Diving into Augustana’s first January term
As part of Augustana's transition to semesters in 2019-2020, the college began offering a three-and-a-half week January term.
Students take one class for up to three hours a day for the three weeks. Classes ranged from geology to philosophy to communications and fine arts. Classes were on campus and at other locations in the U.S., and many new study-abroad options became available for students wanting to travel in January.
Watch our recap video, scroll the photo gallery and get a behind-the-scenes look at a "shark tank" business class featuring alumni and a communication class during J-Term.
Students in Dr. Steve Hager's BIOL-380-01 "Nature Photography" explore and interact with the natural world through their lenses. Here they are at the college's Beling Ecological Preserve a few miles south of campus. (See more)
The lower level of the Denkmann Memorial Building gets a French upgrade! French 241 students Patti Grod, Jason Palmer and SophiaRose Brown (right to left) admire their classmates' personal bestiaries. Dr. Cranford's Plants and Animals class recorded the visual, literary, and cultural significance of an animal important to them -- all in French!
Hans Christian Andersen, Stieg Larsson, Astrid Lindgren, Henrik Ibsen... heard of any of them? You would if you were with these students in Dr. Kimberly LaPalm's "Scandinavian Masters of Literature" class for J-term.
Students in Dr. Christopher Moyer's class "Psychology of Poker" on the first day of Augustana's first January term.
Students in "HIST265: Introduction to Museum Studies" were tasked with finding an object with a label on campus and rewriting the label to be more descriptive and engaging. Winners of the “Excellence in Exhibit Label Writing” award are, from left, Olivia Camp, Lucy Berry, Mikaela Ferrara and Rebecca Garbe.
Yes, students in "Accounting Fundamentals" started out with Monopoly. Said Dr. Nadia Schwartz, assistant professor: "The students start their own real estate business to practice/experience what it is like to keep track of your business activity. They get to prepare their financial statement."
In the introductory biology class, "Our Microbial World," lab activities included making root beer and sauerkraut to study the process of anaerobic cellular respiration, particularly lactic acid fermentation.
Dr. Lisa Szafran's "Interpersonal Relationships" students explored the research science behind love and intimacy. Here they are working in small groups on primary research articles that they then teach to their classmates.
Dr. John Hildreth's "Music in Worldwide Perspective" introduced students to ethnomusicology and a survey of indigenous music of the various regions of the world.
Dr. Sangeetha Rayapati's "Creative Therapies" music course included an understandings of the aging process, how the arts are used to help people, and historical foundations of arts and creative therapies.
Dr. Mariano Magalhães' students in "Politics in Brazil" visit the Casa de Carnaval da Bahia in Salvador, the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia, where they got a lesson in samba.
Dr. Jose Boquin's CHEM-111 "Busting Myths" introduced students to experimental design and how to communicate experimental findings to the community. Students confirm or disprove, through experimentation, a host of societal perceptions, urban legends, and/or viral videos.
Students in "Build Me an Island" geology classes diving to uncover the geologic secrets the reefs hold in teasing out the formation of the island of Bonaire in the Antilles in the Caribbean.
Students in BUSN 205 Business Communication practiced their interview skills in speed interviewing, then celebrated their hard work as they reached the three-quarters point in J-term.
Students Jared Reiling, Annelisa Burns, Maria Coulter and Christine Rogers cook potato pancakes in the Founders Hall kitchen. They were exploring the culture, society and politics of the Weimar Republic in Germany, 1919-1933.
Students in ENVR 101: Sustainability: Social Dimensions took a field trip to Chicago where they learned about the city's sustainability efforts. This included a tour of downtown with two Augustana alumni, Jon Grosshans and Erin Newman, who work for the EPA.
Students in Dr. Taddy Kalas' "Topics in French" ran into French artist Henri Matisse's "Blue Interior with Two Girls, 1947" at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.
The Ethical Service Learning class is spending J-term in Cambodia, where they stayed for a week at an elephant sanctuary in an eastern jungle province, trekking and learning about elephant welfare, care and rehabilitation. They also built a nursery for native tree saplings that will be used to reforest the region. "When they return to campus, be sure to ask them how they got toned, tanned, and cultured!" says Dr. Kathy Jakielski.
Two J-term classes — Dr. Lena Hann's "Reproductive Justice" and Dr. Meg du Bray's "Political Ecology of the Land" — combined for a day to see the film "Birth on the Border." They were able to talk with Ellie Lobovits, director of the film, about the intersections of reproduction, borders, the land, and health care.
Donna Hare's "Confident Communication" class aimed to help students become better-equipped to engage in the classroom and outside of it.
Students in Dr. Paul Croll’s J-term class "Sociology of Education" left the classroom to explore Augustana’s campus. They were sent out to answer questions including “What does education look like?” and “How do we know education happens here?”
Dr. Megan Lorenz taught the "Psychology of Play" class, which included a field trip to the Family Museum in Bettendorf and "Board Game Day." Students played board games and discussed how the design facilitated playful learning and development.
Shelley Cooper led the "Experience World Theatre" class, shown here at the Schonbrunn Palace Grounds Vienna, Austria. This is a studio course for the actor, director, dancer, or choreographer in the fundamentals of training and achieving an expressive voice and body.
"Global Nonfiction" led by Katie Hanson and David Crowe acquaints students with key aspects of modern Norway along with celebrated people from its past. During the accompanying trip to Norway, students spent about three days each in Oslo, Tromso, and Bergen. Here they are about to try try dog-sledding.
Students in GEOG-230 "Water and Environmental Justice" explore the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Here they are on a boat ride in the salt marshes on the Houma Navigational Canal to test water quality. Shipping canals and oil/gas pipelines — along with sea level rise — have caused increasing levels of salinity along the Gulf Coast, which is degrading marshes, killing trees, and is a major reason Louisiana is losing land every year.
Dr. David Thornblad's business course "Managing Innovation" class tours a Caterpillar plant in Peoria, Ill. Students learned about the product development process and managing innovation.
Ryan Harrington and Driss Douni watch as the Math/CS department's new 3D printer creates art in Dr. Forrest Stonedahl's "Artful Computing" J-term class. The studio-based uses computer programming to create art in various forms, including 2-D, 3-D, and animated images.
The J-term Montana group got acquainted with members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council, who invited them to meet and warmly welcomed them. They are at the tribal headquarters in Pablo, Mont. (See Dr. Dan Lee's column about the trip.)