Group Study Ideas

The list:

• Literature: The student group will find 5 professors who are each willing to meet and discuss their favorite book with the group. (Or whatever book the professor thinks is the most important, or whatever). Each of the professors will have no evaluative role. Just a discussion, or possibly reading a paper (whatever the students decide and ask for!) This course will be used primarily in Div 2s, though Div 1 projects could grow out of it.
• Permaculture + Agriculture: Taking advantage of the many interested faculty and the farm center, the students will research past plans for the Farm Center, and develop their own plan for transforming Hampshire into a permaculture community (to whatever degree is feasible), including money plans, labor plans, site plans. Furthermore, they will take initial steps in this process, possibly including work with the Apple Orchard, the Enfield Greenhouse, the Cole Greenhouse, the Community Garden, SAGA, Mixed Nuts, and the Farm Center. The group may apply for grants for funding, and if the grants are funded, may be able to secure employment for this summer enacting their plans. Projects resulting from this course can be used as Div Is or in Div 2s.
• Re-Assess Hampshire College: A group of students will work on self-assesment that will be a part of Hampshire's reaccreditation. An important part of this self-assesment will be comparative research, in which students visit other alternative colleges in the area, such as Bennington, Marlboro, Goddard, and Antioch. Though the specific projects the students participate in will be determined in large part by the students, here are some suggestions: governance (who really owns the college?), the effectiveness of courses, how prepared alumni are for different work when they graduate (for instance, whether many are prepared for academia but few are prepared for creating their own niche), the "laws" and how different schools deal with them, how effective a particular school (say, Natural Science) is at relating classes to life, whether preregistration has been a "success" (it's still an experimental program, and was only approved based on the promise that it would be assessed and re-evaluated). Two points must be emphasized: one, that this group study is founded on the revolutionary idea that comparative research is at the heart of self-assesment (this might include as little as a few interviews at another school or repeated, extended visits); two, that the students will be encouraged not simply to reflect, but furthermore to act on their findings. Putting ideas into proposals for action and then action is as much a part of this course as is the actual research. Projects in this course can count for Div I projects in any of the four schools, depending on the specific project. They can also be used as part of div 2s.
• High Schools Dropouts, a social work project: This group of students will work with Hampshire alumnus John Stuen-Parker, who was not only a high-school dropout, but also went on to Yale Medical School and heads the National Aids Brigade. They will work on a project which will help high-school dropouts take the first step towards educating themselves and eventually getting their GEDs. The project will be interdisciplinary, engaging education, psychology, and the social conditions of youth.
• "A Hen on the Road" speaks for itself (b-bawk b-bawk splat). -- contact Tuck Young or Kelly Cappa.
• The History of the Div I: This group will engage in a project that will be a SS Div I. They will study the history of Div Is, from the perspective of old white men through revolutionary professors and students and back to old white men. What is the origin of this idea, and are the reforms in div 1 policy (nearly all educational reforms at Hampshire have been in div 1s) consistent with the spirit of div 1? Is a completely new approach necessary, or can the "problems" be "fixed"?
• Computer Science: The students in this group will pursue projects of various kinds (a list of project ideas is available here ). They will get credit for the projects in their Div 2 equal to courses, or could do div 1 projects in CCS or NS. This course is based on the idea that by studying a real problem in computer science and pursuing the answer, the "basics" that could have been learned in a class will be learned, and additionally the students will enjoy the experience and create something meaningful. (Chris Kawecki proved this principle and would be happy to explain.)
• Networking in the Alternative Colleges: The Alternative Higher Education Network (AHEN) comprises of many institutions that have students engaging in alternative programs of various kinds. One of the key tools that is underused in these programs is networking with other students. At their annual conference, AHEN proposed having an inter-campus networking tool, based on the original ideas of Hampshire's Student Information Network (type "sin" from your computer account). The students in this group will learn the computer essentials to work the computer end of things, and will work on the human end to finalize and pursue a plan of action, including both work at Hampshire and networking with the other alternative colleges. Essentially, the students will take ownership of this exciting project, and see it through to completion this semester.
• Any of the ideas I had as part of gip's original course description (you can find it off the ahen home-page,http://hampshire.edu/html/cs/ahen/ahen.html)).
• Group Dynamics Start some group-study that you're not interested in, but that you can get others interested in, and they'll do something, and you just study the group dynamics.
• Whenever you come across any idea that you are wondering about, any thing about nature that you wish you knew, anything that you just stumble across as you go through life, write it down. I did this two years ago when I spent the summer in Boulder. Then go, every day or every other day, to the library, and find out the answeres to what you were wondering. Find out what other people think about that idea. Find out the nutritional content of food, and how much it loses when it's shipped from California. When I first started doing this, it took a couple days to really start writing down everything that came up. It's like forming a new habit. But there were so many things! I couldn't believe how many things I had previously just been saying "well, that's interesting, but too hard to follow up on" to! And it was so neat to feel like I was so in control of all the knowledge of everything around me. I wondered about something, and then a couple days later I'd be in the library and I'd know the answer. I think everybody would benefit from doing this at least for a week or so. But I also think it could be the basis for an entire course-credit, or an entire semester of work, or my entire education! I'm thinking this idea could also be used as a transition to people really starting to do things in their educations that come out of their own lives. Maybe this would be a great way to start RD! Everybody does this for a few weeks, just wandering around asking people their questions or pursuing them in the community, the library, the science lab, etc. Maybe sometimes folks would bump into each other in the library! Imagine, there being bunches of people in the library, and you'd bump into people and know that they are looking at the same kinds of things, because they're in the same section, and you'd tell each other what you're doing, and wow you'd feed off one another! Maybe people would get ideas for big projects that would become "classes" or independent studies or maybe they'd just do small projects.