Register by Friday for ORICL’s summer online, off-site classes

Because of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on use of Roane State Community College buildings on the Oak Ridge campus, the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning (ORICL) is offering 25 online and off-site classes for its summer term.

Online registration is now open for the term, which runs from June 1 through July 31 for most classes. The summer 2020 catalog is available on the RSCC website at www.roanestate.edu/oricl. Click on the “Complete list of cancellations/Zoom list” link to see which classes are available and then, if you wish, read about the classes in the online catalog.

Please register by Friday, May 22, by emailing a list of the numbers and names of classes you wish to take to the ORICL office at [email protected]. If you are not an ORICL member, the fee for the summer term membership is $45.

Please write your check to ORICL and mail it to ORICL/RSCC, 701 Briarcliff Ave., Oak Ridge, TN  37830. ORICL and the Art Center are offering the “Art a la Carte” film series on the lives and works of two French artists: Claude Monet (in June and July) and Henri Matisse (in August and September). The other art classes are filled.

If you want to get out in nature with other people and look for birds using binoculars, Dan Robbins is offering three classes June 1, 8, and 15 on the Oak Ridge Greenway called “Birding by Eye and Ear.” Robbins will make sure that all participants are socially distant during the walk. Oak Ridge historian Ray Smith will once again present the course “More Stories from the Secret City,” and Rose Weaver will give a series of classes on “African American Oak Ridge: An Untold Story.”

If you enjoy reading and discussing literature, ORICL offers classes on fiction, classical literature, and mystery novels. There are two classes on speaking Russian. Those trying to cope with anxiety, fear and uncertainty during the pandemic might find comfort in a course on meditation, the “Loving Kindness and Unbounded Friendliness” class, or the film series entitled “Searches for LovingKindness.”

Those who are interested in the latest scientific understanding of the universe may want to sign up for the “Overview of Modern Cosmology” course, which will be presented by Michael Smith, leader of the Astrophysics Experimental Group in the Physics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Other classes will be given on Chinese medicine and acupuncture, healthy aging, retirement planning, investment risks, and legal issues and solutions.   

The online courses, which will include PowerPoint presentations, will be conducted via Zoom and Microsoft Teams videoconferencing. The instructor, as host of the meeting, will send the participants instructions and a link on email to click on to join class.