A studio drawing course for high-school students of all skill levels—from beginning to more advanced—with interest in drawing the natural and man-made landscape. Students will learn the elements of drawing and composition with a focus on landscape through demonstration, sequenced exercises, source information, and critiques using a variety of materials and techniques to capture a variety of elements, including mountains, desert, forest, ocean, city, and the fantastic. In addition, effects of weather, changing light, rain/clouds, and geological and natural phenomena such as volcanoes and tornadoes are covered. Students will further explore the rich tradition of landscape in art as well as its cultural and artistic relevance throughout history. Offered in collaboration with Otis College of Art and Design.

This course offers an introduction to the study of the visual arts and aesthetics. Primary emphasis is on methods for looking at, thinking about, and writing about art, with additional focus on analysis of the values informing judgments of beauty and taste. Works of art demonstrating distinctive means of expression in visual form will be examined as products of cultural, social, and political values from ancient times to the present, through the investigation of various historical periods, pivotal artists/works, creative practices, and major themes of Western and world civilization.

This course examines the U.S. Constitution as drafted and—to a much greater extent—as it has come to be interpreted.  Students will learn basic constitutional law and will creatively analyze “fact patterns,” i.e., specific real-world facts that call for legal interpretation. Initial focus will include the balance of powers under the Constitution, as well as individual rights, such as freedom of speech (and some exceptions, like defamation); freedom of the press; freedom of religion; the right to remain silent and the right to counsel; the right to equal protection under the law; and the right to be free from cruel and unusual treatment. As we progress through the year, we shift from general principles of constitutional law toward specific applications of constitutional law. Thus, late in the fall semester, we will consider the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016-2017 term and will select a pending case (by guided voting). At midterm during the spring semester, each student will have drafted a brief in the case; oral argument will be the spring final exam. Notably, the Supreme Court’s own decision on the case will probably coincide with the end of the year. Thus, even as the Supreme Court is making its determination of the present-day meaning of a provision of the Constitution, students in this course will make theirs. Supreme Court opinions will be the primary texts for the course; a textbook on constitutional law is the secondary text.