Feb. 1, 2007

J-term 2007 a success at MC
By: Paige Ward
Pbw001@marietta.edu

While most of the student body spent their entire Winter Break at home, relaxing and working, 49 students dared to take classes during the January Term. With the classes ranging in length from one to three weeks, many of the students returned to campus to take part in these classes.

The earliest of the classes started on January 2 and the latest started on the 14. All of the courses spanned the last week before Spring Semester started and some of the students spent their break studying materials and answering questions in preparation for the class discussions to come.

By far, the most popular class of J-Term this year was the Psychology of Good and Evil. The course, which took place on a cruise ship, lured 29 of the 49 J-Term students.

The remaining courses that were taken by students were Gender in the Workplace, Strength Training, Civilization and Culture of Spain, Ethics and Science, and the Science of Wine-Making, which was offered for the second year running.

Many of the students were impressed with their J-Term experiences. Leah Bonazza, a junior at the college, described her J-Term as amazing. She said that she liked being able to get class work done over break, and was glad to be able to discuss the material that she had studied. However, Bonazza also said that waking up for an 8 a.m. class on a cruise ship was difficult and that being in a rocky room wasn’t something she’d like to try again.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better experience!” Bonazza stated when asked about how the trip had gone, though she did make note that her broken hand was certainly not a plus. Bonazza said that she plans on taking another J-Term class next year, and that it would be foolish not to do it again.

Dr. Sibicky, one of the psychology professors who taught on the cruise, was equally energetic about his experiences. He said that when Dr. May approached him with the idea of teaching a class on a cruise, he was interested but skeptical.

He had never been on a cruise before and was intrigued by the idea of team-teaching. Sibicky said that he learned a lot during the class, and enjoyed having time to interact with students in a different setting.
However, he wished that they would have spent more time on class, having a couple days on campus, rather than just one. Overall, he said that the cruise was successful, and that they had received positive feedback from passengers and crew on the ship.

Sibicky offered this advice to anyone who wishes to teach on a cruise ship, “Never do a PowerPoint lecture the 1st day at sea in a rough ocean.”

There have been whispers of new J-Term cruise classes among the professors who went on the trip. Overall J-term courses have gained positive feedback from faculty and students.