Spring 2025

The final course in the Asian Conversations program will provide critical reflections on the students’ academic and personal journey in the Asian Conversations program in particular, and in the college as a whole. Students examine diverse interpretations of Asia, engage with various primary and secondary texts through written and oral presentations, including materials collected during January Term, and conclude their overall experiences from their past two years in the learning community and beyond.

ACE Component: Students will develop programming in collaboration with the Northfield Public Library as part of AANHPI Heritage Month in May.

This course considers works of anime from the post-World War II period to the present. The course begins with an introduction to the language and theory of Anime Studies. In subsequent weeks, students watch and analyze a variety of anime genres. This course employs a comparative approach to the study of anime; each anime is paired with excerpts from germane works of philosophy or literature.

ACE Component: Students will develop programming in collaboration with the Northfield Public Library as part of AANHPI Heritage Month in May.

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.

Course Description: American politics is as divided as it has ever been, causing many to be apprehensive about engaging in the political process. While the political environment can be challenging and often off-putting, the opportunities for political engagement are abundant. Through readings, discussion, and a community engagement project, this seminar explores these ideas in tandem — why is politics so polarized, and how can we be ethical and effective political actors when the system often seems so broken?

ACE Component: Students will attend Day at the Capitol on March 11, with an alternative assignment only for college-designated conflicts.

Course Description: In this course, we will collaborate and use a variety of methods to try to answer the question: Who is science for? Through readings, discussion, and community engagement, we will explore the natural world around us and consider issues like vaccine acceptance and climate change. We will ask: Why is there skepticism of science?, How do people start to think of themselves as scientists?, and What do we need to learn about our own community in this part of Minnesota to make science accessible and useful to more people? Moving from inquiry to action, we will use our learning to help us develop and curate materials to be used for science outreach at community gatherings and in schools.

ACE Component: Students will have the opportunity to spend six afternoons working and learning with youth in the community in an afterschool program.

Students analyze mechanical principles in depth as they affect human motion. Topics include study of muscular and skeletal systems, skill analysis, and motion measurement techniques. Students attend lectures plus one three-hour laboratory per week.

ACE Component: Students will offer free gait analysis or functional fitness measurements to the greater St. Olaf community (faculty, staff, and students).

Students study in-depth the physiology of exercise, covering cardiovascular and muscular adaptions to exercise and factors affecting performance, including body composition, environmental influences, training implications across gender and age, and the assessment of fitness.

ACE Component: Students will work with members from the St. Olaf community to conduct baseline measurement testing and consultation.

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.

Participants prepare for performance of a one-act opera or opera scenes. Students receive coaching and performance experience through individual and group singing/acting exercises. The course culminates with staged and costumed public performances. Open to all students. May be repeated once. A class fee may be required. Offered periodically during January Term. Counts toward musical theater concentration.

ACE Component: Students will tour to local elementary schools with a children’s opera “The Reluctant Dragon”.

The product of the political process is public policy. This course surveys the major areas of domestic public policy in the United States: education, welfare, health, housing, the environment, and the economy with special attention to the impact of public policies on women and minorities.

ACE Component: Students will participate in the MN Private Colleges Council Day at the Capitol and then work in small groups to follow, track, and raise awareness around public policy in the 2025 legislative session in conjunction with local organizations.

Course description forthcoming. 

ACE Component:Students will observe one day at the Fort Snelling Immigration Court and embark upon self-direction action projects related to the topic of the course.

This whirlwind introduction comprehensively examines foundational principles, theoretical approaches, and major areas of study within psychology. Acting as skeptical scientists, students gain another lens on the human experience by which they can better understand themselves and others. Students see psychology as a science and challenge “common sense” explanations about how people function. This gateway course captures the essence of the liberal arts, applying to almost any career choice.

ACE Component: Students will make a presentation about a topic in psychology to local youth in Northfield Public Schools.

This course explores research on parenting and child development across a variety of diverse family structures and sociocultural contexts, including families with primary caregiving fathers, divorced and remarried parents, adoptive parents, gay and lesbian parents. Students discuss similarities and variability across families, and examine how factors such as gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and social class shape parenting experiences and unique psychosocial challenges that “nontraditional” families may confront. Students examine and bridge the empirical literature with popular culture and media portrayals of families.

ACE Component: Students will be examining current social policies that impact children/families and potential vulnerabilities or changes that may be forthcoming in conjunction with the mission and priorities of Healthy Community Initiative.

This course explores research on parenting and child development across a variety of diverse family structures and sociocultural contexts, including families with primary caregiving fathers, divorced and remarried parents, adoptive parents, gay and lesbian parents. Students discuss similarities and variability across families, and examine how factors such as gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and social class shape parenting experiences and unique psychosocial challenges that “nontraditional” families may confront. Students examine and bridge the empirical literature with popular culture and media portrayals of families.

ACE Component: Students will work with Healthy Community Initiative to analyze effectiveness of referrals across partner organizations using ASQ early childhood screening data.

This course provides a comprehensive research opportunity, including an introduction to relevant background material, technical instruction, identification of a meaningful project, and data collection. The topic is determined by the faculty member in charge of the course and may relate to their research interests.

ACE Component: TBD

Social welfare policies exemplify how society’s values and needs translate into policies and programs. Social workers create, implement, and evaluate policies in all areas of social policy. Students study policy formation and analysis that reflect interests and powers of diverse groups as well as economic and social realities of certain populations at risk of poverty and discrimination. The course emphasizes policy impact on women, people in poverty, people of color, and empowerment in policy practice.

ACE Component: Students will participate in the National Association of Social Workers Advocacy Week.

Blending the reading seminar and writing workshop, this course offers advanced practice in critical reading and writing with emphasis in the sciences. Students read and respond to popular feature stories in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022, creative writing, TED Talks, short documentaries, and scholarly essays. Topics include animal consciousness, dinosaurs, galaxies, the evolution of organs, the quest to preserve wild sounds, and the link between quantum mechanics and indigenous knowledge. Course activities first explore how writers and speakers communicate with multiple audiences, then students practice various communication strategies through personal narrative, information visualization, an explainer, and a researched feature story.

ACE Component: Students will create environmental education games and pilot them with local youth in the community.