Bill Capshaw, master potter and Oak Ridge resident, regularly teaches pottery to ORICL members who attend his classes at the Oak Ridge Art Center. (Submitted photo)
Looking for mental stimulation? Want to learn a new skill or increase your knowledge of history and science?
Online registration for in-person and online courses offered in the summer of 2021 by the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning (ORICL) will open on April 20. The classes will be given between June 7 and July 30.
You can see the courses in the online Summer 2021 Catalog and register online by visiting the ORICL website at www.roanestate.edu/oricl. If you want to receive a paper catalog, call the ORICL office at (865) 481-8222 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon Monday through Thursday. You can also register by filling out a paper form inside the catalog and mailing it to the ORICL office, Room F-111, Roane State Community College, 701 Briarcliff Ave., Oak Ridge, TN 37830.
If you are registering as a new or returning member of ORICL, the cost for the summer term only is $45. If there are special instructions about attending in-person classes because of COVID-19 regulations followed by RSCC, you will learn about the rules through e-mail communications from the ORICL office and by accessing the roanestate.edu website.
An additional small fee will be charged for courses offered at the Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, such as jewelry and pottery making (dichroic glass pendants, sea glass jewelry, and pretty pitchers), as well as weaving. All other in-person courses will be held at RSCC’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus, at the intersection of Laboratory Road and Briarcliff Avenue, except for the “Gentle Yoga” classes held at Ascension Wellness and Yoga, 110 Randolf Road.
Almost all online classes will be given using the Zoom videoconferencing app (which you should download on any device); you can then access the Zoom classes by simply clicking on the link sent to you by email the day before the class is scheduled.
If you enjoy participating in book groups, ORICL has online discussions of fiction, nonfiction, mystery novels, classical literature and technical books.
The classes on the history of gold mining in East Tennessee and on the impact of the Vikings on history are in-person classes. “Secret City Stories,” taught by Oak Ridge historian D. Ray Smith, is on Zoom, but “Native American History” is a hybrid class (in person and on Zoom).
Classes on learning the Russian language are offered via Zoom, as is the course on stock investing for income.
Except for the linguistics course, the literature classes are presented via Zoom. They are “Shakespeare Out Loud” and “The Poem as Silence.”
In-person classes include a travelogue on Canada, Great Courses classes on the 30 greatest orchestral works, and presentations by representatives of Oak Ridge’s nonprofit service organizations.
In medicine and health, in-person classes are offered on “Coronary Artery Disease” and “COVID-19 & Cardiac Health.”
In science and technology, the course on meteors is in person but the classes on mass spectrometry, presented by seven speakers (many of whom work or did work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory), will be on Zoom.
Interested in courses on spirituality? Consider taking “LovingKindness” on Zoom and “Embracing Ourselves” in person.
Other courses being offered on Zoom are “Cryptic Varietal Crossword Puzzles” (which is mentally stimulating), “Introduction to Tarot” and “Mediation.” “Radio’s Golden Years” and “Sign Language for Beginners” are offered in person, and “Birding by Eye and Ear” takes place outdoors.
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