The Center for Lifelong Learning

Amelia Island Backwater Fishing

The art of fishing, and specifically fishing from shore and by boat, around Amelia Island will be presented through discussion, hands-on practice and illustrated presentations in this interactive course. Casting and tying knots, fishing techniques, places to fish, reading the water, locating fish and identifying fish, as well as selecting and purchasing fishing tackle and gear will be addressed. The final class will be comprised of cooking (and eating) a fish dinner from locally caught fish.

Captain Lawrence Piper is a Fernandina Beach native who has fished the creeks, lakes and rivers of North Florida for more than four decades. After owning a number of service-oriented companies, he decided to develop his passion for fishing into a business. He is a U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Captain, a member of the Florida Guides Association, the National Association of Charter Boat Operators, and the Federation of Fly Fishers. He is the owner and operator of The Angler’s Mark, a charter fishing business. In addition to fishing, he also is an artist who creates fishing-oriented carved and stamped leather pieces that he shows at area art festivals and fishing shows.

Chinese Folk Religion

Chinese Folk Religion is a combination of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism placed atop Chinese archaic Shamanism. This amalgam of beliefs has shifted and adapted over the space of 3,000 years and is still practiced. This course will include discussion, Internet sources, DVD, and the instructor’s original research.  Four classes of two hours each will be offered, but additional classes may be added if there is additional interest. An excellent free Internet source for background material is: http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/scriptorium/gga/ggacover.html

Jim Kemp is a professor of Asian Studies at Florida State College, studied Chinese language, art, and religion in Taiwan and owns a museum-worthy collection of Asian wood block prints.

Comparative Mythology

According to Joseph Campbell, “myths are the stories we tell ourselves to tell ourselves who we are.” Every culture creates myths to answer four fundamental, universal questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? How should we live? What happens after we die? Although these questions are the same, the answers vary enormously. In this course, we will explore the myths, the answers to these questions, from different cultures to understand the universal similarities and the enormous variation in every culture’s vision of the world and, again in Campbell’s words, “what it is to live a human life.” The course format will involve readings and group discussion.

Required text: The World of Myth, David Adams Leeming ($15) and handouts.

Crime Scene - Nassau

How real are the procedures on the TV series CSI? Students in this course will study the life cycle of a crime and be able to compare the process with what they see on TV. The course will give students an understanding of police involvement, forensic evidence, eyewitness identification, and laboratory analysis of physical evidence. Class discussion will focus on scientific methodologies and criminal law generally with some emphasis on Florida law. Class format will include instructor presentation, group discussion of scenarios, games and other activities. 

Great Decisions 2012

This course is inspired and guided by the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions Briefing Book. This course utilizes the book and discussion to address eight topics in which our government needs to make critical foreign policy decisions. The eight topics for 2012 are: (1) Middle East realignment, (2) Promoting democracy, (3) Mexico, (4) Cybersecurity, (5) Exit from Afghanistan and Iraq, (6) State of the oceans, (7) Indonesia, and (8) Energy geopolitics. Each class session will consist of a discussion of one topic from the book. More information on the topics is available at www.fpa.org. Select “Great Decisions” in the upper left hand corner.

Facilitator and discussion leader Peter Johnson served with the U. S. Foreign Service in Spain, Portugal and three Latin American countries and founded a non-profit organization (C/CAA) concerned with development in Central America and the Caribbean. The instructor requests that students have the Great Decisions 2012 book and read Middle East realignment prior to the first class. Books will be available at the Florida State College at Jacksonville Betty P. Cook Nassau Center for purchase.

How to Use a Digital Camera

This course is a basic introduction to your digital camera. You will be taught how to use your camera’s controls and built-in features to produce better digital photographs, as well as how to download, print and email your images. This course does not require any particular computer skills and is not part of the separate “Image Editing” course. 

I Turned on the Computer - Now What?

This introductory “How To” class is aimed at helping students better understand their computer. Students will learn basic computer functions, how to use the Internet, how to set up and use an email account, how to post pictures on the Internet, how to use Facebook and how to navigate online banking and shopping. Students will also be given tips on how to keep personal information safe.

Ken Ward is a retired Navy veteran and works at the Nassau Center Library/Learning Commons. Catherine Hodges is the Library/Learning Commons Manager at the Betty P. Cook Nassau Center.

Image Editing for Digital Photographers

Powerful image editing software has made the “digital darkroom” available to everyone with tools for enhancing colors, creating collages and amazing visual effects, retouching photographs and much more. You will learn these image manipulation techniques with real hands-on experience using Adobe Photoshop Version 12.1 installed on the classroom computers. While image editing experience is not required, students should have basic computing skills and be able to navigate through file browsers. (Participants are encouraged NOT to register for “How to Use a Digital Camera.")

James Joyce: Dubliners

Dubliners is a collection of short stories written by Joyce before he developed his dense style of Ulysses. One critic of Joyce’s style wrote, “The method of telling forces us to judge, to interpret, to participate in the text.”  Another critic sums up his essay: “Dubliners, is the book to take to a desert island [or a green island]. Its characters are at the same time intensely Irish and utterly universal.”

We will do a close reading of several of the short stories, including “The Dead,” Joyce’s “earliest masterpiece and one of the greatest short stories in the English language.”

Oenology 101 - How to Enjoy Wine

Drinking wine should be immensely pleasurable without the stress of selecting the “right” wine or the disappointment of choosing the “wrong” wine, or without spending a bundle. This course will provide students with the knowledge to select wines for any occasion, to match wine and food, to know where the best wines come from and how to find the best price. The student will also learn of the lore, legend and romance of wine with anecdotes and stories interspersed throughout the sessions. 

The Art of Photography: The Evolution of a New Art Form

This class will feature a series of lectures devoted to the examination of photography as a new and unique means of making images due to the invention of the camera at the turn of the 20th century. The class will journey through various images, beginning with early family mementos, to the development of images regarded as serious works of art.

Richard Olderman has an M.F.A. in photography from the Art Institute of Chicago and has taught at Northern Illinois University; Columbia College, Chicago; and The Art Institute of Chicago. For more information, contact Richard Olderman at (904) 261-2544.

Treasure Hunting 101

Spanish Galleons navigated the East coast of Florida enroute to Spain, carrying a vast wealth of precious metal and jewels. Most of that treasure is still buried under sea and sand, and at least one is very close to Amelia Island. The professional treasure hunters of Amelia Research and Recovery, LLC, in cooperation with the Maritime Museum of Amelia Island, present this four night course that shares the history of the sunken treasure ships and how local treasure hunters use cutting-edge technology, along with centuries old archeological clues to locate the treasure and recover it. Depending on operational requirements, the class may be invited onto the research and recovery vessel Polly-L, and will have the opportunity to examine some of the recovered treasures. More about Amelia Research and Recovery can be found at www.ameliaresearch.com. 

The course will be taught by Archeologist and Chief Diver Scott Jensen; Doug Pope, CEO and Captain of the research and recovery vessel Polly-L; by Maritime Museum director Ed Gavron and by LLC owner-members Harvey Slentz and others.