Welcome to Grinnell College's

Experimental College

Grinnell's Experimental College (ExCo) is dedicated to bringing townspeople, college students, and college staff together over shared interests by facilitating less traditional educational experiences. All ExCo classes are open to both the College community and the Grinnell community at large.

applying to teachan ExCo

So, you want to teach a class? Info on teaching an ExCo Class

There will be informational meeting for prospective ExCo teachers later in the semester. For an application or more information, email us at exco@grinnell.edu Be sure to include your name, email address and box number when you write to us. All are welcome to apply!

Application for Spring 2005 (Doc) (PDF)

Why be an ExCo teacher?

There are so many reasons!

If you have a special talent or know a useful skill, you can share it with others.
You see a need in the community that you can fill, or you just know something incredible that everyone could benefit from.
You want to be cool like the other ExCo professors (popular classes are often taught multiple semesters and gain a large following).
It would look great on your resumé, and teachers get fantastic perks.
The application process is incredibly easy: just one page to fill out, and you decide the structure, size, and frequency of the class and its meetings.

This information should help you decide what to teach, how to apply, and eventually how to teach it. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact Saurabh [sarafsau], or just [exco]. Don’t worry, we’re nice.

ExCo is:

an SGA-group that supports students, faculty, and interested locals in teaching about their esoteric specialties in informal class settings. The ExCo committee organizes registration, acquires funds, and supports teachers in other ways.

You should teach a class because:

you have a special talent or obscure expertise that you want to share with the Grinnell community. Maybe you see a desire for your specialty in the community and you want to fill it, or maybe you know all about something that no one has thought of, but everyone desperately needs. Or perhaps you just want something cool on your résumé. Either way, you’ve got a reason to teach. If you’re thinking about applying again, please do. Popular repeated classes are an important part of ExCo, and we appreciate them so much that we allot them more funds.

You’ve got your idea, now you just need to:

fill out a 1-page application to make your class “official” and get funding (available at www.grinnell.edu/exco/ ). You’ll need to give a basic description for your class and a budget. Your description should give the idea of what you’re proposing to teach and how you’re planning to teach it, and for your budget you’ll need to consider what course materials you’ll need for yourself and the class to teach.

No really, the deal with the budget is:

you need to consider what materials you might need. This includes books for reference, music for accompaniment, gas for trips, chess boards, etc. You’ll also get free photocopying rights to the SGA photocopier. With convincing need you can get most things funded, but keep in mind that we operate on a limited budget from SGA, so, unless your class can’t work without it, we like to keep a budget for a single from exceeding $100. Just propose what you think you need and we’ll talk it over.

Registration is:

generally the first Sunday of the semester. We’ll advertise and put catalogs around campus and town, and everyone will come and sign up for your class. It’s pretty informal, and very fun.

The semester:

goes by quickly. You’ll have 12 or so weeks to teach everything you want to teach and your students will have as much time to learn what they want to learn. Attendance will drop after the first couple of weeks, and the students present on your 3 rd or 4 th week will be your core group. You’ll need to be flexible, and you’ll probably diverge from your syllabus significantly. It’s cool though, we won’t get angry. At the end of the semester, the ExCo Committee will take you to dinner to thank you for all your hard work, so be ready for that. It’ll be delicious, we promise. And we’ll love you forever.

Writing a Budget

List all essential financial needs in order to deliver adequate materials for students. You should be able to justify all requests for funding. Copies - do not include copy costs. Books - List author and title, and whether or not Burling has the book.

Writing a syllabus

They should be descriptive, yet not excessive. Remember to appropriately schedule around the Grinnell College academic schedule (e.g. - do not ask much of students during midterms). Cooking classes: Please attempt to make your classes open to as many Grinnellians as possible. Hence, try to fit vegetarian and vegan, if at all possible, meals into your plans. We understand that this may be an impractical task, in which case, you must state in your application that vegans and/or vegetarians should not sign up for your class.

Schedules

Registration is usually at the first week of school classes start the second week of school. The typical exco class lasts 12 weeks, and thus should end at least one week before Finals. However, class length can be open to the teacher's discretion.