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Spring 2008 - Undergraduate Courses |
*Denotes a new ABCS course
NUTRITIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH
359 401/HSOC 359 401 (W 2-5
PM)
Frank
Johnston
Human
nutrition and nutritional status within context of anthropology, health, and
disease. Particular emphasis on
nutritional problems and the development of strategies to describe, analyze,
and solve them. Students will
participate in the Urban Nutrition Initiative, an academically based community
service project in local area schools.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND
PHILOSOPHY
ANTH
115 301 (MW 3:00-4:30pm)
Paula Sabloff
This
course is designed to introduce students to the connection between anthropology,
philosophy, and personal experience.
Starting from the anthropological position that many of the social
problems of our time are the result of conflict between or within cultures, we
will read anthropological accounts-ethnographies-of problems such as
globalization, cultural survival, class and ethnic conflict. We will also read the political philosophers
from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith to Michel Foucault and Pierre
Bourdieu) quoted by the anthropologists.
In this seminar, students will form their own social theory by
integrating the readings with first-hand experience in the West
Philadelphia community as they perform community service. In this ABCS course, they will turn their
personal experience into an anthropology practicum, seeing social theory and
anthropology operating "on the ground".
THE ART OF ARGUMENT AND
PERSUASION
CLST
135 301 (T 1:30-4:30 PM)
Sue
Weber
This
course prepares students to serve as paid CWiC speaking advisors who assist
Penn students with classroom presentations. The course does so by exploring
what makes speaking persuasive and how oratory functions and putting that
exploration into practice. The course is a practicum that aims to develop
students' abilities as speakers, as critical listeners and as advisors able to
help others develop those abilities. In addition to creating and presenting
individual and group presentations, students analyze and critique a variety of
examples of oral communication, including those of their peers.
POVERTY, RACISM, AND CRIME IN
WEST PHILADELPHIA: CHALLENGES FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA
CPLN
506 401/URBS 403 401 (R 3:00-6:00pm)
Anthony
Tomazinis, Henry Teune, and Ira Harkavy
This is
a research seminar that focuses on case studies put into the context of ecologically
structured data about West Philadelphia with a focus on the neighborhoods
adjoining the University
of Pennsylvania. Much of
the data will be assembled from the West Philadelphia Data and Information Resources
and the City Planning Commission. Students will be required to interview key West Philadelphia
and neighborhood leaders as informants. The research will build on that of last
year's seminar and several that have proceeded it. The context of the research is problem
solving directed to the three perceived as intertwined: poverty, racism, and
crime. Students will be asked to explore short and long term policies that can
reduce those urban pathologies in the broader contexts of changing political
economies of cities and the shift of economic growth to global production. It
is expected that students will work in task forces that
will come up with not only general policy proposals but also some that can be
implemented by Penn and joint efforts of Penn and other institutions of higher
education. Students should learn to understand the difficulties of harnessing
knowledge to purpose.
RESEARCH AS PUBLIC WORK: A
PROJECT TO HELP CREATE A NEW WEST
PHILDAELPHIA HIGH
SCHOOL
EDUC
245 402/URBS 327 402 (R 1:30-4:30 PM)
John
Puckett, Elaine Simon, and Richard Redding
A
strategic planning goal for West Philadelphia is to have four well-formulated,
theme-based curricular programs, one of which is urban studies, in place as
separate academies at West
Philadelphia High
School when the "new West" opens on the 4800 block
of Spruce Street
in 2011. The urban studies curriculum will be phased into the existing high
school over a three-year period and then mounted as the Urban Studies
Academy at the new high
school. EDUC 245/URBS 327 engages University
of Pennsylvania undergraduates and
West Philadelphia High School (WPHS) students simultaneously in developing a
plan for the urban studies curriculum; identifying and mapping institutional
and organizational resources to support this new curriculum; and proposing
strategies for school-based public work projects in West
Philadelphia.
URBAN EDUCATION
EDUC
202/URBS 202 (T 5-8 PM)
Bach/Dhillon
This
course is an introduction to many of the key issues confronting urban public
schools in America. In this course, we will examine some of the
historical, social, and cultural contexts of urban education, as well as look
at issues and events directly affecting the Philadelphia public schools. This class will enable students to gain a
multifaceted understanding of urban education through the integration of direct
observation and participation in Philadelphia
public schools with class readings and discussions. We will also examine and critique recent
reforms and policies, which have been designed to remedy the urban public
school "crisis". This course
will enable students to gain a critical framework for perceiving urban
education as they develop a sensitive understanding of the complex issues
confronting urban schools.
*THE WEST
PHILADELPHIA COMMUNITY HISTORY PROJECT
HIST
204 401/AFRC 205 401/URBS 227 401 (T 1:30-4:30 PM)
Walter
Licht/Mark Lloyd
This
course led by Walter Licht, Professor of History, and Mark Lloyd, University
Archivist, aims at the creation of a lasting, interactive website that will
grow as a collective portrait (or scrapbook) of families and individuals who
have had histories in West Philadelphia.
The base for such a website will be built by students in the
seminar. Students will engage in
research on the history of West Philadelphia
and its neighborhoods, contribute critical text to the website and mount the
personal history of Ruth Molloy, a long-time, active member of the community
whose papers are deposited at the University Archives. The website is intended
as virtual heritage museum for members of the West Philadelphia
community and an educational resource to be supplemented and used by the
community, especially by school teachers and students.
TUTORING URBAN PUBLIC
SCHOOLS
EDUC
326 401 /URBS 326 401 (T
6:30-9:30PM)
John Fantuzzo
The
course provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in
academically based community service learning (ABCS course). Student will be
studying early childhood development and learning while providing direct,
one-to-one tutoring services to young students in Philadelphia public elementary schools.
Students will be required to spend a minimum of two hours each week tutoring a
student in a Philadelphia
public elementary school for at least 10 weeks in the semesters. The course
will cover foundational dimensions of the cognitive and social development of
preschool and elementary school students from a multicultural perspective. The
course will place a special emphasis on the multiple contexts that influence
children's development and learning and how aspects of classroom environment
(i.e., curriculum and classroom management strategies) can impact children's
achievement. Also, student will consider a range of larger issues impacting
urban education embedded in American society. The course structure has three
major components: (1) lecture related directly to readings on early childhood
development and key observation and listening skills necessary for effective
tutoring, (2) weekly contact with a preschool or elementary school student as a
volunteer tutor and active consideration of how to enhance the student
learning, and (3) discussion and reflection of personal and societal issues
related to being a volunteer tutor in a large urban public school. This course
also meets core requirements for students interested in Urban Education Minor.
ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES AND
SCIENCE METHODS
EDUC
421 001/ENVS 421 001
NancyLee
Bergey
In this
ABCS course, undergraduate students work in a West
Philadelphia public school classroom as the students in that
classroom learn science and social studies skills, and apply them to
environmental content. In a program called, "Learn Locally, Share Globally" the
public school students will be learning about their local environment, and
sharing what they have learned, electronically, with students who live in a
different part of the world. An active blackboard forum allows all members of
the Penn class to follow what is occurring in the classroom throughout the
week. The content of our readings, discussions, and activities in class prepare
students to teach science or social studies in elementary and middle schools,
but are also closely tied to our work in the school. The course provides a good
background for Penn students who expect teach as a part of their work,
especially in a science-related field (environmental studies, medicine,
landscape architecture, etc.) It also satisfies the requirement for a science
and social studies "methods" class in the elementary strand of the Urban
Education Minor.
*COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS IN
VISUAL ARTS AND EDUCATION
EDUC
545 005 (M 12-2 PM)
Edward
Epstein
Community
Partnerships in the Visual Arts and Education is an ABCS course that utilizes
the resources of 40th Street
Artist-in-Residence (AIR), a program that grants free studio space to West Philadelphia artists in exchange for community
service. The course will ask each student to become a cultural impresario,
organizing, managing, and rigorously evaluating a partnership between an AIR
artist and a local school or community organization. Partnerships will
typically involve education (in which the artist assists in classroom
teaching), exhibition of work, or the creation of public art in the
neighborhood.
COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH
ENVS
406 301 (TR 1:30-3:00 PM)
Richard
Pepino
The
environment affects people's health more strongly than biological factors,
medical care and lifestyle. The water we
drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe are all components of the environment. Some estimates, based on morbidity and
mortality statistics, indicate that the impact of the environment on health is
as high as 80%. (Environmental Health, Morgan, pg. 14). Over the last 20 years, the field of
environmental health has matured and expanded to become one of the most
comprehensive and humanly relevant disciplines in science. This course will not
only examine the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects of
lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the built environment on human
health. Selected topics will include
cancer clusters, water borne diseases, radon and lung cancer, lead poisoning,
environmental tobacco smoke, respiratory diseases and obesity. Students will be
researching in depth the health impacts of the classic industrial pollution
case studies in the US.
Class discussions will also include risk communication, community outreach and
education, access to health care and impact on vulnerable populations. Each
student will have the opportunity to focus on Public Health, Environmental
Protection, Public Policy, or Environmental Education issues as they discuss
approaches to mitigating environmental health risks. Students will be asked to
research one environmental health topic in detail, to present their findings to
the class, and to propose recommendations for future action. This course is an ABCS course that requires
community service in addition to the class times. Students will work together in teams to
identify environmental health needs in the community then develop and implement
an intervention that is sustainable and replicable.
PREVENTION OF TOBACCO SMOKING
(CWIC and BFS, Local middle school
visits
required)
ENVS
407 401/HSOC 407 401 (TR
1:30-3:00PM)
Richard Pepino
Cigarette
smoking is a major public health problem.
The Centers for Disease Controls reports that more than 80% of current
adult tobacco users started smoking before age 18. The National Youth Tobacco Survey indicated
that 12.8% of middle school students and 34.8% of high school students in their
study used some form of tobacco products.
In ENVS 407, Penn undergraduates learn about the short and long term
physiological consequences of smoking, social influences and peer norms
regarding tobacco use, the effectiveness of cessation programs, tobacco
advocacy and the impact of the tobacco settlement. Penn students will collaborate with teachers
in West Philadelphia to prepare and deliver
lesson plans to 4th through 6th graders.
The undergraduates will survey and evaluate middle school and Penn
student body smoking usage. One of the
goals of this course is to raise awareness of the middle school children to
prevent addiction to tobacco smoke during adolescence. The collaboration with
the middle schools gives the Penn students the opportunity to apply their study
of the prevention of tobacco smoking to real world situations. Course requirements include regular
attendance at all lectures, a thorough comprehension of the course readings,
participation in class discussion, application of the readings and lectures to
a problem-oriented research project.
Each student will be required to identify a problem associated with
tobacco addiction, marketing, legislation or health risks, and to conduct research
on that issue, for a final paper and a formal presentation.
THE BIG PICTURE: MURAL ART IN
PHILADELPHIA
FNAR
222/622 401/URBS 222 401 (W 1:00-4:00pm & F
9:00-12:00noon)
Jane Golden and Don
Gensler
The
history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step-by-step
analysis of the process of designing and painting a mural. In addition,
students will learn to see mural art as a tool for social change. This course
combines theory with practice. Students will design and paint a large outdoor
mural in West Philadelphia in collaboration with Philadelphia high school students and
community groups. The instructor, Jane Golden, is the founder and Director of
the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
EXPLORING LOCAL MEMORY AND
TRADITION
FOLK 321 401/URBS 327 401
(WF
3:30-5:00pm)
Mary Hufford
In this
ethnography-based service learning course we explore the integral role of
traditional verbal and material arts in the lives of elderly men and women in Philadelphia communities
and neighborhoods. We begin with
theories of culture, community, and identity found in the literature of
folklore, anthropology, and gerontology, and move from there into historic and
ethnographic overviews of relevance to the community we will be working with.
We then explore approaches to fieldwork and ethnography, with special attention
to techniques of participant observation, interviewing, interpretation, and the
ethical dimensions of fieldwork.
Applying these methods, students develop a research and writing project
that serves the needs of a collaborating Philadelphia
community. Students gain critical
thinking skills from the readings, discussion, and weekly writing assignments,
while learning the complexities of communicating across cultural difference.
URBAN UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY
RELATIONSHIPS (BFS)
HIST
173 401/URBS 178 401 (W 2:00-5:00pm)
Ira
Harkavy & Lee Benson
Inspired
by Penn's founder, Ben Franklin, President Amy Gutmann has identified rising to
the challenge of a diverse democracy and educating students for democratic
citizenship as critical goals of her administration. Since the present
undergraduate curriculum falls short in this regard, the seminar aims to
synthesize numerous, unrelated, academically-based community service courses
into an effectively integrated curriculum. As now envisioned, the new Penn
curriculum developed by the seminar would have as a significant component,
thematic, problem-solving clusters,
i.e., interrelated, cross-disciplinary, complementary sets of courses designed
to stimulate and empower students to produce, not simply consumer,
societally-useful knowledge. By societally-useful knowledge, we mean knowledge
actively used to solve universal strategic problems of democracy and society,
schooling and society, health and society, poverty and society, environment and
society, culture and society, etc., as those universal problems manifest
themselves locally at Penn and in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia.
*TEACHING WEST
PHILADELPHIA HISTORY
HIST
304 401 (TR 1:30-3 PM)
Robert
Engs
This is
an ABCS research seminar that will help broaden students' knowledge and
understanding of West Philadelphia's rich
cultural history. Born out of the 2007 spring seminar entitled, "Poverty,
Racism and Crime in West Philadelphia: What Should Penn Do To Democratically
Overcome Them," this course will equip Penn students to teach West Philadelphia
high school students how to become their own historians and trace how the
communities they live in came into being. The seminar will essentially be
divided into three parts. The first 3-4 weeks will be devoted to
providing Penn students with a general historical overview of African-American
migration to the North and the evolution of the West
Philadelphia landscape post World War II. The next few weeks
would consist of Penn students learning basic oral history methodology - who to
interview, what kinds of questions to ask, how to evaluate findings, etc.
The Penn students will then take this knowledge and teach this methodology to middle
school students in the community. Each Penn student will work with a few
middle school students and help them develop questions and analyze their
data. After all the data has been collected from talking to relatives and
neighbors, Penn students will work with the high school students to determine
which interviews should be transcribed and included in a publication that would
be produced at the end of the semester. This publication will then be
linked to the overall West Philadelphia online database that the Netter Center
for Community Partnerships is currently developing with faculty, alumni, and
community members.
AMERICAN NATIONAL CHARACTER
HIST
443 (TR 10:30-12 PM)
Michael
Zuckerman
Who ARE
the Americans, anyway? And are they
still what they once were? The course
will consider some classic and modern theories of American identity. It
will
address some allegedly quintessential expressions of this elusive,
perhaps
essential idea, in Puritanism, Jefferson, Franklin, and Whitman.
And it will examine contemporary West Philadelphia to see if the old
characterizations
still apply in a new day (or ever did apply outside small-town American
among
affluent white males). Work in, and
observation of, a local school will be an integral part of the course.
THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF READING
(DIST
I: SOCIETY, Prerequisite: LING/AFRC 160 or permission of instructor)
LING
161 401/ AFRC 161 401 (MWF 12noon-1PM)
William
Labov
This
course will be concerned with the application of current knowledge of dialect
differences to reduce the minority differential in reading achievement. Members will conduct projects and design
computer programs to reduce cultural distance between teachers and students in
local schools and to develop knowledge of word and sound structure.
THE COMMUNITY MATH TEACHING
PROGRAM
MATH
123 001 (M
12noon-2:00pm)
Idris Stovall
This
course allows Penn students to teach a series of hands-on activities to
students in math classes at University City
High School and Sayre High School. The semester starts with an introduction to
successful approaches for teaching math in urban high schools. The rest of the semester will be devoted to a
series of weekly hands-on activities designed to teach fundamental aspects of
geometry. During the first class meeting
of each week, the students enrolled in the course review the relevant
mathematical background and techniques for a hands-on activity. During the
second session of each week, Penn students will teach the hands-on activity to
a small group of high school students.
The Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own
activity and to implement it with the high school students as well.
FIELD METHODS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
(DIST III: ARTS & LETTERS, Majors Only)
MUSC
250 401/MUSC 650 401 (T 2:00-5:00PM)
Carol
Muller
This
project explores the complicated relationship between music and Islam in West Philadelphia, focused on but not exclusive to, the
African American community. We will
examine this relationship in the context of the Field Methods in
Ethnomusciology graduate seminar (also open to upper level undergraduates),
which will partner with eighth grade students at Shaw Middle School to create a
web-video project that will be added to the larger "Music and Spirituality"
research-teaching-service project initiated by Dr. Muller in 2001, added to by
Dr. Tim Rommen (2003), and continued by Muller (2005).
CARIBBEAN MUSIC AND DIASPORA
MUSC
258
Timothy
Rommen
This is
an ABCS course with a service and learning component focused on the West Indian
Community in West Philadelphia. The aims of
this ABCS course revolve specifically around making questions of diaspora
immediate and pressing for students. By conducting fieldwork-based research
students will generate projects variously exploring faith-based, traditional,
and popular aspects of West Indian musical performance in West
Philadelphia and connect these experiences to their readings and
classroom discussions. Musicians and community members will, moreover,
participate in the academic aspects of the course, ensuring that valuable
exchanges take place in both campus and community spaces. This inherently
collaborative and mutually enriching project will culminate in an evening of
presentations and reflections by students and community members and the
research projects themselves will be posted to the public westphillymusic.org website.
CONCEPTS IN NURSING: PROMOTING
HEALTHY LIFESTYLES II
NURS
106 001 (F 9:00-11am)
Eileen
Sullivan-Marx
This
course focuses on health promotion and disease prevention across the
health-illness continuum for healthy and at risk individuals in the community.
Students build on their previously mastered communication techniques and
clinical skills to develop comprehensive assessment skills and to define needs
among specific at risk groups in a family and community context. In weekly seminars, students integrate
theories of behavior and health, epidemiologic principles, clinical decision
making, and critical thinking skills. Theories are applied utilizing case
studies and data sources to develop health promotion and disease prevention
strategies. A key component of the course is the development of communication
and physical assessment skills and specified clinical techniques. The influence
of gender, life span, culture, race, and ethnicity on health promotion and
disease prevention is specifically addressed throughout the course.
INTERNATIONAL NUTRITION:
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WORLD HUNGER
NURS
316/NURS 516 (TR 10:30-12PM)
Janet
Chrzan
A
detailed consideration of the nature, consequences, and causes of hunger and
undernutrition internationally. Approaches are explored to bringing about
change, and to formulating and implementing policies and programs at
international, national, and local levels, designed to alleviate hunger and
undernutrition.
CRIME/SCIENCE/INSTRUCTION: CSI
AND SCIENCE IN HIGH
SCHOOL
NURS
Kathleen
Brown
This course is designed to introduce the forensic science aspect of selected crimes
investigations to High School students.
High School students will be introduced to the science of DNA and the
science of forensic toxicology via an established chemistry class. H.S.
students will also be introduced to how a crime scene is investigated. Students in the course will develop and
deliver appropriate teaching plans to high school students. Students in the class will work in two groups
within the course to develop science based teaching plans. Under the guidance of faculty in the course,
students will design and implement a teaching plan related to the science of
DNA or the science of forensic toxicology.
HEALTHY SCHOOLS: COMMUNITY BASED
PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH, PLANNING AND ACTION
PSCI
335/HSOC 335 (T 1:30-4:30 PM)
Mary
Summers
This
seminar will develop a pilot program to test the efficacy of using
service-learning teams of undergraduates and graduate students to facilitate
the development of School Health Councils (SHCs) and the Center for Disease
Control's School Health Index (SHI) school self-assessment and planning tool in
two elementary schools in West Philadelphia.
This process is intended to result in a realistic and meaningful school health
implementation plan and an ongoing action project to put this plan into
practice. Penn students will involve members of the school administration,
teachers, staff, parents and community members in the SHC and SHI process with
a special focus on encouraging participation from the schools' students. If
this model for the use of Penn service-learning teams is successful, it will
form the basis of an ongoing partnership with the School
District's Office of Health, Safety & Physical Education to
expand such efforts to more schools.
CULTURE, ARTS & MEDIA
URBS
336 401 / SOCI 336 401 (W 2:00-5:00PM)
David
Grazian
The
purpose of this ABCS course is to examine the development of art, culture and
media in cities, with an emphasis on the role that local organizations play in
neighborhood communities and art publics.
Through classroom readings and discussions, students will explore a
variety of sociological approaches to the analysis of urban culture,
neighborhood life and public policy, and develop a set of fieldwork tools
useful for the ethnographic study of local urban processes. Upon acquiring these research skills,
students will conduct several hours per week of community service work in a
variety of local nonprofit arts and other cultural institutions in West Philadelphia, with the two-fold purpose of
benefiting the surrounding community while researching the role of the organization
and its constituents in the city's overall cultural development.
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