ABCS Courses

Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses are at the core of the Netter Center’s work. ABCS students and faculty work with West Philadelphia public schools, communities of faith, and community organizations to help solve critical campus and community problems in a variety of areas such as the environment, health, arts, and education. Penn has 80-90 undergraduate and graduate ABCS courses each year, enrolling over 1800 students.

ABCS courses

  • Integrate service with research, teaching, and learning
  • Are a form of Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES)
  • Bring together academic expertise and the expertise of the community via mutually-beneficial, mutually-transformational democratic partnerships
  • Use collaborative local problem-solving to improve the quality of life and learning in the community and the quality of learning and scholarship in the university
  • Foster structural community improvement (e.g., effective public schools, neighborhood economic development)
  • Emphasize student and faculty reflection on the service experience
  • Help students become active, creative, contributing citizens of a democratic society

Browse Spring 2024 courses here. 
See which courses fulfill undergraduate general education requirements HERE.

To register for an ABCS course: You can browse and register for ABCS courses on Path@Penn. To find ABCS courses, use the advanced search tool and find "Academically Based Community Service Courses" in the University Attribute dropdown menu. The most updated list of ABCS courses is on the Netter Center website.

Obtain your clearances for working with minors here.

For current and prospective ABCS faculty and students: Click here for information on ABCS resources.

For graduate students interested in ABCS, community-engaged scholarship, and related activities: Learn more Provost's Graduate Academic Engagement Fellows at the Netter Center and Penn Graduate Community-Engaged Research Mentorship summer program.

 

2022 Spring Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCS of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Case Study: Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 357
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach has the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester. Prerequiste: Completion of freshman & sophomore level courses

Deaf Culture

078
Jami N. Fisher

This course is an advanced/conversational ASL course that explores several key topics related to Deaf Culture.  Using only ASL in class, students will read and discuss books, articles, and films related to the following topics:  What is Deaf Culture?; The History of the Deaf American; Deaf Identit(ies); Communication Debates and Language Deprivation; Technology and Deaf Culture; Deaf Art, Deaf-Space, Deaf Families, Deaf-Hearing Families. We will tie all of these theoretical explorations together in creating a public activity or event that centers on Deaf communities.  We focused on building community from within Penn as well as reaching out to Deaf communities in online engagement activities.
 

Energy Education in Philadelphia Schools

Engineering & Applied Science 242
Instructor TBD

EAS 242 is an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course supported by Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Steppingstone Scholars. The academic focus starts on America’s (and Pennsylvania’s in particular) energy systems:  where energy comes from, and how it is generated, distributed, and used. This information is used to examine energy’s role in global warming and environmental degradation, and how the impacts of energy generation and distribution systems and structures have a disproportionate impact on underprivileged communities - both urban and rural. 

In addition to regular class on Thursday evenings, EAS 242 students will also teach six (6) lessons in local high school science classes, focused on demonstrations of steps students and their families can take to improve energy conservation in their homes and apartments, and promote a healthy and efficient home environment. Those teaching times will be determined by matching Penn student and high school schedules. The primary class projects will be carried out in groups:  creating ideas for information distribution and public education campaigns and materials to educate the general public about the issues discussed in the class.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week.

Freshman Seminar

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small sitting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on current course offerings http:// www.college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php.

From West Africa to West Philadelphia: Creating Community in the Francophone Diaspora

French 218
Jamiella N Brooks Elizabeth Collins

This course explores the immigrant experience with a focus on migration from Francophone West Africa to this country, particularly the impact it has on children and young people. Through a close partnership with young Francophone immigrants at the Lea School, we will focus on the challenges they face adapting to a new cultural and linguistic environment. We will review the Francophone context in order to understand the place of the French language in Africa; look at the immigrant and refugee experience through a variety of texts in French; examine the issues of mono-, bi- and multilingualism both on an individual and a societal basis; look at the competing meanings the French language holds for Black Americans; and study the role of foreign languages in American schools. Students will participate in the weekly Francophone Community Partnership, an after-school program with K - 8 children at the Lea School which seeks to enhance the children's self-esteem and pride in their linguistic and cultural heritage.

Latinos in United States

Latin American & Latinx Studies 235 Sociology 266
Emilio Alberto Parrado

This course presents a broad overview of the Latino population in the United States that focuses on the economic and sociological aspects of Latino immigration and assimilation. Topics to be covered include: construction of Latino identity, the history of U.S. Latino immigration, Latino family patterns and household structure, Latino educational attainment. Latino incorporation into the U.S. labor force, earnings and economic well-being among Latino-origin groups, assimilation and the second generation. The course will stress the importance of understanding Latinos within the overall system of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., as well as in comparison with previous immigration flows, particularly from Europe. We will pay particular attention to the economic impact of Latio immigration on both the U.S. receiving and Latin American sending communities, and the efficacy and future possililities of U.S. immigration policy. Within all of these diverse topics, we will stress the heterogeneity of the Latino population according to national origin groups (i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinos), as well as generational differences between immigrants and the native born.

Latinx Environmental Justice

Anthropology 093 393 Environmental Studies 093 393 Latin American & Latinx Studies 093 393 Spanish 093 393 Urban Studies 093 393
Teresa Gimenez

This course explores the involvement of the Latinx environmental justice movement underscoring how Latinx have challenged, expanded, and contributed to the environmental justice discourse. The course explores national case studies of environmental and racial injustice as they bear on Latinx communities both in rural areas and in urban barrios throughout the United States.  The case studies analyzed in this course emphasize race and class differences between farm workers and urban barrio residents and how they affect their respective struggles. The unit on farm workers will focus on workplace health issues such as toxic chemicals and collective bargaining contracts. The unit on urban barrios will focus on gentrification, affordable housing, and toxic substances in the home. This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS course) through which students will learn from and provide support to Esperanza Academy Middle Charter School, a Latinx-serving organization in the City of Philadelphia, on preventing exposure to hazardous substances. Studying environmental justice and pairing it with community service will heighten students' awareness of the complexities of culture, race, gender, and class while providing them with an invaluable experience of cross-cultural understanding.

Music and Healing

Music 250
Carol Ann Muller

In this class we will explore the many ways in which music around the world, and in our own neighborhoods, has been used for social-emotional healing, and individual and collective well-being. We will think about music and healing in four ways: through the lens of the musical, the social/cultural, performative, and biomedical (Roseman 2012). In other words, we read across the disciplines, to include ideas about music, the brain, and emotion; about the impact of adversity, and the work of music and creativity as vehicles of restoration and healing. There will be an Academically Based Community Service project in the Spring 2022 class around Philadelphia's Black music archive in partnership with West Philadelphia High School. The course is intended specifically for music majors and minors, but others may request a place from the instructor.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Poverty and Inequality

Sociology 041-302
Regina S Baker

Social Impact and Responsibility: Foundations

Legal Studies & Business Ethics 230
Djordjija Petkoski

What role can business play in helping to meet global and local societal needs, whether it involves the environment, improving health, expanding education, or eradicating poverty? These and similar needs are approached through a broader framework of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) indicators. Is there any responsibility on the part of business to help meet those needs? What are models of successful business and innovative partnerships engagement in this area? How should success be measured? Are there limits to what businesses can and should do, and what institutional changes will enable businesses and entrepreneurs to better succeed? What is the role of GEN-Z? This survey course provides students the opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of these and other questions that lie at the foundation of social impact and responsibility as an area of study. The course involves case studies, conceptual issues, and talks by practitioners – corporate and investment firms senior executives. The course is designed to help students develop a framework to address the question: How should business enterprises and business thinking be engaged to improve society in areas not always associated with business? The course is required for the secondary concentration in Social Impact and Responsibility

Sociology of Education

Sociology 267
Annette Lareau

Schools play a crucial role in shaping inequality. In the United States, every child is told that anyone can grow up to become President. Yet, accidents of birth matter as children born to working-class families often have vastly different educational experiences than do the children born to upper-middle-class families. This course will provide an overview of educational institutions and the experiences of children within them. We will learn about social class and race differences in children's experiences before school, during elementary school and secondary school, and in college. For example, racial inequality increases the more years children spend in school. There are also dramatic differences in the character of school experiences for children from different racial and ethnic groups. Learning about schools also helps us understand other social institutions including inequality in neighborhoods, family life, government policies, and the labor market.

The Art of Speaking: Communication Within the Curriculum: Speaking Advisor Training

College 135
Elizabeth Sue Weber

This course is designed to equip students with the major tenets of rhetorical studies and peer education necessary to work as a CWiC speaking advisor. 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 presentations, students present workshops and practice advising. During this ABCS course, students will practice their advising skills by coaching and mentoring students at a public school in Philadelphia. Prerequisite: Students need to apply and are interviewed by a CWiC Advisor.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Tutoring School: Theory and Practice

Education 323 Urban Studies 323
Aliya A Bradley

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 Education

Education 202
Andrew J Schiera
Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Urban Financial Literacy: Pedagogy and Practice

Education 245
Brian Peterson Brandon Matthew Copeland

Wharton Field Challenge FLCP

Management 353
Keith W Weigelt

Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of a student? Do you want to set kids on a path to becoming financially literate? Do you want to learn leadership skills in the classroom? Here at the Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP) we are able to create an experience that achieves all three. We partner with various public schools around the West Philadelphia area and teach concepts integral to financial literacy. We teach a wide range of grades from middle school to high school, and work with students to help them learn how to be financially responsible. In addition to teaching in neighboring high schools, we also have group class meetings run by Professor Keith Weigelt on Mondays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM. We learn about the disparity of wealth and how to best address it while also learning teaching techniques, classroom strategies, and overall basic financial literacy. A basic understanding of personal financial literacy is required.

Writing and Politics

English 124 Africana Studies 124
Lorene E Cary

This is a course for students who are looking for ways to use their writing to participate in our democracy. We don't just talk about it; we do it, in real time. Student writers will use many forms--short essay, blogs, social media posts, mini video- or play scripts, podcasts--and consider lots of topics as they publish with #VoteThatJawn. This multimedia platform popped up in 2018 to support youth registration and voting in Philadelphia's midterm elections. Registration of 18-year-olds that year doubled: from 3,300 to nearly 7,000. Then in the 2020 election, #VoteThatJawn continued to hype Philadelphia 18-year-olds. Our youngest voting cohort followed up strong registration with even stronger turnout--70%; that's 4% higher than older voters!

Imagine a Creative Writing class that answers our desire to live responsibly in the world and to have a say in the systems that govern and structure us. In the process students learn to write with greater clarity, precision, and whatever special-sauce Jawn your voice brings. The course is designed as an editorial group sharing excellent, non-partisan, fun, cool, sometimes deadly earnest content for and about fresh voters. We'll plan and stockpile for the next election. In addition, you will gain experience in activities that writers in all disciplines need to know: producing an arts-based event and social media campaign, working with multimedia content, and collaborating with other writers and artists. This initiative has already effected change. How will your writing help take it to the next level?

Writing Center Theory & Practice

English 138 Writing Program 138
Valerie Ross

This course is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity and temperament to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. WRIT 138 402: ABCS course. Along with a study of theories, strategies, and methods for teaching and tutoring writing in diverse communities, this course will also interrogate our own social locations and the ways we engage with the realities of teaching and learning. To enable this, this course will provide opportunities for community engagement and reflection beyond the walls of our classroom by working with nearby high school students to prepare them for college-level writing. In addition to fieldwork, students will read and discuss key texts on community-engaged writing instruction, keep a weekly reflection and reading response journal, and engage in a scaffolded semester-long research project on community-engaged writing theory and practice.

Youth Driven Health Campaigns

Communications 371
Ava Irysa Kikut

What happens when young people lead the way in improving health in their communities? How can youth-driven research and activism uniquely address youth health needs? How might partnerships between adolescent and adult researchers in developing health campaigns maximize knowledge sharing and impact? Through this academic based community engagement course, undergraduate Penn students will collaborate with a team of youth partners to develop a health-focused media campaign. The team will determine a campaign goal and target audience, collect and analyze data, and design data-driven campaign messages. Weekly readings and discussions will focus on health communication theories, campaign development approaches, and youth participatory action research (YPAR). Course work will include periodic reflections and a final group presentation related to the team’s campaign. Engagement work will include approximately 2 hours/week (outside of class time and based on availability) facilitating campaign development with the partner team. Course objectives for Penn students will include: cultivating supportive relationships with community partners at engagement sites, critically engaging in and reflecting on YPAR, applying communication research theory and approaches (including data collection and analysis) to design impactful health messages. Both undergraduates and youth partners will develop skills in communication, data collection and analysis, message design, teamwork, leadership, and activism.

Youth, Digital Culture and Online Harassment: A Participatory Research Workshop

Communications 356
Sophie Jennifer Josephine Maddocks

From trolling to cyber-bullying, online harassment has increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic and it disproportionately impacts school-age youth. This ABCS course provides a hands-on opportunity for students to conduct community service and fieldwork investigating digital culture and online harassment. Over the course of the semester, students will review scholarship in Feminist Media Studies and Digital Inequalities, while undertaking participatory focus groups in partnership with students in a West Philadelphia school. In this course, students will merge theory with action through weekly seminars and fieldwork sessions. Together, our community of researchers will produce a collaborative report sharing original findings and evidence-based recommendations on how to prevent and address online harassment. This dynamic, hands-on course is perfect for students who want to tackle real-world communication issues, develop their research skills, and learn more about feminist Communication scholarship.

Graduate

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Kara R Finck

Legal advocacy for children and adolescents involves a dynamic range of substantive legal issues informed by the most recent research and practice in the fields of social work, medicine and mental health. Students in the clinic represent adolescent and youth clients on a variety of matters including child welfare cases, immigration proceedings, education issues and health related matters. As part of an interdisciplinary legal team with graduate level social work students and a social work supervisor, clinic students will identify legal issues, use interdisciplinary practice skills to advocate for their clients and appear in a variety of ve. As part of the seminar, clinic students will also have access to experts and guest lecturers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice to assist with their interdisciplinary representation of clients and examination of laws and policies affecting children and families. Under Pennsylvania’s student practice rule, students will serve as primary counsel for children and youth responsible for interviewing and counseling clients, identifying legal issues, developing case theories, and providing legal representation in formal adjudicatory hearings. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students will meet regularly with the Professor and social work supervisor to receive guidance and feedback on their casework and advocacy. As part of the classroom seminar, students will develop interviewing, counseling, and oral advocacy skills through simulations and mock hearings. Students will also explore the legal and policy landscape for poor children and families with regards to child welfare, education, immigration and health care with guest lecturers from Philadelphia, CHOP and SP2. Students will work on a cornerstone policy project focusing on issues impacting children and adolescents across disciplines. Finally, students will tackle important ethical issues that arise in interdisciplinary practice with doctors, teachers and social workers.

Community Youth Filmmaking

Education 725
Amitanshu Das

Community Youth Filmmaking

Education 752
Amitanshu Das

This course focuses on how the filmmaking medium and process can provide a means for engaging youth in ethnographically grounded civic action projects where they learn about, reflect on, and communicate to others about their issues in their schools and communities. Students receive advanced training in film and video for social change. A project-based service-learning course, students collaborate with Philadelphia high school students and community groups to make films and videos that encourage creative self-expression and represent issues important to youth, schools, and local communities. Stories and themes on emotional well-being, safety, health, environmental issues, racism and social justice are particularly encouraged. A central thread throughout is to assess and reflect upon the strengths (and weaknesses) of contemporary film (digital, online) in fostering debate, discussion and catalyzing community action and social change. The filmmaking medium and process itself is explored as a means to engage and interact with communities. This course provides a grounding in theories, concepts, methods and practices of community engagement derived from Community Participatory Video, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Ethnographic methods. For the very first time, Penn students will be trained to operate a state-of-the-art TV studio at PSTV (Philadelphia Schools TV). At the end of the semester approved films will be screened with an accompanying panel discussion at an event at the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). These films will also be broadcast on Comcast Philadelphia's PSTV Channel 52 and webcast via the district's website and YouTube channel. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. EDUC586 Ethnographic Filmmaking (or equivalent) is a pre-requisite or permission of instructor. Note that because of Covid-19, the course may be required to make adjustments and changes. These will be announced in class by the instructor.

Developmental Theories & Applications with Children

Education 580
Laronnda V Thompson

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to consider mandates, models, and methods related to enhancing the learning and development of preschool and early elementary school children. This course emphasizes the application of developmental psychology and multicultural perspectives to the design of effective classroom-based strategies. Students will consider a "whole-child" approach to understanding children's classroom behavior in context. Major assignments will involve gathering and synthesizing information about children in routine classroom situations. This information will be used to better understand children's needs and strengths and how they are manifested in transaction with classroom contexts. Students will focus on one or more students to conduct a comprehensive child study of the child in context in P3 environments. This contact must include opportunities to observe children in a natural setting and interact with them on a regular basis through out the semester. If students do not have a regular classroom contact, one will be arranged. The class will be working with theNetter Center to form student placements, which must be approved by the professor.

Geophysical Prospection for Archaeology

Art & Arch of Med. World 572 Anthropology 572 Classical Studies 572 Near Eastern Languages & Civlzt 572
Jason Herrmann

Near-surface geophysical prospection methods are now widely used in archaeology as they allow archaeologists to rapidly map broad areas, minimize or avoid destructive excavation, and perceive physical dimensions of archaeological features that are outside of the range of human perception. This course will cover the theory of geophysical sensors commonly used in archaeological investigations and the methods for collecting, processing, and interpreting geophysical data from archaeological contexts. We will review the physical properties of common archaeological and paleoenvironmental targets, the processes that led to their deposition and formation, and how human activity is reflected in anomalies recorded through geophysical survey through lectures, readings, and discussion. Students will gain experience collecting data in the field with various sensors at archaeological sites in the region. A large proportion of the course will be computer-based as students work with data from geophysical sensors, focusing on the fundamentals of data processing, data fusion, and interpretation. Some familiarity with GIS is recommended.

Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 573
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach with the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester.

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Education 598
Stephen R Kocher

This ABCS course explores interfaith dialogue and action on college campuses. It brings together students from diverse faith backgrounds, as well as students with no faith commitments, to engage with and learn from one another in academic study, dialogue and service. The course is open to all undergraduate and masters students. Click here to fill out the permit to enroll in this course. 

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. Prerequisite: Undergraduate by permission of instructor This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Pediatric Acute Care NP: Professional Role and Intermediate Clinical Practice

Nursing 735
Jessica A Strohm Farber

This course focuses on the implementation of the professional role of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (PNP-AC). Particular emphasis is placed on the role components of the nurse practitioner in pediatric acute care. Applications of nursing, biological and behavioral science are emphasized in the advanced clinical assessment, clinical decision making and management skills needed to care for complex, unstable acutely and chronically ill children and their families. The role of the advanced practice nurse in promoting optimal child/family outcomes is emphasized.

Public Interest Workshop

Anthropology 516 Gender,Sexuality & Women's Stud 516
Gretchen E L Suess

This is a Public Interest Ethnography workshop (originally created by Peggy Reeves Sanday - Department of Anthropology) that incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to exploring social issues. 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 Department of Anthropology's commitment to developing public interest research and practice as a disciplinary theme. Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on: 1) merging problem solving with theory and analysis in the interest of change motivated by a commitment to social justice, racial harmony, equality, and human rights; and 2) engaging in public debate on human issues to make research results accessible to a broader audience. The workshop brings in guest speakers and will incorporate original ethnographic research to merge theory with action. Students are encouraged to apply the framing model to a public interest research and action topic of their choice. This is an academically-based-community-service (ABCS) course that partners directly with Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Carceral State

City Planning 623
Lisa Servon

The US criminal justice system has grown tremendously since the 1980s. The US incarcerates more people than any other nation, and Philadelphia incarcerates more people than any other large city. Most of the growth has taken place relatively recently: the US criminal justice system grew 500% over the past 40 years. This tremendous growth has had an enormous impact on our society, and has disproportionately affected low-income communities and communities of color. This course will explore a range of themes, including mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, and the financialization of the justice system—and the effect of these phenomena on families, communities, and local and state economies. It is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students.

We’ll be using Philadelphia as our laboratory for this course, which is an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course through the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and counts as an elective for city planning students in the Housing, Community and Economic Development concentration. We will be working with at least one community partner, the Philadelphia Bail Fund, and potentially others depending on enrollment and student interests. We will use a variety of lenses and perspectives to explore these issues together. We’ll be reading academic literature from several disciplines, sociology, planning, law, criminology, economics, and political science. We will also be reading memoir, popular sources (newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.) and poetry and watching relevant videos—talks and documentary films.  I will bring in guest speakers who are working in the areas of justice reform and reentry, and we will take field trips to better understand the issues we’ll be reading about and studying. Students will be required to visit and observe local courtrooms; we will partner with the Philadelphia Bail Fund for this work, although students may also elect to do this in another way, with permission of the instructor.  Finally, students will work with one or more local reentry organizations on a project or projects that enable us to learn and give back.  Confirmed partners are Why Not Prosper? and the Incarcerated Women’s Working Group.

University-School-Community Research Partnerships: Theory & Practice

Education 545
Rand A Quinn

Visual Legal Advocacy

Law 979
Regina Austin

The Visual Legal Advocacy Seminar will introduce students to the art of making short nonfiction law-based social justice advocacy films on behalf of actual individual clients, public interest organizations and grassroots groups. Videos made by previous seminar participants are available for viewing on the website of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law and on the Law School’s YouTube channel. Covid-19 may require a change in the order in which topics are discussed and production activities occur. The fall term of the seminar is generally devoted to pre-production. Participants will be divided into several working groups or crews to develop topics suggested by the instructor or proposed by the seminar participants themselves. Formal in-class instruction will track the steps in the production of a nonfiction or documentary film, starting with pre-production planning (including multimodal research, copyright restrictions on sources, storytelling for advocacy and the writing of treatments and shooting scripts), continuing on to the rudiments of production (including creation of stock still photo gallery on Flickr and hands-on introductions to the camera, lighting and sound equipment available in the VLA Media Lab), and concluding with an introduction to post-production (including a hands-on introduction to editing and distribution). The ethical obligations of visual legal advocates will be emphasized throughout. By the end of the semester, the crews should have produced a treatment or shooting script that outlines the advocacy message of their videos, the persons to be interviewed, their expected contributions, and the supplementary images that must be captured to support the telling a visual story. Students continuing into the second semester will be responsible for producing a short work of visual legal advocacy with the assistance of a lecturer-facilitator who is a professional cinematographer. Formal, in-class sessions will not be held as students will be scheduling and shooting interviews, obtaining and reading transcripts, and producing compilation and rough cuts of their videos. The crews will meet separately with the seminar professor on a weekly or bi-weekly basis at times that are mutually agreed upon. By the end of the semester, the crews should have produced an editing script or a rough cut of their videos. The professosr and the facilitators will undertake to complete the video for distribution.

2021 Fall Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCS of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Air Pollution: Sources & Effects in Urban Environments

Environmental Studies 411
Maria-Antonia Andrews

This is an ABCS course designed to provide the student with an understanding of air pollution at the local, regional and global levels. The nature, composition, and properties of air pollutants in the atmosphere will also be studied. The course will focus on Philadelphia's air quality and how air pollutants have an adverse effect on the health of the residents. The recent designation by IARC of Air Pollution as a known carcinogen will be explored. How the community is exposed to air pollutants with consideration of vulnerable populations will be considered. Through a partnership with Philadelphia Air Management Service (AMS) agency the science of air monitoring and trends over time will be explored. Philadelphia's current non-attainment status for PM2.5. and ozone will be studied. Philadelphia's current initiatives to improvethe air quality of the city will be discussed. Students will learn to measure PM2.5 in outdoor and indoor settings and develop community-based outreach tools to effectively inform the community of Philadelphia regarding air pollution. The outreach tools developed by students may be presentations, written materials, apps, websites or other strategies for enhancing environmental health literacy of the community. A project based approach will be used to include student monitoring of area schools, school bus routes, and the community at large. The data collected will be presented to students in the partner elementary school in West Philadelphia . Upon completion of this course, students should expect to have attained a broad understanding of and familiarity with the sources, fate, and the environmental impacts and health effects of air pollutants.

Anthropology and Policy: History, Theory, Practice

Anthropology 305
Gretchen E L Suess

From the inception of the discipline, anthropologists have applied their ethnographic and theoretical knowledge to policy issues concerning the alleviation of practical human problems. This approach has not only benefited peoples in need but it has also enriched the discipline, providing anthropologists with the opportunity to develop new theories and methodologies from a problem-centered approach. The class will examine the connection between anthropology and policy, theory and practice (or 'praxis'), research and application. We will study these connections by reading about historical and current projects. As an ABCS course, students will also volunteer in a volunteer organization of their choice in the Philadelphia area, conduct anthropological research on the organization, and suggest ways that the anthropological approach might support the efforts of the organization.

Asian Human Rights / Asian American Civil Rights

Asian American Studies 230
Peter T Van Do Fernando Chang-Muy

The last few decades have seen mass migration and movement of people from one place to another: from South, East, and Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, from Central America in the 1990s, from Africa in 2000s, and in this decade from the Middle East. In Asia, as a result of human rights violations, North Koreans have fled to China, Tibetans to India, and over 3 million individuals fled Southeast Asia in the 1980s. More than one million refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, fled temporarily to Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, before resettling in the United States. Philadelphia is host to all of these communities. Some of our own students at Penn are 1st or 2nd generation South and Southeast Asian Americans. This course provides a comparative overview of the history, ethnicity, religion, and cultures of Southeast Asia (and the deep connections with South Asia and East Asia), and their human rights, temporary settlement, and treatment in host countries in the region. The first part of the course will use an international human rights framework to explore the human rights issues that forced people to flee from their countries of origin. The course will challenge and expand students' understandings of international human rights in the past and in the present with a focus on human rights violations such as: A. Vietnamese fleeing the war in Southeast Asia. B. North Koreans seeking refuge in China and in South Korea. C. Tibetans hoping for protection by crossing the border into India. Given the deep diplomatic and economic relations between Vietnam and India, this international portion of the course will highlight how the two countries in the region, an Asian communist country, and the other, an Asian democratic country handle human rights in similar and different ways. The second part of the course will pivot to the US and explore the civil rights of Asian Americans in the US such as the right to migrate, seek and enjoy asylum, education, housing, employment and health. The course will feature Penn professors as guest speakers so as to expose students to our own in-house experts, their fields and their departments. In addition, As part of a Asian American Studies, South Asia Center, Netter Center ABCS course, students will visit neighborhoods where Asian Americans live, work and play: South Asian neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey; Korean neighborhoods in Olney; Vietnamese and Cambodian neighborhoods in South and West Philly.

ASL/Deaf Studies - ABCS

American Sign Language 077
Jami N. Fisher

For this course, students will attend Pennsylvania School for the Deaf on a weekly basis where they will participate in and contribute to the school community via tutoring or other mutually agreeable activities. Students will also have formal class on a weekly basis with discussions and activities centering on reflection of community experiences through linguistic as well as cultural lenses. Additionally, drawing from the required Linguistics and other ASL/Deaf Studies coursework, students will develop an inquiry question and conduct preliminary community-based research to analyze sociolinguistic variations of ASL and Deaf cultural attitudes, behaviors, and norms. Ongoing reflections and discussions-formal and informal-on Deaf cultural/theoretical topics drawing from readings as well as community experiences will be integral to the course experience. LING 078, Topics in Deaf Culture and permission from the instructor, are required for this course. Anyone considering taking this course should contact the ASL Program Coordinator early in the semester prior to enrollment (Spring) to ensure adequate time to obtain clearances and appropriate placement. Prerequisite: If course requirement not met, permission of instructor required. Participation in this class requires students to have in place the mandatory clearances for working in schools before the semester starts. Studens should also be in contact with the department during the advanced registration period in order to secure a placement in the community. Prerequisite: Anyone considering taking this course should contact the ASL Program Coordinator early in the semester prior to enrollment (Spring) to ensure adequate time to obtain clearances and appropriate placement. Participation in this class requires students to have in place the mandatory clearances for working in schools before the semester starts. Students should also be in contact with the department during the advanced registration period in order to secure a placement in the community.

August Wilson and Beyond: Performance in the African Diaspora

Africana Studies 325 English 380
Suzana Berger Herman Beavers

In this intergenerational seminar, Penn students together with community members of all ages read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's American Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traditions, traumas, and triumphs through the decades, nearly all told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Two of Wilson’s plays are receiving fresh attention with recent acclaimed film versions: Fences with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom with Davis and Chadwick Boseman. All class participants get to know each other while exploring the history and culture that shaped these ten powerful plays. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, the class plans and hosts events with community partner the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance / Paul Robeson House & Museum, and also collaborates with the artists of Theatre in the X. Participants come to understand Philadelphia’s rich history through stories community members share in oral history interviews. These stories form the basis for an original performance the class creates, presented at an end-of-semester gathering. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the generations. The group embodies collaborative service through the art it offers to the community.

 

Case Study: Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 357
Marion Leary Pamela Z Cacchione

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach has the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester. Prerequiste: Completion of freshman & sophomore level courses

Case Study: Self-Care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara Riegel

Self-care is done by lay people to prevent or manage chronic illness. In this case study, we will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting self-care. Fieldwork experiences are designed to provide practical experience in engaging well individuals in preventing illness and helping chronically ill perform self-care.

Classical Studies in Philadelphia Schools

Classical Studies 204
James Ker

This course will focus on classical studies as a school resource, with a focus on present-day schools in the Philadelphia area. Our readings and discussions will focus on historical investigation, educational theory, and project-design. The course invites Penn undergraduates and graduate students to rethink how the field traditionally known as "classics" or "classical studies" (both in general and in specific sub-areas such as Latin language, ancient history, mythology, literature, etc.) is presented to school audiences and how classical studies itself must change to meet present social-justice concerns, with special attention given to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is an Academically Based Community-Service Course (ABCS), in which students will be required to consult with one or more local school personnel (teachers and/or students) as part of the coursework. The main assignments will be several short papers and presentations and a longer paper or curriculum-development project. Undergraduates should register for CLST 204, graduate students for CLST 504.

Community Math Teaching Project

Mathematics 123
Mona B Merling

This course allows Penn students to teach a series of hands-on activities to students in math classes at University City 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. The first class meeting of each week, Penn faculty teach Penn students 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 UCHS students. The Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own activity and to implement it with the UCHS students.

Diplomacy in the Americas - The Penn Model OAS Program

Political Science 328 Latin American & Latinx Studies 328
Catherine E.M. Bartch

"Diplomacy in the Americas" an academically based community service course in which students work with Philadelphia and Norristown public school students to explore solutions to critical problems facing the Americas. Entrenched political, economic, and social inequality, combined with environmental degradation, weak institutions, pervasive health epidemics, weapon proliferation, and other issues pose formidable hurdles for strengthening democratic ideals and institutions. The Organization of the American States (OAS), the world's oldest regional organization, is uniquely poised to confront these challenges. "Diplomacy in the Americas" guides students through the process of writing policy resolutions as though the students were Organization of the American States (OAS) diplomats, basing their research and proposals on democracy, development, security, and human rights - the four pillars of the OAS. Students will also read literature about what it means to educate for a democracy and global citizenry, and they will have the opportunity to turn theory into practice by creating and executing curriculum to teach and mentor the high school students through interactive and experiential pedagogies.

Education in American Culture

Education 240
Brian Peterson Charles Adams

This course explores the relationships between forms of cultural production and transmission (schooling, family and community socialization, peer group subcultures and media representations) and relations of inequality in American society. Working with a broad definition of "education" as varied forms of social learning, we will concentrate particularly on the cultural processes that produce as well as potentially transform class, race, ethnic and gender differences and identities. From this vantage point, we will then consider the role that schools can and/or should play in challenging inequalities in America.

Energy Education in Philadelphia Schools

Engineering & Applied Science 242
Andrew Huemmler

For the first half of the semester, students will teach hands-on lesson plans developed by the Netter Center, the Energy Coordinating Agency (ECA), and teachers in the School District of Philadelphia on residential energy efficiency, healthy homes, and career pathways in energy to 9th graders at local West Philadelphia high schools. In the second half of the course, students will work on projects with Penn and local partners on topics including weatherization, indoor air quality, carbon offsets, renewable energy, and more.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week.

Freshman Seminar

Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small sitting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on course offerings: http://www.college.upenn.edu/requirements-courses.

Inequity and Empowerment: Urban Financial Literacy

Urban Studies 140
Brian Peterson

A central premise of the "American Dream" is economic freedom, implying opportunity, security, and in the minds of many, wealth. The statistical and experiential reality, vividly evident throughout the nation's urban cities, is a staggering inequitable distribution of resources and growing economic instability for scores of households, including those identified as middle class. Educational policy makers and organizations working to address national poverty often rally that "destiny shouldn't be defined by one's zip code," yet, due to numerous factors, it is remarkably difficult for this not to be the case. Place matters. As does history. And race. Through an analysis of ethnographic and historical texts, policy reports, academic studies, and popular media pieces, URBS 140 will help students explore the hidden factors that have formed and sustain inequities in American cities. By studying the roots and contemporary manifestations of policy decisions and practices such as discriminatory housing, predatory lending, unbanking, and deindustrialization, and contextualizing the vast (and growing) wealth gaps in America and the critical importance of intergenerational wealth, URBS 140 will shed new light on how our current economic reality has been shaped. At the same time, the course will also introduce comparative approaches to understanding personal finance. Students will assess their own present and future financial decisions alongside the broader policies and histories that have framed their choices. As an ABCS-optional course, students will share their knowledge about inequity and financial empowerment with area high school students. Students will also generate a policy analysis and/or program proposal as part of their final project that addresses an inequity theme studied in the course.

Intro to Digital Archaeology

Anthropology 362 Classical Studies 362 Near Eastern Languages & Civlzt 362
Jason Herrmann

Digital tools have permeated every aspect of archaeology, from data collection to publication, requiring that archaeologists become familiar with a broad range of computer-based methods and acquire new skill sets. Students in this course will be exposed to the broad spectrum of digital approaches in archaeology with an emphasis on fieldwork, through a survey of current literature and applied learning opportunities that focus on African American mortuary landscapes of greater Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, we will work with stakeholders from cemetery companies, historic preservation advocacy groups, and members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to collect data from three field sites. We will then use these data to reconstruct the original plans, untangle site taphonomy, and assess our results for each site. Our results will be examined within the broader constellation of threatened and lost African American burial grounds and our interpretations will be shared with community stakeholders using digital storytelling techniques. This course can count toward the minor in Digital Humanities, minor in Archaeological Science and the Graduate Certificate in Archaeological Science.

Latinx Communities and the Role of CBO's in Social Change

Latin American & Latino Studies 424 Sociology 424 Latin American & Latinx Studies 424
Johnny Irizarry

The purpose of this course to create a Latino Studies/Service Learning ABCS course that cultivates dialogue and knowledge about the social, political, cultural and historical complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States (Philadelphia in particular) and the roles Latinx CBO's play in meeting the needs of Latinx communities and in impacting social change.

Marketing for Social Impact

Marketing 266
Deborah Small

Private and public sector firms increasingly use marketing strategies to engage their customers and stakeholders around social impact. To do so, managers need to understand how best to engage and influence customers to behave in ways that have positive social effects. This course focuses on the strategies for changing the behavior of a target segment of consumers on key issues in the public interest (e.g., health behaviors, energy efficiency, poverty reduction, fundraising for social causes). How managers partner with organizations (e.g., non-profits, government) to achieve social impact will also be explored.

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small sitting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on current course offerings http:// www.college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php.

Nursing in the Community

Nursing 380
Holly M Harner Alicia G Kachmar

This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community's strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.

Nutrition Throughout The Life Cycle

Nursing 375
Monique Dowd

Understanding and meeting nutritional needs from conception through adulthood will be addressed. Nutrition-related concerns at each stage of the lifecycle, including impact of lifestyle, education, economics and food behavior will be explored.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Participatory Cities (SNF Paideia Program Course)

Sociology 314
Marisa Denker

What is a participatory city? What has that term meant in the past, what does it mean now, and what will it mean going forward? Against the backdrop of increasing inequality and inequity, and the rise in a search for solutions, what role can citizens play in co-creating more just cities and neighborhoods? How can citizens be engaged in the decision-making processes about the places where we live, work, and play? And most importantly, how can we work to make sure that all kinds of voices are meaningfully included, and that historically muted voices are elevated to help pave a better path forward? This course will connect theory with praxis as we explore together the history, challenges, methods, and approaches, and impact of bottom up and top down approaches to community participation and stakeholder involvement in cities. Multiple opportunities will be provided to be involved in community engagement work for live projects in Philadelphia.

Participatory Cities (SNF Paideia Program Course)

Urban Studies 314
Marisa Denker

What is a participatory city? What has that term meant in the past, what does it mean now, and what will it mean going forward? Against the backdrop of increasing inequality and inequity, and the rise in a search for solutions, what role can citizens play in co-creating more just cities and neighborhoods? How can citizens be engaged in the decision-making processes about the places where we live, work, and play? And most importantly, how can we work to make sure that all kinds of voices are meaningfully included, and that historically muted voices are elevated to help pave a better path forward? This course will connect theory with praxis as we explore together the history, challenges, methods, and approaches, and impact of bottom up and top down approaches to community participation and stakeholder involvement in cities. Multiple opportunities will be provided to be involved in community engagement work for live projects in Philadelphia.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Role of Water in Urban Sustainability and Resiliency

Environmental Studies 410
Howard Mark Neukrug

This course will provide an overview of the cross-disciplinary fields of civil engineering, environmental sciences, urban hydrology, landscape architecture, green building, public outreach and politics. Students will be expected to conduct field investigations, review scientific data and create indicator reports, working with stakeholders and presenting the results at an annual symposium. There is no metaphor like water itself to describe the cumulative effects of our practices, with every upstream action having an impact downstream. In our urban environment, too often we find degraded streams filled with trash, silt, weeds and dilapidated structures. The water may look clean, but is it? We blame others, but the condition of the creeks is directly related to how we manage our water resources and our land. In cities, these resources are often our homes, our streets and our communities. This course will define the current issues of the urban ecosystem and how we move toward managing this system in a sustainable manner. We will gain an understanding of the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between practices in an watershed and its waterfront. Topics discussed include: drinking water quality and protection, green infrastructure, urban impacts of climate change, watershed monitoring, public education, creating strategies and more.

Tutoring in Urban Public Elementary Schools: A Child Development Perspective

Education 326 Urban Studies 326
John W Fantuzzo

The course provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in academically based community service learning. 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. 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.

Urban Education

Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Urban Environments: Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia

Environmental Studies 404
Richard Pepino

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards. In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

Wharton Field Challenge: Financial Literacy Community Project (Flcp)

Management 353
Keith W Weigelt

Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of a student? Do you want to set kids on a path to becoming financially literate? Do you want to learn leadership skills in the classroom? Here at the Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP) we are able to create an experience that achieves all three. We partner with various public schools around the West Philadelphia area and teach concepts integral to financial literacy. We teach a wide range of grades from middle school to high school, and work with students to help them learn how to be financially responsible. In addition to teaching in neighboring high schools, we also have group class meetings run by Professor Keith Weigelt on Mondays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM. We learn about the disparity of wealth and how to best address it while also learning teaching techniques, classroom strategies, and overall basic financial literacy. A basic understanding of personal financial literacy is required.

Writing Center Theory & Practice

English 138 Writing Program 138
Valerie Ross

WRIT 138 401: This course is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity and temperament to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. WRIT 138 402: ABCS course. Along with a study of theories, strategies, and methods for teaching and tutoring writing in diverse communities, this course will also interrogate our own social locations and the ways we engage with the realities of teaching and learning. To enable this, this course will provide opportunities for community engagement and reflection beyond the walls of our classroom by working with nearby high school students to prepare them for college-level writing. In addition to fieldwork, students will read and discuss key texts on community-engaged writing instruction, keep a weekly reflection and reading response journal, and engage in a scaffolded semester-long research project on community-engaged writing theory and practice.

Graduate

Historic Preservation Studio

Historic Preservation 701
Randall Mason Pamela Hawkes Brent Leggs

The Preservation Studio is a practical course making architectural, urban and landscape conservation operations, bringing to bear the wide range of skills and ideas at play in the field of historic preservation. As part of the core MSHP curriculum the Studio experience builds on professional skills learned in the first-year core. The work requires intense collaboration as well as individual projects. The Preservation Studio centers on common conflicts between historic preservation, social forces, economic interests, and politics. Recognizing that heritage sites are complex entities where communities, cultural and socio- economic realities, land use, building types, and legal and institutional settings are all closely interrelated, the main goals of the studio are (1) understanding and communicating the cultural significance of the built environment, (2) analyzing its relation to other economic, social, political and aesthetic values, and (3) exploring the creative possibilities for design, conservation and interpretation prompted by cultural significance. Studio teams undertake documentation, planning and design exercises for heritage sites and their communities, working variously on research, stakeholder consultation, comparables analysis, writing policies and designing solutions.

Advanced Physical Assessment and Clinical Decision Making: Nursing of Children Clinical I

Nursing 721
Loretta C Reilly Sura Lee

This clinical course is designed to help prospective advanced practice nurses develop advanced skills in physical and developmental assessment of children in a variety of well-child, clinic and hospital settings. Data collection, data interpretation, and hypothesis formulations are emphasized for the purpose of clinical decision making. The role of the advanced practice nurse in assessment of primary health care issues and health promotion is incorporated throughout the course. Collaboration as an integral part of assessment will be an ongoing focus.

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Layla A Ware De Luria Kara R Finck

Classical Studies in Philadelphia Schools

Classical Studies 504
James Ker

This course will focus on classical studies as a school resource, with a focus on present-day schools in the Philadelphia area. Our readings and discussions will focus on historical investigation, educational theory, and project-design. The course invites Penn undergraduates and graduate students to rethink how the field traditionally known as "classics" or "classical studies" (both in general and in specific sub-areas such as Latin language, ancient history, mythology, literature, etc.) is presented to school audiences and how classical studies itself must change to meet present social-justice concerns, with special attention given to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is an Academically Based Community-Service Course (ABCS), in which students will be required to consult with one or more local school personnel (teachers and/or students) as part of the coursework. The main assignments will be several short papers and presentations and a longer paper or curriculum-development project. Undergraduates should register for CLST 204, graduate students for CLST 504.

Discursive Approaches in Intercultural Communication

Education 676
Catherine M Box

This course offers a discourse-based approach and hands-on introduction to the field of intercultural communication, from the micro-level of interpersonal interaction to the macro-level of institutional practice. Through a series of readings and service learning projects in multicultural settings, students will hone their observational and analytic abilities, while gaining an appreciation of and facility for participating in the communicative diversity around them. Topics will include a repertoire approach to examining language in use, interpretation and metacommentary, and the possibility of intervention to facilitate new communicative patterns.

Ethnographic Filmmaking

Anthropology 583 Education 586
Amitanshu Das

This ethnographic methodology course considers filmmaking/videography as a tool in conducting ethnographic research as well as a medium for presenting academic research to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. The course engages the methodological and theoretical implications of capturing data and crafting social scientific accounts/narratives in images and sounds. Students are required to put theory into practice by conducting ethnographic research and producing an ethnographic film as their final project. In service to that goal, students will read about ethnography (as a social scientific method and representational genre), learn and utilize ethnographic methods in fieldwork, watch non-fiction films (to be analyzed for formal properties and implicit assumptions about culture/sociality), and acquire rigorous training in the skills and craft of digital video production. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. Due to the time needed for ethnographic film production, this is a year-long course, which will meet periodically in both the fall and spring semesters.

Housing, Community & Economic Development Topics Class

City Planning 629
Akira D Rodriguez

Elective classes for the Housing, Community and Economic Development concentration.

Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 573
Marion Leary Pamela Z Cacchione

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach with the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester.

Intro to Digital Archaeology

Art & Arch of Med. World 562 Anthropology 562 Classical Studies 562
Jason Herrmann

Digital tools have permeated every aspect of archaeology, from data collection to publication, requiring that archaeologists become familiar with a broad range of computer-based methods and acquire new skill sets. Students in this course will be exposed to the broad spectrum of digital approaches in archaeology with an emphasis on fieldwork, through a survey of current literature and applied learning opportunities that focus on African American mortuary landscapes of greater Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, we will work with stakeholders from cemetery companies, historic preservation advocacy groups, and members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to collect data from three field sites. We will then use these data to reconstruct the original plans, untangle site taphonomy, and assess our results for each site. Our results will be examined within the broader constellation of threatened and lost African American burial grounds and our interpretations will be shared with community stakeholders using digital storytelling techniques. This course can count toward the minor in Digital Humanities, minor in Archaeological Science and the Graduate Certificate in Archaeological Science.

Language Teaching and Literacy Development in Multilingual Community Contexts

Education 549
Anne Pomerantz

Immigrant youth often face the dual challenge of learning a new language and learning academic content in that language simultaneously. Many educators, however, struggle to identify and implement instructional practices that acknowledge learners' strengths, while also attending to their communicative, academic, and social needs. This course brings insights and findings from sociolinguistics to bear on research on language and literacy teaching to develop a situated, interactionally mindful approach for supporting emergent bi/multilinguals. An intensive service-learning project offers course participants the opportunity to "learn by doing" by working closely with children and adolescents in one multilingual, community-based after-school setting. Although the course takes the case of English learners attending U.S. elementary and secondary schools as its starting point, discussion of the implications and applications to other national/ educational contexts is encouraged. The goal of this course is to prepare participants to provide language and literacy instruction in contextually sensitive, theoretically informed, and interactionally attuned ways.

Multicultural Issues in Education

Education 723
Oreoluwa O Badaki

This course examines critical issues, problems, and perspectives in multicultural education. Intended to focus on access to literacy and educational opportunity, the course will engage class members in discussions around a variety of topics in educational practice, research, and policy. Specifically, the course will (1) review theoretical frameworks in multicultural education, (2) analyze the issues of race, racism, and culture in historical and contemporary perspective, and (3) identify obstacles to participation in the educational process by diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Students will be required to complete field experiences and classroom activities that enable them to reflect on their own belief systems, practices, and educational experiences.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. Prerequisite: Undergraduate by permission of instructor This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Transport Justice

City Planning 551
Joshua Harrington Davidson

This course will explore the concept of transport justice and how this idea can inform changes to public transit infrastructure. The first half of the course will set theoretical foundations through close reading and discussion of spatial and social justice theories, emphasizing questions of transportation and mobility. The second half of the course will feature a project-based application of these theories. Students will develop analyses to inform a planning at the intersection of Broad/Germantown/Erie in North Philadelphia. Students will be encouraged to explore multiple analytic approaches including: interviews and qualitative data collection; GIS and spatial analysis; quantitative analysis and predictive modeling, and more. The course will culminate in written and oral presentations given to partners from SEPTA, OTIS, and other planning agencies in Philadelphia.

Visual Legal Advocacy: Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

The Visual Legal Advocacy Seminar will introduce students to the art of making short nonfiction law-based social justice advocacy films on behalf of actual individual clients, public interest organizations and grassroots groups. Videos made by previous seminar participants are available for viewing on the website of the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law and on the Law School’s YouTube channel. Covid-19 may require a change in the order in which topics are discussed and production activities occur. The fall term of the seminar is generally devoted to pre-production. Participants will be divided into several working groups or crews to develop topics suggested by the instructor or proposed by the seminar participants themselves. Formal in-class instruction will track the steps in the production of a nonfiction or documentary film, starting with pre-production planning (including multimodal research, copyright restrictions on sources, storytelling for advocacy and the writing of treatments and shooting scripts), continuing on to the rudiments of production (including creation of stock still photo gallery on Flickr and hands-on introductions to the camera, lighting and sound equipment available in the VLA Media Lab), and concluding with an introduction to post-production (including a hands-on introduction to editing and distribution). The ethical obligations of visual legal advocates will be emphasized throughout. By the end of the semester, the crews should have produced a treatment or shooting script that outlines the advocacy message of their videos, the persons to be interviewed, their expected contributions, and the supplementary images that must be captured to support the telling a visual story.

2021 Summer Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Graduate

Access & Choice in American Higher Education

Education 541
Marcus T. Wright

College enrollment is a complex process that is shaped by the economic, social and policy context, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, families, and students. The course will examine the theoretical perspectives that are used to understand college access and choice processes. The implications of various policies and practices for college access and choice will also be explored, with particular attention to the effects of these policies for underrepresented groups. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, this course is also designed to generate tangible recommendations that program administrators and institutional leaders may be used to improve college access and choice.

2021 Spring Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCS of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Case Study - Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: Community Engagement Immersion

Nursing 354
Dalmacio D Flores Marcus D Henderson Terri Lipman Monique Dowd

This case study offers students experiential learning to develop an in depth understanding of social determinants of health invulnerable, undersereved populations and to collaboratively design and refine existing health promotion programs based on the needs of the community site. Grounded on an approach that builds upon the strenths of communities, this course emphasizes the development of techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for underserved populations. Students are required to draw on skills and knowledge obtained from previous classes related to social determinants of health and community engagement and will engage in specific creative, innovative community based programs develped for populations across the life span. These culturally relevant programs, which have been shown to positively impact communities, create opportunities for students to address the social determinants of health, build engagement and leadership skills and increase program success and sustainability. Prerequisite: Completion of sophomore year nursing requirements

Case Study: Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 357
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach has the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester. Prerequiste: Completion of freshman & sophomore level courses

Civic Studio

Fine Arts 300
Paul M Farber

Civic Studio is an engaged research course that explores significant theories, methods, and practices of public and socially-engaged artwork. Students draw from arts- and place-based modes of inquiry toward collaborative projects with fellow classmates, artists, and organizations in Philadelphia and beyond, while pursuing semester-long individual projects that build on their own independent interests and pursuits. Each semester, students work with and as embedded practicioners in exhibtions, installations, research projects, and other artistic platforms throughout the city. In turn, through readings, site visits, and site-specific work, students gain creative and critical capaticy for producing their own final projects. Through Civic Studio students are able to reflect upon and practice public work with artistic, scholarly, and civic aims.

Deaf Culture

American Sign Language 078
Jami N. Fisher

This course is an advanced/conversational ASL course that explores several key topics related to Deaf Culture.  Using only ASL in class, students will read and discuss books, articles, and films related to the following topics:  What is Deaf Culture?; The History of the Deaf American; Deaf Identit(ies); Communication Debates and Language Deprivation; Technology and Deaf Culture; Deaf Art, Deaf-Space, Deaf Families, Deaf-Hearing Families.  

We will tie all of these theoretical explorations together in creating a public activity or event that centers on Deaf communities.  We focused on building community from within Penn as well as reaching out to Deaf communities in online engagement activities.

Energy Education in Philadelphia Schools

Engineering & Applied Science 242
Andrew Huemmler

Students will learn about basic residential energy efficiency measures and practices from an established community based energy organization, the Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia. Identify and understand fundamental core STEM energy concepts. Develop a short "energy efficiency" curriculum appropriate for middle or high school students. Teach three (3) sessions in a science class in the School District of Philadelphia.

Ethnographic Approaches to Urban Athletics and Human Movement

Anthropology 276
Gretchen E L Suess

Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on bridging theory and practice motivated by a commitment to social justice through original ethnographic research. In particular, this course will focus on kinesiology and the anthropology of sports and well-being through intense analysis of the Young Quakers Community Athletics (YQCA) program, a collaboration between the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Penn Athletics. In guest lecturers from multiple disciplines will help to round out the course. The core learning objective is to bring a broad range of specialized expertise to foster a holistic examination of a complex institutional partnership intended to promote positive social transformation and improved human health and well-being.

Experimental Undergraduate Course

Education 245
Brandon Matthew Copeland Brian Peterson

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week.

Freshman Seminar

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small sitting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on current course offerings http:// www.college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php.

Freshman Seminars

Sociology 041
Annette Lareau

High School Ethics Bowl

Philosophy 248
Karen Detlefsen

In this course, teams of undergraduate students, each joined by a graduate student in philosophy, will coach teams of high school students for participation in the National High School Ethics Bowl, an annual competitive yet collaborative event in which teams analyze and discuss complex ethical dilemmas. Cases for the 2019-20 Ethics Bowl will be released in September 2019, and these will serve as a foundational starting point for the undergraduate students' investigations into ethical theory and the study of the ethics bowl itself, to develop the capacities to provide coaching and mentorship to the teams of high school students from schools in West Philadelphia and across the city. Undergraduates will travel to these school as part of the course, and there will be one or two Saturday sessions when all high school convene on Penn's campus for practice scrimmages. This course will introduce the ethics bowl to many new Philadelphia School District schools and students, and it will provide Penn students with the opportunity to develop their teaching and communication skills, build collaborative relationships with community schools, and solidify their knowledge of ethical theory through coaching.

Monument Lab: Praxis Approaches to Socially-Engaged Public Art

Fine Arts 336
Paul M Farber

What makes an exceptional socially-engaged public artwork or project? For those who practice in the field, the question invites careful consideration of aesthetics, process, participation, staging, and interpretation. Across the better part of the last decade, this line of inquiry has fueled the work of Monument Lab, a public art and history studio based in Philadelphia. With deep roots and close ties to the Department of Fine Arts's Center for Public Art and Space, and methods interanimating contemporary art and pedagogy, Monument Lab works with artists, students, activists, municipal agencies, and cultural institutions on exploratory approaches to public engagement and collective memory. The Monument Lab course in Fine Arts explores the theoretical study and practical applications of public art. The course operates as a socially-engaged "civic studio" to engage case studies, debate key issues in the field, meet with artists and practitioners, conduct site and studio visits, and practice direct methods for producing individual and collaborative public projects. Focusing on the intersection of theory and practice, the praxis course highlights engaged methods piloted by Monument Lab in citywide exhibitions and special projects, especially to focus on themes and models for participation, public engagement, co-creation, curation, temporary installation, and socially engaged art-making. Each student will embark on a semester-long independent project, as well as participate in a group initiative centered on a current Monument Lab project in Philadelphia to gain experience in the field of socially-engaged public art.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Philosophy of Education

Philosophy 249
Karen Detlefsen

We sometimes see philosophy as an inaccessible subject and the philosopher a solitary academic musing about abstract concepts from her office chair. However, philosophical thinking lies at the heart of many aspects of human life. Anyone who has pondered over questions regarding goodness, value, personal identity, justice, how to live well, or how to determine the right course of action has thought philosophically. These issues are of great interest and importance not just to adults, but also to children and teenagers. Introducing younger students to philosophical thought consists, in part, of showing them the ways in which they are already thinking philosophically. In this course, we will study a variety of topics in philosophy with the aim of developing curricula and lesson plans for delivery in middle school (6th through 8th grades). Course participants will work with the instructor and with help from a curricular planner from Penn s Graduate School of Education to develop a series of one-hour lessons in philosophy, which participants will then teach to the middle school students in a local school. Part of the course will be held on Penn s campus, and part of the course will be held on-site with one of our partner schools. This course is an Academically Based Community Service course. Registration in this class requires a permit, following an interview with the instructor.

Selected Topics in Political Science

Political Science 498
Marc N. Meredith

Consult department for detailed descriptions. Recent topics include: Globalization; Race & Criminal Justice; Democracy & Markets in Postcommunist Europe.

Social Impact and Responsibility: Foundations

Legal Studies & Business Ethics 230
Djordjija Petkoski

What role can business play in helping to meet global societal needs, whether it involves the environment, improving health, expanding education or eradicating poverty? Is there any responsibility on the part of business to help meet those needs? What are models of successful business engagement in this area? How should success be measured? Are there limits to what businesses can and should do, and what institutional changes will enable businesses and entrepreneurs to better succeed? This survey course provides students the opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of these and other questions that lie at the foundation of social impact and responsibility as an area of study. The course involves case studies, conceptual issues, and talks by practitioners. The course is designed to help students develop a framework to address the question: How should business enterprises and business thinking be engaged to improve society in areas not always associated with business? The course is required for the secondary concentration in Social Impact and Responsibility

The Art of Speaking

College 135
Elizabeth Sue Weber

This course is designed to equip students with the major tenets of rhetorical studies and peer education necessary to work as a CWiC speaking advisor. 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 presentations, students present workshops and practice advising. During this ABCS course, students will practice their advising skills by coaching and mentoring students at a public school in Philadelphia. Prerequisite: Students need to apply and are interviewed by the instructor and Associate Director of CWiC.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Tutoring School: Theory and Practice

Education 323 Urban Studies 323
Aliya A Bradley

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

Urban Education

Education 202
Andrew J Schiera
Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Wharton Field Challenge FLCP

Management 353
Keith W Weigelt

Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of a student? Do you want to set kids on a path to becoming financially literate? Do you want to learn leadership skills in the classroom? Here at the Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP) we are able to create an experience that achieves all three. We partner with various public schools around the West Philadelphia area and teach concepts integral to financial literacy. We teach a wide range of grades from middle school to high school, and work with students to help them learn how to be financially responsible. In addition to teaching in neighboring high schools, we also have group class meetings run by Professor Keith Weigelt on Mondays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM. We learn about the disparity of wealth and how to best address it while also learning teaching techniques, classroom strategies, and overall basic financial literacy. A basic understanding of personal financial literacy is required.

Writing Center Theory & Practice

English 138 Writing Program 138
Valerie Ross

WRIT 138 401: This course is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity and temperament to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. WRIT 138 402: ABCS course. Along with a study of theories, strategies, and methods for teaching and tutoring writing in diverse communities, this course will also interrogate our own social locations and the ways we engage with the realities of teaching and learning. To enable this, this course will provide opportunities for community engagement and reflection beyond the walls of our classroom by working with nearby high school students to prepare them for college-level writing. In addition to fieldwork, students will read and discuss key texts on community-engaged writing instruction, keep a weekly reflection and reading response journal, and engage in a scaffolded semester-long research project on community-engaged writing theory and practice.

Graduate

Advanced Leadership Skills in Community Health

Nursing 587
Walter H Tsou Heather Klusaritz

Grounded in a social justice perspective, this course aims to provide the student with a foundational overview of the field of community health and leadership skills in public health advocacy. The course encourages critical thinking about health outcomes framed by the broad context of the political and social environment. This course analyzes the range of roles and functions carried out by leaders in healthcare advocacy for marginalized communities; integrates knowledge of health policy and the key influence of government and financing on health outcomes; explores community-based participatory research and interventions as tools for change; and discusses ways to develop respectful partnerships with community organizations. An assets-based approach that draws upon the strengths of communities and their leaders provides a foundation for community-engagement skill building. The course emphasizes the development of skills and techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for disenfranchised groups, including residents of urban neighborhoods. Prerequisite: Undergraduates with permission of the instructor

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Jennifer R Nagda Kara R Finck

Civic Studio

Fine Arts 500
Paul M Farber

Civic Studio is an engaged research course that explores significant theories, methods, and practices of public and socially-engaged artwork. Students draw from arts- and place-based modes of inquiry toward collaborative projects with fellow classmates, artists, and organizations in Philadelphia and beyond, while pursuing semester-long individual projects that build on their own independent interests and pursuits. Each semester, students work with and as embedded practicioners in exhibtions, installations, research projects, and other artistic platforms throughout the city. In turn, through readings, site visits, and site-specific work, students gain creative and critical capaticy for producing their own final projects. Through Civic Studio students are able to reflect upon and practice public work with artistic, scholarly, and civic aims.

Developmental Theories & Applications with Children

Education 580
Instructor TBD

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to consider mandates, models, and methods related to enhancing the learning and development of preschool and early elementary school children. This course emphasizes the application of developmental psychology and multicultural perspectives to the design of effective classroom-based strategies. Students will consider a "whole-child" approach to understanding children's classroom behavior in context. Major assignments will involve gathering and synthesizing information about children in routine classroom situations. This information will be used to better understand children's needs and strengths and how they are manifested in transaction with classroom contexts. Students will focus on one or more students to conduct a comprehensive child study of the child in context. This contact must include opportunities to observe children in a natural setting and interact with them on a regular basis through out the semester. The placement needs to be approved by the professor. If students do not have a regular classroom contact, one will be arranged.

Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Ethnographic Filmmaking

Education 586
Amitanshu Das

This ethnographic methodology course considers filmmaking/videography as a tool in conducting ethnographic research as well as a medium for presenting academic research to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. The course engages the methodological and theoretical implications of capturing data and crafting social scientific accounts/narratives in images and sounds. Students are required to put theory into practice by conducting ethnographic research and producing an ethnographic film as their final project. In service to that goal, students will read about ethnography (as a social scientific method and representational genre), learn and utilize ethnographic methods in fieldwork, watch non-fiction films (to be analyzed for formal properties and implicit assumptions about culture/sociality), and acquire rigorous training in the skills and craft of digital video production. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. Due to the time needed for ethnographic film production, this is a year-long course, which will meet periodically in both the fall and spring semesters.

Health Education for Incarcerated Women

Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 555 Nursing 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphia jail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 573
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach with the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester.

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Education 598
Stephen R Kocher

This ABCS course explores religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue and action on college campuses. It brings together students with diverse faith commitments (including atheism) to engage with and learn from one another in academic study, dialogue, and service.

Men and Incarceration

Nursing 556
Instructor TBD

Students in this course will develop and implement health and wellbeing education programming for incarcerated men in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. Most of the classroom time is in the Philadelphia Prison interacting with male inmates. Evidence suggests improved self-regulation may enhance other therapeutic methodologies consequently reducing the frequency of reoffending. Students will explore the social and legal trends driving the incarceration of urban men and the resulting health and wellbeing needs of this population. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and male inmates.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. Prerequisite: Undergraduate by permission of instructor This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Pediatric Acute Care NP: Professional Role and Intermediate Clinical Practice

Nursing 735
Jessica A Strohm Farber Megan M Levy

This course focuses on the implementation of the professional role of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (PNP-AC). Particular emphasis is placed on the role components of the nurse practitioner in pediatric acute care. Applications of nursing, biological and behavioral science are emphasized in the advanced clinical assessment, clinical decision making and management skills needed to care for complex, unstable acutely and chronically ill children and their families. The role of the advanced practice nurse in promoting optimal child/family outcomes is emphasized.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Visual Legal Advocacy

Law Law-979
Regina Austin

Visual Legal Advocacy introduces students to the art of making short nonfiction
social justice advocacy films in collaboration with pro bono public interest
lawyers, grassroots groups, activists/organizers, and individual claimants.
Participants are divided into several production crews that work on a project of
their own choice. The course tracks the steps in the production of a nonfiction or
documentary film. It starts with pre-production planning (including choosing a
topic, identifying persons with lived experience and expertise in the subject
matter, locating visual evidence, contributing to a DIY stock photography gallery,
writing treatments and shooting scripts, and scheduling shoots), and an
introduction to the technology available in the Docs&theLaw Media Lab (including
cameras, lights, sound equipment, and editing software). The students undertake
production with the assistance of a facilitator/lecturer who is a practicing
cinematographer. The Seminar concludes with post-production (working with
transcripts, drafting paper edits, pulling together a compilation cut, producing a
rough cut, and vetting the video with collaborators).

2020 Fall Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCS of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Air Pollution: Sources & Effects in Urban Environments

Environmental Studies 411
Maria-Antonia Andrews

This is an ABCS course designed to provide the student with an understanding of air pollution at the local, regional and global levels. The nature, composition, and properties of air pollutants in the atmosphere will also be studied. The course will focus on Philadelphia's air quality and how air pollutants have an adverse effect on the health of the residents. The recent designation by IARC of Air Pollution as a known carcinogen will be explored. How the community is exposed to air pollutants with consideration of vulnerable populations will be considered. Through a partnership with Philadelphia Air Management Service (AMS) agency the science of air monitoring and trends over time will be explored. Philadelphia's current non-attainment status for PM2.5. and ozone will be studied. Philadelphia's current initiatives to improvethe air quality of the city will be discussed. Students will learn to measure PM2.5 in outdoor and indoor settings and develop community-based outreach tools to effectively inform the community of Philadelphia regarding air pollution. The outreach tools developed by students may be presentations, written materials, apps, websites or other strategies for enhancing environmental health literacy of the community. A project based approach will be used to include student monitoring of area schools, school bus routes, and the community at large. The data collected will be presented to students in the partner elementary school in West Philadelphia . Upon completion of this course, students should expect to have attained a broad understanding of and familiarity with the sources, fate, and the environmental impacts and health effects of air pollutants.

Applying Anthropology Methods in Policy and Practice

Anthropology 337
Puneet Sahota

This course will introduce students to applied anthropology methods for doing research that can change policy and practices. Examples of policy and practice change include clinical practices in health care settings, social welfare policy, and legal advocacy. Students will be trained in multiple anthropology research methods, including brief participant-observation, presentation of self in the field, entering the field in diverse cultural environments, qualitative interviewing, life story interviewing, and ethnographic content analysis of textual material. Students will also learn how to use NVivo software for analyzing qualitative and some quantitative data from their field notes, interviews, and analysis of popular articles/websites. Finally, students will practice writing products for non-academic audiences, such as policymakers, the media, and the general public. The course will emphasize using anthropology research methods to address real-world problems in policy and practice in diverse cultural contexts. This course is a service learning class affiliated with the Netter Center and a Benjamin Franklin Scholars course.

Arts and Well-Being

Music 016
Carol Ann Muller

Fall 2020 is going to be a moment characterized by great excitement about starting to study at Penn; it could also be a time of uncertainty and perhaps even anxiety as your freshman year is happening in the context of a global pandemic. The usual events of high school graduation and summer vacation just didn’t happen as we thought they would or should. Some students may have lost a friend, neighbor or family member in the last several months: most have had to learn new ways of being that are often unpredictable, experimental, and have included quarantine and physical distancing. The purpose of this seminar is to respond to the challenges of this moment by introducing students to several strategies that promote individual wellbeing, and help each person create a sense of community through what they learn and share in the seminar context listening to each other. These include readings and viewing materials on the science behind mindfulness and wellbeing; literature on how one creates a sense of belonging and community by remembering home, inventing new rituals and practices on campus, engaging creatively, becoming an improviser, and learning to listen: through personal music listening, hearing other people’s stories and experiences, and by deep listening, tuning into one’s own inner life. We will hear via zoom from 3-4 musicians/visual artists in the semester who have used sound/art as creative/improvisational responses to the challenges of Covid-19.

ASL/Deaf Studies - ABCS

Linguistics 077 American Sign Language 077
Jami N. Fisher

For this course, students will attend Pennsylvania School for the Deaf on a weekly basis where they will participate in and contribute to the school community via tutoring or other mutually agreeable activities. Students will also have formal class on a weekly basis with discussions and activities centering on reflection of community experiences through linguistic as well as cultural lenses. Additionally, drawing from the required Linguistics and other ASL/Deaf Studies coursework, students will develop an inquiry question and conduct preliminary community-based research to analyze sociolinguistic variations of ASL and Deaf cultural attitudes, behaviors, and norms. Ongoing reflections and discussions-formal and informal-on Deaf cultural/theoretical topics drawing from readings as well as community experiences will be integral to the course experience. LING 078, Topics in Deaf Culture and permission from the instructor, are required for this course. Anyone considering taking this course should contact the ASL Program Coordinator early in the semester prior to enrollment (Spring) to ensure adequate time to obtain clearances and appropriate placement. Prerequisite: If course requirement not met, permission of instructor required. Participation in this class requires students to have in place the mandatory clearances for working in schools before the semester starts. Studens should also be in contact with the department during the advanced registration period in order to secure a placement in the community. Prerequisite: Anyone considering taking this course should contact the ASL Program Coordinator early in the semester prior to enrollment (Spring) to ensure adequate time to obtain clearances and appropriate placement. Participation in this class requires students to have in place the mandatory clearances for working in schools before the semester starts. Students should also be in contact with the department during the advanced registration period in order to secure a placement in the community.

Case Study: Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 357
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach has the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester. Prerequiste: Completion of freshman & sophomore level courses

Case Study: Self-Care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara Riegel

Self-care is done by lay people to prevent or manage chronic illness. In this case study, we will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting self-care. Fieldwork experiences are designed to provide practical experience in engaging well individuals in preventing illness and helping chronically ill perform self-care.

Community Math Teaching Project

Mathematics 123
Mona B Merling

MATH 123 is an academically-based community service (ABCS) course which provides the opportunity to Penn students to develop effective methods for teaching and understanding, to enhance their math communication skills, and to share their passion for math by teaching fundamental concepts to students in one of our partnership schools. At the same time, the course aims to academically engage local high school students, sharpen their math skills while getting them excited about the subject, and ultimately promote their interest in STEM. This semester we will be working together with Paul Robeson High School in West Philadelphia.

Community Physics Initiative

Physics 137
Peter Harnish Philip C Nelson

This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS). It will be aligned to the Philadelphia School District curriculum in introductory physics at University City High School (UCHS). The UCHS curriculum roughly parallels the contents of first semester introductory physics (non-calculus) at Penn.

Diplomacy in the Americas - The Penn Model OAS Program

Latin American & Latino Studies 328 Political Science 328
Catherine E.M. Bartch

"Diplomacy in the Americas" an academically based community service course in which students work with Philadelphia and Norristown public school students to explore solutions to critical problems facing the Americas. Entrenched political, economic, and social inequality, combined with environmental degradation, weak institutions, pervasive health epidemics, weapon proliferation, and other issues pose formidable hurdles for strengthening democratic ideals and institutions. The Organization of the American States (OAS), the world's oldest regional organization, is uniquely poised to confront these challenges. "Diplomacy in the Americas" guides students through the process of writing policy resolutions as though the students were Organization of the American States (OAS) diplomats, basing their research and proposals on democracy, development, security, and human rights - the four pillars of the OAS. Students will also read literature about what it means to educate for a democracy and global citizenry, and they will have the opportunity to turn theory into practice by creating and executing curriculum to teach and mentor the high school students through interactive and experiential pedagogies.

Education in American Culture

Education 240
Charles Adams

This course explores the relationships between forms of cultural production and transmission (schooling, family and community socialization, peer group subcultures and media representations) and relations of inequality in American society. Working with a broad definition of "education" as varied forms of social learning, we will concentrate particularly on the cultural processes that produce as well as potentially transform class, race, ethnic and gender differences and identities. From this vantage point, we will then consider the role that schools can and/or should play in challenging inequalities in America.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week.

Histories of Race and Science in Philadelphia

Anthropology 140 History 154 Africana Studies 141 Science, Technology & Society 140
Paul J Mitchell

The history of race and science has its American epicenter in Philadelphia. Throughout this Academically-Based Community Service (ABCS) course, we will interrogate the past and legacy of racial science in the United States; the broad themes we broach will be met concretely in direct engagement with Penn and the Philadelphia community. As an extended case study, students will undertake independent research projects using primary source documents from local archives, tracing the global history of hundreds of human skulls in the 19th century Samuel G. Morton cranial collection at the Penn Museum, a foundational and controversial anthropological collection in the scientific study of race. These projects will be formed through an ongoing partnership with a Philadelphia high school in which Penn students will collaborate with high school students on the research and design of a public-facing website on the Morton collection and the legacy of race and science in America. In our seminar, we will read foundational texts on the study of racial difference and discuss anti-racist responses and resistance to racial science from the 19th century to the present. Throughout, we will work directly with both primary and secondary sources, critically interrogating how both science and histories of science and its impacts on society are constructed. Throughout this course, we will explore interrelated questions about Penn and Philadelphia's outsize role in the history of racial science, about decolonization and ethics in scholarly and scientific practice, about the politics of knowledge and public-facing scholarship, and about enduring legacies of racial science and racial ideologies. All students are welcome and there are no prerequisites, save for intellectual curiosity and commitment to the course. This course will be of particular interest to those interested in race, American history and the history of science, anthropology, museum studies, education, and social justice.

Latinx Communities and the Role of CBO's in Social Change

Latin American & Latino Studies 424 Sociology 424
Johnny Irizarry

The purpose of this course to create a Latino Studies/Service Learning ABCS course that cultivates dialogue and knowledge about the social, political, cultural and historical complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States (Philadelphia in particular) and the roles Latinx CBO's play in meeting the needs of Latinx communities and in impacting social change.

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean McGlone

Music in Urban Spaces is a year-long experience that explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read the work of musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, sociologists and educators who work to define urban space and the role of music and sound in urban environments, including through music education. While the readings make up our study of the sociology of urban space and the way we use music in everyday life to inform our conversations and the questions we ask, it is within the context of our personal experiences working with music programs in public neighborhood schools serving economically disadvantaged students, that we will begin to formulate our theories of the contested musical micro-cultures of West Philadelphia. This course is over two-semesters where students register for .5 cus each term (for a total of 1 cu over the entire academic year) and is tied to the Music and Social Change Residential Program in Fisher Hassenfeld College House which will sponsor field trips around the city, if possible. While the future of education for this coming year remains unknown, we will volunteer with music and schools in West Philadelphia virtually and in-person as we are able. The course typically concludes with a community concert and as social distancing allows we will ensure multiple points of community connection through shared music, video, presentations, and concerts.

Nursing in the Community

Nursing 380
Steven Meanley Bridgette Brawner

This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community's strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.

Nutrition Throughout The Life Cycle

Nursing 375
Monique Dowd

Understanding and meeting nutritional needs from conception through adulthood will be addressed. Nutrition-related concerns at each stage of the lifecycle, including impact of lifestyle, education, economics and food behavior will be explored.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Performance in the African Diaspora

Africana Studies 325 English 380
Suzana Berger Herman Beavers

The purpose of this course is to engage students in the rigorous process of mining experiences for material that can be transformed into a public performance piece. In-class writing, group discussions, and field work in the Philadelphia area. AUGUST WILSON AND BEYOND. The people need to know the story. See how they fit into it. See what part they play. - August Wilson, King Hedley II. In this seminar, students will read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traumas, triumphs, and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Other readings include supporting material on Wilson's work and African American theatre, the works of contemporary playwrights whom Wilson has influenced (such as Suzan-Lori Parks and Tarell Alvin McCraney), and context on Penn's relationship with West Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course,this seminar gives students the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the plays, and history and culture that shaped them, by forming meaningful relationships with West Philadelphia residents. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the two groups. The course culminates with students writing an original theatre piece inspired by the readings and relationships, which they will share at an end-of-semester performance.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Role of Water in Urban Sustainability and Resiliency

Environmental Studies 410
Howard Mark Neukrug

This course will provide an overview of the cross-disciplinary fields of civil engineering, environmental sciences, urban hydrology, landscape architecture, green building, public outreach and politics. Students will be expected to conduct field investigations, review scientific data and create indicator reports, working with stakeholders and presenting the results at an annual symposium. There is no metaphor like water itself to describe the cumulative effects of our practices, with every upstream action having an impact downstream. In our urban environment, too often we find degraded streams filled with trash, silt, weeds and dilapidated structures. The water may look clean, but is it? We blame others, but the condition of the creeks is directly related to how we manage our water resources and our land. In cities, these resources are often our homes, our streets and our communities. This course will define the current issues of the urban ecosystem and how we move toward managing this system in a sustainable manner. We will gain an understanding of the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between practices in an watershed and its waterfront. Topics discussed include: drinking water quality and protection, green infrastructure, urban impacts of climate change, watershed monitoring, public education, creating strategies and more.

Tutoring in Urban Public Elementary Schools: A Child Development Perspective

Education 326 Urban Studies 326
John W Fantuzzo

The course provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in academically based community service learning. 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. 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.

Urban Education

Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper
Education 202
Instructor TBD

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Urban Environments: Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia

Environmental Studies 404
Richard Pepino

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards. In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

Wharton Field Challenge: Financial Literacy Community Project

Management 353
Keith Weigelt

Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of a student? Do you want to set kids on a path to becoming financially literate? Do you want to learn leadership skills in the classroom? Here at the Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP) we are able to create an experience that achieves all three. We partner with various public schools around the West Philadelphia area and teach concepts integral to financial literacy. We teach a wide range of grades from middle school to high school, and work with students to help them learn how to be financially responsible. In addition to teaching in neighboring high schools, we also have group class meetings run by Professor Keith Weigelt on Mondays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM. We learn about the disparity of wealth and how to best address it while also learning teaching techniques, classroom strategies, and overall basic financial literacy. A basic understanding of personal financial literacy is required.

Writing and Politics

English 124 Africana Studies 124
Lorene E Cary

This is a course for students who are looking for ways to use their writing to participate in the 2020 election. Student writers will use many forms--short essay, blogs, social media posts, mini video- or play scripts, podcasts--and consider lots of topics as they publish work, in real time, with #VoteThatJawn. This multi-media platform popped up in 2018 to support youth registration and voting in Philadelphia's 2018 mid-term elections. Registration of 18-year-olds that year doubled: from 3,300 to nearly 7,000. This year university, high school, and media partners across the city aim to hit 10K. Imagine that. Imagine a Creative Writing class that answers our desire to live responsibly in the world and to have a say in the systems that govern and structure us. Plus learning to write with greater clarity, precision, and whatever special-sauce Jawn your voice brings. The course is designed as an editorial group sharing excellent, non-partisan, fun, cool, sometimes deadly earnest content for and about fresh voters. In addition, you will gain experience in activities that writers in all disciplines need to know: producing an arts-based event, a social media campaign, working with multi-media content, and collaborating with other artists. English 124 will sometimes work directly with diverse populations of youth from other colleges and high schools throughout the city. Because you will engage with a common reading program about the ground-breaking Voting Rights Act of 1965, the class is cross-listed with Africana Studies 124. In addition, the work of #VoteThatJawn performs a civic service; therefore it is listed as an an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course with the university. Don't sit out this momentous electoral season because you have so much work. Use your work to bring other youth to the polls.

Writing Center Theory & Practice

English 138 Writing Program 138
Valerie Ross

WRIT 138 401: This course is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity and temperament to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. WRIT 138 402: ABCS course. Along with a study of theories, strategies, and methods for teaching and tutoring writing in diverse communities, this course will also interrogate our own social locations and the ways we engage with the realities of teaching and learning. To enable this, this course will provide opportunities for community engagement and reflection beyond the walls of our classroom by working with nearby high school students to prepare them for college-level writing. In addition to fieldwork, students will read and discuss key texts on community-engaged writing instruction, keep a weekly reflection and reading response journal, and engage in a scaffolded semester-long research project on community-engaged writing theory and practice.

Graduate

Advanced Physical Assessment and Clinical Decision Making: Nursing of Children Clinical I

Nursing 721
Loretta C Reilly Sura Lee

This clinical course is designed to help prospective advanced practice nurses develop advanced skills in physical and developmental assessment of children in a variety of well-child, clinic and hospital settings. Data collection, data interpretation, and hypothesis formulations are emphasized for the purpose of clinical decision making. The role of the advanced practice nurse in assessment of primary health care issues and health promotion is incorporated throughout the course. Collaboration as an integral part of assessment will be an ongoing focus.

Anthropology and Praxis

Anthropology 518
Gretchen E L Suess

This course focuses on real world community problems, engaged scholarship, and the evaluation of actively-running Penn programs intended to improve social conditions in West Philadelphia. Two trends emerge in public interest social science that students will explore through research and evaluation: 1.) mergingproblem solving with theory and analysis in the interest of change motivated bya commitment to social justice, racial harmony, equality, and human rights; and 2.) engaging in public debate on human issues to make the research results accessible to a broad audience. As part of the course, students will learn the foundations of anthropology, social theory, and evaluation as they work with qualitative and quantitative data while conducting an evaluation based on community and partner need. Students will gain direct experience conducting evaluation research as a collaborative process and have an opportunity to engage in academically-based community service with a focus on social change.

Behavioral Science I: Health Promotions

Dental - Community Oral Health 550
Joan Gluch

Lectures, seminars, clinical sessions and community field experiences are provided so that students gain the necessary knowledge and skills in oral health promotion and disease prevention activities related to caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer. Focus is placed on assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of strategies designed to target the individual patient, the community and a population perspective. Course topics include discussion of the philosophy, modalities, rationale and evaluation of health promotion and disease preventive activities related to caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer. Focus is placed on assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of strategies designed to target the individual patient, the community and a population perspective. Course includes an introduction to evidence based care and research principles in application to critique of current dental literature.

Behavioral Science II: Local and Global Public Health

Dental - Community Oral Health 650
Joan Gluch

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.

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Jennifer R Nagda Kara R Finck

Community Oral Health IX: Practicum in Community Health Promotion II

Dental - Community Oral Health 812
Joan Gluch

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. Students attend small group seminars to discuss their experiences and theoretical underpinnings of community oral health activities.

Discursive Approaches in Intercultural Communication

Education 676
Betsy R Rymes

This course offers a discourse-based approach and hands-on introduction to the field of intercultural communication, from the micro-level of interpersonal interaction to the macro-level of institutional practice. Through a series of readings and service learning projects in multicultural settings, students will hone their observational and analytic abilities, while gaining an appreciation of and facility for participating in the communicative diversity around them. Topics will include a repertoire approach to examining language in use, interpretation and metacommentary, and the possibility of intervention to facilitate new communicative patterns.

Ethnographic Filmmaking

Anthropology 583 Education 586
Amitanshu Das

This ethnographic methodology course considers filmmaking/videography as a tool in conducting ethnographic research as well as a medium for presenting academic research to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. The course engages the methodological and theoretical implications of capturing data and crafting social scientific accounts/narratives in images and sounds. Students are required to put theory into practice by conducting ethnographic research and producing an ethnographic film as their final project. In service to that goal, students will read about ethnography (as a social scientific method and representational genre), learn and utilize ethnographic methods in fieldwork, watch non-fiction films (to be analyzed for formal properties and implicit assumptions about culture/sociality), and acquire rigorous training in the skills and craft of digital video production. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. Due to the time needed for ethnographic film production, this is a year-long course, which will meet periodically in both the fall and spring semesters.

Health Education for Incarcerated Women

Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 555 Nursing 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphia jail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

Health Messaging in Africa: Public Performance and Community Health Education

Public Health Studies 584
Jasmine Blanks Jones

Health Messaging in Africa: Public Performance as Participatory Action Research. This course asks, What about performance offers a unique opportunity to learn from and with communities? How might dramatic performance be used to share information while learning from an audience? This course examines the work and research of young artists from Liberia, West Africa who used street theatre to teach best practices for prevention during the Ebola crisis and considers how their use of dialogical performance contributed to critical knowledge which iteratively informed interventions throughout their awareness campaign. The visiting artists will share their firsthand experiences and guide the class through use of their playwriting model for community change. Students will design public performance projects around local-global community-based concerns using the tools they have learned. Students may choose from a variety of local organizations dedicated to serving immigrant communities and local communities of color in Philadelphia to develop performance-based public health messaging informed by a communications for development approach. Public health researchers who are looking for innovative ways to share their data will gain insights into this experimental ethnographic method and practitioners who want to offer their communities ways to connect best practices to lived experience will develop new pedagogical tools.

Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 573
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach with the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester.

Multicultural Issues in Education

Education 723 Africana Studies 723
Vivian Lynette Gadsden

This course examines critical issues, problems, and perspectives in multicultural education. Intended to focus on access to literacy and educational opportunity, the course will engage class members in discussions around a variety of topics in educational practice, research, and policy. Specifically, the course will (1) review theoretical frameworks in multicultural education, (2) analyze the issues of race, racism, and culture in historical and contemporary perspective, and (3) identify obstacles to participation in the educational process by diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Students will be required to complete field experiences and classroom activities that enable them to reflect on their own belief systems, practices, and educational experiences.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. Prerequisite: Undergraduate by permission of instructor This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Practicum in Community Health Promotion I

Dental - Community Oral Health 712
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.

Teaching Writing in Multilingual Contexts

Education 516
Anne Pomerantz

This course introduces participants to a range of theoretical and practical issues related to second language literacy development, with a particular emphasis on writing instruction. An intensive service-learning project offers course participants the opportunity to work with developing writers in a bilingual community organization. The dual emphasis on theory and pedagogy is intended to create space for critical reflection on the characteristics, production, teaching, and assessment of written texts in bi/multilingual educational settings.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Transport Justice

City Planning 551
Joshua Harrington Davidson

This course will explore the concept of transport justice and how this idea can inform changes to public transit infrastructure. The first half of the course will set theoretical foundations through close reading and discussion of spatial and social justice theories, emphasizing questions of transportation and mobility. The second half of the course will feature a project-based application of these theories. Students will develop analyses to inform a proposed extension to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's (SEPTA) bus Route 52, which serves a corridor between the Kingsessing and Overbrook sections of West Philadelphia. Students will be encouraged to explore multiple analytic approaches including: interviews and qualitative data collection; GIS and spatial analysis; quantitative analysis and predictive modeling, and more. The course will culminate in written and oral presentations given to partners from SEPTA and other planning agencies in Philadelphia.

Visual Legal Advocacy

Law 979
Regina Austin

Visual Legal Advocacy allows students to make short nonfiction social justice advocacy films through collaborations with pro bono public interest organizations, grassroots groups, activists, and individual claimants. Instruction typically tracks the steps in the production of a nonfiction or documentary film, starting with pre-production planning (including choosing a topic, identifying persons with lived experience and expertise in the subject matter, locating visual evidence, contributing to a DIY stock photography gallery, writing treatments and shooting scripts, and scheduling shoots), going on to an introduction to the technology available in the Docs&theLaw Media Lab (including cameras, lights, sound equipment, and editing software) and production undertaken with the assistance of a facilitator/lecturer who is a practicing cinematographer, and concluding with post-production (working with transcripts, drafting paper edits, pulling together a compilation cut, and producing a rough cut). Participants are divided into working groups or crews that are responsible for the production of a short work of legal advocacy. COVID-19 has increased social injustice in the country and restricted our ability to capture it with cameras. During September and October, seminar participants will likely be working with the facilitators to record interviews, and safely capture images relevant to several topics the instructor has identified and others suggested by seminar participants. 

2020 Spring Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCS of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Academically Based Community Service-Chemistry Outreach

Chemistry 010
Jenine R. Maeyer

CHEM 010 is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for science, specifically chemistry, with students in grades 6-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. In this course, undergraduates will create and facilitate chemistry outreach experiments in Penn’s general chemistry labs, as well as prepare and implement effective chemical demonstrations and hands-on activities in local public school classrooms. CHEM010 will allow undergraduates to develop science communication and teaching skills applicable to all facets of their education and future careers.

Advanced Writing for Children

Africana Studies 123 English 123
Lorene E Cary

Advanced Writing for Children is a response to our fast-and-faster learning culture. We ll take the term to write and re-write several fiction and non-fiction pieces for children or teens. Let s call it Slow Write, like the Slow Food movement. The idea is to take time to write better, deeper, more beautifully, funnier, to respect stories and how you choose and render them. Using community among ourselves and with select partners outside the university we will work to help you harness various intelligences to figure out the stories you need to write. Trips and collaborations will refresh and surprise. You ll be writing, but also taking time: to remember, sketch, connect with others, research, meditate, assess, develop, discard. Slow writing respects difference. Some of us need to get honest, others to pull back; some to learn fluency and others restraint. Most of us need support to work harder, but as Thomas Wolfe defined it for artists: an integrity of purpose, a spiritual intensity, and a fine expenditure of energy that most people have no conception of. When stories are ready, you will be invited to submit them to SafeKidsStories.com, because as Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lungren has said: Children perform miracles when they read. On the side, for funsies, and to assuage the must-write fast urge, you will also write bits and blogs.

Case Study - Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: Community Engagement Immersion

Nursing 354
Dalmacio D Flores Terri Lipman Monique Dowd

This case study offers students experiential learning to develop an in depth understanding of social determinants of health invulnerable, undersereved populations and to collaboratively design and refine existing health promotion programs based on the needs of the community site. Grounded on an approach that builds upon the strenths of communities, this course emphasizes the development of techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for underserved populations. Students are required to draw on skills and knowledge obtained from previous classes related to social determinants of health and community engagement and will engage in specific creative, innovative community based programs develped for populations across the life span. These culturally relevant programs, which have been shown to positively impact communities, create opportunities for students to address the social determinants of health, build engagement and leadership skills and increase program success and sustainability. Prerequisite: Completion of sophomore year nursing requirements

Civic Studio

Fine Arts 300
Paul M. Farber

Civic Studio is an engaged research course that explores significant theories, methods, and practices of public and socially-engaged artwork. Students draw from arts- and place-based modes of inquiry toward collaborative projects with fellow classmates, artists, and organizations in Philadelphia and beyond, while pursuing semester-long individual projects that build on their own independent interests and pursuits. Each semester, students work with and as embedded practicioners in exhibtions, installations, research projects, and other artistic platforms throughout the city. In turn, through readings, site visits, and site-specific work, students gain creative and critical capaticy for producing their own final projects. Through Civic Studio students are able to reflect upon and practice public work with artistic, scholarly, and civic aims.

Community Based Environmental Health

Environmental Studies 406
Marilyn Howarth

From the fall of the Roman Empire to Love Canal to the epidemics of asthma, childhood obesity and lead poisoning in West Philadelphia, the impact of the environment on health has been a continuous challenge to society. The environment can affect people's health more strongly than biological factors, medical care and lifestyle. The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the neighborhood we live in are all components of the environment that impact our health. Some estimates, based on morbidity and mortality statistics, indicate that the impact of the environment on health is as high as 80%. These impacts are particularly significant in urban areas like West Philadelphia. 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 examine not only the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects on human health of lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the built environment. Topics include cancer clusters, water borne diseases, radon and lung cancer, lead poisoning, environmental tobacco smoke, respiratory diseases and obesity. Students will research the health impacts of 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, and Environmental Education issues as they discuss approaches to mitigating environmental health risks.

Community Math Teaching Project

Mathematics 123
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. 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. The first class meeting of each week, Penn faculty teach Penn students 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 UCHS students. The Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own activity and to implement it with the UCHS students.

Community-Engaged Writing Theory & Fieldwork

Writing Program 138
Valerie Ross

Along with a study of theories, strategies, and methods for teaching and tutoring writing in diverse communities, this course will also interrogate our own social locations and the ways we engage with the realities of teaching and learning. To enable this, this course will provide opportunities for community engagement and reflection beyond the walls of our classroom by working with nearby high school students to prepare them for college-level writing. Please note that 8 of our weekly classes will be held at Robeson High School (4125 Ludlow School, Philadelphia, PA 19104). In addition to fieldwork, students will read and discuss key texts on community-engaged writing instruction, keep a weekly reflection and reading response journal, and engage in a scaffolded semester-long research project on community-engaged writing theory and practice.

Prerequisite(s): Satisfactory completion of the critical writing seminar

Deaf Culture

Linguistics 078
Jami N. Fisher

This course is an advanced/conversational ASL course that explores several key topics related to Deaf Culture. Using only ASL in class, students will read and discuss books, articles, and films related to the following topics: Deaf History, Deaf Identity, Deafness as Asset, Communication Issues and Pathological Perspectives on Deafness, Deafness and Education, Deaf/Hearing Family Dynamics. Language growth will stem from direct instruction as well as through the course of class conversation. Students will collaborate with the instructor and our Deaf community liaison to develop and host an event that is accessible to both Deaf and hearing people alike.

Energy Education in Philadelphia Schools

Engineering & Applied Science 242
Andrew Huemmler

Students will learn about basic residential energy efficiency measures and practices from an established community based energy organization, the Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia. Identify and understand fundamental core STEM energy concepts. Develop a short "energy efficiency" curriculum appropriate for middle or high school students. Teach three (3) sessions in a science class in the School District of Philadelphia.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

One of the goals of this seminar is to help students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Research teams help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as the improvement of university-community relations. Among other responsibilities, students focus their community service on college and career readiness at West Philadelphia High School and Sayre High School. Students are typically engaged in academically based community service learning at the schools for two hours each week.

Inequity and Empowerment: Urban Financial Literacy

Urban Studies 140
Brian Peterson

A central premise of the "American Dream" is economic freedom, implying opportunity, security, and in the minds of many, wealth. The statistical and experimental reality, vividly evidence throughout the nation's urban cities, is a staggering inequitable distribution of resources and growing economic instability for scores of households, including those identified as middle class. Educational policy makers and organizations working to address national poverty often rally that "destiny shouldn't be defined by one's zip code," yet, due to numerous factors, it is remarkably difficult for this not to be case. Place matters. Through an analysis of ethnographic texts, policy reports, academic studies, and popular media pieces, URBS 140 will help students explore the hidden factors that have formed and sustain inequity in American cities. By studying the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of policy decisions and practices such as discriminatory housing, predatory lending, unbanking, and deindustrialization, and contextualizing the vast (and growing) wealth gaps in America and the critical importance of intergenerational wealth, URBS 140 will shed new light on how our current economic reality has been shaped. At the same time, URBS 140 will also break the silence on personal finance, helping students map present an future decisions (building credit scores, when and how to shape a retirement plan, home ownership vs. renting, financing college and graduate school, and more) as they more fully investigate the broader policies and histories that have framed their choices, and contrast their options - as future Penn alumni - with those of other Americans with significantly less income earning potential. As an ABCS course, students will share their knowledge about inequality and financial empowerment with area high school students. Students will also generate a policy analysis and/or program proposal as part of their final project that addresses an inequity theme that we have studies in the course.

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

Music in Urban Spaces explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, and sociologists who work to define urban space and the role of music and sound in urban environments.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Peer Tutor Training

English 138
Valerie Ross

This course is by nomination and invitation only. It is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity, temperament, and skills to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. The course emphasizes the development of tutors' own writing through the process of collaborative peer-criticism, individual conferences, and intensive sessions on writing, from mechanics to style; it also focuses on writing pedagogy, research, and tutoring strategies. The class meets twice weekly; tutors also work two hours weekly in the Writing Center or elsewhere, and confer regularly in small groups or one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Tutors are required to write five short papers, eight one-page peer reviews, and two responses to readings. Additionally, students keep a journal and give two class presentations.

Public Philosophy & Civic Engagement

Philosophy 148
Michael Andrew Vazquez

In recent years professional philosophy has witnessed numerous efforts to break down the barriers that stand between the academy and its neighboring communities. Such work has invited a lively debate across the discipline about the role philosophy can and should play outside the classroom. This course gives students the opportunity to make a substantive contribution to this timely issue both by reflecting upon and by engaging in 'public philosophy.' Undergraduates will have the opportunity to read, discuss, and distill philosophical texts on a range of topics in moral and political philosophy, especially topics that pertain to civic life in democratic society. Topics include duties and obligations (e.g., the duty to vote), oppression and injustice, cosmopolitanism, patriotism, civil disobedience, propaganda, and political liberalism. Students will also engage with public-facing work done by philosophers on these topics, with the aim of preparing students from a West Philadelphia high school (details TBA) to produce a written piece of public philosophy of their own at the end of the semester. Guest speakers will on occasion visit the seminar to discuss public philosophy or pre-college pedagogy. This course is an Academically Based Community Service course. Registration requires a permit from the instructor.

Reforming Philadelphia Schools: A Research Practicum on Community Engagement

Education 722 (open to undergraduates)
Rand Quinn

In EDUC 722 (a new ABCS course), students will be paired with a local school to teach about civics, local governance and voting to high school students in social studies classes. Beyond teaching, students will also work with their high school students to organize peer-to-peer voter registration drives in the school communities, in advance of the primary elections this spring. Students will simultaneously have the opportunity to conduct actionable research surrounding youth civic engagement with broad policy relevance in the education sector, presenting this work to a public audience. This course is designed as a practicum because our school consultancies are meant to engage high school students civically with the goal of boosting youth voter engagement in Philadelphia. The course is suitable for both graduate and undergraduate students with an interest in education, politics, and civics.

The Art of Speaking

College 135
Elizabeth Sue Weber

This course is designed to equip students with the major tenets of rhetorical studies and peer education necessary to work as a CWiC speaking advisor. 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 presentations, students present workshops and practice advising. During this ABCS course, students will practice their advising skills by coaching and mentoring students at a public school in Philadelphia.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Role of Water in Urban Sustainability and Resiliency

Environmental Studies 410
Howard Mark Neukrug

This course will provide an overview of the cross-disciplinary fields of civil engineering, environmental sciences, urban hydrology, landscape architecture, green building, public outreach and politics. Students will be expected to conduct field investigations, review scientific data and create indicator reports, working with stakeholders and presenting the results at an annual symposium. There is no metaphor like water itself to describe the cumulative effects of our practices, with every upstream action having an impact downstream. In our urban environment, too often we find degraded streams filled with trash, silt, weeds and dilapidated structures. The water may look clean, but is it? We blame others, but the condition of the creeks is directly related to how we manage our water resources and our land. In cities, these resources are often our homes, our streets and our communities. This course will define the current issues of the urban ecosystem and how we move toward managing this system in a sustainable manner. We will gain an understanding of the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between practices in an watershed and its waterfront. Topics discussed include: drinking water quality and protection, green infrastructure, urban impacts of climate change, watershed monitoring, public education, creating strategies and more.

Tutoring School: Theory and Practice

Education 323 Urban Studies 323
Aliya A Bradley

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

Urban Education

Education 202 Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Urban Environments: Prevention of Tobacco Smoking in Adolescents

Environmental Studies 407
Michael Kulik

Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Control 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 lessons to middle school students. The undergraduates will survey and evaluate middle school and Penn student smoking. One of the course goals is to raise awareness of the middle school children to prevent addiction to tobacco smoke during adolescence. Collaboration with the middle schools gives Penn students the opportunity to apply their study of the prevention of tobacco smoking to real world situations.

Graduate

Advanced Leadership Skills in Community Health

Nursing 587
Heather Klusaritz Walter H Tsou Terri Lipman

Grounded in a social justice perspective, this course aims to provide the student with a foundational overview of the field of community health and leadership skills in public health advocacy. The course encourages critical thinking about health outcomes framed by the broad context of the political and social environment. This course analyzes the range of roles and functions carried out by leaders in healthcare advocacy for marginalized communities; integrates knowledge of health policy and the key influence of government and financing on health outcomes; explores community-based participatory research and interventions as tools for change; and discuss ways to develop respectful partnerships with community organizations. An assets-based approach that draws upon the strengths of communities and their leaders provides a foundation for community-engagement skill building. The course emphasizes the development of skills and techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for disenfranchised groups, including residents of urban neighborhoods. Prerequisite: Undergraduates with permission of the instructor

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Jennifer R Nagda Kara R Finck

Legal advocacy for children and adolescents involves a dynamic range of substantive legal issues informed by the most recent research and practice in the fields of social work, medicine and mental health. Students in the clinic represent adolescent and youth clients on a variety of matters including child welfare cases, immigration proceedings, education issues and health related matters. As part of an interdisciplinary legal team with graduate level social work students and a social work supervisor, clinic students will identify legal issues, use interdisciplinary practice skills to advocate for their clients and appear in a variety of ve. As part of the seminar, clinic students will also have access to experts and guest lecturers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice to assist with their interdisciplinary representation of clients and examination of laws and policies affecting children and families. Under Pennsylvania’s student practice rule, students will serve as primary counsel for children and youth responsible for interviewing and counseling clients, identifying legal issues, developing case theories, and providing legal representation in formal adjudicatory hearings. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students will meet regularly with the Professor and social work supervisor to receive guidance and feedback on their casework and advocacy. As part of the classroom seminar, students will develop interviewing, counseling, and oral advocacy skills through simulations and mock hearings. Students will also explore the legal and policy landscape for poor children and families with regards to child welfare, education, immigration and health care with guest lecturers from Philadelphia, CHOP and SP2. Students will work on a cornerstone policy project focusing on issues impacting children and adolescents across disciplines. Finally, students will tackle important ethical issues that arise in interdisciplinary practice with doctors, teachers and social workers. Students must appear at the first meeting of the course, or may be automatically dropped from the course (unless you have advance permission from the instructor).

Civic Studio

Fine Arts 500
Paul M. Farber

Civic Studio is an engaged research course that explores significant theories, methods, and practices of public and socially-engaged artwork. Students draw from arts- and place-based modes of inquiry toward collaborative projects with fellow classmates, artists, and organizations in Philadelphia and beyond, while pursuing semester-long individual projects that build on their own independent interests and pursuits. Each semester, students work with and as embedded practicioners in exhibtions, installations, research projects, and other artistic platforms throughout the city. In turn, through readings, site visits, and site-specific work, students gain creative and critical capaticy for producing their own final projects. Through Civic Studio students are able to reflect upon and practice public work with artistic, scholarly, and civic aims.

Developmental Theories & Applications with Children

Education 580
John W Fantuzzo

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to consider mandates, models, and methods related to enhancing the learning and development of preschool and early elementary school children. This course emphasizes the application of developmental psychology and multicultural perspectives to the design of effective classroom-based strategies. Students will consider a "whole-child" approach to understanding children's classroom behavior in context. Major assignments will involve gathering and synthesizing information about children in routine classroom situations. This information will be used to better understand children's needs and strengths and how they are manifested in transaction with classroom contexts. Students will focus on one or more students to conduct a comprehensive child study of the child in context. This contact must include opportunities to observe children in a natural setting and interact with them on a regular basis through out the semester. The placement needs to be approved by the professor. If students do not have a regular classroom contact, one will be arranged.

Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Health Education for Incarcerated Women

Nursing 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphia jail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Education 598
Stephen R Kocher

This ABCS course explores religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue and action on college campuses. It brings together students with diverse faith commitments (including atheism) to engage with and learn from one another in academic study, dialogue, and service.

Men and Incarceration

Nursing 556
Instructor TBD

Students in this course will develop and implement health and wellbeing education programming for incarcerated men in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. Most of the classroom time is in the Philadelphia Prison interacting with male inmates. Evidence suggests improved self-regulation may enhance other therapeutic methodologies consequently reducing the frequency of reoffending. Students will explore the social and legal trends driving the incarceration of urban men and the resulting health and wellbeing needs of this population. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and male inmates.

Pediatric Acute Care NP: Professional Role and Intermediate Clinical Practice

Nursing 735
Ruth M Lebet Jessica A Strohm Farber

This course focuses on the implementation of the professional role of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (PNP-AC). Particular emphasis is placed on the role components of the nurse practitioner in pediatric acute care. Applications of nursing, biological and behavioral science are emphasized in the advanced clinical assessment, clinical decision making and management skills needed to care for complex, unstable acutely and chronically ill children and their families. The role of the advanced practice nurse in promoting optimal child/family outcomes is emphasized.

Public Interest Ethnography

Anthropology 516 516 Urban Studies 516
Gretchen E. L. Suess

This is a Public Interest Ethnography workshop (originally created by Peggy Reeves Sanday - Department of Anthropology) that incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to exploring social issues. 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 Department of Anthropology's commitment to developing public interest research and practice as a disciplinary theme. Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on: 1) merging problem solving with theory and analysis in the interest of change motivated by a commitment to social justice, racial harmony, equality, and human rights; and 2) engaging in public debate on human issues to make research results accessible to a broader audience. The workshop brings in guest speakers and will incorporate original ethnographic research to merge theory with action. Students are encouraged to apply the framing model to a public interest research and action topic of their choice. This is an academically-based-community-service (ABCS) course that partners directly with Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships.

Public Interest Workshop

Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 516
Gretchen E L Suess

This is a Public Interest Ethnography workshop (originally created by Peggy Reeves Sanday - Department of Anthropology) that incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to exploring social issues. 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 Department of Anthropology's commitment to developing public interest research and practice as a disciplinary theme. Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on: 1) merging problem solving with theory and analysis in the interest of change motivated by a commitment to social justice, racial harmony, equality, and human rights; and 2) engaging in public debate on human issues to make research results accessible to a broader audience. The workshop brings in guest speakers and will incorporate original ethnographic research to merge theory with action. Students are encouraged to apply the framing model to a public interest research and action topic of their choice. This is an academically-based-community-service (ABCS) course that partners directly with Penn's Netter Center Community Partnerships.

Reforming Philadelphia Schools: A Research Practicum on Community Engagement

Education 722
Rand Quinn

In EDUC 722 (a new ABCS course), students will be paired with a local school to teach about civics, local governance and voting to high school students in social studies classes. Beyond teaching, students will also work with their high school students to organize peer-to-peer voter registration drives in the school communities, in advance of the primary elections this spring. Students will simultaneously have the opportunity to conduct actionable research surrounding youth civic engagement with broad policy relevance in the education sector, presenting this work to a public audience. This course is designed as a practicum because our school consultancies are meant to engage high school students civically with the goal of boosting youth voter engagement in Philadelphia. The course is suitable for both graduate and undergraduate students with an interest in education, politics, and civics.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Women and Incarceration

Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphiajail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

2019 Fall Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCs of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Activism Beyond the Classroom

Education 545
Krystal Sharice Strong

Activism Beyond the Classroom (ABC) is a course co-designed with Penn students and Philadelphia community activists. In working groups, l we engage in participatory inquiry and public scholarship related to grassroots activism and advocacy around educational issues and social justice. Together, we produce a podcast, op-eds, and a website. Learn more at: www.activismbeyondtheclassroom.com. Undergraduate students are welcome.

Air Pollution: Sources & Effects in Urban Environments

Environmental Studies 411
Marilyn Howarth Maria-Antonia Andrews

This is an ABCS course designed to provide the student with an understanding of air pollution at the local, regional and global levels. The nature, composition, and properties of air pollutants in the atmosphere will also be studied. The course will focus on Philadelphia's air quality and how air pollutants have an adverse effect on the health of the residents. The recent designation by IARC of Air Pollution as a known carcinogen will be explored. How the community is exposed to air pollutants with consideration of vulnerable populations will be considered. Through a partnership with Philadelphia Air Management Service (AMS) agency the science of air monitoring and trends over time will be explored. Philadelphia's current non-attainment status for PM2.5. and ozone will be studied. Philadelphia's current initiatives to improvethe air quality of the city will be discussed. Students will learn to measure PM2.5 in outdoor and indoor settings and develop community-based outreach tools to effectively inform the community of Philadelphia regarding air pollution. The outreach tools developed by students may be presentations, written materials, apps, websites or other strategies for enhancing environmental health literacy of the community. A project based approach will be used to include student monitoring of area schools, school bus routes, and the community at large. The data collected will be presented to students in the partner elementary school in West Philadelphia . Upon completion of this course, students should expect to have attained a broad understanding of and familiarity with the sources, fate, and the environmental impacts and health effects of air pollutants.

Anthropology and Policy: History, Theory, Practice

Anthropology 305
Gretchen E L Suess

From the inception of the discipline, anthropologists have applied their ethnographic and theoretical knowledge to policy issues concerning the alleviation of practical human problems. This approach has not only benefited peoples in need but it has also enriched the discipline, providing anthropologists with the opportunity to develop new theories and methodologies from a problem-centered approach. The class will examine the connection between anthropology and policy, theory and practice (or 'praxis'), research and application. We will study these connections by reading about historical and current projects. As an ABCS course, students will also volunteer in a volunteer organization of their choice in the Philadelphia area, conduct anthropological research on the organization, and suggest ways that the anthropological approach might support the efforts of the organization.

Arts and Well-Being

Music 016
Carol Ann Muller

The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small setting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics will be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on current course offerings http:/www .college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php. Fulfills Arts and Letters sector requirement.

ASL/Deaf Studies - ABCS

Linguistics 077
Jami Fisher

For this course, students will attend Pennsylvania School for the Deaf on a weekly basis where they will participate in and contribute to the school community via tutoring or other mutually agreeable activities. Students will also have formal class on a weekly basis with discussions and activities centering on reflection of community experiences through linguistic as well as cultural lenses. Additionally, drawing from the required Linguistics and other ASL/Deaf Studies coursework, students will develop an inquiry question and conduct preliminary community-based research to analyze sociolinguistic variations of ASL and Deaf cultural attitudes, behaviors, and norms. Ongoing reflections and discussions-formal and informal-on Deaf cultural/theoretical topics drawing from readings as well as community experiences will be integral to the course experience. LING 078, Topics in Deaf Culture and permission from the instructor, are required for this course.

Case Study: Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 357
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach has the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester.

Case Study: Self-Care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara Riegel

Self-care is done by lay people to prevent or manage chronic illness. In this case study, we will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting self-care. Fieldwork experiences are designed to provide practical experience in engaging well individuals in preventing illness and helping chronically ill perform self-care.

Community Physics Initiative

Physics 137
Masao Sako Philip C Nelson

This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS). It will be aligned to the Philadelphia School District curriculum in introductory physics at Paul Robeson High School. The Robeson curriculum roughly parallels the contents of first semester introductory physics (non-calculus) at Penn.

Converging Landscapes: Art, Ecology and History

Fine Arts 307
Paul M Farber

Studies of landscape are at the core of multiple fields of fine art making, historical inquiry, and environmental research. Christopher Tilley defines "landscape" as "a holistic term" that frames relationships between living beings and locales, "forming both the medium for, and outcome of, movement and memory." For interdisciplinary arts practitioners in Philadelphia, the landscape may conjure such relationships at points of convergence: when the physical and symbolic layers of the city lay bare social dynamics and truths. Such a range of landmarks - including rivers, neighborhoods, the viewshed, the skyline - are impacted by the deep histories of the region itself, as well as the human-activity that traffics upon it. To produce work about and from Philadelphia is to inherit long-standing questions of civic belonging, make sense of shifting demographics and ecological conditions, and to balance aims for innovation and coexistence. Converging Landscapes - Art, Ecology, and History is a civic studio and structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students in the course will participate as members of specialized research teams, working a set number of hours per week, write reflection papers, and produce a final site-specific research portfolio. Together, they will explore and produce work at and about sites of convergence. Students will pursue group projects and cross-disciplinary independent work, around selected arts and municipal contribute toward a class wide exhibition, as well as collaborations with artists, archives, and organizations. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, environmental humanities, history, and civic engagement.

Creative Writing and the World

English 127
Rachel Sydney Zolf

A creative writing workshop devoted to writing in and across various social, political, geographical, and historical contexts. Offerings may include Writing Toward Diaspora, Writing the City, Writing and the Environment, or other topics and themes. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of current offerings.

Diplomacy in the Americas - The Penn Model OAS Program

Latin American & Latino Studies 328 Political Science 328
Catherine E.M. Bartch

"Diplomacy in the Americas" an academically based community service course in which students work with Philadelphia and Norristown public school students to explore solutions to critical problems facing the Americas. Entrenched political, economic, and social inequality, combined with environmental degradation, weak institutions, pervasive health epidemics, weapon proliferation, and other issues pose formidable hurdles for strengthening democratic ideals and institutions. The Organization of the American States (OAS), the world's oldest regional organization, is uniquely poised to confront these challenges. "Diplomacy in the Americas" guides students through the process of writing policy resolutions as though the students were Organization of the American States (OAS) diplomats, basing their research and proposals on democracy, development, security, and human rights - the four pillars of the OAS. Students will also read literature about what it means to educate for a democracy and global citizenry, and they will have the opportunity to turn theory into practice by creating and executing curriculum to teach and mentor the high school students through interactive and experiential pedagogies.

Education in American Culture

Education 240
Charles Adams

This course explores the relationships between forms of cultural production and transmission (schooling, family and community socialization, peer group subcultures and media representations) and relations of inequality in American society. Working with a broad definition of "education" as varied forms of social learning, we will concentrate particularly on the cultural processes that produce as well as potentially transform class, race, ethnic and gender differences and identities. From this vantage point, we will then consider the role that schools can and/or should play in challenging inequalities in America.

Embed Controlled Gardening

Engineering & Applied Science 097
Jorge Juan Santiago

A service course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology and electronics and systems engineering for the benefit of Penn engineering students, teachers and students from two minority centered community public schools. The course will engage the participants in the design and implementation of indoors cultivating systems using photo-voltaic (PV) technology to energize LED emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

One of the goals of this seminar is to help students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Research teams help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as the improvement of university-community relations. Among other responsibilities, students focus their community service on college and career readiness at West Philadelphia High School and Sayre High School. Students are typically engaged in academically based community service learning at the schools for two hours each week.

High School Ethics Bowl

Philosophy 248 Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 248
Karen Detlefsen

In this course, teams of undergraduate students, each joined by a graduate student in philosophy, will coach teams of high school students for participation in the National High School Ethics Bowl, an annual competitive yet collaborative event in which teams analyze and discuss complex ethical dilemmas. Cases for the 2019-20 Ethics Bowl will be released in September 2019, and these will serve as a foundational starting point for the undergraduate students' investigations into ethical theory and the study of the ethics bowl itself, to develop the capacities to provide coaching and mentorship to the teams of high school students from schools in West Philadelphia and across the city. Undergraduates will travel to these school as part of the course, and there will be one or two Saturday sessions when all high school convene on Penn's campus for practice scrimmages. This course will introduce the ethics bowl to many new Philadelphia School District schools and students, and it will provide Penn students with the opportunity to develop their teaching and communication skills, build collaborative relationships with community schools, and solidify their knowledge of ethical theory through coaching.

Latinx Communities and the Role of Cbo's in Social Change

Latin American & Latino Studies 424 Sociology 424
Johnny Irizarry

The purpose of this course to create a Latino Studies/Service Learning ABCS course that cultivates dialogue and knowledge about the social, political, cultural and historical complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States (Philadelphia in particular) and the roles Latinx CBO's play in meeting the needs of Latinx communities and in impacting social change.

Men and Incarceration: Healthy Mind, Strong Body, Better Life

Nursing 556
George Cronin

Students in this course will develop and implement health and wellbeing education programming for incarcerated men in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. Most of the classroom time is in the Philadelphia Prison interacting with male inmates. Evidence suggests improved self-regulation may enhance other therapeutic methodologies consequently reducing the frequency of reoffending. Students will explore the social and legal trends driving the incarceration of urban men and the resulting health and wellbeing needs of this population. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and male inmates.

Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis

Fine Arts 305
Paul M Farber Matthew J. Neff

What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia? This question is the central prompt for Fall 2017 citywide public art and history project, as well as a specifically designed community-based and engaged research course in Fine Arts. Students in Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis will participate as members of specialized research teams, in partnership with local high school research fellows, embedded in iconic public squares, West Philadelphia sites, and neighborhood parks around the city; serve as trained art guides to facilitate learning around over twenty temporary monument installations by internationally and locally-based artists; collect research proposals as a form of creative datasets managed by Penn's PriceLab and Library; and engage civic partners and public audiences around key issues of the project, including issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, social justice, and civic belonging. The class is structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures by participating artists. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students will work at research "labs" throughout the city for a set amount of hours per week, write reflection papers, and producea final site specific research portfolio. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, history, and civic engagement.

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

Music in Urban Spaces explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, and sociologists who work to define urban space and the role of music and sound in urban environments.

Nursing in the Community

Nursing 380
Monique Dowd Rebecca Phillips Robin Stevens Patricia O'Brien D'Antonio

This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community's strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.

Nutrition Throughout The Life Cycle

Nursing 375
Monique Dowd

Understanding and meeting nutritional needs from conception through adulthood will be addressed. Nutrition-related concerns at each stage of the lifecycle, including impact of lifestyle, education, economics and food behavior will be explored.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Performance in the African Diaspora

Africana Studies 325
Suzana E Berger Herman Beavers

The purpose of this course is to engage students in the rigorous process of mining experiences for material that can be transformed into a public performance piece. In-class writing, group discussions, and field work in the Philadelphia area. AUGUST WILSON AND BEYOND. The people need to know the story. See how they fit into it. See what part they play. - August Wilson, King Hedley II. In this seminar, students will read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traumas, triumphs, and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Other readings include supporting material on Wilson's work and African American theatre, the works of contemporary playwrights whom Wilson has influenced (such as Suzan-Lori Parks and Tarell Alvin McCraney), and context on Penn's relationship with West Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course,this seminar gives students the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the plays, and history and culture that shaped them, by forming meaningful relationships with West Philadelphia residents. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the two groups. The course culminates with students writing an original theatre piece inspired by the readings and relationships, which they will share at an end-of-semester performance.

Philosophy of Education

Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 249 Philosophy 249
Karen Detlefsen

The philosophy of education asks questions about the foundational assumptions of our formal institutions for the reproduction of culture. It ranges therefore, from epistemology and philosophy of mind to ethics and political philosophy. For instance: What is the nature of learning and teaching? How is it possible to come to know something we did not know already--and how can we aid others in doing that? How, if at all, should formal institutions of education be concerned with shaping students' moral and civic character? What is the proper relation between educational institutions and the state? We also ask questions more specific to our own time and context. For example: how, in a multicultural state, should we educate students of varied social identities, like race, gender, and religion? What is the relationship between education and justice.

Social Social Impact and Responsibility

Legal Studies & Business Ethics 230 230
Djordjija Petkoski

What role can business play in helping to meet global societal needs, whether it involves the environment, improving health, expanding education or eradicating poverty? Is there any responsibility on the part of business to help meet those needs? What are models of successful business engagement in this area? How should success be measured? Are there limits to what businesses can and should do, and what institutional changes will enable businesses and entrepreneurs to better succeed? This survey course provides students the opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of these and other questions that lie at the foundation of social impact and responsibility as an area of study. The course involves case studies, conceptual issues, and talks by practitioners. The course is designed to help students develop a framework to address the question: How should business enterprises and business thinking be engaged to improve society in areas not always associated with business? The course is required for the secondary concentration in Social Impact and Responsibility.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Communication Research Experience

Communications 310
Emily Hemenway Falk

In this hands-on course students will work with active researchers in the Communication Neuroscience lab at Penn to gain experience in how research works. Research topics will depend on student interests, with emphasis on one or more of the following: social influence and persuasion, health communication, peer influence in teens, mobile technology, social media, emotion regulation, peace and conflict resolution, mindfulness, interpersonal communication, political communication, adolescent brain development, communication neuroscience. Students will have the opportunity to interact closely with a mentor and will gain experience conceptualizing research questions, designing experiments, collecting data, and making an analysis plan.

Prerequisites: COMM 210 (Communication Research Methods) or permission of the instructor.

Topics Africana Studies

English 380
Suzana E Berger Herman Beavers

This course explores an aspects of topics in African Studies; specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of current offerings.

Tutoring in Urban Public Elementary Schools: A Child Development Perspective

Education 326 Urban Studies 326
John W Fantuzzo

The course provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in academically based community service learning. 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. 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.

Urban Education

Education 202
Andrew J Schiera
Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Urban Environments: Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia

Environmental Studies 404
Richard Pepino

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards. In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

Urban Environments: The Urban Asthma Epedemic

Environmental Studies 408
Michael Kulik

Asthma as a pediatric chronic disease is undergoing a dramatic and unexplained increase. It has become the number one 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 co-teach asthma classes offered in public schools in West Philadelphia and survey asthma caregivers,providing them with the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations,promotecommunity education and awareness about asthma, and use problem-solving learning to enhance student education in environmental health.

Wharton Field Challenge Financial Literacy Community Project

Management 353
Keith Weigelt

Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of a student? Do you want to set kids on a path to becoming financially literate? Do you want to learn leadership skills in the classroom? Here at the Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP) we are able to create an experience that achieves all three. We partner with various public schools around the West Philadelphia area and teach concepts integral to financial literacy. We teach a wide range of grades from middle school to high school, and work with students to help them learn how to be financially responsible. In addition to teaching in neighboring high schools, we also have group class meetings run by Professor Keith Weigelt on Mondays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM. We learn about the disparity of wealth and how to best address it while also learning teaching techniques, classroom strategies, and overall basic financial literacy. A basic understanding of personal financial literacy is required.

Women and Incarceration: Health Education For Incarcerated Women

Gender,Sexuality & Women's Stud 555
Kathleen M. Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphiajail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

Graduate

Advanced Physical Assessment and Clinical Decision Making: Nursing of Children Clinical I

Nursing 721
Susan M Campisciano Rachel E Mccormick

This clinical course is designed to help prospective advanced practice nurses develop advanced skills in physical and developmental assessment of children in a variety of well-child, clinic and hospital settings. Data collection, data interpretation, and hypothesis formulations are emphasized for the purpose of clinical decision making. The role of the advanced practice nurse in assessment of primary health care issues and health promotion is incorporated throughout the course. Collaboration as an integral part of assessment will be an ongoing focus.

Behavioral Sciences I: Health Promotions

DENTAL 550
Joan Gluch

Lectures, seminars, clinical sessions and community field experiences are provided so that students gain the necessary knowledge and skills in oral health promotion and disease prevention activities with individuals, communities and populations. Course topics include discussion of the philosophy, modalities, rationale and evaluation of health promotion and disease preventive activities related to caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer. Focus is placed on assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of strategies designed to target the individual patient, the community and a population perspective. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Behavioral Sciences II: Local & Global Public Health

DENTAL 650
Joan Gluch

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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Jennifer R Nagda Kara R Finck

Community Oral Health IX: Practicum in Community Health Promotion II

DENTAL 812
Joan Gluch

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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Converging Landscapes: Art, Ecology and History

Fine Arts 507
Paul M Farber

Studies of landscape are at the core of multiple fields of fine art making, historical inquiry, and environmental research. Christopher Tilley defines "landscape" as "a holistic term" that frames relationships between living beings and locales, "forming both the medium for, and outcome of, movement and memory." For interdisciplinary arts practitioners in Philadelphia, the landscape may conjure such relationships at points of convergence: when the physical and symbolic layers of the city lay bare social dynamics and truths. Such a range of landmarks - including rivers, neighborhoods, the viewshed, the skyline - are impacted by the deep histories of the region itself, as well as the human-activity that traffics upon it. To produce work about and from Philadelphia is to inherit long-standing questions of civic belonging, make sense of shifting demographics and ecological conditions, and to balance aims for innovation and coexistence. Converging Landscapes - Art, Ecology, and History is a civic studio and structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students in the course will participate as members of specialized research teams, working a set number of hours per week, write reflection papers, and produce a final site-specific research portfolio. Together, they will explore and produce work at and about sites of convergence. Students will pursue group projects and cross-disciplinary independent work, around selected arts and municipal contribute toward a class wide exhibition, as well as collaborations with artists, archives, and organizations. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, environmental humanities, history, and civic engagement.

Discursive Approaches in Intercultural Communication

Education 676
Betsy R Rymes

This course offers a discourse-based approach and hands-on introduction to the field of intercultural communication, from the micro-level of interpersonal interaction to the macro-level of institutional practice. Through a series of readings and service learning projects in multicultural settings, students will hone their observational and analytic abilities, while gaining an appreciation of and facility for participating in the communicative diversity around them. Topics will include a repertoire approach to examining language in use, interpretation and metacommentary, and the possibility of intervention to facilitate new communicative patterns.

Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Ethnographic Filmmaking

Anthropology 583 Education 586
Amitanshu Das

This ethnographic methodology course considers filmmaking/videography as a tool in conducting ethnographic research as well as a medium for presenting academic research to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. The course engages the methodological and theoretical implications of capturing data and crafting social scientific accounts/narratives in images and sounds. Students are required to put theory into practice by conducting ethnographic research and producing an ethnographic film as their final project. In service to that goal, students will read about ethnography (as a social scientific method and representational genre), learn and utilize ethnographic methods in fieldwork, watch non-fiction films (to be analyzed for formal properties and implicit assumptions about culture/sociality), and acquire rigorous training in the skills and craft of digital video production. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. Due to the time needed for ethnographic film production, this is a year-long course, which will meet periodically in both the fall and spring semesters.

Experimental Course

Education 545
Krystal S Strong

Graduate Sculpture Studio

Fine Arts 604
Paul M Farber Matthew J. Neff

Second-year studio for MFA students exploring advanced discipline in sculpture.

Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking

Nursing 573
Marion Leary

Innovation, defined as a hypothesis-driven, testable, and disciplined strategy, is important to improve health & healthcare. Employing new ways of thinking, such as with design thinking, will help open up possibilities of ways to improve health & the process of healthcare. Incorporating current & emerging social & digital technologies such as mobile apps, wearables, remote sensing, and 3D printing, affords new opportunities for innovation. This course provides foundational content & a disciplined approach to innovation as it applies to health & healthcare. A flipped classroom approach with the in-class component focusing on group learning through design thinking activities. The course is open to undergraduate nursing students as a case study & upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from across the Penn campus. The course provides a theoretical foundation in design thinking & may provide an overview of innovation technology & digital strategies as well as social & process change strategies. To enhance the didactic component, students will actively participate in a design case study. Students will be matched by interest and skill level with teams & will work with community-based organizations, healthcare providers and/or innovation partners. Student teams will meet their partners to identify & refine a health or healthcare problem to tackle. Students will work throughout the semester to create an innovative solution that will be pitched to their community-based organization, healthcare provider, and/or innovation partner at the end of the semester.

Language Teaching and Literacy Development in Multilingual Contexts

Education 545
Anne Pomerantz

Multicultural Issues in Education

Education 723
Vivian Lynette Gadsden

This course examines critical issues, problems, and perspectives in multicultural education. Intended to focus on access to literacy and educational opportunity, the course will engage class members in discussions around a variety of topics in educational practice, research, and policy. Specifically, the course will (1) review theoretical frameworks in multicultural education, (2) analyze the issues of race, racism, and culture in historical and contemporary perspective, and (3) identify obstacles to participation in the educational process by diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Students will be required to complete field experiences and classroom activities that enable them to reflect on their own belief systems, practices, and educational experiences.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Outside the School Box: History, Policy and Alternatives

Education 551
Michael C Johanek

This course explores historical and contemporary challenges involved in the policy and practice of non-school education agencies and factors that work in service to local school/community settings. Students will explore several historical case studies, conceptual frames, and current policy challenges, culminating in a community-based research project.

Practicum in Community Health Promotion I

DENTAL 712
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 to visit local elementary and middle schools and participate in the oral health education, screening and referral programs 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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Women and Incarceration

Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphiajail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

Women and Incarceration: Health Education For Incarcerated Women

Nursing 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphiajail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

2019 Spring Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCs of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Marie Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

*Prerequisites: BIBB 109 or permission from instructor

Academic Based Community Service-Chemistry Outreach

Chemistry 010
Jenine R. Maeyer

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: Community Engagement

Nursing 354
Dalmacio Dennis Flores Monique Dowd Terri Lipman

This case study offers students experiential learning to develop an in depth understanding of social determinants of health in vulnerable, underserved populations and to collaboratively design and refine existing health promotion programs based on the needs of the community site. Grounded on an approach thatbuilds upon the strengths of communities, this course emphasizes the development of techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for underserved populations. Students are required to draw on skills and knowledge obtained from previous classes related to social determinants of health and community engagement and will engage in specific creative, innovative community based programs developed for populations across the life span. These culturally relevant programs, which have been shown to positively impact communities, create opportunities for students to address thethe social determinants of health, build engagement and leadership skills and increase program success and sustainability.

*Completion of sophomore year nursing requirements; permission needed from instructor

Advanced Writing for Children

Africana Studies 123 English 123
Lorene Cary

Advanced Writing for Children is a response to our fast-and-faster learning culture. We ll take the term to write and re-write several fiction and non-fiction pieces for children or teens. Let s call it Slow Write, like the Slow Food movement. The idea is to take time to write better, deeper, more beautifully, funnier, to respect stories and how you choose and render them. Using community among ourselves and with select partners outside the university we will work to help you harness various intelligences to figure out the stories you need to write. Trips and collaborations will refresh and surprise. You ll be writing, but also taking time: to remember, sketch, connect with others, research, meditate, assess, develop, discard. Slow writing respects difference. Some of us need to get honest, others to pull back; some to learn fluency and others restraint. Most of us need support to work harder, but as Thomas Wolfe defined it for artists: an integrity of purpose, a spiritual intensity, and a fine expenditure of energy that most people have no conception of. When stories are ready, you will be invited to submit them to SafeKidsStories.com, because as Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lungren has said: Children perform miracles when they read. On the side, for funsies, and to assuage the must-write fast urge, you will also write bits and blogs.

Case Study: Self-Care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara J. Riegel

Self-care is done by lay people to prevent or manage chronic illness. In this case study, we will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting self-care. Fieldwork experiences are designed to provide practical experience in engaging well individuals in preventing illness and helping chronically ill perform self-care.

Civic Studio

Fine Arts 300
Paul M Farber

Civic Studio is an engaged research praxis that delves in the significant theories, methodologies, and practices of public and socially-engaged artwork. Students draw from arts- and place-based modes of inquiry toward collaborative projects with fellow classmates, artists, and organizations in Philadelphia and beyond, while pursuing semester-long individual research. Each semester, students work with and as embedded practitioners in exhibitions, installations, and other artistic platforms throughout the city. In turn, through readings, site visits, and site-specific work, students gain creative and critical capacity for producing their own final projects about a particular street, intersection, or site in the city . Through Civic Studio students are able to reflect upon and practice public work with artistic, scholarly, and civic aims.

Community Based Environmental Health

Environmental Studies 406
Marilyn V. Howarth

From the fall of the Roman Empire to Love Canal to the epidemics of asthma, childhood obesity and lead poisoning in West Philadelphia, the impact of the environment on health has been a continuous challenge to society. The environment can affect people's health more strongly than biological factors, medical care and lifestyle. The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the neighborhood we live in are all components of the environment that impact our health. Some estimates, based on morbidity and mortality statistics, indicate that the impact of the environment on health is as high as 80%. These impacts are particularly significant in urban areas like West Philadelphia. 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 examine not only the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects on human health of lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the built environment. Topics include cancer clusters, water borne diseases, radon and lung cancer, lead poisoning, environmental tobacco smoke, respiratory diseases and obesity. Students will research the health impacts of 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, and Environmental Education issues as they discuss approaches to mitigating environmental health risks.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar

Community Math Teaching Project

Mathematics 123
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. 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. The first class meeting of each week, Penn faculty teach Penn students 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 UCHS students. The Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own activity and to implement it with the UCHS students.

Community Writing

English 127 Urban Studies 127
Rachel Sydney Zolf

A creative writing workshop devoted to writing in and across various social, political, geographical, and historical contexts. Offerings may include Writing Toward Diaspora, Writing the City, Writing and the Environment, or other topics and themes. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of current offerings.

*Fulfills the Humanities & Social Science Sector Requirement

Deaf Culture

Linguistics 078
Jami N. Fisher

This course is an advanced/conversational ASL course that explores several key topics related to Deaf Culture. Using only ASL in class, students will read and discuss books, articles, and films related to the following topics: Deaf History, Deaf Identity, Deafness as Asset, Communication Issues and Pathological Perspectives on Deafness, Deafness and Education, Deaf/Hearing Family Dynamics. Language growth will stem from direct instruction as well as through the course of class conversation. Students will collaborate with the instructor and our Deaf community liaison to develop and host an event that is accessible to both Deaf and hearing people alike.

*Prerequisites: LING 074 or permission from coordinator; Penn Language Center permission needed; prior language experience required

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Embedded Controlled Gardening

Engineering & Applied Science 097
Geraldine B Light Jorge Juan Santiago

A service course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology and electronics and systems engineering for the benefit of Penn engineering students, teachers and students from two minority centered community public schools. The course will engage the participants in the design and implementation of indoors cultivating systems using photo-voltaic (PV) technology to energize LED emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

Ethnographic Approaches to Urban Athletics and Human Movement

Anthropology 276
Gretchen E. L. Suess

Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on bridging theory and practice motivated by a commitment to social justice through original ethnographic research. In particular, this course will focus on kinesiology and the anthropology of sports and well-being through intense analysis of the Young Quakers Community Athletics (YQCA) program, a collaboration between the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Penn Athletics. In guest lecturers from multiple disciplines will help to round out the course. The core learning objective is to bring a broad range of specialized expertise to foster a holistic examination of a complex institutional partnership intended to promote positive social transformation and improved human health and well-being.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

One of the goals of this seminar is to help students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Research teams help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as the improvement of university-community relations. Among other responsibilities, students focus their community service on college and career readiness at West Philadelphia High School and Sayre High School. Students are typically engaged in academically based community service learning at the schools for two hours each week.

*Benjamin Frankllin Seminar; Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small sitting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on current course offerings http:// www.college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

*Two terms; students must enter first term; Special permission needed from instructor

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja V.E. Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Public Art & Performance

Theatre Arts 275 Urban Studies 274
James F. Schlatter

This course will combine an intensive practical and intellectual investigation of some area of the making of theatre: performance techniques, theatrical styles, a particular period of theatre history. Please visit the Theatre Arts Program website for current topics for Thar 275 and other Theatre Arts Courses and special topics: https://theatre.sas.upenn.edu Please visit the Theatre Arts Program website each semester for information on the available THAR 275 special topics courses: https://theatre.sas.upenn.edu

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar

The Art of Speaking

College 135
Elizabeth Sue Weber

This course is designed to equip students with the major tenets of rhetorical studies and peer education necessary to work as a CWiC speaking advisor. 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 presentations, students present workshops and practice advising. During this ABCS course, students will practice their advising skills by coaching and mentoring students at a public school in Philadelphia.

*Permission needed from instructor; Communication Within the Curriculum (CWIC) Course

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

*Auditors need permission from instructors

The Biology of Food

Biology 017
Scott Poethig

This course will examine the ways in which humans manipulate - and have been manipulated by - the organisms we depend on for food, with particular emphasis on the biological factors that influence this interaction. The first part of the course will cover the biology, genetics, evolution, and breeding of cultivated plants and animals; the second part will concern the ecological, economic, and political factors that influence food production.

The Role of Water in Urban Sustainability and Resiliency

Environmental Studies 410
Howard M. Neukrug

This course will provide an overview of the cross-disciplinary fields of civil engineering, environmental sciences, urban hydrology, landscape architecture, green building, public outreach and politics. Students will be expected to conduct field investigations, review scientific data and create indicator reports, working with stakeholders and presenting the results at an annual symposium. There is no metaphor like water itself to describe the cumulative effects of our practices, with every upstream action having an impact downstream. In our urban environment, too often we find degraded streams filled with trash, silt, weeds and dilapidated structures. The water may look clean, but is it? We blame others, but the condition of the creeks is directly related to how we manage our water resources and our land. In cities, these resources are often our homes, our streets and our communities. This course will define the current issues of the urban ecosystem and how we move toward managing this system in a sustainable manner. We will gain an understanding of the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between practices in an watershed and its waterfront. Topics discussed include: drinking water quality and protection, green infrastructure, urban impacts of climate change, watershed monitoring, public education, creating strategies and more.

*Prerequisites: ENVS 100, GEOL 100 or equivalent

Tutoring School: Theory and Practice

Education 323 Urban Studies 323
Aliya A Bradley

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

Urban Education

Education 202 Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Urban Environments: Prevention of Tobacco Smoking in Adolescents

Environmental Studies 407
Michael Kulik

Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Control 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 lessons to middle school students. The undergraduates will survey and evaluate middle school and Penn student smoking. One of the course goals is to raise awareness of the middle school children to prevent addiction to tobacco smoke during adolescence. Collaboration with the middle schools gives Penn students the opportunity to apply their study of the prevention of tobacco smoking to real world situations.

*Communication with the Curriculum (CWiC) Course

Graduate

Advanced Leadership Skills in Community Health

Nursing 587
Heather A. Klusaritz Terri H. Lipman Walter H. Tsou

Grounded in a social justice perspective, this course aims to provide the student with a foundational overview of the field of community health and leadership skills in public health advocacy. The course encourages critical thinking about health outcomes framed by the broad context of the political and social environment. This course analyzes the range of roles and functions carried out by leaders in healthcare advocacy for marginalized communities; integrates knowledge of health policy and the key influence of government and financing on health outcomes; explores community-based participatory research and interventions as tools for change; and discuss ways to develop respectful partnerships with community organizations. An assets-based approach that draws upon the strengths of communities and their leaders provides a foundation for community-engagement skill building. The course emphasizes the development of skills and techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for disenfranchised groups, including residents of urban neighborhoods.

*Prerequisites: Enrollment in the National Clinician Scholars Program; Permission needed from department

Behavioral Sciences I: Health Promotions

DENTAL 550
Joan Gluch

Lectures, seminars, clinical sessions and community field experiences are provided so that students gain the necessary knowledge and skills in oral health promotion and disease prevention activities with individuals, communities and populations. Course topics include discussion of the philosophy, modalities, rationale and evaluation of health promotion and disease preventive activities related to caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer. Focus is placed on assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of strategies designed to target the individual patient, the community and a population perspective. This is a year-long course open only to Dental students.

Behavioral Sciences II: Local & Global Public Health

DENTAL 650
Joan Gluch

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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Kara R. Finck Jennifer R Nagda

*Open only to LAW and SP2 students

Civic Studio

Fine Arts 500
Paul M Farber

Civic Studio is an engaged research praxis that delves in the significant theories, methodologies, and practices of public and socially-engaged artwork. Students draw from arts- and place-based modes of inquiry toward collaborative projects with fellow classmates, artists, and organizations in Philadelphia and beyond, while pursuing semester-long individual research. Each semester, students work with and as embedded practitioners in exhibitions, installations, and other artistic platforms throughout the city. In turn, through readings, site visits, and site-specific work, students gain creative and critical capacity for producing their own final projects about a particular street, intersection, or site in the city . Through Civic Studio students are able to reflect upon and practice public work with artistic, scholarly, and civic aims.

Community Oral Health IX: Practicum in Community Health Promotion II

DENTAL 812
Joan Gluch

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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Developmental Theories & Applications with Children

Education 580
John W. Fantuzzo

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to consider mandates, models, and methods related to enhancing the learning and development of preschool and early elementary school children. This course emphasizes the application of developmental psychology and multicultural perspectives to the design of effective classroom-based strategies. Students will consider a "whole-child" approach to understanding children's classroom behavior in context. Major assignments will involve gathering and synthesizing information about children in routine classroom situations. This information will be used to better understand children's needs and strengths and how they are manifested in transaction with classroom contexts. Students will focus on one or more students to conduct a comprehensive child study of the child in context. This contact must include opportunities to observe children in a natural setting and interact with them on a regular basis throughtout the semester. The placement needs to be approved by the professor. If students do not have a regular classroom contact, one will be arranged.

Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Experimental Course

Education 545
Amitanshu Das

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Education 598
Stephen R Kocher

This ABCS course explores religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue and action on college campuses. It brings together students with diverse faith commitments (including atheism) to engage with and learn from one another in academic study, dialogue, and service.

*Permission needed from department; Greenfield Intercultural Center 

Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner: Professional Role and Intermediate Clinical Practice

Nursing 735
Ruth M Lebet Jessica A Strohm Farber

This course focuses on the implementation of the professional role of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (PNP-AC). Particular emphasis is placed on the role components of the nurse practitioner in pediatric acute care. Applications of nursing, biological and behavioral science are emphasized in the advanced clinical assessment, clinical decision making and management skills needed to care for complex, unstable acutely and chronically ill children and their families. The role of the advanced practice nurse in promoting optimal child/family outcomes is emphasized.

*Prerequisites: NURS 720; NURS 721; NURS 685 or NURS 607; Registration also required for clinic

*Corequisites: NURS 734

Practicum in Community Health Promotion I

DENTAL 712
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 to visit local elementary and middle schools and participate in the oral health education, screening and referral programs 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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Seminar in Ethnomusicology

Africana Studies 705 Music 705
Carol Ann Muller

This is an ABCS (academically based community service) class, one that will engage in a community related arts project as a part of your learning, but it is also one that will enable you to reflect on your own beliefs about music, the arts more generally, and the capacity of the arts cross culturally to work as a force of self/individual and collective understanding and, perhaps, healing. The class will move between personal reflection, academic writing, and a team ethnographic project focused on two South African jazz musicians who will come to Penn—the Arthur Ross Gallery and the Music Department—and the West Philly community in October, 2018. We will begin the class with reflections on the work of music/the arts in your own lives, then do intensive reading on the music/the creative and expressive arts as mechanisms of therapeutic healing cross culturally. The second part will focus on South African jazz as a case study in the use of music for individual and collective political and therapeutic purpose. The core project for the course will happen here: it will involve attending performances, community events, and interviewing/filming South African jazz musicians. The third part of the class will be hands on team production of an ethnographic film/blog of materials generated around the South African musicians, plus a journaling of what you have learnt from the variety of materials engaged with in the semester. The assignments are twofold: reflective and creative writing for parts one and three; and completion of the team ethnographic project from part two. The course ties into a national conference on the arts and trauma being held in Spring 2019 at Penn.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

*Auditors need permission from instructors

 

Women and Incarceration

Nursing 555 Gender,Sexuality&Women's Stdys 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphia jail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

*Permission needed from deparment

2018 Fall Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCs of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Marie Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Air Pollution: Sources & Effects in Urban Environments

Environmental Studies 411
Marilyn V. Howarth Maria-Antonia Andrews

This is an ABCS course designed to provide the student with an understanding of air pollution at the local, regional and global levels. The nature, composition, and properties of air pollutants in the atmosphere will also be studied. The course will focus on Philadelphia's air quality and how air pollutants have an adverse effect on the health of the residents. The recent designation by IARC of Air Pollution as a known carcinogen will be explored. How the community is exposed to air pollutants with consideration of vulnerable populations will be considered. Through a partnership with Philadelphia Air Management Service (AMS) agency the science of air monitoring and trends over time will be explored. Philadelphia's current non-attainment status for PM2.5. and ozone will be studied. Philadelphia's current initiatives to improvethe air quality of the city will be discussed. Students will learn to measure PM2.5 in outdoor and indoor settings and develop community-based outreach tools to effectively inform the community of Philadelphia regarding air pollution. The outreach tools developed by students may be presentations, written materials, apps, websites or other strategies for enhancing environmental health literacy of the community. A project based approach will be used to include student monitoring of area schools, school bus routes, and the community at large. The data collected will be presented to students in the partner elementary school in West Philadelphia . Upon completion of this course, students should expect to have attained a broad understanding of and familiarity with the sources, fate, and the environmental impacts and health effects of air pollutants.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar; Fulfills Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector Requirement 

Applying Anthropology Methods in Policy and Practice

Anthropology 337
Puneet Sahota

This course will introduce students to applied anthropology methods for doing research that can change policy and practices. Examples of policy and practice change include clinical practices in health care settings, social welfare policy, and legal advocacy. Students will be trained in multiple anthropology research methods, including brief participant-observation, presentation of self in the field, entering the field in diverse cultural environments, qualitative interviewing, life story interviewing, and ethnographic content analysis of textual material. Students will also learn how to use NVivo software for analyzing qualitative and some quantitative data from their field notes, interviews, and analysis of popular articles/websites. Finally, students will practice writing products for non-academic audiences, such as policymakers, the media, and the general public. The course will emphasize using anthropology research methods to address real-world problems in policy and practice in diverse cultural contexts. This course is a service learning class affiliated with the Netter Center and a Benjamin Franklin Scholars course.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar; Freshmen need permission

August Wilson and Beyond: Performance in the African Diaspora

English 380
Suzana E Berger Herman Beavers

The purpose of this course is to engage students in the rigorous process of mining experiences for material that can be transformed into a public performance piece. In-class writing, group discussions, and field work in the Philadelphia area. AUGUST WILSON AND BEYOND. The people need to know the story. See how they fit into it. See what part they play. - August Wilson, King Hedley II. In this seminar, students will read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traumas, triumphs, and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Other readings include supporting material on Wilson's work and African American theatre, the works of contemporary playwrights whom Wilson has influenced (such as Suzan-Lori Parks and Tarell Alvin McCraney), and context on Penn's relationship with West Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course,this seminar gives students the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the plays, and history and culture that shaped them, by forming meaningful relationships with West Philadelphia residents. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the two groups. The course culminates with students writing an original theatre piece inspired by the readings and relationships, which they will share at an end-of-semester performance.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar; Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Case Study: Self-care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara J. Riegel

This case study introduces the role of self-care by patients with chronic illness. We will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting patient self-care. Fieldwork experiences will enable students to gain practical experience in engaging chronically ill individuals in self-care.

*Prerequisites: NURS 215

Communication Research Experience

Communications 310
Emily Falk

In this hands-on course students will work with active researchers in the Communication Neuroscience lab at Penn to gain experience in how research works. Research topics will depend on student interests, with emphasis on one or more of the following: social influence and persuasion, health communication, peer influence in teens, mobile technology, social media, emotion regulation, peace and conflict resolution, mindfulness, interpersonal communication, political communication, adolescent brain development, communication neuroscience. Students will have the opportunity to interact closely with a mentor and will gain experience conceptualizing research questions, designing experiments, collecting data, and making an analysis plan.

Converging Landscapes: Art, Ecology and History

Fine Arts 307
Paul M. Farber

Studies of landscape are at the core of multiple fields of fine art making, historical inquiry, and environmental research. Christopher Tilley defines "landscape" as "a holistic term" that frames relationships between living beings and locales, "forming both the medium for, and outcome of, movement and memory." For interdisciplinary arts practitioners in Philadelphia, the landscape may conjure such relationships at points of convergence: when the physical and symbolic layers of the city lay bare social dynamics and truths. Such a range of landmarks - including rivers, neighborhoods, the viewshed, the skyline - are impacted by the deep histories of the region itself, as well as the human-activity that traffics upon it. To produce work about and from Philadelphia is to inherit long-standing questions of civic belonging, make sense of shifting demographics and ecological conditions, and to balance aims for innovation and coexistence. Converging Landscapes - Art, Ecology, and History is a civic studio and structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students in the course will participate as members of specialized research teams, working a set number of hours per week, write reflection papers, and produce a final site-specific research portfolio. Together, they will explore and produce work at and about sites of convergence. Students will pursue group projects and cross-disciplinary independent work, around selected arts and municipal contribute toward a class wide exhibition, as well as collaborations with artists, archives, and organizations. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, environmental humanities, history, and civic engagement.

Creative Non-Fiction Writing

Africana Studies 134 English 135
Lorene Cary

Africana Studies 134 is an improvisational workshop in creative nonfiction that connects you to current reporting opportunities; gives you structured choice in assignments; and teaches you how to write about hard subjects for and about young people. Big Questions about the social, emotional, relational and physical structures that affect young people require clear, engaging prose that avoids self-importance. Sometimes it’s even funny. Throughout this course, you’ll practice real-world skills without which even excellent writers may founder: initiative, scheduling, public reading preparation, and a meditative habit of observing—as if the same old world were born fresh every day. Which it is. This course is designed as a group internship in association with SafeKidsStories.com, a blog and social movement devoted to promoting safe havens for children and youth. You will work on and off campus, conduct workshops, curate, write, research, and publish. You will promote stories and events. You will write compact and engaging prose for blogs. You will also write Facebook posts and Tweets to accompany your own and your colleagues’ work. You will give a workshop to high-school or middle-school students, and you will edit their work for possible publication, too. If we do the job right, we will shine a light on those among us who make young people safe in an era of fear. If we make it fun to read, look at, and listen to, then, we’ll be on our way to creating community—and stealth culture change. This class is cross-listed with English 135 and is an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course.

Democracy in Trouble: OAS to the Rescue?

Latin American & Latino Studies 328-401 Political Science 328-401
Tulia Falleti Catherine Bartch

Democracy in the Americas is in trouble. Entrenched political, economic, and social inequality, combined with environmental degradation, weak institutions, pervasive health epidemics, weapon proliferation, and other pressing issues pose formidable challenges for strengthening democratic ideals and institutions. The Organization of American States (OAS) is uniquely poised to confront and purposively focused to strengthen peace, security, democracy, and human rights. In this community based course, students will study the role and history of the OAS while working directly with area public high school students in preparation for the OAS annual high model OAS simulation in Washington, DC.

Education in American Culture

Education 240
Charles Adams Brian Peterson

This course explores the relationships between forms of cultural production and transmission (schooling, family and community socialization, peer group subcultures and media representations) and relations of inequality in American society. Working with a broad definition of "education" as varied forms of social learning, we will concentrate particularly on the cultural processes that produce as well as potentially transform class, race, ethnic and gender differences and identities. From this vantage point, we will then consider the role that schools can and/or should play in challenging inequalities in America.

Embedded Controlled Gardening

Engineering & Applied Science 097
Jorge Juan Santiago

A service course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology and electronics and systems engineering for the benefit of Penn engineering students, teachers and students from two minority centered community public schools. The course will engage the participants in the design and implementation of indoors cultivating systems using photo-voltaic (PV) technology to energize LED emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

One of the goals of this seminar is to help students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Research teams help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as the improvement of university-community relations. Among other responsibilities, students focus their community service on college and career readiness at West Philadelphia High School and Sayre High School. Students are typically engaged in academically based community service learning at the schools for two hours each week.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar; Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Field Method of Sociological Research

Sociology 222-402
Annette Lareau

This course is designed to introduce students to field methods in sociological research, with a focus on participant-observation and interviewing. During this course, students will read original research based on field methods and discuss their strengths, limitations, and ethical dilemmas. Most importantly, students will design their own research projects and become ethnographers and interviewers. Students will be guided through the fieldwork process from data collection to analysis, and will turn in multiple assignments and original research paper.

Latinos in United States

Latin American & Latino Studies 235 Sociology 266
Emilio Alberto Parrado

This course presents a broad overview of the Latino population in the United States that focuses on the economic and sociological aspects of Latino immigration and assimilation. Topics to be covered include: construction of Latino identity, the history of U.S. Latino immigration, Latino family patterns and household structure, Latino educational attainment. Latino incorporation into the U.S. labor force, earnings and economic well-being among Latino-origin groups, assimilation and the second generation. The course will stress the importance of understanding Latinos within the overall system of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., as well as in comparison with previous immigration flows, particularly from Europe. We will pay particular attention to the economic impact of Latio immigration on both the U.S. receiving and Latin American sending communities, and the efficacy and future possililities of U.S. immigration policy. Within all of these diverse topics, we will stress the heterogeneity of the Latino population according to national origin groups (i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinos), as well as generational differences between immigrants and the native born.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US FOundational Requirement

Latinx Communities and the Role of CBO's in Social Change

Latin American & Latino Studies 424
Johnny Irizarry

The purpose of this course to create a Latino Studies/Service Learning ABCS course that cultivates dialogue and knowledge about the social, political, cultural and historical complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States (Philadelphia in particular) and the roles Latinx CBO's play in meeting the needs of Latinx communities and in impacting social change.

Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis

Fine Arts 305
Paul M. Farber Matthew J. Neff

What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia? This question is the central prompt for Fall 2017 citywide public art and history project, as well as a specifically designed community-based and engaged research course in Fine Arts. Students in Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis will participate as members of specialized research teams, in partnership with local high school research fellows, embedded in iconic public squares, West Philadelphia sites, and neighborhood parks around the city; serve as trained art guides to facilitate learning around over twenty temporary monument installations by internationally and locally-based artists; collect research proposals as a form of creative datasets managed by Penn's PriceLab and Library; and engage civic partners and public audiences around key issues of the project, including issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, social justice, and civic belonging. The class is structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures by participating artists. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students will work at research "labs" throughout the city for a set amount of hours per week, write reflection papers, and producea final site specific research portfolio. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, history, and civic engagement.

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018-402
Molly Jean Mcglone
Urban Studies 018-402
Molly Jean McGlone

Music in Urban Spaces explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, and sociologists who work to define urban space and the role of music and sound in urban environments. While the readings we do will inform our conversations and the questions we ask, it is within the context of our service to music programs in West Philly schools (one Elementary and one High School) that we will begin to formulate our theories of the contested musical micro-cultures of West Philadelphia. We will first consider what the listening and performing culture was when we were growing up and how, if at all, this music reflected the local definition of our environment as urban, suburban, or rural. In addition to reading that will help us define the musical genres, styles, and aesthetics of recent urban music, we will teach and learn from West Philly students. We will ask, for example, how does the music the high school students present reflect, reject, or reinforce stereotypes about race, ethnicity, gender, or class? In what ways does the participation of elementary school students in classical music training contribute to or allow for social or economic mobility in urban spaces Music in Urban Spaces explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that for some become agents of social change or personal advancement. The efforts between the University of Pennsylvania and two West Philadelphia schools will help Penn students to develop their musical and sociological skills in analyzing how music is a marker of cultural identification. The videos and research projects created by our class will provide evidence of the interconnected use of music in articulating the values, priorities, and essence of communities.

Nursing in the Community

Nursing 380
Patricia D'Antonio Rebecca Phillips

This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community's strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.

*Prerequisites: NURS 225; NURS 235; NURS 245; NURS 255

Nutrition Throughout The Life Cycle

Nursing 375
Monique Dowd

Understanding and meeting nutritional needs from conception through adulthood will be addressed. Nutrition-related concerns at each stage of the lifecycle, including impact of lifestyle, education, economics and food behavior will be explored.

*Prerequisites: NURS 054, NURS 112, or comparable nutrition or introductory course

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja V.E. Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Performance in the African Diaspora

Africana Studies 325
Suzana E Berger Herman Beavers

The purpose of this course is to engage students in the rigorous process of mining experiences for material that can be transformed into a public performance piece. In-class writing, group discussions, and field work in the Philadelphia area. AUGUST WILSON AND BEYOND. The people need to know the story. See how they fit into it. See what part they play. - August Wilson, King Hedley II. In this seminar, students will read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traumas, triumphs, and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Other readings include supporting material on Wilson's work and African American theatre, the works of contemporary playwrights whom Wilson has influenced (such as Suzan-Lori Parks and Tarell Alvin McCraney), and context on Penn's relationship with West Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course,this seminar gives students the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the plays, and history and culture that shaped them, by forming meaningful relationships with West Philadelphia residents. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the two groups. The course culminates with students writing an original theatre piece inspired by the readings and relationships, which they will share at an end-of-semester performance.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar; Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Philosophy of Education

249 Philosophy 249
Karen E. Detlefsen

The philosophy of education asks questions about the foundational assumptions of our formal institutions for the reproduction of culture. It ranges therefore, from epistemology and philosophy of mind to ethics and political philosophy. For instance: What is the nature of learning and teaching? How is it possible to come to know something we did not know already--and how can we aid others in doing that? How, if at all, should formal institutions of education be concerned with shaping students' moral and civic character? What is the proper relation between educational institutions and the state? We also ask questions more specific to our own time and context. For example: how, in a multicultural state, should we educate students of varied social identities, like race, gender, and religion? What is the relationship between education and justice.

*Permission needed from instructor

Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology 303
Gretchen E. L. Suess

This undergraduate seminar is about how ethnographers do research. It introduces fundamental concepts and techniques - research design, participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, field notes, archives, data collection and analysis. It also addresses ethical and legal issues- cultural protocols, intellectual property rights, collaborative anthropology, and institutional review boards. Students will conduct original ethnographic research in partnership with the Netter Center.

Seminar in Ethnomusicology

Music 350
Carol Ann Muller

This is an ABCS (academically based community service) class, one that will engage in a community related arts project as a part of your learning, but it is also one that will enable you to reflect on your own beliefs about music, the arts more generally, and the capacity of the arts cross culturally to work as a force of self/individual and collective understanding and, perhaps, healing.  The class will move between personal reflection, academic writing, and a team ethnographic project focused on two South African jazz musicians who will come to Penn—the Arthur Ross Gallery and the Music Department—and the West Philly community in October, 2018.  We will begin the class with reflections on the work of music/the arts in your own lives, then do intensive reading on the music/the creative and expressive arts as mechanisms of therapeutic healing cross culturally.  The second part will focus on South African jazz as a case study in the use of music for individual and collective political and therapeutic purpose.  The core project for the course will happen here: it will involve attending performances, community events, and interviewing/filming South African jazz musicians.  The third part of the class will be hands on team production of an ethnographic film/blog of materials generated around the South African musicians, plus a journaling of what you have learnt from the variety of materials engaged with in the semester.  The assignments are twofold: reflective and creative writing for parts one and three; and completion of the team ethnographic project from part two.  The course ties into a national conference on the arts and trauma being held in Spring 2019 at Penn.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement; Auditors need permission from instructors

Urban Education

Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper
Education 202
Andrew J Schiera

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology. Among the theoretical frames students will learn will be the tools of systems thinking (Bertalanffy, 1968). While most of us have internalized the key lesson of the industrial revolution-that to understand something we must break it into its parts; systems thinking, in contrast, is about understanding the parts in relation to whole. The power of systems thinking is that each point of connection also serves as a point of intervention. By showing the importance of decisions of those within classrooms and those outside of them, this course is well-suited to students of education, but also any who seek a role in creating a more just society.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement; Permission needed from instructor

Urban Environments: Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia

Environmental Studies 404
Richard Pepino

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards. In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar; Fulfills Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector Requirement

*Communication within the Curriculum (CWiC) Course

Urban Environments: The Urban Asthma Epedemic

Environmental Studies 408
Michael Kulik

Asthma as a pediatric chronic disease is undergoing a dramatic and unexplained increase. It has become the number one 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 co-teach asthma classes offered in public schools in West Philadelphia and survey asthma caregivers,providing them with the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations,promotecommunity education and awareness about asthma, and use problem-solving learning to enhance student education in environmental health.

*Communication within the Curriculum (CWiC) Course

Virtual Reality Lab

210 210 English 210
Peter Decherney

This course mixes virtual reality theory, history, and practice. We will read a wide range of scholarship, manifestoes, and memoirs that examine virtual reality and other immersive technologies, stretching from the 18th century to today. We will explore virtual reality projects, including narrative and documentary films, commercial applications, and games. We will work with many of the virtual reality systems available today (as well as some that are obsolete). And finally, we will learn the basics of creating virtual reality, making fully immersive 3-D, 360-degree films with geospatial soundscapes. In the second part of the class, we will take what we have learned out of the classroom, working with Philadelphia organizations to make collaborative documentaries about the experience of refugees who have been resettled in the US. This is an ABSC course offered in partnership with Penn’s Netter Center.  No previous knowledge of VR or experience is necessary.  Interest students can email Professor Peter Decherney at: pdecherney@gmail.com.

Graduate

Behavioral Sciences I: Health Promotions

DENTAL 550
Joan Gluch

Lectures, seminars, clinical sessions and community field experiences are provided so that students gain the necessary knowledge and skills in oral health promotion and disease prevention activities with individuals, communities and populations. Course topics include discussion of the philosophy, modalities, rationale and evaluation of health promotion and disease preventive activities related to caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer. Focus is placed on assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of strategies designed to target the individual patient, the community and a population perspective. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Behavioral Sciences II: Local & Global Public Health

DENTAL 650
Joan Gluch

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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Kara R. Finck

Community Oral Health IX: Practicum in Community Health Promotion II

DENTAL 812
Joan Gluch

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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

Converging Landscapes: Art, Ecology and History

Fine Arts 507
Paul M. Farber

Studies of landscape are at the core of multiple fields of fine art making, historical inquiry, and environmental research. Christopher Tilley defines "landscape" as "a holistic term" that frames relationships between living beings and locales, "forming both the medium for, and outcome of, movement and memory." For interdisciplinary arts practitioners in Philadelphia, the landscape may conjure such relationships at points of convergence: when the physical and symbolic layers of the city lay bare social dynamics and truths. Such a range of landmarks - including rivers, neighborhoods, the viewshed, the skyline - are impacted by the deep histories of the region itself, as well as the human-activity that traffics upon it. To produce work about and from Philadelphia is to inherit long-standing questions of civic belonging, make sense of shifting demographics and ecological conditions, and to balance aims for innovation and coexistence. Converging Landscapes - Art, Ecology, and History is a civic studio and structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students in the course will participate as members of specialized research teams, working a set number of hours per week, write reflection papers, and produce a final site-specific research portfolio. Together, they will explore and produce work at and about sites of convergence. Students will pursue group projects and cross-disciplinary independent work, around selected arts and municipal contribute toward a class wide exhibition, as well as collaborations with artists, archives, and organizations. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, environmental humanities, history, and civic engagement.

Discursive Approaches in Intercultural Communication

Education 676
Betsy R Rymes

This course offers a discourse-based approach and hands-on introduction to the field of intercultural communication, from the micro-level of interpersonal interaction to the macro-level of institutional practice. Through a series of readings and service learning projects in multicultural settings, students will hone their observational and analytic abilities, while gaining an appreciation of and facility for participating in the communicative diversity around them. Topics will include a repertoire approach to examining language in use, interpretation and metacommentary, and the possibility of intervention to facilitate new communicative patterns.

Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Ethnographic Filmmaking

Anthropology 583 Education 586
Kathleen D. Hall

This ethnographic methodology course considers filmmaking/videography as a tool in conducting ethnographic research as well as a medium for presenting academic research to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. The course engages the methodological and theoretical implications of capturing data and crafting social scientific accounts/narratives in images and sounds. Students are required to put theory into practice by conducting ethnographic research and producing an ethnographic film as their final project. In service to that goal, students will read about ethnography (as a social scientific method and representational genre), learn and utilize ethnographic methods in fieldwork, watch non-fiction films (to be analyzed for formal properties and implicit assumptions about culture/sociality), and acquire rigorous training in the skills and craft of digital video production. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. Due to the time needed for ethnographic film production, this is a year-long course, which will meet periodically in both the fall and spring semesters.

*Two terms; students must enter first term; Permission needed from department

Graduate Sculpture Studio

Fine Arts 604
Paul M. Farber Matthew J. Neff

Second-year studio for MFA students exploring advanced discipline in sculpture.

Language Teaching and Literacy Development in Multilingual Contexts

Education 545
Anne Pomerantz

This course introduces participants to a range of theoretical and practical issues related to language teaching and literacy development in bi/multilingual contexts, with an emphasis on providing instruction that takes a contextually sensitive, integrated skills approach. An intensive service-learning project offers course participants the opportunity to work with young learners and adolescents in a bilingual, after-school setting. Although the course takes elementary/secondary educational policy and practice for immigrant students in the United States as its starting point, discussion of the implications and applications to other bi/multilingual contexts is encouraged. The goal of this course is to prepare participants to support learners’ communicative and academic needs through the use of language-focused instructional practices.

Men and Incarceration: Healthy Mind, Strong Body, Better Life

Nursing 556-001
George Cronin

Students in this course will develop and implement health and wellbeing education programming for incarcerated men in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. Most of the classroom time is in the Philadelphia Prison interacting with male inmates. Evidence suggests improved self-regulation may enhance other therapeutic methodologies consequently reducing the frequency of reoffending. Students will explore the social and legal trends driving the incarceration of urban men and the resulting health and wellbeing needs of this population. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and male inmates.

Multicultural Issues in Education

Education 723
Vivian L. Gadsden

This course examines critical issues, problems, and perspectives in multicultural education. Intended to focus on access to literacy and educational opportunity, the course will engage class members in discussions around a variety of topics in educational practice, research, and policy. Specifically, the course will (1) review theoretical frameworks in multicultural education, (2) analyze the issues of race, racism, and culture in historical and contemporary perspective, and (3) identify obstacles to participation in the educational process by diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Students will be required to complete field experiences and classroom activities that enable them to reflect on their own belief systems, practices, and educational experiences.

 

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja V.E. Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Outside the School Box: History, Policy and Alternatives

Education 551
Michael C Johanek

This course explores historical and contemporary challenges involved in the policy and practice of non-school education agencies and factors that work in service to local school/community settings. Students will explore several historical case studies, conceptual frames, and current policy challenges, culminating in a community-based research project.

Practicum in Community Health Promotion I

DENTAL 712
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 to visit local elementary and middle schools and participate in the oral health education, screening and referral programs 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. This is a full year course open to Dental students only.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Shira Walinsky Jane Golden Heriza

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Women and Incarceration

Nursing 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphia jail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

*Permission needed from department

2018 Summer Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Graduate

Science in Elementary/Middle Schools

Education 521
Nancylee Bergey

The goal of this course is to prepare teachers to facilitate science learning in the elementary and middle school. Special emphasis is placed on striving for a balance between curricular goals; individual needs and interests; and the nature of science. Offered within the Teacher Education Program.

2018 Spring Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

ABCS of Everyday Neuroscience

Biological Basis of Behavior 160
Loretta Marie Flanagan-Cato

This course is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for neuroscience with students in grades 9-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. The course will allow Penn students to develop their science communication and teaching skills. Students will prepare neuroscience demonstrations, hands-on activities, and assessment tools. In parallel, the course aims to engage local high school students, increasing their interest and knowledge in science, and ultimately promoting lifelong science literacy.

Academic Based Community Service-Chemistry Outreach

Chemistry 010
Jenine R. Maeyer

CHEM 010 is an opportunity for undergraduates to share their interest and enthusiasm for science, specifically chemistry, with students in grades 6-12 attending urban public schools in West Philadelphia. In this course, undergraduates will create and facilitate chemistry outreach experiments in Penn’s general chemistry labs, as well as prepare and implement effective chemical demonstrations and hands-on activities in local public school classrooms. CHEM010 will allow undergraduates to develop science communication and teaching skills applicable to all facets of their education and future careers.

Advanced Writing for Children

Africana Studies 123 English 123
Lorene Cary

This is a course for students who have completed either English 121 or at least one other creative writing class. We will focus on writing novels for children from early chapter books to older teen fiction and the importance of creating compelling charcters, a good plot, excellent pacing, a distinctive voice, and an appropriate theme with the goal of each student refining an existing project or beginning work on a new one. There will be at least one reading and one writing assignment each week. Exercises will include studies in voice, point of view, plot development, humor, description, developing a fantasy world, writing historical ficion, and memoir. At the end of the semester each student will have completed a minimum of 60 pages of a novel for young readers. In addition, class work will include reading wide variety of published children's fiction, from young chapter books to older teen novels, as examples of the genre. Students will be admitted on the basis of an application by email that includes a brief description of their interest in the course and a writing sample of no more than five to ten pages.

ASL/Deaf Studies - ABCS

Linguistics 077
Jami N. Fisher

For this course, students will attend a local Deaf community partner organization on a weekly basis where they will participate in and contribute to the organization via mutually developed activities. Students will also have formal class on a weekly basis with discussions and activities centering on reflection of community experiences through linguistic as well as cultural lenses. Additionally, drawing from the required Linguistics and other ASL/Deaf Studies coursework, students will develop an inquiry question and conduct preliminary community-based research to analyze sociolinguistic variations of ASL and Deaf cultural attitudes, behaviors, and norms.  Ongoing reflections and discussions-formal and informal-on Deaf cultural/theoretical topics drawing from readings as well as community experiences will be integral to the course experience.  Concurrent or past experience in LING 078, Deaf Culture, and permission from the instructor are required for this course.

Case Study: Addressing The Social Determinants Of Health: Community Engagement Immersion

Nursing 354
Terri Lipman Rebecca Phillips

This case study offers students experiential learning to develop an in depth understanding of social determinants of health in vulnerable, underserved populations and to collaboratively design and refine existing health promotion programs based on the needs of the community site. Grounded on an approach that builds upon the strengths of communities, this course emphasizes the development of techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for underserved populations. Students are required to draw on skills and knowledge obtained from previous classes related to social determinants of health and community engagement and will engage in specific creative, innovative community based programs developed for populations across the life span. These culturally relevant programs, which have been shown to positively impact communities, create opportunities for students to address the social determinants of health, build engagement and leadership skills and increase program success and sustainability.

Case Study: Self-care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara J. Riegel

This case study introduces the role of self-care by patients with chronic illness. We will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting patient self-care. Fieldwork experiences will enable students to gain practical experience in engaging chronically ill individuals in self-care.

Community Based Environmental Health

Environmental Studies 406
Marilyn V. Howarth

From the fall of the Roman Empire to Love Canal to the epidemics of asthma, childhood obesity and lead poisoning in West Philadelphia, the impact of the environment on health has been a continuous challenge to society. The environment can affect people's health more strongly than biological factors, medical care and lifestyle. The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the neighborhood we live in are all components of the environment that impact our health. Some estimates, based on morbidity and mortality statistics, indicate that the impact of the environment on health is as high as 80%. These impacts are particularly significant in urban areas like West Philadelphia. 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 examine not only the toxicity of physical agents, but also the effects on human health of lifestyle, social and economic factors, and the built environment. Topics include cancer clusters, water borne diseases, radon and lung cancer, lead poisoning, environmental tobacco smoke, respiratory diseases and obesity. Students will research the health impacts of 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, and Environmental Education issues as they discuss approaches to mitigating environmental health risks.

Community Math Teaching Project

Mathematics 123
Idris Stovall

Math 123, Learning Math by Teaching Math, is an academically-based community service course which provides the opportunity to Penn students to both learn and teach fundamental mathematics concepts to high school students in Philadelphia. In this course, students will learn new ideas in algebra, geometry, and related mathematics topics; develop effective methods for teaching with understanding; and explore the context in which mathematics is taught in public high schools in the greater Philadelphia area. The course meets every Tuesday and Thursday, and separate evening tutoring sessions with the high school students are held each week at Education Commons. During the tutoring sessions, Penn students work two-on-two or one-on-two with the high school students to complete a math activity and reinforce mathematics concepts.

Deaf Culture

Linguistics 078
Jami N. Fisher

This course is an advanced/conversational ASL course that explores several key topics related to Deaf Culture. Using only ASL in class, students will read and discuss books, articles, and films related to the following topics: Deaf History, Deaf Identity, Deafness as Asset, Communication Issues and  Pathological Perspectives on Deafness, Deafness and Education, Deaf/Hearing  Family Dynamics.  Language growth will stem from direct instruction as well as through the course of class conversation. Students will collaborate with the instructor and our Deaf community liaison to develop and host an event that is accessible to both Deaf and hearing people alike.    

Embed Controlled Gardening

Engineering & Applied Science 097
Geraldine B Light Jorge Juan Santiago

A service course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology and electronics and systems engineering for the benefit of Penn engineering students, teachers and students from two minority centered community public schools. The course will engage the participants in the design and implementation of indoors cultivating systems using photo-voltaic (PV) technology to energize LED emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

A primary 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 caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Please note new location of the class: The Netter Conference Room is on 111 South 38th Street, on the 2nd floor. Among other responsibilities, students focus their community service on college and career readiness at West Philadelphia High School and Sayre High School. Students are typically engaged in academically based community service learning at the schools for two hours each week.

Healthy Schools

Health & Societies 335 Political Science 335
Mary E Summers

This academically based community service research 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 implimentation plan and an ongoing action project to put this plan into practice. Penn students will involve member sof the school administration, teachers, staff, parents and ocmmunity member sin the SHC and SHI process iwth a special focus on encouraging participation from the schools' students. In this model for the use of Penn service-learning teams is successful, it will form the basis of on ongoing partnership with the School District's Office of health, Safety & Physical Education to expand such efforts to more schools.

Intermediate Latin Poetry

Latin 204
James Ker

Prerequisite(s): LATN 203 or equivalent (such as placement score of 600). Continuous reading of several Latin authors in poetry (e.g., Ovid, Virgil, Horace) as well as some more complex prose, in combination with ongoing review of Latin grammar. By the end of the course students will have thorough familiarity with the grammar, vocabulary, and style and style of the selected authors, will be able to tackle previously unseen unseen passages by them, and will be able to discuss language and interpretation. Note: Completion of Latin 204 with C- or higher fulfills Penn's Foreign Language Requirement. The MW 3.30-5.00 section of Latin 204 combines Latin reading with practical Latin-based tutoring in a West Philadelphia elementary school. 

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean Mcglone

Music in Urban Spaces explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, urban educators and sociologists who work to define urban space, arts education and the role of music and sound in urban environments. While the readings we do will inform our conversations and the questions we ask, it is within the context of our personal experiences working with a group of students in the music programs at West Philadelphia High School and Henry C. Lea Elementary that we will begin to formulate our theories of the musical micro-cultures of West Philadelphia and education’s role in shaping socio-economic realities. Students should expect to support music programming at either Lea or West for 2-4 hours a week outside of regular classtime. 

*Freshman Seminar; Fulfills the Cross Cultural Analysis Foundational Requirement  
*Two terms; students must enter first term; Special permission needed from instructor
 

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja V.E. Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Poverty and Inequality

Sociology 041
Regina S. Baker

What does it mean to live in poverty in the "land of plenty" and experience inequality in the "land of opportunity?" From a sociological perspective, this Freshman Seminar explores these questions and others related to poverty and inequality in contemporary America. We will first focus on economic deprivation, addressing topics such as poverty (mis)perceptions, poverty measurement and trends, causes of poverty, and anti-poverty policy. We will also focus on inequality more broadly, examining how inequality is defined and what it looks like in the U.S. We will compare the “Haves" and the "Have Nots” and discuss issues of social class, mobility, wealth, and privilege. Lastly, we will explore how inequalities in different domains related to poverty (e.g. education, labor markets, housing and neighborhoods, the criminal justice system, and health) produce, maintain, and reproduce poverty. Throughout the semester, we will consider the roles of race/ethnicity, gender, age, and place, and how they help deepen our understanding of poverty and inequality. Although course materials focus primarily on the U.S., we will also pay special attention to issues of poverty and inequality in our Philadelphia locale. As such, students will complete weekly community service in Philadelphia and will reflect on their experiences as they relate to course concepts.

* Freshman Seminar

Psychology of Food

Psychology 070
Paul Rozin

Food is a biological essential for humans, but one that has been elaborated and transformed in many ways through history, and given a variety of cultural signatures. This course will consider food from the point of view of different disciplines. It will also serve as medium for promoting critical thinking and quantitative skills, particularly through exercises in data collection (both observation and experiment), basic statistics and interpretation of results.  The course will partner with the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI). 

*Permission needed from Department

*Benjamin Franklin Seminar

*Fulfills College Quantitative Data Analysis Requirement

Science in Elementary & Middle School

Environmental Studies 421
Nancylee Bergey

An intensive approach to current methods, curricula, and trends in teaching science as basic learning, K-8. "Hands-on" activities based on cogent, current philosophical and psychological theories including: S/T/S and gender issues. Focus on skill development in critical thinking. Content areas: living things, the physical universe, and interacting ecosystems.

Science in Elementary and Middle Schools

Education 421
Nancylee Bergey

An intensive approach to current methods, curricula, and trends in teaching science as basic learning, K-8. "Hands-on" activities based on cogent, current philosophical and psychological theories including: S/T/S and gender issues. Focus on skill development in critical thinking. Content areas: living things, the physical universe, and interacting ecosystems.

The Art of Speaking

College 135
Elizabeth Sue Weber

This course is designed to equip students with the major tenets of rhetorical studies and peer education necessary to work as a CWiC speaking advisor. 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 presentations, students present workshops and practice advising. During this ABCS course, students will practice their advising skills by coaching and mentoring students at a public school in Philadelphia.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Role of Water in Urban Sustainability and Resiliency

Environmental Studies 410
Howard M. Neukrug

This course will provide an overview of the cross-disciplinary fields of civil engineering, environmental sciences, urban hydrology, landscape architecture, green building, public outreach and politics. Students will be expected to conduct field investigations, review scientific data and create indicator reports, working with stakeholders and presenting the results at an annual symposium. There is no metaphor like water itself to describe the cumulative effects of our practices, with every upstream action having an impact downstream. In our urban environment, too often we find degraded streams filled with trash, silt, weeds and dilapidated structures. The water may look clean, but is it? We blame others, but the condition of the creeks is directly related to how we manage our water resources and our land. In cities, these resources are often our homes, our streets and our communities. This course will define the current issues of the urban ecosystem and how we move toward managing this system in a sustainable manner. We will gain an understanding of the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between practices in an watershed and its waterfront. Topics discussed include: drinking water quality and protection, green infrastructure, urban impacts of climate change, watershed monitoring, public education, creating strategies and more.

Tutoring in Schools: Theory and Practice

Education 323
Aliya Bradley

This course represents an opportunity for students to participate in academically-based community service involving tutoring in a West Phila. public school. This course is open to both students who are already tutoring in the West Philadelphia community, and those who are interested in tutoring for the first time.

Tutoring School: Theory and Practice

Urban Studies 323
Cheryl Parker

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

Urban Education

Education 202 Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology. Among the theoretical frames students will learn will be the tools of systems thinking (Bertalanffy, 1968). While most of us have internalized the key lesson of the industrial revolution-that to understand something we must break it into its parts; systems thinking, in contrast, is about understanding the parts in relation to whole. The power of systems thinking is that each point of connection also serves as a point of intervention. By showing the importance of decisions of those within classrooms and those outside of them, this course is well-suited to students of education, but also any who seek a role in creating a more just society. 

*Fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the US Foundational Requirement

Urban Environments: Prevention of Tobacco Smoking in Adolescents

Environmental Studies 407
Michael Kulik

Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Control 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 lessons to middle school students. The undergraduates will survey and evaluate middle school and Penn student smoking. One of the course goals is to raise awareness of the middle school children to prevent addiction to tobacco smoke during adolescence. Collaboration with the middle schools gives Penn students the opportunity to apply their study of the prevention of tobacco smoking to real world situations.

Women and Incarceration

Nursing 555 Gender,Sexuality & Women's Stud 555
Kathleen M Brown

This elective course will afford students the opportunity to develop and implement health education workshops for incarcerated women in the Philadelphia jail system. Students will explore the social and historical framework and trends in the incarceration of women, as well as the needs of this population, and will identify specific areas that need to be addressed by particular disciplines or professions. Students will have direct contact with the jail system, its staff, and female inmates.

Graduate

Access & Choice in American Higher Education

Education 541
Laura Perna

College enrollment is a complex process that is shaped by the economic, social and policy context, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, families, and students. The course will examine the theoretical perspectives that are used to understand college access and choice processes. The implications of various policies and practices for college access and choice will also be explored, with particular attention to the effects of these policies for underrepresented groups. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, this course is also designed to generate tangible recommendations that program administrators and institutional leaders may be used to improve college access and choice.

An Interdisciplinary Course In Advanced Leadership Skills In Community Health

Public Health Studies 588
Terri Lipman Heather Klusaritz Walter Tsou

Grounded in a social justice perspective, this inter professional course aims to provide the student with a foundational overview of the field of community health and leadership skills in public health advocacy. The course encourages critical thinking about health outcomes framed by the broad context of the political and social environment. This course analyzes the range of roles and functions carried out by leaders in healthcare advocacy for marginalized communities; integrates knowledge of health policy and the key influence of government and financing on health outcomes; explores community-based participatory research and interventions as tools for change; and discuss ways to develop respectful partnerships with community organizations. An assets-based approach that draws upon the strengths of communities and their leaders provides a foundation for community-engagement skill building. The course emphasizes the development of skills and techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for disenfranchised groups, including residents of urban neighborhoods. *Prerequisites: Enrollment in a Masters or Doctoral Program  *Undergraduates need permission

An Interdisciplinary Course In Advanced Leadership Skills In Community Health 

Nursing 587-401
Terri Lipman Heather Klusaritz Walter Tsou

Grounded in a social justice perspective, this inter professional course aims to provide the student with a foundational overview of the field of community health and leadership skills in public health advocacy. The course encourages critical thinking about health outcomes framed by the broad context of the political and social environment. This course analyzes the range of roles and functions carried out by leaders in healthcare advocacy for marginalized communities; integrates knowledge of health policy and the key influence of government and financing on health outcomes; explores community-based participatory research and interventions as tools for change; and discuss ways to develop respectful partnerships with community organizations. An assets-based approach that draws upon the strengths of communities and their leaders provides a foundation for community-engagement skill building. The course emphasizes the development of skills and techniques to lead effective, collaborative, health-focused interventions for disenfranchised groups, including residents of urban neighborhoods.

*Prerequisites: Enrollment in a Masters or Doctoral Program 
*Undergraduates need permission

Child Advocacy Clinic

Law 649
Kara R. Finck Jennifer R Nagda

Students in the clinic represent adolescent and youth clients on a variety of matters including child welfare cases, immigration proceedings, education issues and health related matters. As part of the seminar, clinic students will also have access to experts and guest lecturers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice to assist with their interdisciplinary representation of clients and examination of laws and policies affecting children and families.

*Open only to LAW and SP2 students

Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Education 598
Stephen R Kocher

This ABCS course explores religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue and action on college campuses. It brings together students with diverse faith commitments (including atheism) to engage with and learn from one another in academic study, dialogue, and service.

Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner: Professional Role and Intermediate Clinical Practice: Dance for Health Program

Nursing 735
Terri Lipman Jessica A Strohm Farber

This course focuses on the implementation of the professional role of the Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (PNP-AC). Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the nurse practitioner in pediatric acute care. Applications of nursing, biological and behavioral science are emphasized in the advanced clinical assessment, clinical decision making and management skills needed to care for complex, unstable acutely and chronically ill children and their families. The role of the advanced practice nurse in promoting optimal child/family outcomes is emphasized.

Integral in the role of the PNP-AC is engagement in the community and addressing Social Determinants of Health. The community engagement in this course is a collaborative initiative among the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, West Philadelphia high school students and a community recreation center. For the first part of the initiative, PNP-AC students will provide an interactive curriculum for the high school students based on the needs identified by staff and students. The second objective of this engagement is related to increasing access to physical activity.  Lack of activity contributes to obesity and type-2 diabetes which is more prevalent in areas of poverty and in African American and Hispanic populations. Interventions that are culturally relevant and targeted to the needs of the community are needed. Dance has been successfully used in underserved communities as an enjoyable method of obesity reduction. The Penn/high school partnership will direct Dance for Health – an intergenerational program focused on increasing activity in the community.  This project will actively engage the community in each component of planning and implementation, and outcome data will be collected by high school and nurse practitioner students.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

2017 Fall Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

Air Pollution: Sources & Effects in Urban Environments

Environmental Studies 411
Maria-Antonia Andrews Marilyn V. Howarth

This is an ABCS course designed to provide the student with an understanding of air pollution at the local, regional and global levels. The nature, composition, and properties of air pollutants in the atmosphere will also be studied. The course will focus on Philadelphia's air quality and how air pollutants have an adverse effect on the health of the residents. The recent designation by IARC of Air Pollution as a known carcinogen will be explored. How the community is exposed to air pollutants with consideration of vulnerable populations will be considered. Through a partnership with Philadelphia Air Management Service (AMS) agency the science of air monitoring and trends over time will be explored. Philadelphia's current non-attainment status for PM2.5. and ozone will be studied. Philadelphia's current initiatives to improvethe air quality of the city will be discussed. Students will learn to measure PM2.5 in outdoor and indoor settings and develop community-based outreach tools to effectively inform the community of Philadelphia regarding air pollution. The outreach tools developed by students may be presentations, written materials, apps, websites or other strategies for enhancing environmental health literacy of the community. A project based approach will be used to include student monitoring of area schools, school bus routes, and the community at large. The data collected will be presented to students in the partner elementary school in West Philadelphia . Upon completion of this course, students should expect to have attained a broad understanding of and familiarity with the sources, fate, and the environmental impacts and health effects of air pollutants.

Anthropology & Policy: History, Theory, Practice

Anthropology 305
Gretchen E. L. Suess

From the inception of the discipline, anthropologists have applied their ethnographic and theoretical knowledge to policy issues concerning the alleviation of practical human problems. This approach has not only benefited peoples in need but it has also enriched the discipline, providing anthropologists with the opportunity to develop new theories and methodologies from a problem-centered approach. The class will examine the connection between anthropology and policy, theory and practice (or 'praxis'), research and application. We will study these connections by reading about historical and current projects. As an ABCS course, students will also volunteer in a volunteer organization of their choice in the Philadelphia area, conduct anthropological research on the organization, and suggest ways that the anthropological approach might support the efforts of the organization.

August Wilson and Beyond: Performance in the African Diaspora

Africana Studies 325 English 380
Herman Beavers Suzana E Berger

In this intergenerational seminar, Penn students and West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance members together read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traumas, triumphs, and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Students and elders get to know each other by exploring the history and culture that shaped the plays. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, the class plans and hosts events with the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, learns history through storytelling, and writes an original theatre piece inspired by the readings and relationships, to share at an end-of-semester performance. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the two groups and art is the service they provide to the community together.

"The people need to know the story. See how they fit into it. See what part they play." - August Wilson

Benjamin Franklin Seminar

Case Study: Self-care of Chronic Illness

Nursing 355
Barbara J. Riegel

This case study introduces the role of self-care by patients with chronic illness. We will discuss the history, definitions, predictors, and outcomes of self-care in various chronically ill populations. A focus of discussion will be an in depth exploration of the factors that influence self-care. Understanding these factors will prepare nurses for their role in promoting patient self-care. Fieldwork experiences will enable students to gain practical experience in engaging chronically ill individuals in self-care.

Community Algebra Initiative

Mathematics 122
Idris Stovall

This course allows Penn students to teach a series of hands-on activities to students in math classes at high schools in West Philadelphia. 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. In the first class meeting of each week, Penn faculty will teach Penn students 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 small groups of high school students. Penn students will also have an opportunity to develop their own activities and implement them with the high school students.

Community Physics Initiative

Physics 137
Larry Gladney Bill Berner

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 local high school students.  Penn students learn theoretical and practical physics by creating and teaching hands- on physics lessons to high school students. Students spend half of their weekly lecture hours mastering physics fundamentals and preparing lesson plans. The other half will be spent implementing lessons at school sites in West Philadelphia and other city schools.

Educating for Democracy in Latin America and the U.S.

Latin American & Latino Studies 227
Catherine E.M. Bartch

What does it mean to educate for a democracy, and for what type of democracy should we educate for? This course will examine these central questions and others pertaining to citizenship, democracy, and education as it relates to Latin America and Latino/as in the U.S. The course will first examine theoriesof education for democracy comparing and contrasting the works of persons including U.S. progressive-era writer John Dewey, Brazilian scholar Paolo Freire, and Penn President and political scientist Amy Gutmann. The course will delve into a civic and political education curriculum and pedagogies that have beencarried out in institutions, inequality, and culture in the region. The latterpart of the course will examine civic education practices of Latino/as here in the U.S. from primary schools to higher education. This course offers a service-learning component where students will be encouraged to volunteer with educational organizations in the Philadelphia community.

Education for Democracy in Latin America and the U.S.

Political Science 228
Catherine E.M. Bartch

What does it mean to educate for a democracy, and for what type of democracy should we educate for? This course will examine these central questions and others pertaining to citizenship, democracy, and education as it relates to Latin America and Latino/as in the U.S. The course will first examine theoriesof education for democracy comparing and contrasting the works of persons including U.S. progressive-era writer John Dewey, Brazilian scholar Paolo Freire, and Penn President and political scientist Amy Gutmann. The course will delve into a civic and political education curriculum and pedagogies that have beencarried out in institutions, inequality, and culture in the region. The latterpart of the course will examine civic education practices of Latino/as here in the U.S. from primary schools to higher education. This course offers a service-learning component where students will be encouraged to volunteer with educational organizations in the Philadelphia community.

Education in American Culture

Education 240
Brian Peterson

This course explores the relationships between forms of cultural production and transmission (schooling, family and community socialization, peer group subcultures and media representations) and relations of inequality in American society. Working with a broad definition of "education" as varied forms of social learning, we will concentrate particularly on the cultural processes that produce as well as potentially transform class, race, ethnic and gender differences and identities. From this vantage point, we will then consider the role that schools can and/or should play in challenging inequalities in America.

Embedded Controlled Gardening Independent Study

Electric & Systems Engineering
Jorge Santiago – Aviles

A course intended to integrate concepts of basic physics, biology and electronics and systems engineering for the benefit of Penn engineering students, teachers and students from two minority centered community public schools. The course will engage the participants in the design and implementation of indoors cultivating systems using photo-voltaic technology to energize LED emulating the needed solar radiation for plant growth, a liquid nutrient distribution system, sensors / actuators capable of selecting the harvestable plants and keeping track of overall system parameters.

For more information, please contact Professor Santiago-Aviles, santiago@seas.upenn.edu

Essay, Blog, Tweet: Non-Fiction Now!

Africana Studies 134 English 135
Lorene Cary

This class is designed to advance students' writing practice, discipline, and workshop and critiquing skills. Student writers will create non-fiction narrative in several forms: blogs, memoir, interviews, Q&As, essays. We will play with promotion, video, and social marketing, even grant proposals, advertisements, public service announcements, queries, and photo captions -all the forms that writers actually use throughout careers of deep reflection followed by hustle-and-pitch. The class will act as an editorial group for SafeKidsStories.org, a site to be launched in the fall of 2015. The idea is to depict safety with the specificity and drama that we usually reserve for conflict. Your writing will explore Big Questions about the social, emotional, relational and physical structures that affect our children and youth ; your research, interviews, reporting, and experience will discover and share solutions. If we do the job right, we will shine a light on people in our midst creating structures of safety for kids in an era of fear. If we make it fun to read, look at, and listen to, too, then, like a few historic college courses that participate substantively in their communities, we'll be on our way to stealth culture change.

Ethnography and Media for Social Justice

Communications 243
Jessa Lingel

How do qualitative social scientists study urban communities? What kinds of powerful tales can be told about urban lifestyles and social issues in places like Philadelphia? This course will allow students to study various ethnographic treatments of urban communities in the United States, using films, articles, TV serials, and books as guides for the framing of their own independent research on the streets of Philadelphia. Students will also form production teams of two or three people, and these production teams will be responsible for (i) identifying and researching an important urban issue in contemporary an important urban issue in contemporary Philadelphia and (ii) turning that research into a 15-30 minute video documentary or pod cast. Mixing video/audio journalism with ethnographic methods will enhance their skills at archival and social research, from participant observation and interviewing techniques to sound editing and production. This course is intended to be a rigorous and exciting opportunity for students to tell empirically grounded stories using the voices of their participants and the sounds of the city.

Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Relations

Africana Studies 078 History 173 Urban Studies 178
Ira Harkavy

A primary 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 caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Please note new location of the class: The Netter Conference Room is on 111 South 38th Street, on the 2nd floor. Among other responsibilities, students focus their community service on college and career readiness at West Philadelphia High School and Sayre High School. Students are typically engaged in academically based community service learning at the schools for two hours each week.

Latinos in the United States

Latin American & Latino Studies 235
Amada Armenta

This course presents a broad overview of the Latino population in the United States that focuses on the economic and sociological aspects of Latino immigration and assimilation. Topics to be covered include: construction of Latino identity, the history of U.S. Latino immigration, Latino family patterns and household structure, Latino educational attainment. Latino incorporation into the U.S. labor force, earnings and economic well-being among Latino-origin groups, assimilation and the second generation. The course will stress the importance of understanding Latinos within the overall system of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., as well as in comparison with previous immigration flows, particularly from Europe. We will pay particular attention to the economic impact of Latio immigration on both the U.S. receiving and Latin American sending communities, and the efficacy and future possililities of U.S. immigration policy. Within all of these diverse topics, we will stress the heterogeneity of the Latino population according to national origin groups (i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinos), as well as generational differences between immigrants and the native born.

Latinos in United States

Sociology 266
Amada Armenta

This course presents a broad overview of the Latino population in the United States that focuses on the economic and sociological aspects of Latino immigration and assimilation. Topics to be covered include: construction of Latino identity, the history of U.S. Latino immigration, Latino family patterns and household structure, Latino educational attainment. Latino incorporation into the U.S. labor force, earnings and economic well-being among Latino-origin groups, assimilation and the second generation. The course will stress the importance of understanding Latinos within the overall system of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., as well as in comparison with previous immigration flows, particularly from Europe. We will pay particular attention to the economic impact of Latino immigration on both the U.S. receiving and Latin American sending communities, and the efficacy and future possibilities of U.S. immigration policy. Within all of these diverse topics, we will stress the heterogeneity of the Latino population according to national origin groups (i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinos), as well as generational differences between immigrants and the native born.

Latinx Communities and the Role of CBO's in Social Change

Latin American & Latino Studies 424
Johnny Irizarry

The purpose of this course to create a Latino Studies/Service Learning ABCS course that cultivates dialogue and knowledge about the social, political, cultural and historical complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States (Philadelphia in particular) and the roles Latinx CBO's play in meeting the needs of Latinx communities and in impacting social change.

Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis

Fine Arts 305
Matthew J. Neff Paul M. Farber

What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia? This question is the central prompt for a Fall 2017 citywide public art and history project, as well as a specially designed community-based and engaged research course in Fine Arts. Students in Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis will participate as members of specialized research teams, in partnership with local high school research fellows, embedded in iconic public squares, West Philadelphia sites, and neighborhood parks around the city; serve as trained art guides to facilitate learning around over twenty temporary monument installations by internationally and locally-based artists; collect research proposals as a form of creative datasets managed by Penn's PriceLab and Library; and engage civic partners and public audiences around key issues of the project, including issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, social justice, and civic belonging. The class is structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures by participating artists. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students will work at research "labs" throughout the city for a set amount of hours per week, write reflection papers, and produce a final site specific research portfolio. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, history, and civic engagement.

*Monument Lab is a citywide public art and history project, curated by Paul Farber and Ken Lum, and co-produced with Mural Arts Philadelphia.

Music in Urban Spaces

Music 018 Urban Studies 018
Molly Jean McGlone

Music in Urban Spaces explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, urban educators and sociologists who work to define urban space, arts education and the role of music and sound in urban environments. While the readings we do will inform our conversations and the questions we ask, it is within the context of our personal experiences working with a group of students in the music programs at West Philadelphia High School and Henry C. Lea Elementary that we will begin to formulate our theories of the musical micro-cultures of West Philadelphia and education’s role in shaping socio-economic realities. Students should expect to support music programming at either Lea or West for 2-4 hours a week outside of regular class time.

Freshman Seminar; Fulfills the Cross Cultural Analysis Foundational Requirement

*Two terms; students must enter first term; Special permission needed from instructor

Nursing in the Community

Nursing 380
Alison Meredith Buttenheim Monica Harmon

This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community's strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.

Nutrition Throughout The Life Cycle

Nursing 375
Monique Dowd

Understanding and meeting nutritional needs from conception through adulthood will be addressed. Nutrition-related concerns at each stage of the lifecycle, including impact of lifestyle, education, economics and food behavior will be explored. As an ABCS course, students will be given the opportunity to address a real world nutrition-related issue in West Philadelphia in collaborations with Penn and/or local programs. Students will work in West Philadelphia with either senior citizens in the LIFE Program or K-8 students through the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative's Fruit Stands for 2-4 hours/week outside of class time.

*Prerequisites: NURS 054, NURS 112, or comparable nutrition or introductory course

Obesity and Society

Nursing 313
Tanja V.E. Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 222 Urban Studies 322
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

The Politics of Food

Health & Societies 135
Mary E Summers

In this ABCS and Fox Leadership Program course students will use course readings and their community service to analyze the institutions, ideas, interests, social movements, and leadership that shape "the politics of food" in different arenas. Service sites include: the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative; the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger; the West Philadelphia Recess Initiave; the Vetri Foundation's Eatiquette Program; and Bon Appetit at Penn. Academic course work will include weekly readings, Canvas blog posts, several papers, and group projects. Service work will include a group presentation (related to your placement) as well as reflective writing during the semester. Typically one half of each class will be devoted to a discussion of the readings and the other either to group work and discussion of service projects, or to a course speaker. This course is affiliated with the Communication within the Curriculum (CWIC) program, and student groups are required to meet twice with speaking advisors prior to giving presentation.

The Politics of Food and Agriculture

Political Science 135
Mary E Summers

Students will use course readings and their community service to analyze the institutions, ideas, interests, social movements, and leadership that shape the "politics of food" in different arenas. Service opportunities include work with the Urban Nutrition Initiative, Community School Student Partnerships, and the possibility of other placements as approved by the professors.

Tutoring in Urban Public Elementary Schools: A Child Development Perspective

Education 326 Urban Studies 326
John W. Fantuzzo

The course provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in academically based community service learning. 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. 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.

Urban Asthma Epedemic

Environmental Studies 408
Michael Kulik

Requires community service in addition to class time. Asthma as a pediatric chronic disease has undergone a dramatic and unexplained increase. It has become the number one cause of public school absenteeism and accounts for a significant number of childhood deaths each year in the U.S. The Surgeon General of the United States has characterized childhood asthma as an epidemic. In ENVS 408, Penn students 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 co-teach asthma classes offered in public schools in West Philadelphia and survey asthma caregivers, providing them with the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations, promote community education and awareness about asthma, and use problem-solving learning to enhance student education in environmental health. Students should expect to commit 1.5-2 hours per week for 6 weeks for student teaching plus survey time for a community research project.

Communication with the Curriculum (CWIC) Course

Urban Education

Education 202
Andrew J Schiera
Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This course focuses on various perspectives on urban education, conditions for teaching and learning in urban public schools, current theories of pedagogy in urban classrooms along with a close examination of a few representative and critical issues. In the past, students in this course have volunteered as mentors through Community School Student Partnerships, a student-led group that supports school day and afterschool programs in one-on-one and/or group settings at our West Philadelphia University-Assisted Community Schools.

Fulfills the Culture and Diversity in the United States Foundational Requirement; Requirement for the Urban Education Minor

Urban Environments: Speaking About Lead in West Philadelphia

Environmental Studies 404
Richard Pepino Catherine Klinger Kutcher

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards. In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

Graduate

Discursive Approaches to Intercultural Communication

Education 676
Betsy Rymes

This course offers a hands-on introduction to the field of intercultural communication (ICC) and as such also serves as a pre-requisite to your Spring ICC Core Course, Experiential Learning Design, and to your more substantive Internship and Culminating Master’s Thesis or Portfolio. Through Service Learning Projects (SLPs) in multicultural settings, and engaging in literature circles, in which we reflect on literary and popular perspectives on ICC, we will hone our observational and analytic abilities, while gaining an appreciation of and facility for participating in the communicative diversity around us.To train students to communicate their field experiences and their interpretations of those experiences with clarity and purpose, this course also introduces, in detail, the practice of writing field notes. During most weeks, students will reflect on their own fieldnotes and will share and critique field notes in class. By the end of the course, students will have learned to translate those fieldnotes into detailed analyses and ethnographic prose, and, finally, into posters that they share with the community organizations where they have been volunteering.

Ethnographic Filmmaking

Anthropology 583 Education 586
Kathleen D. Hall Amitanshu Das

This ethnographic methodology course considers filmmaking/videography as a tool in conducting ethnographic research as well as a medium for presenting ,academic research to scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. The course engages the methodological and theoretical implications of capturing data and crafting social scientific accounts/narratives in images and sounds. Students are required to put theory into practice by conducting ethnographic research and producing an ethnographic film as their final project. In service to that goal, students will read about ethnography (as a social scientific method and representational genre), learn and utilize ethnographic methods in fieldwork, watch non-fiction films (to be analyzed for formal properties and implicit assumptions about culture/sociality), and acquire rigorous training in the skills and craft of digital video production. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. Due to the time needed for ethnographic film production, this is a year-long course, which will meet periodically in both the fall and spring semesters.

Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic: Enriching Adolescent Development through Integrated Community Education

Law 649
Jennifer R Nagda Kara R. Finck

Students in the clinic represent adolescent and youth clients on a variety of matters including child welfare cases, immigration proceedings, education issues and health related matters. As part of the seminar, clinic students will also have access to experts and guest lecturers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice to assist with their interdisciplinary representation of clients and examination of laws and policies affecting children and families.

*Open only to LAW and SP2 students

Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis

Fine Arts 604
Matthew J. Neff Paul M. Farber

What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia? This question is the central prompt for a Fall 2017 citywide public art and history project, as well as a specially designed community-based and engaged research course in Fine Arts. Students in Monument Lab: Public Art & Civic Research Praxis will participate as members of specialized research teams, in partnership with local high school research fellows, embedded in iconic public squares, West Philadelphia sites, and neighborhood parks around the city; serve as trained art guides to facilitate learning around over twenty temporary monument installations by internationally and locally-based artists; collect research proposals as a form of creative datasets managed by Penn's PriceLab and Library; and engage civic partners and public audiences around key issues of the project, including issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, social justice, and civic belonging. The class is structured as a socially-engaged art praxis experience: students will meet weekly for group facilitations, civic dialogues, and special guest lectures by participating artists. In lieu of midterms and a final exam, students will work at research "labs" throughout the city for a set amount of hours per week, write reflection papers, and produce a final site specific research portfolio. The course is ideal for students invested in issues of socially-engaged public art, history, and civic engagement.

Multicultural Issues in Education

Education 723
Vivian L. Gadsden

This course examines critical issues, problems, and perspectives in multicultural education. Intended to focus on access to literacy and educational opportunity, the course will engage class members in discussions around a variety of topics in educational practice, research, and policy. Specifically, the course will (1) review theoretical frameworks in multicultural education, (2) analyze the issues of race, racism, and culture in historical and contemporary perspective, and (3) identify obstacles to participation in the educational process by diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Students will be required to complete field experiences and classroom activities that enable them to reflect on their own belief systems, practices, and educational experiences.

Obesity and Society

Nursing 513
Tanja V.E. Kral

This course will examine obesity from scientific, cultural, psychological, and economic perspectives. The complex matrix of factors that contribute to obesity and established treatment options will be explored. This course satisfies the Society & Social Structures Sector for Nursing Class of 2012 and Beyond.

Outside the School Box: History, Policy and Alternatives

Education 551
Michael C Johanek

This course explores historical and contemporary challenges involved in the policy and practice of non-school education agencies and factors that work in service to local school/community settings. Students will explore several historical case studies, conceptual frames, and current policy challenges, culminating in a community-based research project.

Public Interest Workshop

Gender,Sexuality & Women's Stud 516 Urban Studies 516 Anthropology 516
Gretchen E. L. Suess

This is a Public Interest Ethnography workshop (originally created by Peggy Reeves Sanday - Department of Anthropology) that incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to exploring social issues. 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 Department of Anthropology's commitment to developing public interest research and practice as a disciplinary theme. Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on: 1) merging problem solving with theory and analysis in the interest of change motivated by a commitment to social justice, racial harmony, equality, and human rights; and 2) engaging in public debate on human issues to make research results accessible to a broader audience. The workshop brings in guest speakers and will incorporate original ethnographic research to merge theory with action. Students are encouraged to apply the framing model to a public interest research and action topic of their choice. This is an academically-based-community-service (ABCS) course that partners directly with Penn's Netter Center Community Partnerships.

Teaching Writing in Multilingual Contexts

Education 516
Anne Pomerantz

This course introduces participants to a range of theoretical and practical issues related to second language literacy development, with a particular emphasis on writing instruction. An intensive service-learning project offers course participants the opportunity to work with developing writers in a bilingual community organization. The dual emphasis on theory and pedagogy is intended to create space for critical reflection on the characteristics, production, teaching, and assessment of written texts in bi/multilingual educational settings.

The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia

Fine Arts 622
Jane Golden Heriza Shira Walinsky

The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with 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 class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia.

Visual Legal Advocacy Clinic: Documentaries & the Law

Law 979
Regina Austin

Legal Advocacy Seminar introduces law students to the art of making short nonfiction advocacy films on behalf of local, individual clients and/or nonprofit groups seeking to advance the cause of social justice. Students will also engage with scholars from other disciplines who make films about community life and deal with issues of “image ethics” as well as reach out to local community leaders and activists from Philadelphia who might be interested in collaborating on a visual legal advocacy project.

*Open to students of ALL schools, including undergraduates*

2017 Summer Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

Anthropology and Praxis: Transforming Social Life

Anthropology 318
Gretchen E. L. Suess

This course focuses on real world community problems, engaged scholarship and the evaluation of Penn programs and partnerships intended to improve social conditions in West Philadelphia. The course is rooted in Public Interest Anthropology (PIA). Two trends emerge from the rubric of public interest social science: 1.) merging problem solving with theory and analysis in the interest of change motivated by a commitment to social justice, racial harmony, equality, and human rights; and 2.) engaging in public debate on human issues to make the research results accessible to a broad audience. Combining these focus areas, this course will deal with critical research and the evaluation of programs organized around academically-based community service (ABCS) with a focus on social change. As part of the course, students will conduct an evaluation of an actively-running Netter Center/Penn program designed to improve quality of life and/or health status among West Philadelphia children, youth and families to support a mutually-beneficial partnership. The focus of the evaluation will be dependent upon student interest, the number of students in the course, and program needs.