Spring 2026 Course Search

Building on structural and reactivity insights developed in Chemistry 1, this course delves into molecular structure and modern theories of bonding, especially as they relate to the reaction patterns of functional groups. We will focus on the mechanisms of reaction pathways and develop an understanding for how those mechanisms are experimentally explored. There will be numerous readings from the primary literature, including some classic papers that describe seminal experiments.

An herbarium is a museum of pressed plants, a record of flora following a system that dates back to the 16th century. Large herbaria at institutions like D.C.’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Chicago’s Field Museum, Cambridge’s Harvard University, and London’s Kew Gardens contain millions of specimens, collected from around the world. But, most herbaria are small herbaria, with less than 10,000 specimens.

Historical Dress: The Park-McCullough Project Spring ‘26

This course is for students who are doing advanced work in Sustainable Agriculture or community engagement work. Students will create an individual project developing project management skills that include planning, research, development, and implementation. The students will have the opportunity to collaborate with a community partner and will present their completed project at the end of term. A small project budget will be provided supported by The Bennington Fair Food Initiative grant.

The aim of this course is to think about books. Not just books as objects, but books as the signifiers of a wealth of relationships – between reading and writing, between people and ideas, between people and people, between technologies and desires. For centuries, our ideas have been shaped by the rhythms and hierarchies inherent in the nature of print.  But the nature of the book itself has changed enormously over time – from the painstaking creation of ancient papyri and scrolls to Gutenberg and the fifteenth-century printing revolution.

Historical Dress: The Park-McCullough Project Spring '26

Working in collaboration with the local Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion, students will create a new archive of the historic dress collection.

This advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to pursue a term-long project in history.  Asking the historian’s three basic questions – why this? why here? and why now? – each student will be able to do a deep dive into their chosen piece of the past.  For some, this will be the venue for writing their SCT senior theses.  For others, this will be the place where they can produce a historical project appropriate to their Plan. Writing will take place throughout term, and all students in this seminar will receive weekly feedback.

This course examines the history of immigration to the United States. How did this country become a “nation of immigrants”? How did immigration become so central to American national identity? What are this country’s purported ideals on the subject and has it ever lived up to them?