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Bob Mercer (rdmissr@aol.com), Study Group Leader
#1 11/9-11/30, Mondays @ 10:00am-12:00pm, Tortolita Room
#2 10/12-11/30, Mondays @ 1:00-3:00pm, Catalina II Room
Please Note: You may register/participate in one or both of these two study groups.
Study Group #1: This 4-week study group will review the reported history of the July 1947 “Roswell Incident” about extraterrestrial contact. It will cover corroborating aspects, including some prior incidents, as well as the purported “Majestic-12”-related U.S. Government response, follow-up, analyses and policy decisions. Additional reports about extraterrestrials, beginning in the 1980’s to the present time, also will be reviewed and discussed. Participant research and reporting will be highly encouraged, and attendees will be asked to perform some home computer and/or book research.
Study Group #2: Space technology history, personal experiences, and antidotes of others with whom the Group Leader worked at that time, to cover such topics as project and program objectives for assessing man's capabilities to operate in space up through meeting all the objectives for landing and returning crews from the moon, i.e., Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, and even a little of the first U.S. space station, i.e., the Skylab program, and early Shuttle flights. This study group will touch on such details as NACA-to-NASA's formation, crew selections and training, flight operations, overviews of vehicle key design features, many side stories on important successful and not-so-successful flight incidents plus a little of trivia that past students seemed to like, a number of both earth-orbital and lunar-orbital flight experiments and studies, the challenges of program management, public affairs, some non-mathematical basics on orbital and space rendezvous mechanics, etc.
About the Study Group Leader: Bob Mercer is an Aerospace Research Physicist with over 50 years experience in design and development of scientific aerospace experiments as well as in development, modification, flight testing, operational evaluation and utilization of aircraft, manned and unmanned spacecraft for research and technology. Bob was an early military assignee to NASA’s manned space flight programs and worked quite closely with the first three groups of astronauts. He is a retired Colonel in the USAFR with 30 years of service, half on active duty including considerable experience in technical intelligence.
Enrollment: Limited to 20
Text: No formal text, but a bibliography will be made available as well as recommendations on many internet sites for those wishing to delve deeper into course subjects.
Other Costs: None
John Guilbert (j.guilbert@comcast.net)/Loring Green (loring.green@gmail.com), Study Group Leaders
10/13-11/3, Tuesdays @ 10:00am-12:00pm
Tortolita Room
Study Group Description: A major vertebrae of Arizona’s economic backbone has been (and still is) the billions of dollars derived annually from its mines. But how did they come to be? What is their nature? Are they geologically related to one another? How do they fit into the geologic fabric of the state; of the U.S.? What do they look like? Why don’t they also occur in Illinois? How were they discovered?
This 4-week study group will consider all of these and more, including many raucous, romantic early discovery stories and lots of maps, pictures and samples. Participants will see how many of them are indeed related and how they fit into the geologic whole. Join this group and learn how to appreciate their contribution to our lives much more accurately.
About the Study Group Leader: John Guilbert is a retired University of Arizona professor of Economic Geology. John’s teaching and research have taken him all over the world during his 8 corporate years (with Anaconda) and 28 years at The University of Arizona. He is an authority on the type of copper ore deposits that this study group will cover. John has been a member of OLLI/UA for 10 years, and has been a study group leader for a number of archaeology, anthropology, history and geology study groups.
Enrollment: Limited to 25
Text: None
Other Costs: None
Robert Myhre (rjmyhre@aol.com), Study Group Leader
11/10-12/1, Tuesdays @ 10:00am-12:00pm
Tortolita Room
Study Group Description: This four-week study group will consist of four topics: Ancient Peoples of Arizona, Native Americans of Arizona Today, The Spanish Entrada and Anglo-American Pioneer Families: The Goldwaters, Udalls and Babbitts.
About the Study Group Leader: Robert Myhre received a Master’s degree in History Education from SUNY at Stonybrook, and a BA in History and Government from The University of Arizona. He recently retired from a 23-year teaching career at the high school level where he taught such courses as AP World, History, Civics, U.S. History and a History of the Great American West.
Enrollment: Limited to 25
Text: None
Other Costs: None
William Darnell (wilbydarn@q.com), Study Group Leader
10/13-12/1, Tuesdays @ 7:00-9:00pm
Catalina II Room
Study Group Description: This eight-week study group will be a study of film noir. What is it? What are the elements that are found in the films? Participants will watch a film each week; a synopsis of the film and the elements to look for will be given before watching the film, and group discussion will follow. There will be a variety of films from the 40s and 50s; some will be better known than others, but all will be classic noir. If time allows, members will also watch a neo-noir film from a more recent time.
About the Study Group Leader: William Darnell has been a teacher for 40 years (study of music). His film knowledge comes from his interest and love of films. He is particularly interested in mysteries in both books and films and have a collection of more than 1000 movies, of which several hundred are mysteries. Film noir is a part of this genre and has always interested him. Bill hopes by leading this type of study he can bring insight to this style, and share his love of some of these movies to the group.
Enrollment: Limited to 20
Text: None
Other Costs: $5 for copied handouts.
Richard Loos (rlloos7@cs.com), Study Group Leader
12/1 & 12/8, Tuesdays @ 7:00-9:00pm
Crafts Room
Study Group Description: This two-week study group will present the status of the Shelter Improvement Project. This project is financed by the G8 and 25 other countries to design and install a new safe confinement over the damaged reactor plant at the Chernobyl Atomic Power Station in the Ukraine. The construction of the plant, the accident, and the design considerations associated with the construction of the new safe confinement will be presented to this study group.
About the Study Group Leader: Richard Loos spent 39 years in the design, construction, operation and decommissioning and clean-up of nuclear power facilities domestically and internationally. His work included design and management activities for pressurized water, boiling water, candu and RBMK reactor systems. During this career, Richard was the Project Director for the Shelter Improvement Program at Chernobyl. He and his family lived in the Ukraine for 4-1/2 years when he managed the project. After returning from the Ukraine, Richard worked at DOE sites in Idaho and Nevada and was involved in the management of the restoration of nuclear test facilities.
Enrollment: Limited to 25
Text: None
Other Costs: None
Tony Maitland (tonymaitland@earthlink.net), Study Group Leader
10/15-11/5, Thursdays @ 1:00-3:00pm
Tortolita Room
Study Group Description: This four-week study group will examine the meaning behind numbers: differences between nominal, ordinal and ratio-type numbers; the meaning of simple statistics such as mean (average) and median. The group participants will discuss what happens when numbers become “data” and how we must be aware of the methods for interpreting these supposed “facts.” Participants will discuss the methods of gathering and interpreting data, point out the strengths and weaknesses of such methods of self-reporting, clinical trials, historical and longitudinal studies and experimental techniques.
The purpose will be to become more sophisticated consumers of the wealth of information that is presented in the media, as we try to make informed decisions on how to conduct our daily affairs. To this end, a large part of the activities in the second half of this study group will be critical discussions of articles from current media that purport to be giving us useful information, but may be leaving out some important facts about the reliability of the data. All participants in the study group will be encouraged to bring in articles that interest them and lead the discussion of the article’s conclusions.
About the Study Group Leader: Tony Maitland has a Doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh and has taught Experimental Psychology at the University of North Carolina–Charlotte and conducted research studies in the processes of human verbal memory. His career then turned to working with Department of the Army in researching optimal methods of assigning recruits to training programs, and later to measuring the success of training programs at producing proficient operators and maintainers of military equipment. Most people’s DNA consists of letters – Tony’s DNA consists of numbers!
Enrollment: Limited to 25
Text: None
Other Costs: None
Guest Presenters/Dee Wilson (jimdee1@mindspring.com), Study Group Leader
11/12-12/10, Thursdays @ 7:00-9:00pm
Tortolita Room
Study Group Description: This four-week study group will consist of four lectures by guest presenters:
About the Presenters: This ‘lecture’ series is presented by four Graduate and Doctoral students of The University of Arizona’s American Indian Studies. Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Blackfoot) and Melissa Blind (Métis) are both Canadian, and Dina Barajas (Hopi) and Martha Dailey (Navajo) are both local Arizona residents. Together, these women give a look at the diversity of various Native nations and life in the 21st century.
Enrollment: Limited to 20
Text: None
Other Costs: None
Deborah Darnell (dtdarnell@q.com), Study Group Leader
10/16-11/6, Fridays @ 10:00am-12:00pm
Tortolita Room
Study Group Description: This four-week study group’s objective is to gain knowledge of basic music theory as applicable to simple melodic composition and will consist of three projects: (1) Simple melodic composition of 32 measures, following basic given rules; (2) Melodic composition of 8-32 measures with lyrics and (3) Two or three-part harmonic composition. Participants will need to have a laptop computer on which ‘Finale NotePad’ (computer composition program; $9.95 for the download) will have been installed. Installation instructions will be given by the study group leader.
About the Study Group Leader: Deb Darnell has a BMEd and Master’s in Music. She has taught band, orchestra and music theory/composition for 36 years in public schools in Indiana, as well as performance flute through Valparaiso University. Deb has worked with all ages of students.
Enrollment: Limited to 20
Text: None
Other Costs: $9.95 for downloadable ‘Finale NotePad’
Jan Sennewald (jsennewald@comcast.net), Study Group Leader
10/16-12/4, Fridays @ 1:00-3:00pm
Tortolita Room
Study Group Description: This is an eight-week study group using a combination of lecture, group participation and employing the use of DVDs in enhancing creativity and artistic confidence in drawing developed by Betty Edwards, now expanded and updated. It was perhaps the first practical educational application of Roger Sperry’s pioneering insight into the dual nature of human thinking – verbal (analytical thinking mainly located in the left hemisphere) and visual (perceptual thinking mainly located in the right hemisphere). The key principle is: Drawing is a global or “whole” skill requiring only a limited set of basic components. Once you have learned the components and have integrated them, you can draw just as once you have learned to walk; you know how to walk for life. It’s an exciting discovery! It enables students to acquire the basic component skills of realistic drawing in seven lessons of intense learning.
About the Study Group Leader: Jan Sennewald currently teaches watercolor at Heritage Highlands. She has been an artist since her teen years and has taken many workshops to increase skill level. Jan has taught various subjects during her career in Human Resources Management, from supervisory and management skills, to self-development. She participated and developed training by offering it professionally through UCSC.
Enrollment: Limited to 14
Text: None
Other Costs: $10-$30; for purchase of tools on-line prior to study group beginning.
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