Whether you’re writing your first song or the next of many, here’s a great place to imagine, polish, share, tinker and play. We will write, play, and sing together, using both old and new paths toward imagining and refining melody, rhythm, lyrics, themes and chord structure. All musical genres and experience levels are welcome. This course meets the prerequisites for graduate level music and creative writing.

Credits awarded: 1 credit each in music and creative writing

This is an introduction to Irish-Gaelic through conversation, poetry and songs (using the natural singing voice). By the end of the class, students will be able to engage in culturally appropriate small talk and sing about a dozen songs in Irish. We will spend each meeting working on conversation and grammar, and then learning traditional songs in Irish that reflect aspects of what we have just learned. No previous language or singing skills necessary! Each class will include a chance to practice what you have learned. This course meets the prerequisite for a foreign language for graduate school students needing language credits.

Credits awarded: 4 credits in Irish language and music

This course will provide an overview of special education, including history, legislation, characteristics of various disabilities and disorders, individualized education plans and teaching strategies for students with a wide range of abilities. The class is intended for pre-service teachers, practitioners or people interested in working with individuals with disabilities. This course is a required beginning course for special education endorsement whether entering MIT here or elsewhere, or for teachers adding the endorsements.

Credits awarded: 2 credits each in foundations of special education, characteristics of special needs learners, and individual learning differences in special education

This class is intended as an introduction to the concepts of statistics. We will accomplish this by developing an understanding of descriptive statistics. The class assumes that the student has no prior background in the study of statistics. With that in mind, the class will present the basic ideas of what statistics is, how the practice of statistics relates to the real world, and especially why an understanding of statistics is critical to the development of successful public policy. This course meets the prerequisites for credits in statistics for many graduate programs.

Credits awarded: 4 credits in statistics

This class is designed to introduce students to key elements of research design and basic statistical analysis. The course emphasizes the importance of developing clear research questions and the selection of statistical methods to evaluate data collected. We will cover selected descriptive and inferential statistical tests, including but not limited to sampling, normal distributions, probability, chi square, correlation and regression, and tests of hypothesis. The class emphasis is on understanding quantitative issues we often confront in the news, in literature and in research. The course is designed to develop a clear conceptual understanding of quantitative reasoning and the ability to work with data to correctly interpret findings. This class fulfills the statistics requirement for entry into the MES and MPA graduate programs at the Evergreen State College. It also is an excellent introductory statistics class for undergraduate work in environmental studies, social science and public policy analysis.

Credits awarded: 4 credits in introduction to statistics

This course provides a concentrated overview of the statistics and research methodology required for the GRE and prerequisites for graduate schools in psychology, education and other social sciences. We emphasize hands-on, intuitive knowledge and approach statistics as a language rather than as math alone, thus this course is gentle on “math phobics.” No computer skills are required. You will become an informed and savvy consumer of information, from the classroom to the workplace. We will cover descriptive and inferential statistics, research methodology and ethics. This course provides a complete introduction to statistics and research methodology—frequently prerequisite requirements for graduate work in the social sciences.

Credits awarded: 4 credits each in introductory statistics (descriptive and inferential) and psychology: research methodology

Attend the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association Symposium at Camp Brotherhood, near Arlington, Wash., July 12-20, 2008. This is a full-time workshop with housing and meals provided. Daily workshops teach beginning and advanced stone carving and finishing skills using hand and power tools, and related sculpture topics. Learn to identify, safely move and work with a variety of stones. Plan to produce sculpture, a digital portfolio, a sketchbook, a technical journal with regular entries and a self-evaluation. Work study available through NWSSA. For more information, visit nwssa.org or contact Bob Leverich.

Credits awarded: 3 credits in stone sculpture

This program will focus on research methods in stream ecology. Topics covered will include basic water chemistry, stream flow dynamics, primary productivity, insect ID, trophic dynamics, ecological interactions, organic matter and nutrient dynamics, and current threats to freshwater ecosystems. This intensive on-campus and field course with student projects will teach sampling, field methods, analysis and scientific writing in stream ecology. This course will help students with graduate school programs and jobs that require field experiences in freshwater ecology.

Credits awarded: 4 credits each in stream ecology and field ecology

This course will provide technical and critical support for students’ individual project work in studio art and related fields (art therapy, art education, art history, or arts management) within the context of a supporting program structure. It is designed for students who may have part-time jobs, but wish to advance their art skills, develop a body of work for their portfolios or pursue research on an art-related topic. Students should email Susan Aurand in spring quarter for help in developing projects.

Credits awarded: 8 credits in visual arts

This course explores the role that movement, visual art, music and media play in problem solving and in the resolution of internalized fear or blocks. Through a variety of hands-on activities, field trips, readings, films/video, writing and guests, students will discover tools to awaken their creative problem solving from two perspectives—as creator and viewer. Students interested in human services, media and education will find this course engaging. No prerequisite art classes or training are required.

Credits awarded: 3 credits in art therapy & counseling per session; 3 credits art therapy & education per session ; 2 credits in art therapy & written expression per session

This course is designed to introduce students to the art of film through screenings, readings, writing and instruction in Super-8mm filmmaking techniques. We will examine film form through a series of screenings, considering first the classical narrative, then examining alternative film practices with a focus on documentary and experimental forms. Students will shoot film weekly to develop skills in cinematography and learn the properties of film stocks, lenses and basic Super-8 film editing. This course provides arts credits toward upper division and/or graduate school prerequisites.

Credits awarded: 5 credits in filmmaking (Super-8), 3 credits in film history/theory

This course is taught entirely in the field. We will travel two days through excellent birding country to a tented camp on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in south-central Oregon. We will spend the next two weeks netting, processing, banding and releasing 800 to 1,000 small birds of about thirty species. We will balance the in-hand work with field identification and behavioral observations. The last week we will tour Steens Mountain and the Malheur area. This will be the 26th time the course has been taught. After this summer, we will have banded more than 18,000 birds. This course routinely yields upper division credit.

Credits awarded: 8 credits in upper division ecology, ornithology or general natural history

Welcome to writers of all ability levels seeking an intensive writer’s workshop that complements a busy summer schedule. This workshop will engage “want-to-be writers” as well as established writers of poetry, fiction, essays and creative non-fiction. Through readings, intensive writings and hiking, we will join physical pursuit and discovery to creativity and the written word. All hikes will be comfortably grouped by student ability or preference. We will have two full-day Saturday hikes during each five-week session and optional overnights. Destinations may include the Olympics, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and the Hoh Rainforest/Ruby Beach. Tuesday evenings will include themed workshops and lectures. Peer critique groups will meet weekly at a mutually agreeable time. Faculty will meet individually with students to help meet individual needs and desires. For slideshows of potential hikes via e-mail, or further information, please contact Nancy A. Parkes at parkesn@evergreen.edu. This course is excellent preparation for MIT, MFA, and MES.

Credits awarded: 8 credits in either expository writing, creative writing, literature, or natural history.

Sustainable forest management has become a guiding principle for many land management organizations. To achieve this goal, managers have to face complex ecological challenges such as altered fire and disturbance regimes, changing global environmental regimes, the introduction of exotics and landscape fragmentation. Superposed on these challenges are increasingly sophisticated societal demands and the economic realities of globalization. This course explores the diverse dimensions of sustainable forestry and provides hands on experience applying the methods being employed to restore forested ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest towards the goal of sustainability. See http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/sustainableforestry/ . This upper division course is an MES elective.

Credits awarded: 5 undergraduate or 4 graduate credits in ecology

Sustainability is an umbrella term that encompasses everything from alternative energy to architectural design, and from food to fashion. In this program, we will critically examine the history of the sustainability concept, including cross-cultural examples of sustainable development.

We will explore contemporary applications of the sustainability idea as it moves increasingly from the margins to the mainstream. We will consider links between rising awareness of global climate change and increasing interest in sustainability. This program will help develop critical
thinking, research and writing skills, and students’ own learning goals.

Credits awarded: 8 credits in sustainability studies