During the Winter Term course on genealogy, one student discovered that she is a descendant of a Scottish king. Impressive, until she also learned that to become king so many centuries ago, one had to murder the previous king. Another find that caused some head-scratching: How did a student’s Ukrainian great-grandmother end up coming to America on a boat with someone from a climate warm enough to grow bananas -- the fruit he shared to save her life on that fateful voyage? Was it a true story, or just family fiction? Students have used various resources to delve into their families’ pasts -- often with surprising results.

Students are laughing and talking about Project Runway as they look down at their hands, stitching colorful material with needle and thread or feeding fabric through a sewing machine, or cutting cotton pinned to patterns to make skirts or dresses. It's a scene from the Winter Term class The Art of Sewing: An Introduction to the Sewing Machine and Clothing Design was designed to teach students all the basics of sewing and, on most days, to complete a project.