Co-op faculty are accustomed to teaching remotely as they engage in Co-op courses with students across the country and around the world. They are adept at creating robust learning experiences for students on Co-op as well as for those on campus through an array of experiential (EXPR) courses.

This spring, in addition to teaching the “Co-op Field Experience” courses for students in the field, Luisa Bieri and Beth Bridgeman, assistant professors of Cooperative Education, are transforming their face-to-face courses in order to inspire our socially-distanced student body to involve themselves more deeply with the natural world and with their communities at home.

Beth Bridgeman will co-teach an online home gardening course with Kat Christen, manager of the Antioch Farm, as well as two independent study courses in reskilling and resilience. Christin Severini ’22 will structure her independent study reskilling on topics including basketry, breadmaking, foraging, making tinctures, home finance, preserving, candle and soap making, sign language, and rag rug making. Alexa Greer ’23 will be exploring various types of indoor greenhouses, seed-starting, and indoor growing in her reskilling course.

Luisa Bieri will offer “Antioch Community Action,” a course in which students design and implement their own action projects, as they discuss and learn principles of community building and effective organizing. During this unique moment, students may be volunteering in their home communities supporting efforts towards health and wellbeing, education, caregiving, or providing food to those in need.

Examples of student projects may include: organizing for aging prisoners’ or detained immigrants’ release, delivering groceries to their neighborhood elders, creating lesson plans for younger family members who are engaged in distance schooling, or designing virtual gatherings for social engagement and connectivity. Luisa has taught this course on campus as well, where students have completed projects to enhance Independent Groups, refurbish campus areas such as the Japanese Tea Garden, and engage in Yellow Springs-based initiatives such as community policing, among others.

Note: photos are from previous terms.