The following is a list of the Extra Cost, Off-Campus Short Term Units offered in 2009, along with the associated extra costs and the dates of the information sessions. Please be aware that extra-cost figures are approximate. All information below is current as of 02/04/2009. If you cannot attend an information session, please contact the faculty program director. Forms for accepted students are available through the link at the bottom of this page.

Chinese s24: Chinese Language and Culture in China
Students will spend one week in Beijing and then study Chinese for four weeks at the National University in Kunming, Yunnan province.  60 hours of Mandarin Chinese instruction will be provided at the lower intermediate, intermediate and advanced levels.  In Kunming, students will experience Bai, Naxi, and other minority cultures with lectures on a wide range of issues, including history, politics, the environment, religion and art.  Visits to numerous cultural sites are planned with additional afternoon and evening activities.  Beijing is China’s political, economic and cultural center; in Beijing, we will visit the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and other important sites such as the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium.  Visits to rural villages near Beijing are planned. The approximate dates off-campus are April 26 to May 29.  Preference for students who have completed Chinese 101 and 102.  Enrollment: 10-15 students, with permission of the instructor required.
Instructor: Liping Miao.  Extra cost: $3,100

French s38:  Learning with Orphans of the Genocide in Rwanda
This unit is an oral history project and a civically engaged course focusing on the life of orphans of the genocide of the Tutsis fifteen years after the genocide.  We will work in collaboration with orphans who live in artificially reconstituted families since 2001.  The 350 members of this association live in Kimironko, a neighborhood of Kigali, and are between 15 to 30 years old. The goal is to evaluate the life, needs, challenges, sufferings, and hopes of these very vulnerable survivors and to learn from them as we identify forms of social resilience and long term negotiation of trauma. We are going to film our interviews.  We will meet important social actors and government officials who are involved in alleviating survivors’ pain and helping them find their place and voice in Rwanda today.  We will also visit several regions of Rwanda and memorials bearing witness to the genocide to gain a better understanding of the relation between memorialization, mourning, national reconciliation, and testimony.  The approximate dates off-campus are May 3 to May 25.  Enrollment: 12 students, with permission of the instructor required.  Preference for students with advanced intermediate French.
Instructor: Alexander Dauge-Roth.  Extra cost: $3,800

Geology s39 :  Geology of the Maine Coast by Sea Kayak
Six hundred million years of geologic history are preserved in the spectacular rock exposures of the Maine coast. Students learn how to interpret this geologic history with mapping projects of coastal exposures on offshore islands. Islands in Casco Bay, Penobscot Bay, and Acadia National Park are used as both base camps and field sites for these projects.  Students travel to and from these islands in sea kayaks.  Students are trained in kayaking techniques, sea kayak rescue and safety, and low-impact camping by a certified kayak instructor who stays with the group for the entire Short Term.  No previous kayaking experience is necessary, but participants must be able to swim. Prerequisite: any 100-level geology course.  Approximate dates off-campus: three 3-4 day trips in May.  Enrollment 8-10 students, with permission of the instructor required. 
Instructor: Dyk Eusden.  Extra cost: $1,400

INDS s17: Wake Up
This unit is a rigorous hybrid of academic study and experiential learning. See http://www.bates.edu/~dsweet/wakeup for syllabus, reading list, and a description of its aims and activities.  It embarks on a journey to self-awareness, nature, and social engagement via four avenues of inquiry:
1. Seminar-style discussion of texts (German literature, New England transcendentalism, native peoples, Zen and engaged Buddhism, deep ecology). 2. Outdoor experiential activities, qigong, meditation, and integrative breathwork. 3. Silent six-day retreat that combines study of the key concepts of Buddhism with meditation practice. 4. One week in the wilderness, including a solo overnight with one day of (optional) fasting.
Experts in their fields with many years’ experience assist Bates faculty. Papers in response to readings, journaling, and a student-designed project are required.  Approximately two weeks of Short Term will be spent off-campus. Enrollment: 12 students, with permission of the instructor required.
Instructor: Professor Denis Sweet.   Extra cost: $1,500

Math s45K: Roller Coasters: Theory, Design, and Properties
Amusement park roller coasters excite us, scare us, and capture our imagination.  What records will designers break next?  How do they create rides that are exhilarating, yet physically safe?  A scientific contemplation of these questions requires math and physics concepts such as vectors, parametric equations, curvature, energy, gravity, and friction. Students consider these ideas, gaining background in basic and more advanced math and physics.  During the second half of the unit, students conceive and design projects to study specific aspects of roller coasters.  Approximate dates off-campus: one five-day trip.  Prerequisite: Mathematics 105.   Enrollment 12-20 students, with permission of the instructor required. 
Instructor: Meredith Greer.  Extra cost: $830

Theater s33: Central European Theater and Film
A study of the impact of the social and political changes of the last 50 years on theater and film in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic. This unit surveys the relationships between politics and the public arts of theater and film in three of the countries that experienced Soviet control and subsequent liberation.  We read history and drama, attend theater productions, view films, visit historic sites, and meet with artists and scholars. It will be based in Budapest and travel to Prague.  Approximate dates off-campus are April 19 to May 23.  Enrollment: 18-20 students, with permission of the instructor required.
Instructors:  Martin Andrucki and Katalin Vecsey.  Extra cost $3,700