Interterm

This course will provide students an opportunity to team-teach fifth grade students visiting from various schools about three areas of science. This course will allow students to prepare a lesson, provide an educational opportunity, and work as a team to achieve an excellent learning environment for young learners in a STEM setting. Enrollment by instructor permission only.

Instructor: Molly Anderson
Credits: 2 hours
Meeting times: MTWRF 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

This course is designed to improve critical thinking skills and practice problem-solving. Students will work with a team and use science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) skills to present a solution to a current world problem. During this course students will explore problems, talk to professionals, problem solve, and present their solution.

Instructor: Tara Burnham
Credits: 3 hours
Meeting times: MTWRF 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

This hands-on interterm class will take students on a journey through time as they explore the history of textiles. Students will step into the past and spin yarn the same way humans 10,000 years ago prepared their yarn. In addition to the history of textiles, from the first crocheted knot in the middle east to the long silk road, students will also learn practical skills such as basic garment repair including hemming, replacing buttons, and patching. Throughout the class, students will also be reading the book The Fabric of Civilization and watching several documentaries on textiles to highlight how fabric and textiles can reflect the cultures that produce them. The final project will ask students to reflect on the cultural impact of clothing and fabric and to explore how fabric helps define their own identity.

Instructor: Jackie Dillon
Credits: 2 hours, P/NC
Meeting times: MTWRF 9 a.m.-noon

Modern DNA sequencing techniques have greatly expanded our ability to answer questions both about human history and what the future might hold. We can compare the human genome with other primates, and other hominids like the Neanderthal, to answer questions about deep human history. This course will give students experience with historical records as well as expose them to the new ways DNA sequence analysis is used to help individuals trace their genealogy and understand human migration patterns. This Interterm course is a unique combination of history and biology. Typically, genealogy is approached in genetics courses through Mendelian patterns to understand an individual’s physical characteristics, but this course offers a way to think about inheritance in other ways: through hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution and through centuries of family history they have inherited along with their genes. By reading, watching genealogy documentaries, reading current news articles about race and genealogy, and researching and sharing family histories, students will increase their cultural awareness—awareness of their own ancestors’ cultures as well as the cultures of others.

Instructor: Erin Morris
Credits: 2 hours, P/NC
Meeting times: MTWRF 12:30-3:30 p.m.

This course will provide students the opportunity to experience and develop an appreciation of one of the oldest applications of chemistry: cooking. Students will perform a series of edible experiments that will be used to motivate discussion of the science behind food. There is no assumed proficiency in chemistry or cooking as this class is intended to be an introduction to both disciplines.

Instructor: Jamin Perry
Credits: 2 hours, P/NC
Meeting times: MTWRF 8:30 a.m.-noon or 12:30-4 p.m.

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of warfare and history during the last years of the unified Roman Empire (330-378 AD). In this effort, students will research, prepare, and command scale replica armies of the later imperial Romans and their many enemies.

Instructor: John Richards
Credits: 3 hours, P/NC
Meeting times: MTWRF 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. plus four evening sessions

In this class, we will examine the diversity of political institutions and voices in the United States’ political process and the manner in which these voices are heard. Films will reflect a variety of eras and periods in U.S. history; the writing and discussion aspects of the course will compare the interpretations and expectations of various eras. This course extends the Baker Core program outcomes by offering students an opportunity to critically explore political, social, and economic issues within the medium of film. Historical and contemporary films prompt students to consider American culture through recurrent philosophical problems manifested in fact and fiction. This cultural emersion problematizes students’ conceptual frameworks and existing worldviews in order to cue more reflective, alert, and engaged problem-solvers.

Instructor: Ryan Gibb
Credits: 2 hours
Meeting times: MTWRF 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Students will increase their culture awareness and knowledge through actively exploring communities in the Kansas City Metro. Students will have the opportunity to set a daily KC travel itinerary for a personalized experience. However, there are two required group experiences: an immersive hands-on workshop at the Museum of Deaf History, Arts & Culture and a collaborative tour at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Students will create a podcast, vlog, or blog highlighting areas of interest for those traveling to KC, as well as creating a heart design for a KC Parade of Hearts gallery walk.

Instructor: Charlsie Prosser
Credits: 3 hours
Meeting times: MTWRF 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Course format: Hybrid

The construction of space is often well-defined substance through symbols, architecture, and the population that congregates there. However, it is something rarely noticed because people are accustomed to recognize it as normal. The purpose of this course is to take an experiential/field research approach to the construction of space, especially sacred space. The course will begin at the Baldwin City campus and examine classrooms, library space, offices, and the chapel. Then the project will move with trips to Kansas City, Lawrence, and Topeka where we will examine the space constructed by various Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim buildings. The course will require students to attend worship services from multiple religions. As a result, classes will occur on the weekend.

Instructor: Nick Pumphrey
Credits: 3 hours
Meeting times: MTWRF 9 a.m.-4 p.m., including travel
Course format: Hybrid

This course examines the life, career, and filmography of Adam Sandler. The class will begin with a study of Sandler’s personal life, from his humble beginnings, to his time on Saturday Night Live, to his rise to stardom, all the way to him receiving the 2023 Mark Twain Prize for Comedy. Parallels will be drawn between Sandler’s career trajectory and the perceived “American Dream” as outlined in various sources of popular culture. Particular focus will be paid to the concept of “success” and “failure” in their various definitions as personified in both Sandler’s comedies and dramas.

Instructor: Trevor Belt
Credits: 3 hours, P/NC
Meeting times: N/A
Course format: Asynchronous Online

There’s too much fear in food buying today. This course will look at how misinformation, marketing half-
truths, and label claims influence food choices and cause unnecessary fear and guilt in food buying. This fear hurts health as stress increases about eating the “right food” and gives the illusion that eating healthy is unattainable. Furthermore, these marketing strategies and label claims have the potential to increase food inequities. This course looks at research about how bad behaviors, deceptive label claims, and unnecessary drama surround our food choices.

Instructor: Erin Laurie
Credits: 1 hour
Meeting times: N/A
Course format: Asynchronous Online

Diversity in Education is a required urban field experience practicum that provides prospective teachers with the opportunity to gain valuable experience working in a diverse school setting. Candidates will be assigned to a school in Kansas City or Topeka. Self-reflection will be an integral component of this Interterm. During the course of the Interterm, candidates will be expected to progress from a classroom observer to actively impacting student learning. In cooperation with the classroom teacher, candidates will plan and teach a minimum of two lessons in an urban setting and one lesson in a virtual environment. This course is open to juniors and seniors.

Instructor: Courtney Orr
Credits: 3 hours
Meeting times: N/A
Course format: Asynchronous Online

This course compares the history and purpose of hip-hop music to the use of song in Indigenous and Native American cultures. By surveying the modern hip-hop scene, we examine the lack of representation of Indigenous and Native Americans in this genre. Students then identify regional Indigenous and Native American hip-hop performers. We will study themes in the music and compare them to the more commercially recognized counterparts.

Instructor: Tasha Riggins
Credits: 2 hours
Meeting times: N/A
Course format: Asynchronous Online

Destination: Ecuador

Experience a deeply personal, rich, and authentic immersion into the agricultural, artisitic, and ecological communities of the Intag Valley in Ecuador’s Andean highlands. Students on this course will be exposed to one of the most biodiverse countries in the world while living and working on a small sustainable farm, the Finca Orgánica San Antonio, that encompasses primary montane cloud forest intersected by a small river and waterfall. Be prepared for an explosion of tropical birds, plants, and other organisms while wandering the trails and mountainsides of the 6,000-foot elevation forested farm, listening to the tumbling rapids of the fresh mountain river and eating delicious, handmade, locally grown traditional and contemporary Ecuadorian foods.

Credits: 3 hours, P/NC
Instructor: Scott Kimball
Tentative travel dates: January 9-20, 2025
Deposit: $500, nonrefundable
Estimated total cost: $2,000

Destination: Costa Rica

Credits: 3 hours, P/NC
Instructors: Robyn Long and Katya Soll
Tentative travel dates: January 4-23, 2025
Deposit: $500, nonrefundable
Estimated total cost: $4,000 + airfare
Additional Info

Destination: Spain

The focus of this two-week experience is on building awareness and understanding of contemporary Spanish identity and culture, with an emphasis on the historical contexts that have brought Spain to its current state. This will be achieved through work completed prior to departure for Spain in addition to the experiences gained while “in country” for 14 full days (does not include transatlantic portion of the trip). Contemporary Spanish cultural identity is complex, even more so for foreigners. Among the dimensions to be explored in the proposed course are regionalism, history, religion, language, food, immigration, European integration, and diaspora.

Credits: 1-3 hours, P/NC
Instructor: Judith Smrha jsmrha@bakerU.edu
Tentative travel dates: January 6-21, 2025
Deposit: $1,650
Estimated total cost: $2,400
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Destination: Kansasa

Think you know Kansas? Think again! Immerse yourself in the fascinating and hidden landscapes of natural Kansas. On a two-week road camping trip across the state, students will explore all the major ecoregions in the state while investigating the diversity of life that calls Kansas home. You’ll never look at this “fly-over” state the same way again!

Credits: 1-3 hours
Instructor: Scott Kimball skimball@bakerU.edu
Tentative travel dates: May 26-June 6, 2025
Deposit: $100
Estimated total cost: $170
Additional Information

Destination: Finland, Estonia, and Latvia

This is a travel Interterm course designed to familiarize students with Finnish and Baltic cultures, including cuisine, architecture, art, the sauna experience, and broad political and social histories over an eight-day program co-led by two Baker University professors. Students will additionally look, particularly, at the natural and man-made landscapes of Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; and Riga, Latvia while exploring their burgeoning green tourism and industry.

Credits: 3 hours
Instructors: Robyn Long rlong@bakerU.edu and Joe Watson jwatson@bakerU.edu
Tentative travel dates: May 19-28, 2025
Deposit: $500
Estimated total cost: $4,100

Destination: St. Thomas, USVI

This PADI Open Water Scuba Certification course = will involve four major components. 1. Through a hybrid format of online and classroom presentations, students will acquire the academic knowledge associated with safe diving. 2. Through instruction in confined water (pool), students will acquire the practical skills associated with safe diving. 3. Through on-site instruction in open water (ocean). Students will apply skills learned in confined water to ocean diving. 4. Throughout the final days of the travel portion of the course, students will make multiple and varied dives as certified divers.

Credits: 1-3 hours
Instructor: Rand Ziegler
Tentative travel dates: May 29-June 6, 2025
Deposit: $300
Estimated total cost: $2,500-$2,650