Registrar's Office Spring Term FlightPath Course Descriptions

Instructors: Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad, Mark Kuhlmann, Sydney Sheehan

This course will explore the artistic and scientific understandings of landscape and how human development both shapes and is shaped by nature. Using the local landscape as their classroom, students will develop qualitative and quantitative understandings of place. The course focuses on changes in the human landscape of Oneonta and the surrounding area over the last century. Students will learn fundamental principles of describing, observing,and measuring a landscape. They will compare and contrast scientific and artistic approaches to understanding landscapes and collect, interpret and present their own data in a comprehensive final group project.

Instructors:  Mary E. Allen, Malissa Kano-White, Heidi Tanner

This course is a comprehensive exploration of how we communicate about sexuality, sex, and gender. It includes an introduction to sexual health, intimacy, and sexuality and focuses on how a greater knowledge of our own sexuality improves wellness, communication and relationships. Creative projects will be directed towards building a positive culture of sexual wellness in the Hartwick College community.

Instructors: Aaron Stephens, Mark Wolff, TBA

Digital technology brings with it rapid change that affects economics, health, politics, security, and what it means to be human. Students will explore cases of people and organizations amid the digital revolution. Cases will be contextualized to globalization. This course is meant to give students a framework for understanding and exploring the events and situations that we encounter amid the 21st century. Ultimately, students will begin to understand their place amid the continuous change that envelops our lives today.

Instructors: Matthew Chick, Andy Pease, Jeremy Wisnewski

Students in this course will approach the idea of health from a range of different perspectives to include theoretical as well as practical insights. Topics explored will include data in the sports and fitness industries, music and the brain, prescription drug marketing, objectivity in the provider/patient relationship, and the existential nature of illness. This triad’s aim is to provide students a sampling of the breadth of intellectual pursuits within the field of health, but also provide some immediate and direct career guidance and tips.

Instructors: Timothy Vatovec, Karina Walker, Tessa Yang

Science fiction, sometimes called “the literature of change,” is a genre of speculative fiction that imagines the impacts of scientific advancements on individuals and society. This set of Flight Path mini-courses will consider different facets of sci-fi to help students practice 21st century competencies in political and cultural fluency, applying data, and evaluating the relevance and limitations of science and technology.

Instructors: Lisle Dalton, Autumn Magliocca, Andrew Piefer

This course will be a series of games in which students will play roles based on historical events.  In these roles, students will learn by preparing and performing, thus you will write, speak, collaborate, debate, scheme, act out, and otherwise represent your assigned characters.  We hope this will be an enjoyable way to learn as you will be “gaming” alongside the more traditional methods of learning like research and writing.  These will be, however, serious games, in that they will focus on historical events that have shaped our perspective on controlling deadly diseases, interventions into civil wars, and the promotion of better nutrition. Each game also explores an important component of General Education: the application of data to decision-making, the need for constructive dialogue among diverse perspectives, and the relevance and limitations of science for addressing contemporary challenges. Thus while all the games are based on historical events, their major themes are still very relevant today.