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UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN
This DVD-based course presents the background to the
modern field of knowledge known as ‘neuroscience’. However, the
course is presented entirely in non-technical language and does not
rely on the audience having any training in scientific disciplines.
Drawing on everyday experiences and popular books, as well as
current research, the course ‘seeks to amaze and inform the learner
about the remarkable structure that is the brain’.
The course is presented in four parts:
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Lectures 1-11: the central nervous system
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Lectures 12-19: the relation between brain and
mind
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Lectures 20-29: the areas of the brain thought to
be associated with specific human characteristics e.g. language
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Lectures 30-36: specific important topics about
the brain such as sleep/dreaming and consciousness
The U3A course will present 2 lectures at each weekly
screening. We are experimenting with a variation from previous
courses of this nature and there will be discussion classes
scheduled at intervals, in order to consolidate the various inputs.
There will also be occasional breaks of a week to allow time for
members to internalise and digest the input. As usual, copies of the
text of each lecture will be made available.
The course is presented by Dr. Jeannette Norden,
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Professor of
Neurosciences at Vanderbilt University in the USA. She has won
various awards for teaching and was the first holder of the Chair of
Teaching Excellence at Vanderbilt.
Season tickets, valid for classes 2 - 15 are
available for R120 (+/- R8 per class), or members may opt to attend
single classes at R12 per class. Non-members can attend single
classes at R20.
There will be no charge for the first class so that members can
decide whether they wish to attend the rest of the course.
POP(ULAR) MUSIC: 1939 T0 1980
The aim of this course is to give members a pleasant
reminder of the songs that were popular during six decades of the 20th
century. As these were the decades of our youth and early adulthood,
some nostalgia will be unavoidable. But a bit of history is thrown
in, as well as some surprises about the origins of songs that later
made it to the “hit parade”.
Pop(ular) music is defined as music that had wide
popular appeal the first time it was issued, measured in sales of
sheet music, records, albums, tapes and CDs depending on the
technology available at the time. Repeated exposures on radio and,
in a few cases, television and film have also been taken into
account.
Each class will consist of:-a review of the key
events of the decade being discussed and the relations of these to
the type of music that was popular. Examples of this include songs
associated with World War II in the 1940s and the Vietnam War in the
1960s
- a generous selection of the songs themselves,
wherever possible as presented by their original artists. In some
cases there are comments on the song itself before it is played.
To give you a small preview, among the songs to be
played during the first class (The 1930s) are: the original of “This
Land is Your Land” by Woodie Guthrie; “On the Sunny Side of the
Street” (the Carter Family); “Red Sails in the Sunset”; “Paper Doll
(The Mills Brothers); “Jeepers Creepers”; and, of course Judy
Garland and “Over the Rainbow”.
Classes will be held on Tuesdays at 09h30 beginning
on 5 August in the Stardust Venue.
Contacts:
Avril and Reg Steenkamp 028 316 4103; Cherry Mills 028 316 4333; Günther Hackmann 028 313 3030; Harold Brassell 312 2433; Marge
Campbell 028 316 1922; Max Leipold 028 312 4465; Peter Whyte 028 316
4538; Pieter and Pam Williams 028 312 4455; Robin Lee 028 312 4072;
Ruel Heyns 028 314 1840; Verna Leighton 028 316 4177 |
