and another group is delivering a presentation on college preparation to Spanish-speaking parents of elementary and middle school students.

Health Psychology - PSYC 260 - Ken Abrams (25 students)

Students in small groups will critically examine the effects of local public (e.g., town) or private (e.g., hospital) policies on health outcomes. More specifically, students will work with local policy makers to investigate an issue, propose policy changes supported by theory and research, present formal proposals to the policy makers, and solicit and respond to community feedback. Additionally, groups will present their findings to the class and community representatives at a poster session at the end of the term. Examples of past projects include the development of a heroin use prevention program at Northfield High School, a comprehensive worksite wellness program at Northfield Hospital, and a more accessible and better marketed farmers' market in Northfield.

Ethics of Civic Engagement - SOAN 285 - Adrienne Falcón (20 students)

In this course, students will discuss the ethical questions that arise when they engage with others in research, service, organizing, or policy work. Students will read and talk about the meanings and forms of civic engagement and use these readings to reflect upon their own research or service projects. Gaining insights from sociological and practice based readings, we will examine different perspectives on the ways that power and privilege relate to civic engagement.

Intermediate Spanish - SPAN 204.03; 204.08 - Maria Elena Doleman (40 students)

Students in this course are required to spend at least 7 service hours (1 hour per week) working in partnership with the Northfield Public Schools from elementary to high school. In some situations college students work with other students in the Northfield Compañeros program. In other positions, students work in classrooms directly as ESL tutors. In addition to language, the course focuses on immigration and Latino experiences. This project illuminates the local experience of immigrants in Northfield.