ABCS 2007-2008

Fall 2007 - ABCS Courses

Undergraduate Courses

HEALTH IN URBAN COMMUNITIES  (DIST I: SOCIETY)

ANTH 312 401/HSOC 321 401/URBS 312 401 - Francis Johnston

This course will introduce students to anthropological approaches to health and to theories of participatory action research.  This combined theoretical perspective will then be put into practice using West Philadelphia community schools as a case study.  Students will become involved in design and implementation of health-related projects at an urban elementary or middle school.  As one of the course requirements, students will be expected to produce a detailed research proposal for future implementation.

RESEARCH AS PUBLIC WORK: A PROJECT TO HELP CREATE A NEW WEST PHILADELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL

EDUC 245 402/URBS 327 402 - John Puckett, Elaine Simon, Richard Redding

A strategic planning goal for West Philadelphia is to have four well-formulated, theme-based curricular programs, one of which is urban studies, in place as separate academies at West Philadelphia High School when the "new West" opens on the 4800 block of Spruce Street in 2011. The urban studies curriculum will be phased into the existing high school over a three-year period and then mounted as the Urban Studies Academy at the new high school. EDUC 245/URBS 327 engages University of Pennsylvania undergraduates and West Philadelphia High School (WPHS) students simultaneously in developing a plan for the urban studies curriculum; identifying and mapping institutional and organizational resources to support this new curriculum; and proposing strategies for school-based public work projects in West Philadelphia.

URBAN EDUCATION

EDUC 202/URBS 202 - Anita Chikkatur

This course is an introduction to many of the key issues confronting urban public schools in America.  In this course, we will examine some of the historical, social, and cultural contexts of urban education, as well as look at issues and events directly affecting the Philadelphia public schools.  This class will enable students to gain a multifaceted understanding of urban education through the integration of direct observation and participation in Philadelphia public schools with class readings and discussions.  We will also examine and critique recent reforms and policies, which have been designed to remedy the urban public school "crisis".  This course will enable students to gain a critical framework for perceiving urban education as they develop a sensitive understanding of the complex issues confronting urban schools.

ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE METHODS

EDUC 421 001/ENVS 421 001 - NancyLee Bergey

In this ABCS course, undergraduate students work in a West Philadelphia public school classroom as the students in that classroom learn science and social studies skills, and apply them to environmental content. In a program called, "Learn Locally, Share Globally" the public school students will be learning about their local environment, and sharing what they have learned, electronically, with students who live in a different part of the world. An active blackboard forum allows all members of the Penn class to follow what is occurring in the classroom throughout the week. The content of our readings, discussions, and activities in class prepare students to teach science or social studies in elementary and middle schools, but are also closely tied to our work in the school. The course provides a good background for Penn students who expect teach as a part of their work, especially in a science-related field (environmental studies, medicine, landscape architecture, etc.) It also satisfies the requirement for a science and social studies "methods" class in the elementary strand of the Urban Education Minor.

TUTORING IN SCHOOLS: THEORY & PRACTICE

EDUC 323 401/URBS 323 401 - Jessica Kim

This course represents an opportunity for students to participate in academically based community service involving tutoring in a West Philadelphia public school.  This course will serve a need for those students who are already tutoring through the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project or other campus tutoring.  It will also be available to individuals who are interested in tutoring for the first time.

TEACHING AMERICAN STUDIES

ENG 401 401 (2 CU) - Peter Conn

English 401, which combines the study of American literature and history with teaching and other interactions in a high school classroom, is a two-credit course. One credit is attached to the literary and historical study, the second to the high school classroom assignment. Students in the class work with teachers in University City High School, located at 36th and Filbert Streets, a five-minute walk from the center of Penn's campus.

URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: PREVENTION OF CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING (CWIC and BFS)

ENVS 404 401/HSOC 404 401 - Rich Pepino

In ENVS 404, students learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education.  As an ABCS course, Penn students collaborate with middle school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage eighth graders in exercises that apply environmental research about lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.  This seminar consists of lectures, readings, student presentations, group work, discussions, research, and community service. For their community service, students develop and teach six lessons on childhood lead poisoning in eighth grade classes in West Philadelphia. They also participate in the annual Healthy Philadelphia Girl Scout Day event, for which Penn students design and facilitate lead education activities.

URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: THE URBAN ASTHMA EPIDEMIC (CWIC and BFS)

ENVS 408 401/HSOC 408 401 - Rich Pepino

Asthma as a pediatric chronic disease is undergoing a dramatic and unexplained increase.  It has become the #1 cause of public school absenteeism and now accounts for a significant number of childhood deaths each year in the USA. The Surgeon General of the United States has characterized childhood asthma as an epidemic.  In ENVS 408, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of urban asthma, the debate about the probable causes of the current asthma crisis, and the nature and distribution of environmental factors that modern medicine describes as potential triggers of asthma episodes.  Penn students will collaborate with the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) on a clinical research study entitled the Community Asthma Prevention Program.  The Penn undergraduates will co-teach with CHOP parent educators asthma classes offered at community centers in Southwest, West, and North Philadelphia.  The CHOP study gives the Penn students the opportunity to apply their study of the urban asthma epidemic to real world situations.

THE BIG PICTURE: MURAL ART IN PHILADELPHIA

FNAR 222/622 401/URBS 222 401 - Jane Golden

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step-by-step analysis of the process of designing and painting a mural. In addition, students will learn to see mural art as a tool for social change. This course combines theory with practice. Students will design and paint a large outdoor mural in West Philadelphia in collaboration with Philadelphia high school students and community groups. The instructor, Jane Golden, is the founder and Director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

FACULTY-STUDENT COLLABORATIVE SEMINAR IN UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS (BFS)

HIST 173/URBS 178/AFRC 078 - Ira Harkavy, Lee Benson

One of the seminar's aims is to help students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom and in the West Philadelphia community.  Students work as members of research teams to help solve universal problems (e.g., poverty, poor schooling, inadequate health care, etc.) as they are manifested in Penn's local geographic community of West Philadelphia. The seminar currently focuses on improving education, specifically college and career readiness and pathways. Specifically, students focus their problem-solving research at Sayre High School in West Philadelphia, which functions as the real-world site for the seminar's activities. Students typically are engaged in academically based service-learning at the Sayre School, with the primary activities occurring on Mondays from 3-5.  Other arrangements can be made at the school if needed. Another goal of the seminar is to help students  develop proposals as to  how a Penn undergraduate education might better  empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as function as life-long societally-useful citizens.

AFRICAN AMERICAN & LATINO ENGLISH (DIST II: HIST & TRAD)

LING 160 401/AFRC 160 401 - William Labov

An introduction to the use and structure of dialects of English used by the African American and Latino communities in the United States.  This is an academically based community service course.  The fieldwork component involves the study of the language and culture of everyday life and the application of this knowledge to programs for raising the reading levels of elementary school children.  Students will tutor children at Drew Elementary School as part of the Urban Minorities Reading Project.

THE COMMUNITY ALGEBRA INITIATIVE

MATH 122 001 - Idris Stovall

This course allows Penn students to teach a series of hands-on activities to 9th grade students in an algebra class at Sayre High School.  The semester starts with an introduction to successful approaches for teaching math in urban high schools.  The rest of the semester will be devoted to a series of weekly and bi-weekly hands-on activities designed to teach fundamental aspects of algebra in real world and practical contexts.  During the first class meeting of each week, the students enrolled in the course review the relevant mathematical background and techniques for a hands-on activity. During the second session of each week, Penn students will teach the hands-on activity to a small group of high school students.  The Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own activity and to implement it with the high school students as well.

CONCEPTS IN NURSING: PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES I

NURS 104 001 - Barbara Riegel

This introductory clinical course deals with health promotion and disease prevention with healthy and at-risk individuals in the community.  Students will address the theoretical component of the course in weekly seminars.  The clinical component focuses on the communication techniques and basic clinical skills and technologies used to assess health status, promote health and prevent illness.  Students integrate theoretical concepts and clinical skills and apply them in a variety of community settings, focusing on health promotion and disease prevention with healthy and at-risk individuals.

ISSUES IN NUTRITION, EXERCISE, & FITNESS

NURS 376 001 - Stella Volpe

An examination of the scientific basis for the relationship between nutrition, exercise and fitness. The principles of exercise science and their interaction with nutrition are explored in depth. The physiological and biochemical effects of training are examined in relation to sports performance and prevention of the chronic diseases prevalent in developed countries. Students will evaluate a subject's health risks based on genetic and dietary factors and develop a nutrition and exercise plan addressing those riskes alterable through lifestyle changes. Students will also monitor and critique media reports of sports nutrition research.

OBESITY AND SOCIETY

NURS 313 - Charlene Compher

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives.  The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established options will be explored.  Penn students will work with a middle school class in West Philadelphia to map the food environment students are exposed to in the surrounding community. 

THE COMMUNITY PHYSICS INITIATIVE

PHYS 137 - Larry Gladney

The goal is to develop a course that links practical and theoretical attributes of some fundamental physics concepts to engage students in significant research and service activities between Penn students and students at University City High School (36th and Filbert Street). Physics 137 will contribute to the enhancement of research and teaching as well as to improving the quality of life in our community. The idea is that the Penn students will learn the physics topics in greater detail in order to effectively communicate and interact with the high school students in order to deepen their understanding and ideally be resource, mentor, and ambassador to make the concepts even more relevant.  Penn students will develop novel teaching techniques that emphasize demonstrations as a means of teaching tool.  This class will meet twice per week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays).  The meeting times for this course must reflect the time of the high school class time, which is being determined.  Be on the lookout for this great course and opportunity!

THE POLITICS OF FOOD

PSCI 135 301/HSOC 135 401/GAFL 135 401 - Mary Summers

This seminar will explore the politics that shape food production, marketing and consumption.  Community service projects will involve opportunities to research and address problems in several different arenas: campus cafeterias, the West Philadelphia schools, anti-hunger campaigns, food workers' organizing efforts, and impact of food industry advertising on diets.  A focus on case studies of leaders who are making a difference in the politics of food will include several guest speakers, who work on food related health, labor, farming, technology, and globalization issues.

HEALTHY SCHOOLS: COMMUNITY BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH, PLANNING AND ACTION

PSCI 335/HSOC 335 - Mary Summers

This seminar will develop a pilot program to test the efficacy of using service-learning teams of undergraduates and graduate students to facilitate the development of School Health Councils (SHCs) and the Center for Disease Control's School Health Index (SHI) school self-assessment and planning tool in two elementary schools in West Philadelphia. This process is intended to result in a realistic and meaningful school health implementation plan and an ongoing action project to put this plan into practice. Penn students will involve members of the school administration, teachers, staff, parents and community members in the SHC and SHI process with a special focus on encouraging participation from the schools' students. If this model for the use of Penn service-learning teams is successful, it will form the basis of an ongoing partnership with the School District's Office of Health, Safety & Physical Education to expand such efforts to more schools.

CITIZENSHIP AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT (BFS)

PSCI 291 301 - Henry Teune

This is an idea generating, research seminar focused on Penn as a case study examining and assessing the contributions of colleges and universities to the democratic development of their students, communities, and societies. Faculty from other departments of SAS and other Schools will participate.  Three objectives will be pursued. First, discussions about citizenship and democracy will be based on readings and research on what colleges and universities as well other institutions say they intend to do or are actually doing about education for democracy. Attention will be given to the proceedings and publications of the Council of Europe and its 2005 European Year of Citizenship through Education in which Penn is involved. Second, the seminar will collect and analyze data gathered from a questionnaire that will be administered to target populations of Penn undergraduates. The data collected last year will be integrated with these new data on the democratic values, knowledge, and competencies of Penn students. Third, students will be organized into research teams and go into the near neighborhoods of Penn to assess what impact it is having on building the foundations for democratic life in those localities. The target locations will supplement those that were studied last fall.  Papers and presentations will be based on the information and analyses generated in the seminar as well as the records of two previous seminars.

Graduate Courses

PUBLIC INTEREST WORKSHOP

ANTH 516 401 - Peggy Sanday

This is an interdisciplinary workshop sponsored by Peggy Reeves Sanday (Dept of Anthropology), Michael Delli Carpini (Dean of Annenberg), and Ira Harkavy (Director, Center for Community Partnerships).  Open to graduate and advanced undergraduate students, the workshop is a response to Amy Gutmann's call for interdisciplinary cooperation across the University and to the Dept. of Anthropology's commitment to developing public interest research and practice as a disciplinary theme.  The workshop will be run as an open interdisciplinary forum on framing a public interest social science that ties theory and action.  Students are encouraged to apply the framing model to a public interest research and action topic of their choice.  Examples of public interest topics to be discussed in class and through outside speakers include how education and the media reify public interests, the conflation of race and racism in the public sphere, the role of diversity, community action and service learning in higher education, and the contradictory relationship between individual and ethnic identity.

HEALTH PROMOTION INTRODUCTION

DENT 508 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

Lectures, seminars, clinical sessions and community experiences are provided so that students gain the necessary knowledge and skill regarding the philosophy, modalities, rationale and evaluation of oral health promotion and disease prevention activities in community and public health. Course topics include personal wellness theory and practice; etiology, early detection and prevention of dental caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer; and assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of community oral health programs.

LOCAL & GLOBAL PUBLIC & COMMUNITY HEALTH

DENT 612 (full year course)

Lectures, seminars and community experiences provide students with foundation knowledge in general principles of public health and community health, with specific application to the following dental public health concepts: access to care, cost, quality of care and international health. Students complete community experiences that provide foundation experiences in developing and implementing community oral health promotion activities.

PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PROMOTION I

DENT 712 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

Experiences in selected community settings provide students with the opportunity to develop and expand their skills in community oral health promotion. Students are scheduled in a local elementary and/ middle schools and participate in the oral health education, screening and referral program under the direct supervision of faculty members. In addition, students complete activities from a selected list of programs at local community agencies and/or schools. Students attend small group seminars to discuss their experiences and theoretical underpinnings of community oral health activities.

PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PROMOTION II

DENT 812 (full year course)

Experiences in alternate oral health care delivery settings provide students with the opportunity to develop and expand their skills in providing comprehensive oral health care in community based settings under the direct supervision of faculty members. Students are scheduled in the mobile dental vehicle, PENNSmiles, and are also scheduled at Community Volunteers in Medicine, a community based medical and dental treatment facility in West Chester, PA. Students attend small group seminars to discuss their experiences and theoretical underpinnings of community oral health activities.

PRIMARY CARE CONCEPTS IN URBAN HEALTH

NURS 656 (Corequisite: NURS 657) - Ann O' Sullivan

Intended for nurses planning a career in primary health care practice, this course includes lectures, discussions and readings focused on health, social, economic and professional factors influencing health care delivery.  It is a companion course to NURS 657.

 

 

Spring 2008 - ABCS Courses

Undergraduate Courses

NUTRITIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH 359 401/HSOC 359 401 - Frank Johnston

Human nutrition and nutritional status within context of anthropology, health, and disease.  Particular emphasis on nutritional problems and the development of strategies to describe, analyze, and solve them.  Students will participate in the Urban Nutrition Initiative, an academically based community service project in local area schools.

ANTHROPOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY                                  

ANTH 115 301 - Paula Sabloff

This course is designed to introduce students to the connection between anthropology, philosophy, and personal experience.  Starting from the anthropological position that many of the social problems of our time are the result of conflict between or within cultures, we will read anthropological accounts-ethnographies-of problems such as globalization, cultural survival, class and ethnic conflict.  We will also read the political philosophers from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith to Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu) quoted by the anthropologists.  In this seminar, students will form their own social theory by integrating the readings with first-hand experience in the West Philadelphia community as they perform community service.  In this ABCS course, they will turn their personal experience into an anthropology practicum, seeing social theory and anthropology operating "on the ground".

THE ART OF ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION

CLST 135 301 - Sue Weber

This course prepares students to serve as paid CWiC speaking advisors who assist Penn students with classroom presentations. The course does so by exploring what makes speaking persuasive and how oratory functions and putting that exploration into practice. The course is a practicum that aims to develop students' abilities as speakers, as critical listeners and as advisors able to help others develop those abilities. In addition to creating and presenting individual and group presentations, students analyze and critique a variety of examples of oral communication, including those of their peers.

POVERTY, RACISM, AND CRIME IN WEST PHILADELPHIA: CHALLENGES FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA                                               

CPLN 506 401/URBS 403 401 - Anthony Tomazinis, Henry Teune, Ira Harkavy

This is a research seminar that focuses on case studies put into the context of ecologically structured data about West Philadelphia with a focus on the neighborhoods adjoining the University of Pennsylvania. Much of the data will be assembled from the West Philadelphia Data and Information Resources and the City Planning Commission. Students will be required to interview key West Philadelphia and neighborhood leaders as informants. The research will build on that of last year's seminar and several that have proceeded it.  The context of the research is problem solving directed to the three perceived as intertwined: poverty, racism, and crime. Students will be asked to explore short and long term policies that can reduce those urban pathologies in the broader contexts of changing political economies of cities and the shift of economic growth to global production. It is expected that students will work in task forces that will come up with not only general policy proposals but also some that can be implemented by Penn and joint efforts of Penn and other institutions of higher education. Students should learn to understand the difficulties of harnessing knowledge to purpose.

RESEARCH AS PUBLIC WORK: A PROJECT TO HELP CREATE A NEW WEST PHILDAELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL

EDUC 245 402/URBS 327 402 - John Puckett, Elaine Simon, Richard Redding

A strategic planning goal for West Philadelphia is to have four well-formulated, theme-based curricular programs, one of which is urban studies, in place as separate academies at West Philadelphia High School when the "new West" opens on the 4800 block of Spruce Street in 2011. The urban studies curriculum will be phased into the existing high school over a three-year period and then mounted as the Urban Studies Academy at the new high school. EDUC 245/URBS 327 engages University of Pennsylvania undergraduates and West Philadelphia High School (WPHS) students simultaneously in developing a plan for the urban studies curriculum; identifying and mapping institutional and organizational resources to support this new curriculum; and proposing strategies for school-based public work projects in West Philadelphia.

URBAN EDUCATION

EDUC 202/URBS 202 - Bach/Dhillon

This course is an introduction to many of the key issues confronting urban public schools in America.  In this course, we will examine some of the historical, social, and cultural contexts of urban education, as well as look at issues and events directly affecting the Philadelphia public schools.  This class will enable students to gain a multifaceted understanding of urban education through the integration of direct observation and participation in Philadelphia public schools with class readings and discussions.  We will also examine and critique recent reforms and policies, which have been designed to remedy the urban public school "crisis".  This course will enable students to gain a critical framework for perceiving urban education as they develop a sensitive understanding of the complex issues confronting urban schools.

THE WEST PHILADELPHIA COMMUNITY HISTORY PROJECT

HIST 204 401/AFRC 205 401/URBS 227 401 - Walter Licht/Mark Lloyd

This course led by Walter Licht, Professor of History, and Mark Lloyd, University Archivist, aims at the creation of a lasting, interactive website that will grow as a collective portrait (or scrapbook) of families and individuals who have had histories in West Philadelphia.  The base for such a website will be built by students in the seminar.  Students will engage in research on the history of West Philadelphia and its neighborhoods, contribute critical text to the website and mount the personal history of Ruth Molloy, a long-time, active member of the community whose papers are deposited at the University Archives. The website is intended as virtual heritage museum for members of the West Philadelphia community and an educational resource to be supplemented and used by the community, especially by school teachers and students.  

TUTORING URBAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS                                                                              

EDUC 326 401 /URBS 326 401 - John Fantuzzo

The course provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in academically based community service learning (ABCS course). Student will be studying early childhood development and learning while providing direct, one-to-one tutoring services to young students in Philadelphia public elementary schools. Students will be required to spend a minimum of two hours each week tutoring a student in a Philadelphia public elementary school for at least 10 weeks in the semesters. The course will cover foundational dimensions of the cognitive and social development of preschool and elementary school students from a multicultural perspective. The course will place a special emphasis on the multiple contexts that influence children's development and learning and how aspects of classroom environment (i.e., curriculum and classroom management strategies) can impact children's achievement. Also, student will consider a range of larger issues impacting urban education embedded in American society. The course structure has three major components: (1) lecture related directly to readings on early childhood development and key observation and listening skills necessary for effective tutoring, (2) weekly contact with a preschool or elementary school student as a volunteer tutor and active consideration of how to enhance the student learning, and (3) discussion and reflection of personal and societal issues related to being a volunteer tutor in a large urban public school. This course also meets core requirements for students interested in Urban Education Minor.

ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE METHODS

EDUC 421 001/ENVS 421 001 - NancyLee Bergey

In this ABCS course, undergraduate students work in a West Philadelphia public school classroom as the students in that classroom learn science and social studies skills, and apply them to environmental content. In a program called, "Learn Locally, Share Globally" the public school students will be learning about their local environment, and sharing what they have learned, electronically, with students who live in a different part of the world. An active blackboard forum allows all members of the Penn class to follow what is occurring in the classroom throughout the week. The content of our readings, discussions, and activities in class prepare students to teach science or social studies in elementary and middle schools, but are also closely tied to our work in the school. The course provides a good background for Penn students who expect teach as a part of their work, especially in a science-related field (environmental studies, medicine, landscape architecture, etc.) It also satisfies the requirement for a science and social studies "methods" class in the elementary strand of the Urban Education Minor.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS IN VISUAL ARTS AND EDUCATION

EDUC 545 005 - Edward Epstein

Community Partnerships in the Visual Arts and Education is an ABCS course that utilizes the resources of 40th Street Artist-in-Residence (AIR), a program that grants free studio space to West Philadelphia artists in exchange for community service. The course will ask each student to become a cultural impresario, organizing, managing, and rigorously evaluating a partnership between an AIR artist and a local school or community organization. Partnerships will typically involve education (in which the artist assists in classroom teaching), exhibition of work, or the creation of public art in the neighborhood.

COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

ENVS 406 301 - Richard Pepino

The environment affects people's health more strongly than biological factors, medical care and lifestyle.  The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe are all components of the environment.  Some estimates, based on morbidity and mortality statistics, indicate that the impact of the environment on health is as high as 80%. (Environmental Health, Morgan, pg. 14).  Over the last 20 years, the field of environmental health has matured and expanded to become one of the most comprehensive and humanly relevant disciplines in science. This course will not only examine the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects of lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the built environment on human health.  Selected topics will include cancer clusters, water borne diseases, radon and lung cancer, lead poisoning, environmental tobacco smoke, respiratory diseases and obesity. Students will be researching in depth the health impacts of the classic industrial pollution case studies in the US. Class discussions will also include risk communication, community outreach and education, access to health care and impact on vulnerable populations. Each student will have the opportunity to focus on Public Health, Environmental Protection, Public Policy, or Environmental Education issues as they discuss approaches to mitigating environmental health risks. Students will be asked to research one environmental health topic in detail, to present their findings to the class, and to propose recommendations for future action.  This course is an ABCS course that requires community service in addition to the class times.  Students will work together in teams to identify environmental health needs in the community then develop and implement an intervention that is sustainable and replicable.

PREVENTION OF TOBACCO SMOKING (CWIC and BFS, Local middle school visits required)

ENVS 407 401/HSOC 407 401 - Richard Pepino

Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem.  The Centers for Disease Controls reports that more than 80% of current adult tobacco users started smoking before age 18.  The National Youth Tobacco Survey indicated that 12.8% of middle school students and 34.8% of high school students in their study used some form of tobacco products.  In ENVS 407, Penn undergraduates learn about the short and long term physiological consequences of smoking, social influences and peer norms regarding tobacco use, the effectiveness of cessation programs, tobacco advocacy and the impact of the tobacco settlement.  Penn students will collaborate with teachers in West Philadelphia to prepare and deliver lesson plans to 4th through 6th graders.  The undergraduates will survey and evaluate middle school and Penn student body smoking usage.  One of the goals of this course is to raise awareness of the middle school children to prevent addiction to tobacco smoke during adolescence. The collaboration with the middle schools gives the Penn students the opportunity to apply their study of the prevention of tobacco smoking to real world situations.  Course requirements include regular attendance at all lectures, a thorough comprehension of the course readings, participation in class discussion, application of the readings and lectures to a problem-oriented research project.  Each student will be required to identify a problem associated with tobacco addiction, marketing, legislation or health risks, and to conduct research on that issue, for a final paper and a formal presentation.

THE BIG PICTURE: MURAL ART IN PHILADELPHIA                                                           

FNAR 222/622 401/URBS 222 401 - Jane Golden, Don Gensler

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step-by-step analysis of the process of designing and painting a mural. In addition, students will learn to see mural art as a tool for social change. This course combines theory with practice. Students will design and paint a large outdoor mural in West Philadelphia in collaboration with Philadelphia high school students and community groups. The instructor, Jane Golden, is the founder and Director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

EXPLORING LOCAL MEMORY AND TRADITION

FOLK 321 401/URBS 327 401 - Mary Hufford

In this ethnography-based service learning course we explore the integral role of traditional verbal and material arts in the lives of elderly men and women in Philadelphia communities and neighborhoods.  We begin with theories of culture, community, and identity found in the literature of folklore, anthropology, and gerontology, and move from there into historic and ethnographic overviews of relevance to the community we will be working with. We then explore approaches to fieldwork and ethnography, with special attention to techniques of participant observation, interviewing, interpretation, and the ethical dimensions of fieldwork.  Applying these methods, students develop a research and writing project that serves the needs of a collaborating Philadelphia community.  Students gain critical thinking skills from the readings, discussion, and weekly writing assignments, while learning the complexities of communicating across cultural difference.

URBAN UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS (BFS)

HIST 173 401/URBS 178 401 - Ira Harkavy & Lee Benson

Inspired by Penn's founder, Ben Franklin, President Amy Gutmann has identified rising to the challenge of a diverse democracy and educating students for democratic citizenship as critical goals of her administration. Since the present undergraduate curriculum falls short in this regard, the seminar aims to synthesize numerous, unrelated, academically-based community service courses into an effectively integrated curriculum. As now envisioned, the new Penn curriculum developed by the seminar would have as a significant component, thematic, problem-solving  clusters, i.e., interrelated, cross-disciplinary, complementary sets of courses designed to stimulate and empower students to produce, not simply consumer, societally-useful knowledge. By societally-useful knowledge, we mean knowledge actively used to solve universal strategic problems of democracy and society, schooling and society, health and society, poverty and society, environment and society, culture and society, etc., as those universal problems manifest themselves locally at Penn and in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia.

TEACHING WEST PHILADELPHIA HISTORY

HIST 304 401 - Robert Engs

This is an ABCS research seminar that will help broaden students' knowledge and understanding of West Philadelphia's rich cultural history.  Born out of the 2007 spring seminar entitled, "Poverty, Racism and Crime in West Philadelphia: What Should Penn Do To Democratically Overcome Them," this course will equip Penn students to teach West Philadelphia high school students how to become their own historians and trace how the communities they live in came into being.  The seminar will essentially be divided into three parts.  The first 3-4 weeks will be devoted to providing Penn students with a general historical overview of African-American migration to the North and the evolution of the West Philadelphia landscape post World War II.  The next few weeks would consist of Penn students learning basic oral history methodology - who to interview, what kinds of questions to ask, how to evaluate findings, etc.  The Penn students will then take this knowledge and teach this methodology to middle school students in the community.  Each Penn student will work with a few middle school students and help them develop questions and analyze their data.  After all the data has been collected from talking to relatives and neighbors, Penn students will work with the high school students to determine which interviews should be transcribed and included in a publication that would be produced at the end of the semester.  This publication will then be linked to the overall West Philadelphia online database that the Netter Center for Community Partnerships is currently developing with faculty, alumni, and community members.

AMERICAN NATIONAL CHARACTER

HIST 443 - Michael Zuckerman

Who ARE the Americans, anyway?  And are they still what they once were?  The course will consider some classic and modern theories of American identity. It will address some allegedly quintessential expressions of this elusive, perhaps essential idea, in Puritanism, Jefferson, Franklin, and Whitman.  And it will examine contemporary West Philadelphia to see if the old characterizations still apply in a new day (or ever did apply outside small-town American among affluent white males).  Work in, and observation of, a local school will be an integral part of the course.

THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF READING (DIST I: SOCIETY, Prerequisite: LING/AFRC 160 or permission of instructor)

LING 161 401/ AFRC 161 401 - William Labov

This course will be concerned with the application of current knowledge of dialect differences to reduce the minority differential in reading achievement.  Members will conduct projects and design computer programs to reduce cultural distance between teachers and students in local schools and to develop knowledge of word and sound structure.

THE COMMUNITY MATH TEACHING PROGRAM                                                                       

MATH 123 001 - Idris Stovall

This course allows Penn students to teach a series of hands-on activities to students in math classes at University City High School and Sayre High School.  The semester starts with an introduction to successful approaches for teaching math in urban high schools.  The rest of the semester will be devoted to a series of weekly hands-on activities designed to teach fundamental aspects of geometry.  During the first class meeting of each week, the students enrolled in the course review the relevant mathematical background and techniques for a hands-on activity. During the second session of each week, Penn students will teach the hands-on activity to a small group of high school students.  The Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own activity and to implement it with the high school students as well.

FIELD METHODS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY (DIST III: ARTS & LETTERS, Majors Only)

MUSC 250 401/MUSC 650 401 - Carol Muller

This project explores the complicated relationship between music and Islam in West Philadelphia, focused on but not exclusive to, the African American community.  We will examine this relationship in the context of the Field Methods in Ethnomusciology graduate seminar (also open to upper level undergraduates), which will partner with eighth grade students at Shaw Middle School to create a web-video project that will be added to the larger "Music and Spirituality" research-teaching-service project initiated by Dr. Muller in 2001, added to by Dr. Tim Rommen (2003), and continued by Muller (2005).

CARIBBEAN MUSIC AND DIASPORA

MUSC 258 - Timothy Rommen

This is an ABCS course with a service and learning component focused on the West Indian Community in West Philadelphia. The aims of this ABCS course revolve specifically around making questions of diaspora immediate and pressing for students. By conducting fieldwork-based research students will generate projects variously exploring faith-based, traditional, and popular aspects of West Indian musical performance in West Philadelphia and connect these experiences to their readings and classroom discussions. Musicians and community members will, moreover, participate in the academic aspects of the course, ensuring that valuable exchanges take place in both campus and community spaces. This inherently collaborative and mutually enriching project will culminate in an evening of presentations and reflections by students and community members and the research projects themselves will be posted to the public westphillymusic.org website. 

CONCEPTS IN NURSING: PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES II

NURS 106 001 - Eileen Sullivan-Marx

This course focuses on health promotion and disease prevention across the health-illness continuum for healthy and at risk individuals in the community. Students build on their previously mastered communication techniques and clinical skills to develop comprehensive assessment skills and to define needs among specific at risk groups in a family and community context.  In weekly seminars, students integrate theories of behavior and health, epidemiologic principles, clinical decision making, and critical thinking skills. Theories are applied utilizing case studies and data sources to develop health promotion and disease prevention strategies. A key component of the course is the development of communication and physical assessment skills and specified clinical techniques. The influence of gender, life span, culture, race, and ethnicity on health promotion and disease prevention is specifically addressed throughout the course.

INTERNATIONAL NUTRITION: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WORLD HUNGER

NURS 316/NURS 516 - Janet Chrzan

A detailed consideration of the nature, consequences, and causes of hunger and undernutrition internationally. Approaches are explored to bringing about change, and to formulating and implementing policies and programs at international, national, and local levels, designed to alleviate hunger and undernutrition.

CRIME/SCIENCE/INSTRUCTION: CSI AND SCIENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL                               

NURS - Kathleen Brown

This course is designed to introduce the forensic science aspect of selected crimes investigations to High School students.  High School students will be introduced to the science of DNA and the science of forensic toxicology via an established chemistry class. H.S. students will also be introduced to how a crime scene is investigated.  Students in the course will develop and deliver appropriate teaching plans to high school students.  Students in the class will work in two groups within the course to develop science based teaching plans.  Under the guidance of faculty in the course, students will design and implement a teaching plan related to the science of DNA or the science of forensic toxicology.

HEALTHY SCHOOLS: COMMUNITY BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH, PLANNING AND ACTION

PSCI 335/HSOC 335 - Mary Summers

This seminar will develop a pilot program to test the efficacy of using service-learning teams of undergraduates and graduate students to facilitate the development of School Health Councils (SHCs) and the Center for Disease Control's School Health Index (SHI) school self-assessment and planning tool in two elementary schools in West Philadelphia. This process is intended to result in a realistic and meaningful school health implementation plan and an ongoing action project to put this plan into practice. Penn students will involve members of the school administration, teachers, staff, parents and community members in the SHC and SHI process with a special focus on encouraging participation from the schools' students. If this model for the use of Penn service-learning teams is successful, it will form the basis of an ongoing partnership with the School District's Office of Health, Safety & Physical Education to expand such efforts to more schools.

CULTURE, ARTS & MEDIA

URBS 336 401/SOCI 336 401 - David Grazian

The purpose of this ABCS course is to examine the development of art, culture and media in cities, with an emphasis on the role that local organizations play in neighborhood communities and art publics.  Through classroom readings and discussions, students will explore a variety of sociological approaches to the analysis of urban culture, neighborhood life and public policy, and develop a set of fieldwork tools useful for the ethnographic study of local urban processes.  Upon acquiring these research skills, students will conduct several hours per week of community service work in a variety of local nonprofit arts and other cultural institutions in West Philadelphia, with the two-fold purpose of benefiting the surrounding community while researching the role of the organization and its constituents in the city's overall cultural development.

Graduate Courses

HEALTH PROMOTION INTRODUCTION

DENT 508 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

Lectures, seminars, clinical sessions and community experiences are provided so that students gain the necessary knowledge and skill regarding the philosophy, modalities, rationale and evaluation of oral health promotion and disease prevention activities in community and public health. Course topics include personal wellness theory and practice; etiology, early detection and prevention of dental caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer; and assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of community oral health programs.

LOCAL & GLOBAL PUBLIC & COMMUNITY HEALTH

DENT 612 (full year course)

Lectures, seminars and community experiences provide students with foundation knowledge in general principles of public health and community health, with specific application to the following dental public health concepts: access to care, cost, quality of care and international health. Students complete community experiences that provide foundation experiences in developing and implementing community oral health promotion activities.

PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PROMOTION I

DENT 712 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

Experiences in selected community settings provide students with the opportunity to develop and expand their skills in community oral health promotion. Students are scheduled in a local elementary and/ middle schools and participate in the oral health education, screening and referral program under the direct supervision of faculty members. In addition, students complete activities from a selected list of programs at local community agencies and/or schools. Students attend small group seminars to discuss their experiences and theoretical underpinnings of community oral health activities.

PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PROMOTION II

DENT 812 (full year course)

Experiences in alternate oral health care delivery settings provide students with the opportunity to develop and expand their skills in providing comprehensive oral health care in community based settings under the direct supervision of faculty members. Students are scheduled in the mobile dental vehicle, PENNSmiles, and are also scheduled at Community Volunteers in Medicine, a community based medical and dental treatment facility in West Chester, PA. Students attend small group seminars to discuss their experiences and theoretical underpinnings of community oral health activities.  

ACCESS AND CHOICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

EDUC 541 - Laura Perna

This course will explore critical issues pertaining to who goes to college and who goes to what type of college.   The course will begin with an examination of the theoretical perspectives that are used to understand college enrollment and choice processes.  Then, the implications of various policies and practices for college access and choice will be explored, with particular attention to the effects of these policies for underrepresented groups.  The following are among the topics that will be discussed:

The demographic characteristics of college enrollments

Economic and sociological approaches to college enrollment behavior

The role of social and cultural capital in the college enrollment process

The effects on college enrollment of public policies related to open admissions, affirmative action, student financial aid, higher education finance, pre-college outreach programs, and K-16

The changing nature of college admissions

CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF PRIMARY CARE WITH YOUNG FAMILIES

NURS 659 101 - Victoria Weill, Marianne Buzby

Assessment and treatment of the young child in ambulatory care settings is the focus of this developmentally organized course.  This course provides the nurse practitioner student with the necessary knowledge and experience to assist individuals with the most common health problems, including acute episodic illness as well as stable chronic disease.  The concepts of health promotion and health maintenance are integrated throughout the curriculum. Using a developmental framework, the maturational tasks and problems of children and their families in relation to illness and health are explored.

CLINICAL PRACTICUM IN NURSING OF CHILDREN II

NURS 723 - Terri Lipman, Janet Deatrick

This course will continue the successful restructuring of an existing clinical course for Pediatric Nursing of Children nurse practitioner students, to increase the community experience. We will replicate the successful aspects of  the 2006 and 2007 ABCS course while improving the program through "lessons learned'. The course will be revised to focus on assessment of diabetes risk factors, a newly funded research area of the PI. The NP students will participate in the Sayre High School Medical Intake Class and assume leadership in the area of growth assessment and assessment of diabetes risk factors. Sayre students will then acquire these assessment skills to utilize in assessing the children attending the Beacon After School Program and in employment in health care settings in the future. Children from the community attending the Beacon Program will have the benefit of accurate growth assessment and identification of those at risk for the development of diabetes. The ultimate goal of this course is for the NP 1 Sayre student team to analyze the data from the community, submit an abstract to a national meeting and present the data. Within the context of this proposal, high school students will also be exposed to advanced practice nursing as a career.

PRIMARY CARE OF THE MIDDLE AGED AND OLDER ADULT

NURS 647 (Prerequisite: NURS 657. Corequisite: NURS 646)

Management and evaluation of primary care problems of middle-aged and older adults in a variety of ambulatory and occupational settings. Opportunity to implement the role of the nurse practitioner with middle-aged and older adults and their families in the community. Interdisciplinary experiences will be pursued & collaborative practice emphasized. Students are expected to assess and begin to manage common chronic health problems in consultation with the appropriate provider of care. The initiation of health promotion & health maintenance activities with individuals and groups is stressed. Includes 16 hours a week of clinical experiences with a preceptor.