ABCS 2008-2009

Fall 2008 - ABCS Courses

Undergraduate Courses

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

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.

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.

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

WRITING MULTICULTUALRISM (Distribution Course in Society, Class of 2009)

ANTHR 146/AFRC 146/GSOC 146/URBS 146 - Peggy Sanday

Diversity is a fact of life, characteristic not only of the US national culture but of the global culture as well. This course introduces anthropological theories of culture and multiculturalism and the method of ethnography. Students will read and report on selected classic readings. After learning the basic concepts, students will be introduced to the concept of culture and the method of ethnography. The core of the course will revolve around "doing ethnography" through participation/observation in multicultural settings. Students can use their life experience, home communities, or Penn as their field of observation. The goal of this course is to introduce beginning students to public interest anthropology. No background in anthropology is required.

PUBLIC INTEREST WORKSHOP

ANTH 516/AFST 516/GSOC 516/URBS 516 - Peggy Sanday

This is an interdisciplinary workshop sponsored by Peggy Reeves Sanday (Dept. of Anthropology) with guest speakers from Communication Studies and other fields. Open to graduate and advance 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 action topic of their choice. Examples of public interest topies to be discussed in class and through outside speakers include the meaning of "public interest," the ways in which the public interest is/is not addressed in the academy, and the relationship of studying hte public interest to social justice.

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 2009 - ABCS Courses

Undergraduate Courses

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.

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, and 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

THE WEST PHILADELPHIA COMMUNITY HISTORY PROJECT

HIST 204 401/AFRC 205 401/URBS 227 401 - Robert Engs, 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 BASED ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

ENVS 406 301 - Richard Pepino

The Benjamin Franklin Scholars course investigates contemporary healthy problems that are present in the urban environment that pose significant health risks, especially to children. Students will formulate a problem statement worthy of investigation, and identify the medical, ethical, and socioeconomic components that must be addressed to lessen impacts to an at-risk population. Students will work with community organizations, technical and medical experts in the West Philadelphia study area to develop viable and cost-effective alternatives, and formulate an implementation strategy. Previously studied problems include the following: Healthy Daycare Model, Improved Food Access in West Philadelphia, and Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Compounds.

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

ENVS 407 401/HSOC 407 401 - Mick Kulik

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

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.

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.

CONCEPTS IN NURSING: PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES II

NURS 106 001 - Beth Quigley

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 900 - 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.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE IN ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY: RESILIENCE

PSYC 362-303 - Acacia Parks

In this course you will learn how to design an original research study in clinical psychology that is scientifically rigorous and personally compelling. Although the course will contain all of the traditional components of a research experience course -- planning and conducting a study, then analyzing the data and writing up the results -- it is also a pilot project, being done in collaboration with the Center for Community Partnerships, which will allow students to learn while simultaneously providing a service to the community. The primary goal of the course is to evaluate the efficacy of a resilience-building intervention, which we will implement in a local West Philadelphia elementary school. Early in the semester, students will be trained to deliver a new version of the Penn Resilience Program, a kids' resilience curriculum developed at Penn, designed specifically to be administered by college students with limited training. The class will then make weekly trips to the school to deliver the intervention. We will collect data in order to assess the efficacy of this new program, as compared to kids who do other after-school activities, with the ultimate goal of creating a sustainable resilience-building program that can be maintained in the community.

HEALTHY SCHOOL AND URBAN SCHOOL REFORM: POVERTY, SEGREGATION, ACHIEVEMENT AND HEALTH

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.

WRITING IN CONCERT

ENGL 145 - Lorene Carey

Writing in Concert comprises two parts: teaching a common text and writing about the experience using memoir, reportage, and criticism. This year's text will be the Mitchell & Ruff, by best-selling author William Zinsser. English 145 students will study the common text in close reading, discussion and preliminary essay exercises. The idea is first to develop an intimate relationship with a text and learn about yourself as a writer from your responses to it. Then, by creating a mini-course syllabus and lesson plans from the excellent curriculum guide provided by Paul Dry Books, you will learn how to help readers at different stages in life and literacy find their own ways to explore the text. Learning the work takes three to four weeks. We will meet the publisher, interview a Temple professor who studies community literacy, and visit the Rosenbach museum. We will also read Zinsser's On Writing Well, the Ur text of economic writing, and Writing to Learn, as well as Willie's Ruff's own autobiography.

Graduate Courses

HEALTH PROMOTION INTRODUCTION

DENT 508 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

LOCAL & GLOBAL PUBLIC & COMMUNITY HEALTH

DENT 612 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PROMOTION I

DENT 712 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PROMOTION II

DENT 812 (full year course) - Joan Gluch

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.

UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

EDUC 545 009 - David Grossman

Ranging from civic engagement to economic development, institutions of higher education in the United States have long been involved in a variety of relationships with their local communities; in recent years, there has been increasing attention paid to the opportunities and challenges implicit in those relationships. In this course, we will study and discuss the history, rationales, and manifestations of the partnerships that have developed, with a particular focus on the last quarter-century. Through readings, faculty- and student-led discussions, guest lecturers, and policy-oriented projects, we will develop better understandings of the many topics surrounding university-community partnership activities. Among other themes, we will consider institutional roles and relationships, service learning, community perspectives, policy issues, and evaluation.

Report of the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Community Engaged Scholarship Now Available

PENN STUDENTS: click here to browse opportunities to engage with the West Philadelphia community!

ABCS 2008-2009