Spring 2025!   

Project 2025 is just beginning. This “blueprint for a next Republican administration,” from the Heritage Foundation and refugees from the first Trump administration, provides guidance for realizing a new conservative vision for government. Trump’s re-election and the appointment of sympathetic officials set the stage for this vision to become reality. The Project’s 900-page summary document, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is bold and specific, representing a sharp turn away from checks and balances and towards a more centralized, autocratic state. We all know about the gap between cup and lip and have witnessed countless bold documents gathering dust on policymakers’ shelves. This begs the question: “To what extent, and how, has Project 2025 come into being during the first 100 days of the Trump administration?” Aided by cartoonists, fact-checkers, and astute observers, we’ll probe this question and its implications across the political spectrum for us all.

Whether you mean to teach them or not, the dogs and cats in your home are always learning from you. We will talk about different ways to approach training dogs and cats, what you may accidentally be teaching them, the benefits of training your dog and cat - even if they are already perfectly behaved - and what to focus on teaching them. We will discuss when and how to teach puppies and kittens, training newly adopted rescues, and what’s different about training dogs from puppy mills or cats from hoarding houses. While we’re at it, we will bust some myths about dog and cat training. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Yes! Do you have to make a point to be in charge? No. Are cats harder to train than dogs? Not really. Bring your training questions and challenges. There will be time for questions and answers. You will receive some excellent training resources and watch some cute animal training videos for inspiration.

This is the story of the North Atlantic region spanning billions of years. We begin with Rodinia, a supercontinent that assembled about 1 billion years ago. When it broke apart about 500 million years ago, the fragments formed the next supercontinent, Pangaea. Over the last 200 million years, Pangaea has fragmented, giving rise to the continents we know today: North and South America, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. This motion of both seafloor plates and continental plates was driven by the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and other ocean basins. Old seafloor and continental margins were crumpled into vast mountain ranges, and smaller landmasses were incorporated into the growing continents. Starting in northwest Norway, we’ll journey across the UK and conclude in southeastern Newfoundland, Canada. We will encounter remarkable evidence of this past: 565-million-year-old fossils that once resided on the Moroccan coast, a testament to the incredible mobility of Earth’s crust.

Architecture is a “fine art” along with painting and sculpture, but the shackles of utility have hampered its fine art designation. With the destruction of the Pruitt Igo housing project in 1972 and the rise of post-modernism, those shackles have been loosened. Architects could begin to explore expressive and philosophic art. Compare the modernist expression “Form follows function” and “truth to materials” to post-modern expressions “the decorated shed,” “conceptual form,” and “decomposition of geometric systems.” These phrases express a bid for freedom from utility and yield wildly different architectural forms. Architecture behaves as a divergent pursuit. The more architects who work on a problem, the more solutions are generated. Pure engineering problems behave as though there is a single best solution. This course investigates the multiplicity of architectural ideas and forms that freedom encourages.

This class is full. Please click the Add to Waitlist button below.

Just like death and taxes, security compromises are inevitable but manageable if you prepare and take precautions. We usually do not want to think about them or feel overwhelmed by all the things necessary to keep us secure. What if you had a checklist of what to do each day, each month, or each year to stay safe? Let's pluck the best security practices and organize them into lists you can use to balance your life and security.

Come explore the fascinating geology of Washington State with us as we climb the high Cascades, explore the deserts, and unravel the geologic story behind the beautiful landscapes of our state. We will learn about the web of geologic faults that transect the Puget Lowland, visit our mighty volcanoes, and examine the floodscapes east of the mountains left by the great Ice Age floods. We will also scan the bluffs of Puget Sound for evidence of the advance and retreat of the great Cordilleran Ice Sheet and visit the ancient seashore in Spokane. Let the adventures begin!

This class is full. Please click the Add to Waitlist button below.

Project 2025 is just beginning. This “blueprint for a next Republican administration,” from the Heritage Foundation and refugees from the first Trump administration, provides guidance for realizing a new conservative vision for government. Trump’s re-election and the appointment of sympathetic officials set the stage for this vision to become reality. The Project’s 900-page summary document, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is bold and specific, representing a sharp turn away from checks and balances and towards a more centralized, autocratic state. We all know about the gap between cup and lip and have witnessed countless bold documents gathering dust on policymakers’ shelves. This begs the question: “To what extent, and how, has Project 2025 come into being during the first 100 days of the Trump administration?” Aided by cartoonists, fact-checkers, and astute observers, we’ll probe this question and its implications across the political spectrum for us all.

Francis Poulenc was the most prominent member of “Les Six” (“The Six”), a mid-20th-century organization of young French composers which, startingly for the times, included a woman. The music of this group often is seen as a neoclassic reaction against both the musical style of Richard Wagner and the Impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Erica Miner provides compelling background and striking videos to portray Poulenc’s importance in the history of music. “Dialogues of the Carmelites,” his highly dramatic opera about the mass execution of nuns during the French Revolution, is recognized as one of the most emotionally moving in all of opera.

This course is Part I of a two-part sequence on global warming. Part I provides an overview of historical climate change, examining the impact of fossil fuel burning on the environment. It explores the link between historical fossil fuel consumption (based on tax records), greenhouse gas emissions, and subsequent climate changes. The analysis includes regional impacts on the Pacific Northwest, such as changes in summer drought patterns, increased rain intensity, and the rise of wildfires, landslides, and heat waves. Additionally, it explores global consequences, including impacts on food production, water resources, and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like droughts, hurricanes, and floods. Part II is planned for a future quarter and will describe what can be done to stop global warming.

Born in Paris less than a decade apart, Edouard Manet (1832-1883) and Claude Monet (1840-1926) were two of the most consequential painters in the history of art, and given their almost identical names, they are easily confused. Superficially, their work may look similar, and while Manet hugely influenced the younger Monet, he would later take up Monet’s interest in painting outdoors with a lighter palette. Both strove to paint modern life, but their art diverged substantially, and only one of the two would associate himself with the radical movement of Impressionism. Come learn about these two giants of modern painting and how to distinguish one from the other.

In this course, we will explore the marine life in tidal pools of some of the most extensive low-tide sand beaches on the Puget Sound — tide flats which are right in our backyard in Kingston. We will learn about the sound’s marine mammals, sea birds, mollusks, and more. We will find out the answers to questions like: What is that thing? What do divers see in the Edmonds Underwater Park? What is living out in the Puget Sound? The featured animals will include the orca, harbor seal, river otter, bald eagle, osprey, great blue heron, geoduck, moon snail, squid, octopus, sea star, jellyfish, sea cucumber, sea anemone, and sand dollar.

This course is designed to provide a layman-accessible overview of how human pharmaceuticals are developed, evaluated, used, and regulated. Class participants will gain basic knowledge of drug production, testing, and marketing, focusing on the importance of regulations in these areas, including drug types, how they work, pharmaceutical development, and commercialization.

Since its founding in the aftermath of World War II, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been the cornerstone of U.S. security strategy. Originally designed, in the words of its first secretary general, to “keep America in, the Soviets out, and Germany down,” NATO has evolved into an alliance of 32 member nations committed to mutual defense. We shall explore the organization’s history, costs, successes, and challenges and spend considerable time examining Article 5, the key tenet of the treaty that states, “An attack on one is an attack on all” member states. Each week, a Resource List and Q&A segments will enhance our understanding of this central pillar of North Atlantic security and the rules-based international order.

May Swenson’s poetry has been described as keen, authentic, visionary, accessible (also elusive!), and democratic in its vision. I first fell for her when I read “The Centaur,” her whimsical, gender-twisting poem about a 10-year-old child pretending to be a horse. One thing I’ve learned in years of reading and studying her is that every reader has their own Swenson, and we don’t always agree on “who” she was. In this class, we will read Swenson’s writings, a sampling of her influences, and consider how she influenced the generations of poets who came after her. Poems not available in “Nature: Poems Old and New” (2000), will be provided.

This class is full. Please click the Add to Waitlist button below.

This year marks 200 years since the first Norwegian immigrants came to America. This anniversary will be commemorated on both sides of the Atlantic, including in this class at CRI! The history of Scandinavian immigration has been richly documented in historical studies and novels, letters and diaries, photographs, and oral history interviews. A wealth of sources offers windows into the lives of people who decided to leave their homeland and try their luck in uncharted territory. What motivated them to leave? Where in America’s great expanse did they end up? For those who stayed and settled, how were they accepted, and how did the lives they built contribute to the fabric of American society? This class will learn about these questions and topics from lectures and explore them through readings and discussion. Participants are encouraged to read Edvard Hoem’s novel, “Haymaker in Heaven,” translated from Norwegian by Tara Chase. The instructor will provide other readings.

Since Mary Shelley anonymously published “The Modern Prometheus” for the first time in 1818, science fiction has been an imaginative exploration into the question: what does it mean to be human? Specifically, the genre has become inextricably linked to critical commentary on social stratification and how we respond to injustice. From the writings of Ursula K. Le Guin to Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future, “Star Trek,” this course will investigate how science fiction continues to be a vehicle for identifying and confronting social justice issues. Through the use of allegory, these speculative works hold a mirror to humanity and prompt us to question our current reality and imagine alternative futures. Learn about science fiction’s socially conscious history and how to critically approach strange new worlds to better understand our own.

In this course, we will focus on the events that led to the astounding modernization of China in a mere 50 years. From the early 1900s, China was embattled in an on-again, off-again Civil War that was eventually settled when the Communists triumphed in 1949. This led to an era that featured misguided pitfalls: The Great Leap Forward (which was anything but) and the Cultural Revolution (complete chaos). China would emerge in the ‘80s after the death of Mao Zedong as a world player in the modern era.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.