In this section:

Graduation
Requirements

Advanced Credit

College Counseling

Electives Week

2008 College Acceptances

Letter from
Peter Stevens,
Dean of Academics

Electives Week

Electives Week, December, 2007 takes place from Sunday afternoon, December 9th, through Thursday, December 13th. Participation is required for all students. The program takes the place of morning classes. Advisor approval is required for each student. Student sign-ups take place at Community Meeting on Wednesday, December 5th. This will be the ONLY sign-up opportunity!

Students must indicate preferences 1 through 6. Final assignments will be made thereafter, and will be announced. Assignments will be made based on student need for credits, student suitability for certain courses, following directions on the sign-up, and on availability of spaces in the courses.


The course offerings are:

Spoon Carving and Sustainability: Craft, Dialogue, & the Art of Changing the World.
• Goal: empower students to use creativity to think about the world and help them make choices in the future that will lead to a more sustainable planet.
• Spoon carving from local wood; connection to the land; dialogue about the state of the world and expressing students’ hopes, dreams, plans for the future; Visits to three sustainable households.
• Carving, interviewing, writing short reflection pieces, and one longer essay.

Taught by Adam Bartkoski, Rowan Sherwood, Jonna Book.
Credit for Art, Stewardship, Social Science


Student Government
• Goals include: developing problem-solving, social and group discussion skills through facilitated “constitutional convention.”.
• Students will write a constitution for an Oliverian Student Government Body, pass written by-laws/constitution through a student a faculty referendum, write a student handbook, publish and distribute constitution and handbook to the student body.
• Examine concepts of constitutions and by-laws, campaign and election processes, writing concise legalistic prose.
• Primarily a cooperative learning experience with group discussion.
• Design action plans, conduct student body polls, present proposed constitution to student body, develop and carry out a campaign, create an Oliverian Student Handbook.

Taught by Tom Barth, John Doyle
Credit for Stewardship, Social Science


Gender and Violence in Film and Literature
• Goal: compare and deconstruct aspects of gender and violence in selected films and pieces of written work. Does gender affect violence? Is violence gender specific?
• Watching and discussion films, including Natural Born Killers, Full Metal Jacket, Thelma and Louise, Kill Bill. Literature including: Crime and Punishment, In Cold Blood. Video Games: Grand Theft Auto, Halo III.
• A final project of a student-made documentary running about 10 minutes.
• Watch films, read, discuss contemporary gender roles, media effects, and current events.

Taught by Erica Hoddinot
Credit for Arts, Social Science, English


Introduction to Microsoft Excel
• Goal: students learn to demonstrate basic spreadsheet skills as they create, work with, and modify files.
• Discussion of pros and cons of various forms of data presentation, and independent explorations of spreadsheet functions.
• Production of a CD ROM with full solutions presented.
• Requires a student computer, or use of a school one, and a spreadsheet program.

Taught by Carl Stagg
Credit for Mathematics, Technology


Things that Could Eat You (and a lot that couldn’t): An Introduction to Wildlife Biology
• Goals: recognize and interpret tracks, sounds, signs of a number of native wild animals; understand the fundamentals of population biology; understand the complexity and importance of ecological relationships between species and their environments; understand and experience a number of methods used by biologists to study populations of wild animals and habitats; understand the threats to wildlife; appreciate the diversity of local wildlife.
• Identification of species, habitat requirements, ecological niche and conservation. Examine how biologists study wildlife. Learn by doing.
• Readings, analysis of data, lectures, slides, videos, field work

Taught by Abby Hood and Pat Johnson
Credit: Science, Stewardship


Values in Conflict: Inquiry into the Socio-Political Sphere of the US Environmental Movement
• Goal: Understand the intricacies and complexities of the politics and sociology of the environmental movement in the United States.
• Attempting to define the American concept of wilderness and its applications to and ramifications for a consumer society.
• Readings (Jack Turner, Edward Abbey, Philip Shabecoff), lecture, presentation and hands-on with USFS (Forest Service), video, poetry reading and writing.

Taught by Jon Wall
Credit: English (Humanities), Stewardship