New this year! The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Boise State is happy to offer exciting noncredit learning opportunities during the summer season.
Have questions? Please phone the Extended Studies Office at (208) 426-1709
Click on the links at the left, or below, or scroll down to read a brief description of each course and lecture.
Register early to secure your seat!
Think of it! Learning without the pressure of exams, papers and grades! Learning in a relaxed environment without competition! Learning for the pure pleasure of it!
The following courses are available to Osher members. Register early to secure your seat.
Have questions? Please phone the Extended Studies Office at (208) 426-1709
Click on the links at the left, or below, or scroll down to read a brief description of each course.
Learn about interesting geologic features of Southern Idaho as we approach Craters of the Moon National Monument, where we will stop and study outstanding examples of Basaltic volcanism. Moving on, we will follow the course of the upper Snake River to Jackson, Wyoming and on to Teton National Park to see the results of recent faulting and alpine glaciations. Then onward into Yellowstone National Park, where there will be numerous stops for walkabouts and discussions.
Attention will be focused on results of high heat flow and the many hydrothermal features of the park. While in the park, we will spend one night at the famous Old Faithful Inn. We will head back to Boise through the Island Park Caldera and down the length of the Snake River Plain.
Presenter: Monte Wilson, Geologist and Roy Mink, Hydrologist
Date: May 26-29
Location: Yellowstone/Tetons/Craters of the Moon
Capacity: Full
Cost: (including instruction, transportation, lodging, park entry fees and two breakfasts):
Per person cost based on double occupancy: $410
Per person cost based on single room occupancy: $635Back to top
Learn to optimally use the operations, modes, and settings of your digital camera while training your eye to capture artistic and memorable photos.
Presenter: Dr. Mary Stieglitz, an artist and educator, recently served as Photographer in Residence for the National Park Service, MacNamara Foundation, and the Espy Foundation. She holds a Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, and a two-year post-doctorate from UW-Madison. She has achieved professorial rank at numerous universities including Iowa State University of Science and Technology where she served as Distinguished Scholar in Arts and Humanities.
Date: Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 2, 4, 9, 11
Time: 10 a.m. – Noon
Location: Boise State Foundation Office, 2225 University Drive
Parking: Parking is available in the parking garage on Brady Street. $1 an hour fee.
Capacity: Full
Cost: $55
This sport is addictive and beautiful. Learn technique, discover how to read the river and understand the habits of the fish and the insects they feed upon and much, much more. There will be a fishing expedition at the end of the series to provide practice and experience. You will fish with experts.
Presenter: John Wolter
Date: Wednesdays, June 3, 10, 17, 24
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: MK Nature Center
Parking: Park in the lot in front of the Nature Center and adjacent to the Idaho Fish and Game department at 600 S. Walnut
Capacity: 20
Cost: $65
Join us to read and discuss Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night—plays that will be performed as part of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival’s summer season. The plays will be compared and discussed as literature and also for their performance possibilities. Participants should read both plays. It is suggested that participants see the ISF performance of The Comedy of Errors during the session.
Presenter: Charles Davis
Date: Mondays, June 15, 17, 22, 24
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon, June 15, 17, 24; 10 a.m.–2 p.m., June 22 (in addition to class, students will be watching a film)
Location: Monday, June 15, Farnsworth Room, BSU Student Union; Wednesday, June 17, Shakespeare Festival Theater; Monday, June 22, Grand Ballroom A, BSU Student Union; Wednesday, June 24, Shakespeare Festival Theater
Parking: Best on-campus parking will be in the parking garage on University Dr. and Lincoln Ave. Entrance is on Belmont St. $1 an hour fee.
Capacity: 50
Cost: $55
Email frustrate you? Want to learn to put photos on your computer? Unsure how to approach the internet? A new world awaits you. Learn these and other basic computer skills in this class, designed for those just starting out with computers.
Presenter: Glenna Rhodes
Date: Tuesdays, June 16, 23, 30, July 7
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon
Location: BSU Albertsons Library, Computer Classroom TBA
Parking: Best parking is in the Administration Building fee lot on University Dr., $1 per hour fee.
Capacity: 25
Cost: $45
Students will be working entirely with slab construction methods, including soft slab, drape molding, and stiff-slab construction. Various texturing methods will be used and students will work with a variety of glazes. The class will culminate in a Raku Firing Event. Raku is the Japanese low firing process characterized by brilliant metallic finishes and white and black crackling.
Presenter: Jerry Hendershot
Date: Mondays, June 29, July 6, 13, 20
Time: 1 p.m.–3 p.m.
Location: TBA
Parking: TBA
Capacity: 8
Cost: $62 (includes materials fee)
Develop flexibility, strength and general well being as you learn and practice both yoga and Pilates techniques in this fully equipped studio.
Presenter: Becky Weires
Date: Mondays, July 6, 13, 20, 27
Time: 11 a.m.–Noon
Location: Yoga for Life Center, 1085 North Cole Rd., Suite 103
Parking: Parking is available in the lot adjacent to the building.
Capacity: 14
Cost: $40
This is an introductory level course designed to provide you with skills and techniques that are the basis for a strong understanding of your immediate surroundings. You will come to understand how to analyze a three-dimensional object, draw that object onto a two-dimensional surface (paper), and have it appear three dimensional using value and shape. The elements of shape, line, value, form color and space will be explored.
Presenter: Dan Lake
Date: Thursdays, July 9, 16, 23, 30
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon
Location: Centennial High School Art Suite, Room 241
Parking: Park in the school’s lot.
Capacity: 25
Cost: $45
Learn clinical symptoms, molecular players and treatment options of Neurodegenerative Diseases with special focus on Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer’s. Some lab time is included.
Presenter: Troy Rohn
Date: Tuesdays, July 14, 21, 28
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon
Location: BSU Science Nursing Building, Room 218
Parking: Best parking would be in the parking facility on Brady Street or in the Administration Building pay lot on University Drive. $1 per hour fee.
Capacity: 35
Cost: $35
Whether your interest is nutrition, food security, sustainable living or horticulture, you’ll never again take food for granted after this course. From soil to table, local producers, marketers and educators will describe the triumphs and challenges of our local food economy, and we’ll visit two local growers to see how it’s done.
Presenters: Beth Geagan, Sustainable Community Connections of Idaho; Janie Burns, Meadowlark Farms; James Reed, Idaho’s Bounty; Becky Morgan, BUGS (Boise Urban Garden School); Josie Erskine and Diane Jones, Peaceful Belly CSA.
Date: Wednesdays, July 22, 29; August 5 and 12 will be on site.
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon
Location: Idaho Department of Agriculture, 2270 Old Penitentiary Road
Room 22-A and B on July 22nd; Conference rooms 1 and 2 on July 29th
Parking: Parking is available adjacent to the building.
Capacity: 35
Cost: $45
Learn the basics of genealogy and family history gathering using internet research techniques as you pursue the names on your family tree.
Presenter: Gene Williams
Date: Tuesdays, August 4, 6, 11, 18
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon
Location: BSU Albertsons Library, Computer Classroom TBA
Parking: Best parking would be in the Administration Building pay lot on University Dr. $1 per hour fee.
Capacity: 25
Cost: $45
Learn yoga the Iyengar way with a clear presentation and step-by-step instructions designed to enhance your sense of balance, alignment, strength, flexibility and overall sense of well-being. Fully equipped studio with all yoga props provided. Students should come with relatively empty stomachs, and with hands and feet washed free of lotions and oils.
Presenter: Vickie Aldridge
Date: Tuesdays, August 4, 6, 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27
Time: 3:30 p.m.–4:45 p.m.
Location: The Yoga Center, 3113 Rose Hill St.
Parking: Parking is available adjacent to the building
Capacity: 16
Cost: $85
Watercolor is fluid, transparent, and richly colorful. You will train your mind and your hand as you study and practice the basics of this beautiful art form and/or be able to move forward with skills you have already developed as you participate in this watercolor course.
Presenter: Carl Goodwin
Date: Wednesdays, August 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20
Time: 10 a.m.–Noon
Location: Centennial High School Art Suite, Room 241
Parking: Parking is available in the school’s lot.
Capacity: 25
Cost: $65
Osher membership entitles you to a seat at all the lectures in the current lecture series during the season. If seating is available, you may bring a friend. Members are welcome to bring a different guest free of charge to each lecture in the series, but please, non-member guests are limited to one visit per season.
Please phone Extended Studies (208-426-1709) a week ahead of the lecture to determine if guests can be seated.
Register early to secure your seat!
Lewis and Clark Lectures are held in conjunction with the Idaho Botanical Garden.
All will be presented at the Garden at 2355 Old Penitentiary Road and will begin at 7:00 pm.
This series is free to members of the Osher Institute and members of the Idaho Botanical Garden.
June 9: Richard Baker will give his first-person, entertaining educational presentation, “An Evening with Pierre Cruzatte’s Ghost.” His performance will draw attendees into the experiences of the Lewis and Clark expedition, making them feel like they are sitting at camp, listening to Pierre Cruzatte in person.
June 30: Susan Swetnam will discuss food and identity in early Idaho. Focusing on the northern Idaho Coeur d’Alene and Nez Perce Native Americans, miners, and agricultural pioneers, she will explain how diet reflected these three groups’ cultural differences.
July 28: Diane Josephy Peavey's lecture about “Fences in the West” will describe the people, history and the landscape of the American West. Not only will she discuss the history of fences in the West, but also the current uses and implications for those living off the land in the “New West.”
August 11: William Clark’s slave, York, contributed to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition, particularly when Native Americans were encountered along the way. Betti Vanepps-Taylor will share her knowledge of York’s activities during the expedition, and place his experiences within the larger context of the time and culture in which he lived.
August 18: Professors Sheila Roberts and Robert Thomas will speak about their research of the geology of the Lewis and Clark trail through Idaho and Montana. In their journals, Lewis and Clark describe many places where they were overwhelmed, fascinated, inconvenienced, and even helped by the landscape. Roberts and Thomas will provide the geological background information for understanding these interactions with the environment. They will share their insights, rock samples and maps with lecture attendees.