Register for ORICL courses, trips by Jan. 7; term starts Feb. 2

 

Want to know how to improve your bidding in the game of bridge? Analyze your dreams? Identify area birds? Play the guitar?

Would you like to better understand how 3D printing works, how to write computer code with the software Scratch and how people mine data of importance to you? Or do you just want to learn how to relax?

These are among the courses offered during the winter-spring 2015 term of the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning, starting February 2.

You can also take ORICL how-to courses on writing your memoir, making your money last during your retirement, choosing a long-term care service, and speaking French, German, or Spanish.

The early registration deadline is January 7, 2015, for the winter-spring term, which ends April 24. Members should register by this date to have the best chance of getting preferred classes and trips.

Do you like watching films? You might enjoy the classic comedies course or the series of films on art and artists.

Anyone interested in becoming a member of ORICL and receiving a catalog should call Laura Bowles, administrator, at (865) 481-8222. The cost for membership in ORICL for three terms (fall, winter-spring, summer) is $100.

ORICL has more than 400 members who take courses in two classrooms and the auditorium in the Coffey-McNally building on the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College, at the corner of Laboratory Road and Briarcliff Avenue. A few courses, such as art classes, are taught in other locations.

Members also may sign up for bus trips and take ORICL-sponsored tours of the Gray Fossil Site and Museum, the Provision Center for Proton Therapy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, Gibbs Gardens in Georgia, and the Jack Daniels Whiskey Distillery in dry Moore County.

Some members may sign up to attend a play at Clarence Brown Theater after dinner in Knoxville or to attend the first annual North Carolina Cheesefest.

The courses range from one to 12 sessions. Each session lasts 70 minutes.

If learning about other countries appeals to you, consider ORICL presentations on Greenland, Iceland, and the Scottish Orkney and Shetland islands and on Egypt and Jordan.

If you like history, you can take courses on “The South’s Struggle for National Recognition,” “Venezuela: The Path to Chavez” and “History of Home” (architecture, interior design and furniture). There are courses on “Israel: Creation and Early Years” and “The ‘New’ Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian Dilemma.”

If you relish animated discussion, you might enjoy the “Issues in Feminism” and the “Issues in Bioethics” courses.

Science and technology course topics include black holes, earthquakes of East Tennessee, a history of cryptography, and R&D 100 award winners at ORNL.

There are courses on poetry, reading Shakespeare, current Appalachian fiction writers, short stories, and books to read if you have only six months to live.

Courses on religion include “ Native American Stories, Songs and Culture,” “Brief Introduction to Religion,” “The Parables of Jesus,” “Beyond the Nicene Creed,” and “The Baha’i Faith: An Emerging World Religion.”

At ORICL you can learn about the music of Josef Haydn and of Texas and Louisiana (Conjunto and Zydeco). Or you can join a book group—classic literature, mystery novels, nonfiction and technical.

The ORICL office is located in Room F-111 at RSCC at 701 Briarcliff Avenue in Oak Ridge. For more information and a catalog, e-mail the ORICL office at [email protected] or visit www.roanestate.edu/oricl.