Monday Courses   

This course is based on the AARP Smart Driver course, which has been shown to significantly reduce older drivers’ risk of collision. It will help you become more proficient in the current rules of the road, improve your defensive driving techniques and help you with safe vehicle operation in today’s demanding driving environment. The course will focus on the vital relationship between the driver, vehicle and road, and look at how factors such as aging, medications and alcohol can impact driving. You’ll also learn about the latest vehicle safety features and technological advancements. Importantly, you will learn how to identify when it’s no longer safe to drive and how to find alternative travel options. This course may qualify you for a multiyear discount on your auto insurance.

NOTE: A required materials fee of $20 to $25 (discount for AARP members) includes a comprehensive 120-page Participant Guide. Both days are required for course completion and insurance discount. The fee will be collected on the first day by cash or check made out to AARP. Credit cards will not be accepted. 

PowerPoint presentations that include stories and facts are shared with an emphasis on birding in the Rogue Valley and around the region. The members of the class are invited to share their stories and information. Topics are chosen that best fit the time of year and the interests of the folks who come to the class. No experience or prior knowledge is needed. Rather, it is a class that invites curiosity and engagement with nature and community. Poetry is interwoven throughout. Topics may include fall birding, connecting birding with poetry, mindful birding and learning about how birds get their common and Latin names. Generally, we focus on birds’ behaviors and how we can connect with them and all of nature and how we can take care of the nature that we love. 

Bridge is a rich card game that is challenging and fun. This course is for people who have never played bridge, people who are returning to the game after a long absence and beginners looking to improve their game. Using many prepared examples, students will learn how to bid and how to play, along with many tips for advancing beyond the basics of the game. Most class days will include playing some full hands of bridge with guidance from the instructor. 

You can truly learn something new about the game of bridge forever. This course is geared for people who know a little about the game — they have played before and are familiar with the basics of bidding — and now want to improve their game. The focus will be on the fundamentals of the Standard American Five Card bidding system, followed by some good strategies for both playing (i.e., how to “make” your contracts) and for defending (i.e., how to defeat the opponents’ contracts). 

This course will cover a number of tips for players already familiar with the basics of the game of bridge. The ideal student is familiar with the content of my first two courses: Learn How to Play Bridge and Beginning Bridge 2. That is, some knowledge of the basics of the Standard American Five Card Major bidding system are assumed — though they will be reviewed during the course. Examples of topics include special uses of doubling, slam conventions, competitive bidding situations, opening leads guidelines, and general declarer and defensive strategies. Each class session will include a minimum of 45 minutes of students playing bridge hands.

This course presents films that are widely considered to be inspirational and have been well received by the general public as well as by movie critics. These films are from the 1980s onward, with most having been produced within the last 10 to 15 years. There are no overtly religious themes, but all could be loosely labeled spiritual in the broadest sense. The following films will be shown in class: “Departures,” “Cast Away,” “Billy Elliot,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” “Queen of Katwe,” “Ghostlight” (2024), “Dead Poets Society,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Coda” and “Chariots of Fire.” Discussion will follow. There is no requirement to take this class other than a love for movies that have depth and emotional appeal.

How do we know what we know about our universe with all its galaxies, stars, planets? How did it form following the Big Bang? How do all these old and new telescopes work? How do we measure time and distance? How do stars form and evolve? What are gravity waves and black holes? This course will examine these topics that have no practical use for most but are fun to learn about anyway. The course will be taught using PowerPoint presentations and other visual and audio material. As much time as necessary will be devoted to your questions. Not included in the course: space exploration, planetary geology, extraterrestrial life, astrology, constellations and star positions, or exoplanets.

Published in 1975, E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime” explores themes of race, class and the rise of consumer culture in the early 20th century across a wide variety of fictional and historical characters living in a world on the cusp of change. The intertwined storylines follow three families — a white upper-class family, Jewish immigrants and an African American couple with a newborn baby — as they search for belonging in a rapidly changing America. Using lectures, discussions and even music, we will examine both the times depicted in the novel and the societal factors that were at work when it was written. Fifty years have passed since “Ragtime” was published, yet its themes are still relevant: the complex drive for progress, the search for meaning and the struggle for freedom and peace.

NOTE: Participants should read the novel before the course begins. This course is part of an online share with OLLI at the University of Nevada, Reno. Please note that the last session(s) of the course extend beyond the OLLI at SOU term.