OLLI at DU South   

When Colorado’s capitol building was built in the 1890’s, sixteen citizens and pioneers were memorialized with stained glass windows set high in the capitol’s rotunda. These Hall of Fame individuals were chosen as being influential in settling early Colorado.

This class will use these honorees as a jumping-off point for looking at 19th-century Colorado. They offer what was a contemporaneous perspective on the founding of our state. But we will then continue to delve deeper into our state’s history, covering up to the year 1900. Topics will include:

• the early years prior to the discovery of gold
• the Spanish settlement of the San Luis Valley
• the transition from frontier to statehood
• our uncomfortable history with the Native Americans
• transportation across the plains and into the mountains
• life in the mountains and in Denver
• ranching and farming in the “Great American Desert”

The lessons of history help us understand the entangled nature of current world events. This class will spotlight major events of the Italian and European Renaissance to reveal how profound changes beginning in the early 16th century are linked to present day.

The era straddling the dawn of the sixteenth century saw an amazing plethora of new ideas, exploration and the inevitable disruption that comes with change. The Italian renaissance ended with humanism firmly embraced by the Church and aristocracy. Wars were inevitable, and a new world order led to the founding of this country, the creation of the industrial age and the dominance of the West in all global affairs.

The course will cover the intellectual, technological, economic, scientific, and creative innovations that occurred around 1500 CE. We will explore the impact of human creativity and its effect on culture and commerce. Art and architecture, published works and science were the outward signs of a cultural churning that exploded with the enlightenment and the industrial age.

This course on generative AI offers an exploration of its principles, applications, and implications. Through a combination of keynote presentations, interactive videos, dynamic discussions, and hands-on experience, participants will delve into the fascinating world of generative AI and emerge with a solid understanding of its fundamentals and real-world potential.

The facilitators will trace the evolution of AI and explore the basics of artificial neurons and neural network architectures. The class will acquire an understanding of how neural networks are constructed, trained, and used. We will describe several exemplary AI industry pioneers, such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind. We will also explore the use of several text generators and the generation of images, videos, and virtual worlds by Dall-E and Sora. In addition, the facilitators will demonstrate text-to-speech applications and present applications of generative AI to biology and drug discovery. The class will discuss the potential for innovation while mitigating risks as the field undergoes rapid evolution toward AGI.

For those of you who are tired of being bombarded by all the bad news on TV every day, this class is intended to lighten and brighten your world. I’ll be showing and discussing some of the most beautiful Japanese prints made over the last 150 years. Their impact is felt around the world.

When the United States ended Japan’s isolationist foreign policy around 1854, Japan entered a new period marked by rapid modernization, industrialization, and cultural change. This class will delve into Japanese print art resulting from Japanese societal changes beginning in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Out of necessity, it will show contrasts and similarities with prior Edo period prints. I will discuss the evolution of Japanese society and print artists, their lives, and their work over approximately a 150-year period (to the present). This includes the shin-hanga (new prints), sosaku-hanga (creative prints), and kindai-hanga (modern or contemporary prints) movements. Japanese prints have had a huge impact on Western art over the last 350 years.

Prepare to be awed by this art form that is infused with Western influences yet remains essentially Japanese and is still popular today. No extracurricular reading is required.

Get ready to embark on a journey where learning meets playfulness. In this class, students will immerse themselves in a diverse array of games, from classic board games to interactive group challenges. Through these engaging activities, participants will sharpen their strategic thinking and problem-solving skills while fostering bonds of friendship. Whether figuring out the most efficient train route or working with your team to determine the highest grossing Broadway play of all time, every week promises laughter, newfound insights, and fun. Join us as we explore the magic of games, where every roll of the dice and every move on the board brings us closer together in the spirit of joy and discovery.

In each of the classes, the first hour will be devoted to a board game with individuals competing against one another and the second hour will consist of games that involve team collaboration.

Rumor has it that health after 60 is a series of patch, patch, patch! This speaker series is designed to look for ways to stay healthy and avoid as much patching as possible! Join Anne and Janet in a series of presentations designed to address common medical issues that seniors face. This eight-week course, in-person class series, will involve lecture, PowerPoint, videos and hands-on experiences. Come with your questions and plan on lively discussions! Be a part of learning new and practical health information.

Experts will present the following topics:

• Hearing (hearing loss, hearing aids, hearing systems for classes and others);
• Pharmacy (common medications and interactions, timing and effectiveness);
• Diabetes/Weight Loss and GLP1 inhibitors for both conditions (Wegovy/Ozempic and others);
• Physical Therapy (safety in the home, balance, falls and recovery and the use of assistive equipment);
• Allergies (common allergies, causes and treatment);
• Care giving, Hospice, Medical Aid in Dying;
• Dental (keeping your teeth into old age, cleaning and preventive measures); and
• Medical Myths (what to believe and how to tell truth from fiction in medical care).

Imagine a "Museum of Lost Art" where there are different rooms for masterpieces that have been stolen; art lost through natural disasters or vandalism; art lost in wars, plundered, or simply tucked away in attics, private homes and storage facilities.

This class will introduce you to all these "rooms of lost art." We will visit the amazing world of art forgery. The DaVinci or Picasso you are appreciating, even in the world's greatest museums, may not be by the Masters at all. But not all is lost. Many organizations are searching for these missing pieces, from the FBI Art Theft Bureau to Interpol and others.

There will be video, slides, lecture and discussion. We are not art experts, and we will not go deeply into the art itself or the artists. Instead, we will take you on a spirited adventure into this intriguing world of lost and forged art.

Few people realize that Horror Films did not develop or did not fully exist until after World War 1 when German veterans returned home and began to make the movies for which Horror and German Expressionism are still known. Some of the films to be explored and discussed:

“J’accuse” (France – 1919)

“Nosferatu” (Germany – 1921)

“The Golem” (Germany – 1920)

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (Germany – 1921)

“The Phantom Carriage” (Sweden – 1921)

“Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages” (Sweden – 1922)

“The Phantom of the Opera” (US – 1925)

“The Fall of the House of Usher” (Spain – 1928)

“All Quiet on the Western Front” (US – 1930)

“M” (Germany – 1931) “Dracula” (US – 1932)

“Frankenstein (US – 1933)

These films may still chill us today, but they were born in the mud and stench and death of World War 1, as thousands faced the daily horror of No Man’s Land and then found a need to express their horror following the war. The great war poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen will also be explored and discussed.

We live in an incredible epoch of exploration. We are discovering not merely new continents, like the explorers of old, but whole new worlds circling other stars. Since the first extrasolar planet was discovered in 1995, astronomers have found more than five thousand others in our cosmic neighborhood. We wonder. It’s our nature. How did we get here? Are we alone in the universe? How does the universe work? The James Webb Space Telescope is an ambitious scientific endeavor that will answer these questions. Webb builds on the legacy of previous space-based telescopes to push the boundaries of human knowledge even further, to the formation of the first galaxies and the horizons of other worlds. The class will review the latest startling findings from the Webb and other telescopes to describe our growing understanding of the universe- our home!

Do you wonder how Colorado’s meteorologists figure out the daily and long-term forecasts? How well do you understand the differences between the weather and the climate? And how does climate change affect your life? This course takes you into the science behind and the techniques used in analyzing and forecasting the weather for Colorado and beyond. Veteran meteorologist Tom Corona will help you understand how weather and climate differ and the implications of climate change. The first hour of each class will be a discussion of what goes into predicting current weather and the seven-day forecast. We will cover science, maps, computer forecast models, radar and satellites. Tom will also help us recognize the wide varieties of clouds and how they impact our daily weather. The second half of each class will explore El Niño/La Niña, hurricanes, blizzards, heat waves, droughts and more. Bring your enthusiasm and your questions. Tom will offer his expertise and provide materials for this journey into the wacky, wonderful world of weather.

Economics is boring…unless it’s your money. “Thinking Like an Economist” will teach you to make rational choices in personal, work, and political decisions. You’ll learn why incentives matter, how to evaluate risk in purchasing, the myth of true value, predicting future values, and the economics of ignorance. Your newfound grasp of these and other economic principles will give you more confidence in managing your money and understanding how our economy works. We will discuss these fundamental economic principles plus current economic news that affects our daily lives.

This class will use the Great Course video series “Thinking Like and Economist”.

So, what created this mess? William Faulkner wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” This class will dive deeply into Palestine’s past and how it has contributed to, and ultimately shaped, the current-day tragedy in the Holy Land.

We will begin with 3000 BCE:

• Who were the Canaanites and where did they come from?
• How did the Israelites end up in Palestine?
• How did the series of conquerors and rulers shape the country?
• How did the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam influence Palestine?

We will explore the last 150 years:

• Where did the Zionist movement begin and why was it so successful?
• Why did Great Britain support the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine?
• Why did the newly formed United Nations advocate a two-nation solution in 1948?
• Why did the Jews win the wars of 1948 and 1967 so decisively?

And finally, what is the situation today?

This is an eight-week course that will include lectures, videos, and a lot of discussion. The class will be offered both in person at OLLI South and on-line. Each class will be limited to 35.

Discover the wide-ranging activities where drones are being used. Learn how their small size and cost is changing the face of warfare in Ukraine and the Middle East. Learn how quickly drones can be assembled. We will view an in-person demonstration and hear directly from first responders who use drones in our local area. The class will be seminar style with lots of discussion and short videos.