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UW-Madison News Release--Interesting new courses

Feb. 8, 2008

TO: Reporters, news directors
FROM: Kristin Czubkowski, (608) 262-0930
RE: TIP/NEW COURSES ON THE BOOKS FOR SPRING 2008

Every semester, the University of Wisconsin-Madison timetable is dotted with dozens of new academic courses that deal with emerging topics, current events or interesting forays into our history and culture.

The following is a sampling of some of the offerings for spring 2008 that may interest news media on the lookout for campus features. This tipsheet profiles new classes on the musical ethnicities of Wisconsin, the myths and realities of organic farming, and an analysis of the nation's transportation challenges.

- Music 319: Musical Ethnicities of Wisconsin

Most students are surprised to find on the timetable that a Wisconsin-focused class could fulfill their ethnic studies requirement.

But music professor Susan Cook says her new class takes a broad view of both music and ethnicity, diving into the use of music in ethnic settlements in Wisconsin since the 1800s, such as the Swiss in New Glarus and Germans in Milwaukee. She will also explore the musical traditions of Native Americans and recent Hmong immigrants.

"I want (students) to appreciate how much meaning resides in music, how much power music has to shape individuals and to help individuals create their own self-identities," says Cook. "And with that, (show) how important music has been to these notions of ourselves as ethnic or racial people."

One of the ways she plans to impart this message is by having students experience ethnic uses of music at local events, some of which may be centered around music, while other may celebrate other parts of a culture while incorporating music.

"Often, it's a part of a larger cultural context, and that's one of the things we'll be talking about," Cook says. "Is the music central to the event, is it peripheral to the event, and how is the music helping what else is going on there with regard to ethnicity?"

CONTACT: Susan Cook, (608) 263-4926, sccook@bascom.wisc.edu

- Horticulture 375: Organic Agriculture Colloquium

After two years of teaching an experimental colloquium on organic farming, horticulture professor Jim Nienhuis is no longer surprised by the diversity of majors interested in his class.

"I originally thought that it would be mostly horticulture, agronomy and agriculture majors, but in fact, we have history majors and art majors," he says. "Anyone who goes to a farmer's market and is intrigued about the offers that are made for organic vegetables - I think everyone has questions about exactly what that means."

Nienhuis says his goal in the class, which is based on discussion and guest speakers from academia and local farms, is to "tweak" students - in other words, challenge their preconceived ideas about organic food and farming, and sometimes even make them angry. The final project for the class includes student presentations on controversial aspects of organic agriculture, such as how much it really appeals to small farming families and whether organic food is really more nutritious than non-organic foods.

"There are many, many urban legends about organic agriculture, such as 'Oh they're so much healthier for you,'" he says. "I say to the students, 'Is there any truth to that?' And they'll say, 'Well, everybody knows that, Jim.' Well, gosh, why don't you give a presentation on that and share this information with us?"

While the colloquium itself is only a one-credit class, Nienhuis adds that students have the option to gain three credits by performing a research internship at either a university-run or local organic farm over the summer, balancing real-world experience with the material discussed in class.

CONTACT: Jim Nienhuis, (608) 262-1490, nienhuis@wisc.edu

- Civil and Environmental Engineering 679: Travel Behavior Analysis

>From the moment people step outside their homes to the moment they return, civil and environmental engineering professor Jessica Guo is interested in where they go, how they get there, how many trips they take in-between and why they travel the way the do.

Guo's research interests in travel behavior prompted her to create an upper-level engineering course devoted to bridging the gap between engineering research and real-world policy for students.

"I think this is a very interesting course in that it really looks at community issues and people's behavior and has that interdisciplinary flavor to it," she says. "Eventually, as more students on campus know of this course, I would like to adapt and modify it for students coming from different backgrounds."

The class, which was offered first in Fall 2006 and is currently in its second run, is divided into three units focusing on real-world issues in transportation; methods of modeling travel behavior and what affects it; and looking into new ways of analyzing transportation problems. Guo uses local, national and international examples in the class to illustrate the types of variables that impact travel behavior, pointing out as an example the density of European and Asian cities compared to those in the United States and how that affects mass transportation in each area.

The class incorporates a course project, she says, and students work with survey data from all over the country - including Dane County - to analyze variables such as modes of travel, destination choices and how often people travel each day.

"At the beginning of the semester, I encourage students to think big," she says. "We do go into those projects with the intention or hope that this could lead to publication or findings that could influence transportation policy and investment decisions."

CONTACT: Jessica Guo, (608) 890-1064, jyguo@wisc.edu

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