COLL-161 Cerebro 101: Breaking Barriers: Bilingual Outreach in STEM

Fall and Spring. Credits: 1

This interdisciplinary course bridges STEM and the humanities by treating Spanish and English as equal vehicles for scientific knowledge. Students engage in a living laboratory to translate advanced neuroscience into accessible, bilingual communication. Through partnerships with Holyoke DualLanguage classrooms, MHC student mentors facilitate hands-on workshops on anatomy, plasticity, microscopy, and neural art to enact language justice and foster representation in STEM. This course prepares students for professional work in multilingual contexts while strengthening local community bonds.

Applies to requirement(s): Meets No Distribution Requirement
Prereq: SPAN-212 or equivalent proficiency with permission of the instructor.
Notes: Taught in Spanish. Credit/no credit grading. Repeatable for credit.

COLL-211 Reflecting Back: Connecting Internship and Research to Your Liberal Arts Education

Fall and Spring. Credits: 2

Learn to speak with confidence and clarity about your summer internship or research project. Connect it to you academic coursework. What have you learned? How is it useful? What are your next steps? Students will reflect on their experience and collaborate with others to generate useful knowledge. Required for the Nexus but open to all students. For more information, email nexus@mtholyoke.edu.

Applies to requirement(s): Meets No Distribution Requirement

COLL-212 Reflecting on Your Summer Internship or Research Experience Education

Fall and Spring. Credits: 2

In College 212, you will navigate the LEAP process for a second time with a new set of learning partners. You will refine your ability to speak with confidence and clarity about your summer internship or research project and connect it to your academic coursework. What have you learned? How is it useful? What are your next steps? Students are expected to reflect on their experience and collaborate with others to generate useful knowledge.

Applies to requirement(s): Meets No Distribution Requirement
Instructor permission required.
Prereq: COLL-211 and a second summer internship or research experience.
Advisory: COLL-212 is open to students who have already completed COLL-211, and seek a second opportunity to reflect and present their learning experience in an academic setting. Use this form to apply for instructor permission or contact Eleanor Townsley with questions.
Notes: Half-semester. All students will present at LEAP Symposium in October.

COLL-224 Being Human in STEM

Spring. Credits: 4

This interactive course combines academic inquiry and community engagement to investigate the theme of diversity and climate within STEM fields. We will begin by examining the ways in which cultural norms and practices intersect with our diverse identities and histories to shape our experiences within the STEM disciplines. How can we challenge and change existing cultures and practices to create environments where we can be our full human selves? Together we will investigate the ideas and actions of those who are changing how we construct scientific knowledge and who can engage in that work. We will then build on this foundation to develop projects that further contribute to this endeavor, engaging closely with resources and sites at Mount Holyoke and the surrounding community. Coursework includes weekly readings, reflective writing, creative projects, and in-class discussions, culminating in a public presentation of our collective work.

Applies to requirement(s): Math Sciences
Other Attribute(s): Community-Based Learning

COLL-228 Fundamentals of Maker Culture

Spring. Credits: 4

This course immerses students in the collaborative and creative world of makerspaces, emphasizing hands-on design, inclusivity, and mentorship. Through progressive design projects -- from initial concepts to more complex creations -- students will reflect on their learning styles, growth, and attitudes. Course readings and discussions will cover core pedagogical principles, including growth mindset, effective feedback, and addressing bias, building a foundation for inclusive teaching. Students will develop skills in both technical tool use and inclusive mentorship, focusing on creating accessible, empowering spaces.

Applies to requirement(s): Meets No Distribution Requirement
Restrictions: This course is limited to first-years and sophomores.

COLL-261 About Time: Philosophy, Physics, and Psychology

Fall. Credits: 4

The concept of time is a source of significant historical debate and active contemporary research across multiple subject areas, including philosophy, physics, and psychology. In this course, we will cover topics like: whether time passes, whether the future is open, paradoxes of time travel, arguments against the existence of time, relativity theory, entropy, quantum gravity, psychological time biases, and how the brain represents time. The course will engage students in a range of multi- and interdisciplinary assessments activities, including paper writing, experiments, coding and data analysis, problem sets, argument analysis, group presentations, and oral debates.

Applies to requirement(s): Meets No Distribution Requirement
Restrictions: Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors

COLL-321 Fundamentals of Microscopy

Spring. Credits: 4

Microscopes are important tools used by technicians, medical professionals, and scientists to investigate interesting scientific questions and solve real-world problems. This course covers important microscopy basics including scale, the relationship between reality and the image, and the kind of information that can be captured with different types of microscopes. This course combines lecture and hands-on laboratory activities allowing students the opportunity to explore the basic principles of visible light, fluorescence, and electron microscopy. We will gain practical hands-on experience with the many forms of microscopy and learn the procedures and tools of the trade necessary to become a proficient microscopist. All students will be trained on at least one research-grade microscope during the semester and the major assignment for this course will be a final portfolio of micrographs created by each student.

Applies to requirement(s): Math Sciences
Other Attribute(s): Writing-Intensive
Prereq: 8 credits in STEM subjects.