Mennonite Weekly Review

NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Bethel College students on campus for January interterm could choose from three new courses that evaluated modern issues and art forms through inquisitive and community-based learning.

From left, Bethel College students Erica Buller, freshman from Lenexa, Jackie Kamphaus, freshman from Clay Center, Matt Regier, sophomore from Whitewater, and Duane Unruh, freshman from Peabody, experiment with solar cells to determine how different arrangements of the cells produce different voltages and amperages. — Photo by Gary Histand/Bethel College

For the first time, Gary Histand, professor of chemistry, taught Alternative Energy Choices; Jon Piper, professor of biology, offered The Effects of a Vegetarian Diet; and Ami Regier, professor of English, led Graphic Novels.

“One goal of collaborative inquiry is to offer courses at Bethel that can examine a topic from multiple perspectives,” Piper said. “Take [the issue of] human hunger. You can’t separate the political systems from the environment from energy use from social justice.

“To realize you can’t separate these things, when people make connections [between disciplines], that’s the goal of a liberal arts education.”

For his class, Histand brought in guest speakers with expertise ranging from energy science and technology, to economic feasibility of new technologies, to lobbying for alternative energy.

The complexity of the issues surrounding alternative energy lends itself well to Bethel’s goal to support each student’s quest for knowledge while addressing valid concerns, Histand said, as well as to cross academic disciplines.

Histand charged students with creating an environmentally, economically and politically viable energy plan for Kansas.

Eric Goering, freshman from McPherson, has considered working in wind energy construction and was eager to take the course.

“Energy solutions are going to be needed and created in the near future,” he said. “We need to find sources of energy to use that will not damage the Earth … [and to] make the devices we use daily significantly more efficient.”

Like alternative energy choices, Piper’s The Effects of a Vegetarian Diet also necessitated involvement across disciplines.