LSIC
379
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ANTH
379 LSIC: Navigating Cultures Heidi Kelley
ATMS 379 LSIC: Mountain Weather Alex Huang
CSCI 379 LSIC: Databases for Everything Joe
Brownsmith
CSCI 379 LSIC: Web Pages for Everyone Walt
Turner
HWP 379 LSIC: Optimal Performance Connie
Schrader
LS 379 LSIC: Japan—Past and Present Gary
Nallan
MATH 379 LSIC: Liars, Dammed Liars, and Statisticians
Robert Spicuzza
MCOM 379 LSIC: Women in Film Anne Slatton
MCOM 379 LSIC: Television History Don
Diefenbach
PHYS 379 LSIC: Failure is Not an Option: the Early
Years of NASA and the Apollo Program to the Moon Tim Giblin
PHYS 379 LSIC: Black Holes and Time Warps Randy
Booker
Course
Descriptions:
ANTH
379 LSIC: Navigating Cultures Heidi Kelley
By reading ethnographies (descriptions of different cultures), viewing
films, and doing an independent learning project, we will reflect on
how to “navigate” cultures. From university’s requirements
to disparate world regions, there are plenty of opportunities for different
ways of living in our world to come together as well as collide. We
will consider the necessity of cross-cultural communication and why
it is sometimes hard to accomplish. Students will also do a structured
learning project in which they will choose a cross-cultural navigation
problem, decide how to solve it and then teach it to the class.
Heidi Kelley is professor of anthropology at the University of North
Carolina at Asheville. She has two main research interests: documenting
the lives of Galicians (Galicia is the northwesternmost region in Spain),
and investigating the culture of stroke. Her current teaching and research
interests include: gender, disability, psychological and medical anthropology,
family, religion, regional and national identity, Spain and Portugal
(and more widely, Europe), Latin America, and Latino communities in
the U.S. She is also interested in using the techniques of poetry and
fiction to express ethnographic truths.
ATMS
379 LSIC: Mountain Weather Alex Huang
This course will introduce the weather elements and local weather caused
by the topography. It will incorporate meteorological basics, weather
observations, data/map/statistical analysis, scientific writing and
public presentations to study the mountain weather around the world.
Students will be required to write two scientific reports and make one
in-class presentation. Additionally, students will have two in-class
closed-book exams, one open-book essay exam, and one final comprehensive
open-book exam.
Dr. Alex Huang was born in Taiwan, the Republic of China, and came
to the United States for the graduate study in Purdue University in
1979. Dr. Huang is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences,
and he has been teaching at UNCA since he received his Ph.D. degree
in Meteorology from Purdue University in 1984. He is interested in meteorological
education and computer applications in meteorology.
CSCI
379 LSIC: Databases for Everything Joe Brownsmith
Databases are a tool for thinking about and organizing data. Databases
are widely used in industry, government, universities - organizations
large and small, here and abroad. Databases are important, essential,
relevant, and useful. We will learn many things about databases using
a popular database management system. Databases are a great tool for
organizing diverse data collections such as college life info, music,
photos, and more. This course is offered in a computer laboratory setting.
Dr. Brownsmith has more than twenty years industry experience in
designing and developing information systems and database systems. His
experience includes many years as a developer and team leader at IBM
on large projects such as compilers and data content management. He
has created a variety of information systems and products for a diverse
customer set including government, insurance, banking, non-profits,
large and small companies, and academe.
CSCI
379 LSIC: Web Pages for Everyone Walt Turner
This seminar will focus on the creation of web pages using HTML. We
will work as a team to produce web pages that will be informative not
only to you to but to future students at UNCA. While we are doing that,
we will be examining the web from both philosophical and legal viewpoints.
This seminar will satisfy both writing intensive and information intensive
requirements. It is taught in a computer laboratory setting so that
we can learn by doing.
Mr. Walter Turner is currently ABD on a PhD in IT from UNC Charlotte.
He also holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Masters of Agricultural
Economics, and Bachelors in Psychology degrees. Before coming to UNC
Asheville in 2000 he taught at Mars Hill College where he was the Chair
of Computer Science department. Before that, he spent 25 years in the
computer industry in various positions from beginning programmer through
president of a small company. He has written numerous articles and presented
papers on various computer-related topics. He has also served as a reviewer
for the IEEE Software journal. His other interests include screenwriting,
landscaping, construction, reading and spending time with his family.
HWP
379 LSIC: Optimal Performance Connie Schrader
This course involves both research and direct encounter with theories
and structures for fostering abilities and dissolving barriers. Topics
in attention, arousal, focus, stress, and well-being are discussed and
practically explored. Practices from both eastern and western perspectives
are introduced. This course includes an introduction to biofeedback
as a method of gaining insight into one’s internal state. Discussion
is an important part of the course.
Connie Schrader is a Lecturer in Health and Wellness Promotion.
She also teaches extensive in Dance, Arts and Ideas, and the Humanities
Program.
LS
379 LSIC: Japan—Past and Present Gary Nallan
This course will begin with a survey of Japanese History. Then we will
study the Japanese Government, Political System, and Religions. We will
then learn about Japanese Art, Theatre, and Music. The course will continue
with extensive coverage of contemporary Japanese Literature, especially
the writer Murakami. The course will conclude with extensive coverage
of Japanese Cinema, especially films by Kurosawa.
Gary Nallan has a B. A. degree from New York University in Psychology
and Biology. He has M. A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Kentucky. From 1979-1999 he taught at Benedictine College, Atchison,
KS. He has been a member of the UNCA faculty since 1988. Dr. Nallan
regularly teaches a variety of Psychology courses as well as HUM 324:
The Modern World. Dr. Nallan was selected to participate in the Japan
Studies Association 2006 Freeman Fellowship program.
MATH
379 LSIC: Liars, Dammed Liars, and Statisticians Robert Spicuzza
In this class students will be introduced to various interesting and
practical topics in statistics. Emphasis will be placed on understanding
and applying statistical concepts. The underlying assumptions of statistical
conclusions will be examined. An important aspect of the class will
be how to approach problems when these assumptions are not valid. Initially
we will review the basics of descriptive and inferential statistics.
The class will be divided into teams, and there will be several group
team projects, including an oral presentation at the end of the semester.
Statistical calculations will be performed using Excel®, and most
students should become quite proficient in Excel® by the end of
the semester.
Bob Spicuzza has a PhD in Physics and teaches mathematics and statistics
at UNCA. He worked many years in industry as an industrial physicist
and is fascinated by seminally elegant solutions mathematics offers
to many real life problems. He raises diary goats, loves the outdoors,
and is an old runner with bad knees
MCOM
379 LSIC: Women in Film Anne Slatton
In this class we will examine a variety of different film genres focusing
on the contributions of female film professionals from the days of silent
film to present-day cinema. The goal of the class is to provide the
students with a broader base of understanding and appreciation of women’s
contribution to the art form.
Anne Slatton received her undergraduate degree from Smith College
in Northampton, MA and her MFA from the University of Georgia. Prior
to teaching at UNCA she worked as a professional screenwriter, director
and producer for projects ranging from documentaries to “family
films”. Currently she is a lecturer for the Mass Communications
department and teaches courses in video production, directing, film
history and criticism.
MCOM
379 LSIC: Television History Don Diefenbach
Before the Internet and after radio, television dominated American culture
and family entertainment. This course examines the Age of Television
and its role as a mirror and vanguard of popular culture from 1950 to
2000. Students will explore the genres and movements of television,
legislative and regulatory factors, and the effects of television on
individual viewers and society.
Don Diefenbach, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Mass Communication
at UNCA. He studied Philosophy and Film/Video at The Pennsylvania State
University and Television-Radio-Film and Mass Communications at the
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
PHYS
379 LSIC: Failure is Not an Option: the Early Years of NASA and the
Apollo Program to the Moon Tim Giblin
This course takes an in-depth look at the early years of the US Space
program, with an emphasis on the Apollo missions to the Moon. We will
consider the surge in technology during this time, as well as the state
of US foreign relations and the drive to put man into space and land
him on the Moon. We will also consider the science behind the missions
and the scientific knowledge gained through the exploration of space.
I earned my PhD in Astrophysics in 2000 at the University of Alabama
in Huntsville while working at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center on
the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. In addition to my love for science
and the exploration of the Universe, I like to stay active by playing
ice hockey, hiking, as well as exercising my creative side by playing
the guitar.
PHYS
379 LSIC: Black Holes and Time Warps Randy Booker
This course investigates the most bizarre objects in outer space –
black holes. We will study how scientists have viewed black holes over
the past 100 years, from their prediction that they exist from Einstein’s
Theory of Relativity, to being shown by Einstein that they can’t
exist, to their acceptance in theory, to finally the experimental proof
that black holes do in fact exist. We’ll study the strange properties
of black holes, all with no mathematical pre-requisites needed for the
course. We’ll ask what it might be like to take a trip to a black
hole or to live near one in a space colony. Even more bizarre is the
possibility of wormholes and time travel as two black holes connect
to form a time warp. Do time warps really exist?
Randy Booker received his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from
Rice University in 1979. He served in the Peace Corps from 1979-1981,
teaching high school math and science in Kenya, Africa. He received
his Masters degree in Physics from Duke University in 1983 and his Ph.D.
degree in Physics from Duke University in 1986. He has taught Physics
and Astronomy courses at UNCA since 1986. He received the UNCA Distinguished
Teaching Award in 1992 and has served as Chair of the Department of
Physics at UNCA since 2000. His research includes a broad range of interests,
from studying the interstellar medium of our galaxy using radio astronomy
to investigating new sources of non-polluting power in collaboration
with Blacklight Power of New Jersey.
