SPRING TERM 2011
University of Indianapolis students are required to take Spring Term courses as part of their university graduation requirements. According to the Registrar’s Office, Spring Term courses are creative, innovative and multidisciplinary.
Spring Term courses generally last three weeks and can be taken either on campus or abroad. If students have been registered for two consecutive semesters, no fee is charged for Spring Term courses. However, if students are registered part-time, or if they have previously taken a Spring Term course, tuition rates apply.
Some courses being offered this Spring Term include “World War II: Film, Fact and Fiction,” “Applied History of Games/Toys” and a new course entitled “Music in Multimedia Development,” which teaches the basics of animation to create websites and presentations.
New travel courses are available as well. “Cool Britannia,” includes travel to England and Scotland, and will study history and pop-culture. The course includes sites associated with Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and the Beatles. “The King, the Knight, and the Sorcerer,” will follow the legend of King Arthur through Southern England and Northern France. A trip to Ghana, “Business as Missions,” also will be offered this year.
There are still spots available in the trips “Cool Britannia,” “The King, the Knight, and the Sorcerer,” and a repeat course entitled “The Tropical Ecology and Biodiversity of Costa Rica,” a course that includes hiking, exploring ecosystems, zip-lining, white rafting and boating.
Senior French and Spanish education major Josh Rogers is the class designer for the England and France trip, and Assistant Professor of Modern Languages Amy Allen-Sekhar and Instructor of Modern Languages Patricia Cabrera will lead the trip with him.
“This class is, thanks to my honors committee, an awesome chance for me to utilize my pedagogy skills,” Rogers said.
Rogers has many hopes for the course.
“Of course, I hope that students will learn something about King Arthur and his mythic role and impact on the past thousand years,” Rogers said. “But I also hope that students will also begin to develop intercultural skills that are important in today’s global society.”
Leader of the Costa Rica trip, Associate Professor of Biology Roger Sweets, has been to Costa Rica, Belize and the Galapagos Islands in the four years he has been involved with Spring Term.
Sweets said that traveling to the tropics exposes students to wildlife they would never see in the United States.
“You get to see the Discovery Channel in the flesh,” Sweets said.
Associate Registrar Kristine Dozier said that she is a fan of Spring Term because it gives students an opportunity to study something outside of their major.
“Professors have areas of focus, hobbies or passions, and they bring that into Spring Term,” she said.
Students are recommended to take a Spring Term course by the conclusion of their junior year.
“Spring Term travel courses are great for a variety of reasons,” Rogers said. “One is the academic component behind the class. The second is they allow students who may not be able to commit to a semester or year abroad the opportunity for short-term study overseas. And three, it is a good way for students who are considering time abroad to have the chance to get their feet wet.”
St. Malo in Brittany, France is one of the destinations that will be visited on the France/England Spring Term course that will follow the legends of King Arthur. Photo by Stephanie Snay.
