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Florida Keys Community College students know how to get wet! Divers-in-training go to class at the all-weather underwater training facility located in the center of campus. This training area hosts not only dive students but tropical fish, sharks, plant life, and wrecks to help divers hone their skills as they work toward their A.S. degree in Diving and Business Technology. "The 'business' refers to the recreational diving business," says Bob Smith, program director. "We're teaching people how to help other people have fun." The technology side of the diving degree is directed toward students pursuing careers such as research divers, public safety divers, or engineers.
Smith says the facility also trains divers from agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The dive facility even contains the remains of a real wreck: the timbers from the Atocha, a ship that went down in 1622. "Yeah, we got the wood," Smith says. "Somebody else got the silver!" SRR
Contact FKCC at 305-296-9081 for information or e-mail Bob Smith at uwsmitty@aol.com.
Scariest Curriculum
Florida Atlantic University is using more
than just the threat of bad grades to scare students into showing up for
class. Dr. Eric Freedman’s class, The Horror Film, introduces this
terrorizing topic in a whole new way. By making the class sit down with a
tub of popcorn for at least two movies a week, Freedman introduces a wide
array of screams and slashers, engraving into their minds every murder and
twisted plot from Rosemary’s Baby to The Slumber Party Massacre.
However, the class involves much more than just sitting around watching
people get hacked to bits. Because the underlying theme in many horror
movies shows women as the primary victims, the class is included in the
women’s studies curriculum, Freedman says. Also, because the class is open
to a wide array of opinions, students must write essays in place of
traditional tests and participate in discussions that can get a little odd
at times.
“Horror films are a good marker of the anxieties in a culture,” Freedman says. By forcing students to look at movies from a more critical perspective, he says this class is more challenging than a lot of the students expect. RG
Contact Freedman at efreedma@fau.edu.
Best
Night School
At Edward Waters College, business students can CLIMB to
the top of their field. The CLIMB program (Credentials for Leadership in
Management and Business) offers working students an accelerated way to
complete their Bachelors in Business Administrations by attending classes
one night a week for 55 weeks. "These are busy people with other commitments
in their lives, but they know that they can finish something worthwhile,"
says Velma Rivers, director. "Attending once a week provides a framework
that's more condusive to their busy working lives."
Students who have 60 hours can complete the program in 55 weeks, and some can even receive credit for military experience and documented work training. Each class in the course is five weeks long. Currently, there are 200 students involved, and with the growth the program has had over the last four years, the college is looking to duplicate CLIMB in other Florida cities. SRR
Contact Rivers at 904-366-6467 or vrivers@ewc.edu.
Best
Meeting Idea
Lake City Community College's SGA wanted more student
body participation than most colleges get. The solution? SGA President Tony
Hart takes senators outdoors to Pine Square for meetings. They publicize
their meetings with signs constructed of plastic shower curtains hung from
PVC frames, with the current events written on the shower curtains using
paint markers. Once these are strategically placed on campus, SGA takes the
stage, literally. The senators take their seats at picnic tables on the
square, armed with sodas, refreshments, and music playing before and after
the meetings. Hart says there has been a positive change in student
participation. "I've had students ask me questions on an almost daily basis
about what's going on and when's the next event," Hart says. Since the
entire meeting is broadcast over the sound system, students can't help but
know how to find their Student Government Association. SRR
Best Use of a Shopping Cart
While most “big” schools block off streets for
their annual homecoming parades, the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale
just clears the halls for its “Whatever Floats” parade. AiFL doesn’t
have
athletic teams to welcome home or the money or time to build intricate
floats, so they improvised using shopping carts on loan from a local
supermarket. Each department (design, media arts, culinary, etc.) decorated a cart as they pleased
without destroying them. “Students showed their departmental pride
through them,” says Joel Nemes, coordinator of student affairs. The parade
began under a 40-by-80 tent, continued up the elevators into the four-story
main building, wound through the hallways, and ended back outside.
The two Student Government vice presidents and the president powered their float, while the secretary sat inside. Another float featured a student acting out songs blasting from a boom box, creating a float that continually changed concepts.
The trophy for best float was, of course, a miniature shopping cart. MCB
Contact Joel Nemes at (800) 275-7603 ext. 599.
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Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved
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