Project Challenge
Clarkson University offers academic "Challenges" to North Country High School students. Project Challenge, a popular winter months program offered by Clarkson University, provides area students an opportunity to participate in classes they cannot normally find at their high school. Five-week courses are taught by Clarkson University faculty and administrators on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. until noon, beginning in mid January. The program is administered by The Clarkson School, the University's early entrance program for talented high school students who have completed eleventh grade and are ready to begin college studies.
Project Challenge 2012 Courses are held Saturday mornings 9:00 - 12:00 (noon) on January 14, 21, 28; February 4 and 11 with a snow date of February 18). To register, you may contact your Guidance Counselor or print our 2012 Registration Form. The courses this year include the following:
- Emerging Leaders 101 - NEW!
- Engineering for Life - NEW!
- How to Write a Short Story - NEW!
- Intro to Entrepreneurship - NEW!
- Blood and Guts: Medical History through the Ages
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Hands-on Computing: How to Make Your Home Computer Work for You!
- Real Medicine
- Saturdays with Grey's Anatomy
Project Challenge 2012 Course Descriptions:
NEW! Emerging Leaders 101 - Brenda Kozsan, Kevin Lobdell
Leadership means deciding to have a positive impact on your environment while being compassionate. It doesn't always mean holding a specific title or position. To lead, you must act. A leader is not someone who stands by and does nothing. Our course encourages students to have a positive effect on their surroundings and become true leaders at their school, in the community, and in future positions. The focus of this class will be on learning about the characteristics of an effective leader and developing skills through personal assessment, role playing, team- building, and interacting with invited guest speakers who will share their experiences. (Limited to 20 students)
NEW! Engineering for Life - Melissa Richards
Ever wanted to design and build your own rocket, tractor, roller-coaster, automobile, or robotic arm? In this class you will learn how engineers are able to design the devices we see everywhere around us!! You will even have the opportunity to design and build your own “Rec-Rube-y”! What is that you may ask? …. I guess you will have to register to see!! (Limited to 20 students)
NEW! How to Write a Short Story - Joseph Duemer
In this class, students will learn the basics of fiction writing by drafting and revising a short story. In each class session we will read aloud one short story and consider how it is put together. Using these insights regarding plot, point of view, setting, and characterization, students will then work on producing their own work of short fiction. Over the five Saturdays, students will draft, revise and edit a story, arriving at the end of the class with a completed work of fiction and a familiarity with the fundamentals of writing stories. (Limited to 10 students)
NEW! Intro to Entrepreneurship - Erin Draper
Have you ever thought about owning a business? What about being the CEO or manager of a company? This fast paced course will focus on the entrepreneurial spirit of students and allow them apply classroom concepts in a “real-world” context. During the class students will be exposed to leadership principles, team building, ethical decision making, financial statements, and marketing principles. (Limited to 20 students)
Blood and Guts: Medical History through the Ages - Stephen Casper and Karen Buckle
Could you diagnose a seventeenth-or a nineteenth-century medical condition? To do so you would have to know about the different ways the body and illness have been thought about historically. You might also want to know how people from those time periods ‘cured’ diseases or illnesses. Whether you want to become a doctor or surgeon, enter a PA program, work in physiotherapy, or are just fascinated by old stories of blood, guts and gore, ‘Medicine through the Ages’ will have something interesting for you. As well as looking at the ‘big’ changes that have occurred in medicine, we will be exploring questions like: Who had the power: the patient or the practitioner? Why did we stop believing in bodily humors and astrology? What is ‘medical tourism’ and why are there black markets for body organs? and is the medical ‘numbers game’ a new or old phenomenon? Over the four classes you will also get the opportunity to explore a number of different case studies from actual historical medical records. These will give you the chance to apply your new knowledge sets and advance your medical problem solving skills!
Contemporary Moral Issues - William Vitek
This course will examine a number of contemporary moral issues that challenge us as individuals and as a society. We will begin by exploring the nature of a moral issue, as opposed to a legal or scientific issue. Why, for example, are moral dilemmas so difficult to resolve and how do we go about resolving them? We will discuss the nature of a moral argument and outline a method that will assist us in resolving moral dilemmas. With these background concerns completed, we will discuss a number of contemporary moral issues regarding the role of religion in ethics, abortion, cloning, euthanasia, the death penalty, the environment, animal rights and war, for example. (Limited to 20 students)
Hands-On Computing: Making Your Home Computer Work for You! - Jeanna Matthews
Do you have a computer at home? Are you ready to make it work for you? Would you like to learn about how attackers can break into your system and how you can stop them? Do you want to learn more about how it really works? In this course, you will do a set of hands-on computing labs that allow you to pop the hood on your computer systems. You'll see what kind of data goes over the network when you surf the web or use AIM as well as look at traces of common attacks like viruses or worms. You'll write your own web page and read and run simple computer programs. You will learn to install an operating system from Windows to free operating systems like Linux. You'll even take apart a computer, learn to recognize its parts and then put it back together again.
Real Medicine - Dawn White, Michael Whitehead, Jeremy Welsh and Keith Young
Big surprise! Most of the medical information you see on TV is not accurate. Join the faculty of Clarkson’s new Physician Assistant (PA) program to learn about medicine in the real world. You will explore careers in healthcare. Have you ever wondered how to take someone’s pulse and heart rate? What do doctors look for when they look in your ears and eyes? Through the use of a stethoscope, you will be able to listen to the heart and lungs. How well do you breathe? You will learn how to measure this and look at X-rays to see what pneumonia and other conditions look like. What is a CAT scan or an MRI? You will find out! Have you ever broken a bone? We’ll visualize X-rays of fractures and then do some splinting of the arms and legs. You will learn how to put stitches in, test your blood sugar and find out what happens when someone has a heart attack or stroke. Join us to learn more about the real world of today’s medicine.
Saturdays with Grey’s Anatomy - Mary Alice Minor and CU Physical Therapy Graduate StudentsHave you ever wondered what goes on inside a joint when you sprain your ankle? What structures are involved? How could you make your ankle stronger and prevent future injuries? This class will explore the ankle, knee, shoulder, spine, and the brain with regards to the anatomical make-up, how it functions, common injuries, what happens during injury, and how healing and rehabilitation occur in these different areas of the body. Participants will be involved in a variety of activities to enhance learning through: cadaver lab and models, computer interactive simulation for anatomy and radiology concepts, clinical evaluation and treatment techniques, brain teasers and memory tests, balance activities, and role play. Students will learn the role of each body area in everyday activity, the rationale for exercise at the ankle, knee, shoulder, spine, and our minds, and how to prevent injury of these structures. Participants will interact with our current physical therapy students while learning anatomy and injury diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Each session consists of an anatomy lab component and ‘hands-on’ activities and/or exercises for the focused area.
