Course & Student Stories

The Benefits of Daily Walks

One of the electives OLS students can take during our program is our Walking & Jogging course. Throughout the course, students learn about and experience the many benefits of exercise: feeling happier, reducing risk of chronic disease, improving brain health and memory, improving sleep quality, increasing energy levels, and much more. Students also learn how ...more about The Benefits of Daily Walks


Mind Mapping

Students taking Cultural Awareness this fall recently completed an exercise exploring prejudices in hiring, followed by creating a mind map around prejudicial attitudes. Mind mapping consists of visually organizing information in a diagram, showing the hierarchical relationship between pieces of information. This activity helps promote self-awareness around prejudice and global awareness. Students recognized behaviors, such ...more about Mind Mapping


Dream Prints

By the end of their first year in the OLS program, students are ready to take an important step in self-determination by speaking confidently about who they are, what they want, and what help they may need to achieve their dreams. They will build on this foundation over the next few years leading up to ...more about Dream Prints


Dating: What’s Healthy, What’s Not

The Human Sexuality course is designed to establish a safe place for students to discuss and develop awareness of the human body and issues related to common sexual behaviors. This course enables students to critically think about how human sexuality impacts social relationships, lifelong decisions, and personal choices. This spring quarter, students shared what they ...more about Dating: What’s Healthy, What’s Not


Plasma Demonstration

Students in Critical Thinking through Science had an opportunity to see plasma up close and personal through a plasma lamp, a glass globe filled with neon gas; at the center is an electrode with a high-voltage current running through it. When someone touches the glass, they complete a circuit – just as lightning does when ...more about Plasma Demonstration


Filling Out A SCOPES

In our Healthy Relationships course, students learn strategies to maintain a healthy relationship in various environments. One of the activities they participate in is SCOPES. The term SCOPES is an acronym for Scene, Conflict, Options, Perspective, Emotions and Solution. Students were given a social situation and asked to find the best solution to the given ...more about Filling Out A SCOPES


Science Experiment Presentations

Our Critical Thinking Through Science course was busy finals week preparing and presenting their science experiment projects for their final. They spent a couple of weeks performing the experiments and collecting data before presenting their findings to each other. The underpinning for this entire course is a five-step process known as the Scientific Method. It ...more about Science Experiment Presentations


Walking & Jogging

In our Walking and Jogging course, students are asked to walk or jog one mile as a group, in partners or alone. Students spend time learning about the importance of exercise for both physical and mental health. This is a relaxed class where students get to explore campus, be social and learn how to take ...more about Walking & Jogging


Creating OLS Commericals

Every spring our Critical Thinking Through Media course students participate in a fun and creative project by creating a commercial for the OLS program. The commercials are geared to prospective OLS students and requires our students to utilize their critical thinking skills to develop an idea focused on what future students might be interested in ...more about Creating OLS Commericals