Fall/Winter 2024/2025 Courses

If we learned anything from the COVID pandemic, it is how little most people know about how pathogens infect the human body. Healthcare professionals, who understood the behavior of microbes, were far less susceptible than the general population to the dizzying array of misinformation and bogus treatment ideas flooding the internet.  

As we age, we become more susceptible to infections that our immune systems used to shrug off. People with chronic diseases in particular become more susceptible to secondary invaders such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Respiratory infections are more common among those in care homes, in hospitals, or with chronic diseases such as diabetes and dementia. Bacterial sepsis is a leading cause of death in hospitalized elderly patients due to the combination of weakened immunity and chronic diseases.  

The course examines the ways each type of microbial pathogen spreads, grows, reproduces, infects, and inflicts damage. We stay safe by knowing the enemy and its weaknesses.  

No previous knowledge of medicine or biology is needed for the course. 

Although Whatcom County is a long way from the desert southwest, we have similar water problems in the summer. Because of climate change, streamflows throughout the Nooksack River watershed have been declining for years and are doing so at an accelerating rate. Lower flows are bad for salmon and other wildlife and leave less water for human uses.  

In addition, the hotter, drier summers caused by climate change increase the need for irrigation – lawns and gardens, commercial landscaping, golf courses, and especially agriculture. These opposing trends in supply and demand will lead to a water crisis if we don’t act soon.  

Many options exist to increase supply, to store winter water for summer use, and to increase water-use efficiency. Our local Watershed Management Board has sponsored many studies of supply and storage options during the past two decades. But the Board has never even looked at efficiency options. And almost none of the options have been implemented.  

This one-session class discusses these problems, possible solutions, the reasons so little has been done to date, and the possible effects of the Nooksack adjudication of water rights. We discuss problems with state water law, lack of data, water rights that Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe hold, and the roles of different agencies in managing our increasingly limited water supplies. 

With the advent of tariffs in 2025, more of us are wondering: just what is aluminum? How is it produced? What is it used for?

This course provides an introduction to the production and processing of aluminum and its place in the world's economy. How is it manufactured, what are the cost drivers, and who are the major players in the sector?

We examine the nuts and bolts, from mining to refining, from processing to recycling. We also touch on tariffs and other trends in the aluminum industry.  

We welcome a new instructor, Richard Oppelt, who joins us via Zoom from Prescott, Arizona. 

Journey with us on the path of creative exploration as we study four different artists, their styles, subjects, and a variety of mediums.

This discovery of technique and the design process allows you to create your own compositions, both realistic and abstract, in the style of the featured artists: Picasso, Matisse, Monet, and Emily Carr.

Project-based, this course focuses on your choice each week of completing a still life, portrait, or landscape. An introduction to various mediums, elements of art, and principles of design help you discover and blaze your own artistic, expressive, creative trail!

Note: This class is limited to 24 students.

Materials needed:

• 8x10 or larger sketchbook
• #2 pencil
• white polymer eraser
• black Sharpie (fine point)
• glue stick
• scissors

For sessions 3, 4, and 5, there is a $3 fee for those choosing to use additional instructor-provided materials. Exact cash amount only, no change.

Have you ever wondered what really happened in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1692? Was witchcraft the real cause of the hysteria that gripped Salem Village? Join us as we discuss the conditions that led to the infamous trials. Meet the accused and their accusers, and enjoy a visual tour of some of the sites where settlers lived and important events took place. 

Wool, the warmest fiber, is used to make all types of winter fabrics -- knitted, crocheted, or woven. This course explores the wool fiber process, beginning with animals like sheep, llama and alpaca, to wool fabrics that make the clothes we wear. We cover the entire journey of shearing, washing, and preparing raw wool fleeces and fibers, making yarns, and finally weaving fabrics.  

This 4-session course uses videos, study samples, a tour of a professional mill, and hands-on activities for you to experience weaving a mug rug or small pouch with your own yarn.

Session 1: Introduction and history of animal-based fibers from sheep, alpaca and llama, discussion, questions, and video of shearing sheep.

Session 2: A DIY day with demos and hands-on activities—making yarn with drop spindles, and weaving on small looms. We design and begin our weaving project.

Session 3: Tour of Skagit Woolen Works, a local processing mill in Mount Vernon. We meet at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal and carpool to the mill; expect this class to be approximately 2.5 hours including travel time. Optional lunch to follow.

Session 4: Finish our project and discuss the many ways woven fabric is used to make clothing, with special emphasis on the current fashion trend for tweed fabrics.

$5 materials fee (bring cash; no change provided).

Note: This course is limited to 15 students.

The phrase till death us do part still applies to the majority of marriages. But since 2010, the rate of couples divorcing in late adulthood (65+) has increased. Today, one out of four divorces nationwide is a gray divorce.

This course examines the rates of divorce among seniors, reasons for divorce (both individual and societal), the process of deciding to divorce, and recommendations for life post-divorce. This overview of the gray divorce phenomenon includes portions of interviews with individuals who have divorced, consideration of the stations of divorce (emotional, legal, economic, parental, community, psychic), and discussion among students about the costs and benefits of gray divorce. The session concludes with tips and recommendations for navigating this complex transition.

Laura joins us via Zoom from Denton, Texas. 

We examine the art and lives of Western women artists following World War II until the present day. As the devastated cities of Europe struggled to rebuild in the aftermath of war, New York City became the leading center of avant-garde art. But despite the advances of women artists in the early twentieth century, the New York School of the 1940s and 50s was heavily dominated by male artists.  

The contributions of artists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Louise Nevelson were undervalued. Women then became actively involved in all the emerging art movements of the 1960s: Pop, Minimalism, Earth Art, and Fiber Art, but they remained marginalized. It was not until the Feminist Movement of the 1970s and 80s that women artists began to publicly protest their exclusion from the powerful institutions and prestigious galleries. Activists like Judy Chicago and Faith Ringgold fought for recognition for women and artists of color.  

The success of this activism is seen in the wide array of international women artists active in recent decades, including superstars such as Yayoi Kusama, Shirin Neshat, and Zaha Hadid, and rising stars like Wangechi Mutu.

Note: This class is limited to 25 students.

Retired Master Mariner Deborah Dempsey illuminates the history of women mariners as she shares her experiences in the merchant marine and in her recreational endeavors at sea. Using stories, photos, and memorabilia, she provides historic context for a 50-year career that includes a gender barrier-breaking string of accomplishments:

• First woman to graduate from a maritime or any service academy (Maine Maritime Academy).
• First woman to command a cargo ship on international waters.
• First woman to be licensed as master mariner in America.
• The only woman among nine ship captains to earn the U.S. Navy's Meritorious
• Public Service Award during the Persian Gulf War.
• The only woman to serve as a Columbia River Bar Pilot, guiding ships across the notoriously dangerous river bar.

Following her presentation, Dempsey is joined by Bryan Rust, Executive Director of Bellingham's Community Boating Center, which Dempsey cofounded in 2006. They describe how the BCBC serves our community with educational programs and instruction on small-watercraft operation, access, safety, and marine stewardship.

As Dempsey relates her experiences and adventures, expect to be fascinated by this inspiring slice of American feminist history. 

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous literary figure in the world. This course describes how he was created and his place in the history of detective fiction; the life and accomplishments of Arthur Conan Doyle and why he killed off the character; the real-life model for Holmes; media portrayals; and the world-wide groups of Sherlockian enthusiasts, including many who play The Grand Game of treating Holmes as an historical figure. And how the deerstalker cap became so emblematic of Holmes.  

Attendees are also introduced directly to the written Holmesian literature. For the first session, students are requested to read the iconic short stories, The Red-Headed League and The Speckled Band, which can be found online. Further reading is assigned for the second session.

Food does so much more than nurture our bodies; it provides an amazingly rich and diverse symbolic resource for cultural expression. In this course, we conduct a tour across cultural time and space to explore the creative ways humans express and experience themselves through what they grow, share, and consume.  

We include a cross-cultural examination of the languages of food in five domains: social status, gender, sexuality, artistic expression, and collective identity.  

Ultimately, this course asks whether our human capacity to create profound meaning in the most basic of necessities can be employed to address the urgent problems of food inequalities and the looming threats of environmental degradation and climate change.

We are taught that gender is all so simple, yet nothing could be further from the truth. The goal of this course is to better understand the complexities of gender, which helps the 2SLGBTQ+ community receive the respect, care, and dignity that they deserve.

In the first session, we explore the world of in utero development as it applies to the formation of sexual anatomy and our gender identity. You learn why gender identity is so critical and so interesting. This talk also prepares you for family members who come out to you. Know what to say!

In the second session, you learn all about gender-affirming care for children and adults. We separate fact from fiction, so that you gain an understanding of why this care is of critical importance. We have lots of time for questions and discussion.

In this course we contrast our young Pacific Northwest landscapes to much older landscapes elsewhere in the world. We also consider how climate change may alter long-term ecological processes, reshaping the landscapes of the future. Finally, we explore how landscapes form and evolve over millennia and how these processes shape the ecosystems we see today.  

We live in a Pacific Northwest landscape where our mature forests may contain trees of immense size and considerable age, with some trees reaching ages of 500-1000 years old in pockets of remaining old-growth forest. Many people may not appreciate, however, that most of our northern landscapes are quite young relative to many other landscapes of the world, much of our region having been freed from continental glaciation ice only 16,000 years ago. The young ages of many of our northern landscapes have important consequences for plant community productivity and the essential nutrient cycles that sustain life. In particular, a few key species play outsized roles in shaping forest dynamics by influencing the availability of crucial nutrients.

While we start with the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, we consider research done in New Zealand and Hawaii to put our landscapes into context. Our discussion returns to the Pacific Northwest, where we examine how specific species contribute to forest productivity and how human management practices influence their roles.  

This course meets in the classroom for one hour, then departs for a four-hour field trip. This involves two hours travel time, and two hours visiting old and new forests in the Skagit Valley to look at the profound effect that additions of nutrients have on forest productivity and composition, and to contrast this with relatively unmodified young and old-growth forests. Dress for weather and wear comfortable outdoor shoes. Students are contacted by facilitator two to three days before the course to coordinate carpools.

NOTE: This course is limited 24 students.

Travel back in time with us to the Oregon and Washington Territories of the 1820s to 1850s, a time of upheaval for the Native tribes as trading partners arrived from overseas, bringing new trade items but also disease and death.

Various Christian families joined the oncoming wagonloads of Americans spreading west. They created missions to spread Christianity to the Native population and to service the religious needs of the white and mixed-blood races moving into the area.  

Native tribes reacted differently to the presence of this new religion. We examine the interactions of some of these missionary families with the local tribal peoples, the oncoming wagonloads of Americans spreading west, and the multicultural yet British-dominated fur trading forts. Some families were viewed as healers and prophets. Others were massacred by tribal members. In one instance, tribal elders traveled to St. Louis to ask for Jesuit missionaries, whom they called "Black Robes," to provide an alternative solution to their lands being taken and families dying of disease.

This presentation includes the family stories of:

• The Methodist Lees of Salem/Willamette Valley
• The Presbyterian Whitmans and Spaldings of Walla Walla and the Clearwater Valley
• The Catholic brothers: Augustin-Magloire and Francois Norbert Blanchet of Fort Vancouver

We include geographical information for many Pacific Northwest missions including the incredible Cataldo Mission established by the Jesuits near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (now the oldest building in the state). Other missions are merely memories with only informational plaques remaining.

Becoming familiar with the many tools for photography that come with your iPhone is great; now take your iPhone photography to the next level: holiday creativity and portraiture. In this comprehensive course, you learn how to improve your photos of your family and friends, whether for gifts or creating memories. Introducing you to free or inexpensive smartphone apps, we explore how they work and how to use them to photograph outdoor and indoor holiday objects, including techniques ranging from Intentional Camera Movement to long exposure photographs.  

We also learn how to create the best possible portraits and candid images as we celebrate the holidays with family and both our human and furry friends. Additionally, we learn how to incorporate and apply these tools to photos we have taken in the past (including those stored on your computer or smart tablet). This course uses a combination of lecture, hands-on exercises, and practical application of these apps to improve our photographic images. This course is specifically geared to the iPhone user.

NOTES:

• The first session lasts 3 hours, from 10 a.m.- 1 p.m.
• The second session of this course takes place in Fairhaven (specific time and location TBD), where we have fun and create trendy images of lights, trees, and seasonal decorations. All students must bring an iPhone and possess basic proficiency with its settings and functions. Class time focuses on photography.
• This course is limited to 15 students. 

Throughout history, furniture makers and decorative artists have often been relegated to a lesser status behind painters and sculptors, but furniture and decorative objects are important works of art in and of themselves. The creative processes employed by these imaginative artists conveyed not only their status and talents; the works of art they fashioned accorded prestige to the individuals for whom they were created. Beauty and opulence were keywords in these creations, as these pieces revealed the meticulous methods employed and sumptuous materials used.  

This course traces the growth of the furniture trade in Europe and America from the 17th century to modern times, focusing on the detailed methods of marquetry, gilding, lacquering, upholstery, mechanization, and other construction techniques. The lives of the artists and their patrons are also discussed in the context of the eras in which they lived.

The late author Tom Robbins, a resident of nearby LaConner, was for a period in the 1980s the most famous novelist in the Pacific Northwest. We look at excerpts from some of his novels and how they are representative of several elements of what might be called the Pacific Northwest regional literary style: magical realism, characters from the fringes of society, influences of Eastern religion, and a sensibility that tied the physical landscape into the region's self-conception.  

These strands can be seen in authors as varied as Katherine Dunn, Sherman Alexie, and Ken Kesey, but they are also found in part in all kinds of Northwest novels dating back to the first literary appearance of the Pacific Northwest in "Gulliver's Travels."

In 1874, the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. exhibited together for the first time, starting a revolution. The term "Impressionism" itself came into being from a critic's insult, which was sparked by a Claude Monet painting.  

Impressionism was initially controversial because it departed from traditional art techniques, using loose brushstrokes and new ways of depicting light. Later, the Society came to be known as the Impressionists.

Claude Monet is considered the leader and most well-loved of the Impressionists. This course focuses on his art and career, from a struggling artist to "master of water lilies," as he is known, for his collection of 250 oil paintings of the subject.

The American Revolution was an opportunity for a myriad of ordinary people to becomes heroes for this nascent country. While we revere the names of the few Founding Fathers we encountered in school, the Revolutionaries were far more numerous, and their contributions are not as widely known.  

Among the 20 figures to be highlighted are such luminaries as Sybil Ludington (one of the OTHER riders for "The Midnight Ride"), Judge Wilson (featured in JFK's "Profiles in Courage"), and various French aristocrats including Lafayette and the Howe siblings.  

What emerges from our four-week examination of glorious and surprising stories about the "other" Founding Fathers is a nuanced and in-depth look at the Revolution from numerous perspectives.  

We explore how the ideals that brought together our diverse nation of competing interests are needed now more than ever.  

Color has been an exciting and enjoyable part of human life ever since the color-sensitive eye evolved over a million years ago.

Even now all the world’s a staging area for the chemical and biological evolution and birth of pigments and dyes. However, seismic shifts about 3.7 and 2.3 billion years ago gave rise to the Great Oxygen Event that increased the number of minerals by about 3500, including hundreds of colored minerals that could become pigments. We discuss the elements and pigments whose compounds became the most important members of our pigment palette today. We also explore some of the millions of colorants produced by the (very late) biological evolution of life.

The junction between color and chemistry, and color and history, is of even more recent origin. The first recorded use of chemistry to manufacture a color is the stunning set of cave paintings found in the Grotte Chauvet in Southern France. Executed over 32,000 years ago, they are a testimony to early humans’ ability to create beauty and to engage in abstract thinking.

This history of color usage as a chemical endeavor from the earliest records to the present day focuses on four major areas: fashion, pharmaceuticals, food, and fun. It is a trajectory peppered with stories to help us understand the mystery of color as a universal experience and phenomenon which even changed the course of history in the 20th century.

Identifying the sources of greenhouse gas emissions is the first step toward implementing solutions in the fight against global warming. The issue is complex. Collective action on many fronts is needed based on a solid understanding of pros and cons for each approach. Policies are driven by public demand. This course describes emission sources and actions that can be taken by individuals, communities, utilities, and local and national governments.

Topics include emissions from:

• Electrical power generation from fossil fuels, renewable sources, and nuclear fission and fusion.
• Transportation sector fuels including gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, biofuels, hydrogen, and hybrid and electric vehicles.
• Industrial processes such as manufacturing and generation of concrete, steel, and aluminum.
• Agricultural activities, including livestock and rice cultivation.
• Commercial and residential heating and cooling.

What is justice, and what does it look like in the real world? What should it look like? In this series, we examine the many interpretations of both social and criminal justice that have been suggested throughout history and evaluate proposals for change within American society.  

Topics include  

• theories of justice,  
• the affirmative action debate,  
• the capital punishment debate,  
• wrongful convictions, and  
• police ethics.  

David brings both philosophical and experiential perspectives as an academic and a former urban law enforcement officer. Join us!

If you're curious about social media in general, but not necessarily a subscriber, this course is for you! We introduce most of the social media platforms that have been launched since Myspace, which was the first social network to reach a global audience.  

The format, background, purpose, ownership, algorithms, and pros and cons of Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), Bluesky, Reddit, Snapchat, and Tumblr are all on the docket. We start with a participant-generated list of impressions and questions. Then we summarize what each platform offers, and how they differ from each other. 

"Metal fatigue" is a term you may have heard of in the context of structural failures across a spectrum of industries. For example, the first commercial jetliner, the de Havilland Comet, experienced several crashes due to metal fatigue. Just last year, Boeing’s new 777X’s flight tests had to be paused due to finding fatigue damage in the engine struts.

Have you wondered what metal fatigue means? How do materials get "tired" or "fatigued"?

In this class we delve into the following aspects:

• What is metal fatigue? How does one determine that a material has failed due to fatigue?
• Mechanical/thermal/environmental drivers of fatigue.
• Do materials other than metals experience fatigue?
• How does one design against fatigue?

Research on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training has consistently demonstrated positive outcomes associated with increased self-awareness, as well as attention and emotional regulation. There can also be a reduction in symptoms for various physical and behavioral health conditions including anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.

We will explore the tools this evidence-based program offers, including meditation, movement practices, and engaging in discussion with each other during the course. Mobilizing innate resources and experimenting with perception, patterns, communication styles and more, we will employ strategies to address and decrease stress, noticing the effects of various options, gaining familiarity with neuroplasticity, appreciation, and what we take in.

Audio and video recording links for home practice between sessions will be offered. Handouts will be provided for our onsite and at-home experiences. Please wear layers of clothing, as each session will have movement and stillness practices. Bring a small pillow and a light blanket or towel to sit on. Yoga mats are welcome if you have one. Students are welcome to sit on chairs instead of the floor during any mindfulness or movement exercises.

Please join us and explore how mindfulness may support you in living life more fully, with greater peace, ease, and joy.

Note: This course is limited to 20 students.