Making its debut this winter quarter is Bellevue College’s interdisciplinary course, entitled “Sex, Science and the Stage.” The course is taught by Tammi Doyle from the Drama Department and Biology Instructor Susan Miller. The content of this course is derived from of BIOL&100 and DRMA&101.
The course’s curriculum involves performing plays, and then discussing the science behind the play they’re doing during the biology classes. “Tammi will be teaching the drama side and I will be explaining the science behind it,” said Miller. The DRMA&101 class usually does 3 or 4 plays per quarter and then does a breakdown on the plays. This time, the plays are specifically chosen to have strong biology aspects.
“Why there are so many plays about couples, breaking up and making up. We’ll talk about that biologically and theatrically,” said Doyle. The biology class will cover the science behind human relationships. For example, how the brain works, why humans feel stressed and why they are attracted to each other.
Although biology and drama may seem to be two very different subjects, they are related. Preparing a play requires students to fully understand the roles and the scenes. Studying the science behind how these things work will allow them to perform and express it more accurately.
The class is expected to appeal to drama students as an alternative to meet their science requirement. “It is meant to make science more accessible and less scary to drama students,” said Miller. Miller also hopes that students interested in drama would be interested in biology as well.
This is the first time the course is offered and enrollment is still a little low. However, both instructors hope that students would be interested in taking the course. For more information about class, visit the BC website under the Interdisciplinary Course section. Or visit http://depts.bellevuecollege.edu/ids/