Summer Academy

RESIDENTIAL/COMMUTER

Course Description: This summer course exposes students to the interdisciplinarity of modern science through hands-on learning in labs, interactive lectures, engaged discussions with researchers and medical professionals, and a group project. COMU096 provides a comprehensive overview of the different approaches and strategies needed to understand human health from basic research to patient care and treatment. Students will explore, and refine, their interests in STEM, while developing an understanding of potential career paths to determine if a career in health or medicine is right for them. The selected focus for Summer 2023 will be metabolic diseases.

Learning Objectives: The course learning objectives are:

• Grasp the complexities of studying human health and the necessity for different modes of intervention.
• Appreciate the importance of transdisciplinary research for the understanding of, and development of treatments for human disease.
• Identify career paths of interest within research or healthcare.
• Understand and explore the skills, education, and experience needed for a career in research and medicine.
• Meet and engage in discussions with basic researchers and medical professionals whose work directly relates to human diseases.
• Practice critical reading, writing, and research skills in the context of a science-focused course.
• Develop teamworking skills necessary for a successful career in research or healthcare.

Directors/Instructor: Delphine Quénet, and Stephen Everse

Course Lab/Materials Fee: $0

Time: 9:00AM – 12:00PM & 1:30PM – 3:30PM during days of course (Flexibility around lunch schedule depending on guest speakers availability)

Format: Hybrid (July 3 – 13 on campus & July 15 – 28 online)

Location: College of Medicine (Med Ed 100 and Given C443). Wet lab session will be in Jefford building (Room 125), simulation lab session will be in Rowell building (Room 237).

Online from July 15 to July 28 (both synchronous and asynchronous)

Syllabus: Syllabus_COMU096_2023

Health & Medicine Academy

Why take Health & Medicine at UVM?

RESIDENTIAL/COMMUTER

Course Description: In this course students will experiment with forms in which “the documentary” and “the creative” intersect. We’ll explore writing which informs on issues—social, cultural, and political—but utilizes a creative lens and techniques we may associate more commonly with fiction and poetry. We’ll experiment with literary journalism, the lyric essay, hybrid texts, and documentary poetry. We will examine the work of contemporary poets and writers in order to further understand our own work and the creative process. These writers will include Claudia Rankine, Ross Gay, Elizabeth Alexander, Diane Di Prima, and CD Wright. The class is organized around student writing, and we will workshop on a daily basis. Welcome to a community of writers. A dedication to craft, aesthetic innovation, and risk-taking is expected in this course. Vigorous and thoughtful class participation is required.

Instructor: Eve Alexandra

Course Lab/Materials Fee: $0

Format: Hybrid (On-campus July 3 – July 13 & Online July 15 – July 28)

Location: Lafayette Hall L102

Syllabus: posted soon

Writing the Real World

RESIDENTIAL/COMMUTER

Description: This course has been designed to introduce students to the field of Medical Laboratory Science. The course combines lecture and laboratory practice, to allow students to demonstrate professionalism and interpersonal skills while achieving competence with common laboratory procedures virtually. As an online course, students will be assigned with lectures and laboratory assignments towards the beginning of the course and will be assigned case studies, that are related to the acquired knowledge, during the latter half of the course. Cases will include case history presented, clinical signs and symptoms, initial and additional laboratory testing and data, relevant test methodologies employed and accurate interpretation of results.

Instructor: Koela Ray, M.S.

Course Lab/Material Fee: $50

Format: Hybrid (On-campus July 3 – July 13 & Online July 15 – July 28)

Location: Rowell 113 & also either Rowell 110, 111, or 115 (lab – will be determined in class)

Syllabus: HLTH 095 Syllabus for Summer 2023

Printable Flyer: HLTH 095 flyer. Summer 2023

VIRTUAL

Course Description: The aim of this online course is to introduce fundamental concepts in Neuroscience. The course will be broken into four modules; 1. Electrical properties of the neuron, 2. Synapses and networks, 3. Sensory systems, and 4. Beyond the cell.  In addition, throughout the course there will be a student-led discovery of expression, structure and function of a gene of interest and how it relates to human disease. Lectures will be asynchronous to allow students to work on their own time, and there will be four each week (except the first week with the holiday). I will be checking in to blackboard several times a day during the course and will hold office hours on Microsoft Teams. You can expect a response from me usually within a few hours or first thing in the morning if you post later at night.

Learning Objectives:

• Acquire foundational knowledge in Neuroscience emphasizing the breadth in the field.
• Investigate the function of a gene of interest from a cellular and molecular level leading to mechanisms of human disease.
• Collect data and generate a poster to present data in a visual format.

Instructor: Alicia Ebert, Ph.D.

Course Lab/Materials Fee: $0

Format: Online

Syllabus: Introductory Neuroscience Syllabus summer 2023

UVM Summer Academy Experience: Introductory Neuroscience

RESIDENTIAL/COMMUTER

Course Description: Young people entering higher education face a uniquely challenging set of social, economic, and environmental crises, and are eager to find ways to make a difference. At UVM, and in Vermont more broadly, reimagining the food system has become an avenue for meaningful and generative ways to tackle these issues. With an emphasis on community engagement in an academic context, this course introduces students to agroecology – an interdisciplinary approach to agriculture and food systems that works to build healthy, sustainable, and just human and environmental ecosystems. After participating in this course, students will not only have a strong grounding in agroecology and food systems, but also will be uniquely positioned to navigate the UVM landscape, to engage with community partners and organizations, to connect with Vermont as a source of learning, and to explore their role in meaningful social and environmental change.

Instructor: Tom Wilson, M.Ed., CELO Program Coordinator

Location: Lafayette L302

Dates: Hybrid (July 3 – 13 on campus, July 15 – 28 online)

Course Lab/Materials Fee: $50

Syllabus: DRAFT SYLLABUS — Intro to Agroecology & Community Engagement

Introduction to Agroecology & Community Engagement