Camp 4 Academic Program

In this course, students will discover how scientists create and share information with the world and learn essential skills like finding, accessing, and critically evaluating scientific research. Ever wondered if that news story claiming chocolate is good for you is accurate? We will tackle questions like these by going back to the original research articles. Along the way this course will uncover how information can be distorted as it moves from scientific studies to eye-catching headlines. We’ll explore topics like bias, misinformation and why some people doubt science.

Learning and writing history are acts of social justice. This course explores the use of print to construct and seize political and social power in North America from the era of colonization through the 1900s. Our primary focus will examine the use of print media by Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous and common white historical actors to contest authority, advance access rights, reassert dignity and establish autonomy. Using primary sources and contemporary graphic novels, students will consider the production, use and consumption of history as tools of empowerment.   

This class focuses on two required texts, plus shorter reading selections. Overlapping themes from the play and autobiography include, family, the American dream, identity, gender roles, class, racism and racial unrest, and survival. The two essential questions that the class will grapple with are: What do people value the most in the pursuit of the American dream? How has American history affected the ways people of color are treated today? Students are expected to be familiar with current events, so that they can draw parallels from the time period covered in both genres to modern day.

The course is writing intensive, and students will gain proficiency in collegiate-level writing in the areas of expository, argumentative and persuasive essays. Students will have the opportunity to write shorter, analytical and reflective pieces through journaling during the course, and they will present their learning using a variety of rhetorical strategies.

This course will examine natural disasters in the United States and the uneven responses by the government and relief organizations, which indicate that disasters disproportionately affect residents based on race and class.

Topics include: How do communities respond to a disaster? Does a disaster equally affect everyone? Do race, ethnicity, class and gender, make people more vulnerable to impacts of disasters? How do organizations respond to disasters? Why do they fail? How does a disaster become a political event? How do people perceive and respond to potential risks of disasters? Do disasters "bring out the best" in humans?

Topics will be explored through readings (books, news articles and journal articles), photographs and films. Assignments include in-class written responses, short essays (300 words) and one longer essay. 

In this course, students will study how people make decisions, from simple everyday choices to big life decisions. We’ll look at how our brains work when we decide things, starting with how we judge the things that happen around us and even our own feelings. Instead of diving into every possible aspect of decision-making, we’ll focus on three main areas: how we learn and remember things, how our emotions affect our choices, and how our brains process information. By studying these aspects, we aim to better understand why we make the choices we do.

Not just an "eat popcorn and watch movie" class! Our goal is to learn American history through watching movies. We will watch three films during the session, each film is directly related to some aspect of the Vietnam War.

The class work will be divided into three different areas. The first will be the introduction, where we will study the historical background of the film. This can include the time the film portrays as well as the time the film was made. The second area will be the actual watching of the movie with discussion throughout. The third will be the post-viewing work, which may include film analysis, discussion questions, debates, film reviews and a short essay.

This is a writing intensive class. Each student will be responsible for daily journal entries and weekly writing assignments. Students are also responsible for an essay/book project that involves reading a biography, autobiography or historical account of someone from one of the movies or time periods and writing a 3-5 page paper.

Twice a week in the evenings, Camp 4 scholars will take studio art classes. In the past, these sessions have created sculptures in metal and stone, large public art installations, and pottery. Our instructors aim to incorporate what you are learning in your academic classes to experience an interdisciplinary approach to creativity.

In this course students will not only hone skills that will allow them to better locate appropriate material, but they will also learn how to closely examine the material they find, against a larger backdrop, in order to decide where and how to place it within their research process.

Examining controversial topics through various lenses, including social media, this class will narrow down broad topics, find and select from both “authoritative” and questionable information sources and decide on how to put sources in concert with one another in order to provide, identify, examine, interrogate and reframe popular myths and misinformation on controversial topics.

To achieve this, the class will utilize readings, podcasts, documentaries, discussions and information searching activities; and consider a variety of perspectives, performances and representations that are both traditional and non-traditional in order to critically analyze and provide a useful, holistic, and nuanced presentation on a selected myth. While we may have to navigate through highly biased content on a daily basis, it's our responsibility to strive to do better when we put information back out.

This is an introductory lecture and discussion course in the history of Blacks in the United States in the modern era. Topics will include the tragedies and triumphs of Reconstruction, interracial violence, black political and institutional responses to racism and violence, and the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

Students will be presented with a variety of primary and secondary sources materials; timely and careful reading of these sources will prepare students for class discussions. Students will be confronted with conflicting bodies of evidence and challenged to analyze these issues and arrive at conclusions for themselves. Memoirs and films will supplement classroom lectures and discussions. 

The focus of this course will be the effects of drugs of abuse on brain function and behavior. Several drugs will be discussed including marijuana, opiates, alcohol and caffeine. Specifically, you will learn about the drugs’ site of action, mechanism of action, effects on brain chemistry and effects on behavior.

Through these discussions, you will come to learn about the normal function and structure of the brain and the long-term effects of drug abuse on this important organ. In addition, the course will include a short laboratory experiment demonstrating some of the principles discussed in the lecture. In short, this course will provide you with a basic understanding of addiction, drugs of abuse and the effects of the drugs on the brain. 

This course will introduce the theory behind concepts covered in the first year of the Kenyon physics curriculum and will include experiments in those areas using the department facilities and equipment. Topics include kinematics, dynamics, impulse and momentum, work and energy, electricity, circuits, atomic physics and nuclear physics.

The course will use a combination of topics discussions, performance of labs, in-class exercises, reading assignments and quizzes. Seven full (3-hour) labs will be performed along with supporting activities. Students will continue to develop skills in computer-assisted graphical and statistical analysis of data. The final exam will be an in-lab exam performed in a similar manner to those taken in regular academic year introductory lab courses. Knowledge of calculus is not required, but algebra will be used throughout the course.

In this introductory course, each unit explores a different form of reasoning, a different "logic." We will study (fallacious) informal reasoning, Aristotle’s categorical reasoning, a bit of modern propositional logic, pictorial reasoning, the probability calculus, statistical reasoning, scientific reasoning and analogical reasoning in case law. 

We will rely upon the concept of validity to distinguish good arguments from bad arguments, and we will pay special attention to the role that semantics seem to play in this seemingly syntactical measure. We will wonder whether it is possible, in the end, to distinguish syntax (form) from semantics (content). And we will consider whether our aim should be to identify one best logic or to accept the possibility that there are many appropriate ways to reason. 

This course introduces students to the academic study of religion through readings and discussions of a variety of religious traditions. We will survey an array of traditions from ancient to modern times. While the major traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism) will occupy most of our time, we will introduce the religious thinking and practices of early humans as well as various religious innovations in the modern world. Our focus will fall on understanding the essential teachings of these traditions and on how these teachings influence adherents’ understanding of themselves and how they should live in the world. 

This course will examine the brain physiology of stress and sleep, the impact of these systems on everyday human behaviors and functions, and the impact of everyday human behaviors on sleep and stress. Sleep and stress interactions with physiological systems relevant to physical and mental health will be studied.

This course is designed for first-year students; some emphasis will be placed on discussing the neuroscience of current research on stress management, sleep interventions, study techniques and other issues affecting and affected by college life. Student projects will include reflective engagement on the course topics and the development of techniques to apply what is learned.

Twice a week in the evenings, Camp 4 scholars will take studio art classes. In the past, these sessions have created sculptures in metal and stone, large public art installations, and pottery. Our instructors aim to incorporate what you are learning in your academic classes to experience an interdisciplinary approach to creativity.