Freshman (First Year) Classes:
Science (Ryan Patin, Instructor)
This week we covered Physics! We focused on energy/energy transformations involving potential and kinetic energy and the corresponding sub types.
Monday: General introduction to physics, lecture material covering Potential Energy with the sub types of Gravitational, Elastic, and Chemical and Kinetic Energy with the sub types of Motion, Thermal, and Electrical.
Tuesday: We reviewed the previous days’ lecture material and performed applied calculations using the corresponding formulas for Potential Energy – Gravitational and Kinetic Energy – Motion.
Wednesday: We worked in small groups to design an experiment to utilize PE/KE to crush an object from a height of 1 meter, or 2 meters, depending upon the group’s choices and experimental parameters.
Thursday: We continued the work from the previous day and measured the velocity of a dictionary falling from the predetermined heights and a block of wood doing the same.
Friday: We crushed ping-pong balls using the items from testing and the students fully elaborated upon the transformation of energy occurring crushing the items.
Composition 1 (Ryan Abshire, Instructor)
This week we studied the art and practice of poetry, by reading several poems in class, doing generative and group writing exercises, and finished with a performance of the students reading and fielding questions about the three pages of poetry they produced through the week. Poems read include: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, “Fork” by Charles Simic, “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams, “Gifted” by Jacqueline Woodson, “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, “Hummingbird Abecedarian” by Aimee Nezkhukumatathil, “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand, and “Buffalo Bill’s” by e e cummings.
Monday: Discussed basics of poetry, reading through several in class, dispelled misconceptions that poems must rhyme, be about flowers, etc.
Tuesday: Discussed different forms and containers for poetry, introducing some common and less common types like limericks, haiku, sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, and abecedarian. Students read three object poems then generated lines in response to prompts and were tasked with producing their own for the next class.
Wednesday: We shared and discussed our object poems. Objects included: thermonuclear bombs, mozzarella sticks, fear, and a telephone. Students did an exercise called poetry seeds where they wrote 14 lines/phrases in response to 14 prompts like “Give a color a name, a job, and something to do” and “An inanimate object making a sound” on 14 index cards, then we shared as a class and talked about using the five senses and strong details to make poetry more vivid. Many students used these lines to jump start poems for their Friday packet.
Thursday: Individual conferences and sharing of ideas to check progress toward poetry. Group word cloud and brainstorming exercise where we discussed how to get ideas for poetry and writing in general by starting with a topic or focus and broadening to with words and ideas that come into your mind while thinking about them. For instance, in our word cloud about death, the words included things like coffins, skulls, heaven, but also Michael Jackson and red velvet cake. I brought a stack of poetry books for students to flip through and find lines or titles that spoke to them.
Friday: Nearly every student read all of their poems, and I coached them on reading slowly and loudly so that their words could be followed. When each student finished, I held them in front so that we could ask questions and give constructive feedback. After the reading, the young poets were very excited but we managed to briefly discuss forms of nonfiction for the next week.
Humanities 1 (Chris Hebert, Instructor)
This week we covered chapters 3 and 5 of Plato’s “Republic”. This covered the Noble Lie and Plato’s theory of his republic led by a philosopher king. Students then created a list of their own ideals and created their own “republics”.
Monday-Friday: Plato’s “Republic”
Sophomore Classes:
Science (Ryan Patin, Instructor)
This week we covered Physics in regards to potential and kinetic energy. We reviewed and elaborated on what was covered last summer, but then expanded to go into greater detail on the aspects of potential energy – elastic along with the corresponding formulas to calculate he energy.
Monday: We reviewed content covered last summer and refreshed our memory of potential and kinetic energy and the corresponding formulas.
Tuesday: We discussed, measured and calculated velocity, then compared the concept to speed. Speed is Scalar, Velocity is Vector.
Wednesday: We designed an experiment while working in small groups to test the potential energy elastic acting on a projectile, transforming the energy from the rubber band, launching the projectile into the air.
Thursday: We further refined our tests, measurements, and accounted for potential energy gravitational associated with the system.
Friday: We launched our rubber band projectiles, calculating the corresponding energy, then compared the values to just launching the rubber band without the projectile. Students fully elaborated on the transformations of energy explaining the Law of Conservation of Energy.
Composition 2 (Ryan Abshire, Instructor)
This week we explored and expanded students’ knowledge of poetry, focusing on their appreciation and understanding of prominent poets while exploring their own ideas and producing three pages of original poems. Poems read included: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by Yeats, “I Am, I Am Not” by Laura Hershey, “This is a Photograph of Me” by Margaret Atwood, “The Sanctimonious Poets” by Friedrich Holderlin, “Eve Remembering” by Toni Morrison, “Sonnet” by Billy Collins, “The Emperor of Ice Cream” by Wallace Stevens, “My Grandmother Turned Dead Souls Into Sugar” by Mary Salas Robles, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot. Wednesday we had poet and McNeese professor Michael Robins visit the class and share three of his published poems that lead the class through a generative exercise using anaphora based on excerpts from a work by Joe Brainerd.
Monday: Read and discussed several poems in class, concentrating on evoking feelings and images rather than specific, right/wrong meanings.
Tuesday: Discussed more complex aspects of poetry and broke down two poems in close detail. Did a writing exercise to discuss tone, language, and style.
Wednesday: Professor Michael Robins lead a discussion about poetry and a writing exercise.
Thursday: Individual conferences and in-class writing time for poems.
Friday: shared and discussed student poems, talked about basics of creative nonfiction.
Humanities 2 (Chris Hebert, Instructor)
Week 3 continues our discussion about dystopias in the real world. Monday we finished “The Crucible” and discussed how society fell apart, despite good intentions. Tuesday through Friday, however, we did something off the beaten path. As many students are into and play Dungeons and Dragons as a hobby, I proposed that they create a campaign in which they had to topple a dystopian kingdom. Students got together a narrowed down a list of areas that help dystopian governments come into power and stay in power. They proposed these regimes stay in power because of these 4 areas of control: 1) Culture and Beliefs, 2) Eyes and Ears (spies and informants), 3) Enforcers (military and police), and 4) Information (censorship, propaganda, misinformation). Students then created a character at the top, the department heads beneath that character, and came up with their own character builds and backstories.
Monday: Finished Crucible
Tuesday-Friday: DnD campaign
Senior and Grad (Third & Fourth Year) Classes:
English (Jack Vanchiere, Instructor)
Stay tuned!
History (Carson Savoie, Instructor)
Stay tuned!
International Relations (Joshua Brown, Instructor)
Week Three was spent mostly talking about the approach of realism to International Relations. This is basically the idea that the states of the world operate in a state of anarchy (without an overarching set of rules enforced by a government) and operate purely in their self interests. These assumptions lead to several ways of describing or analyzing the way states deal with each other and we talked about concepts such as the balance of power, hegemony and power transitions.
Musically Gifted (MG):
(Brandon LaFleur, Instructor)
This week we read an article discussing the historically prejudiced view music academia has toward non-Western Classical Art Music. The article systematically dismantles the pseudo-axioms and associated assumptions spectacularly. This led to a healthy discussion on cultural entrainment and aesthetic values as subjective factors in the development of a musical idiom. Additionally we solidified our understanding of specific intervals, and drilled them for speed and accuracy. This allowed us to explore the four fundamental triad (chord) qualities used in Western music, a foundational skill for music analysis.
M: Article Review and Discussion
T: Interval drill work
W: Intervals to Triad types
TH: Interval Practice and Triad Review
F: Cont…