GPC Alpharetta students Josh Reynolds and Shelby Croft give a presentation on flooding and ecosystems during their Perspectives class on climate change. (Photo by Andrew McMurtrie)

Georgia Perimeter students taking one of the college’s new Perspectives courses are looking at issues from a concentrated point of view.

Perspectives courses zoom in on specific topics. Fall semester classes, for example, focused on creating a “green” business and examining different points of view on climate change. Spring semester offerings include classes on successful aging and end-of-life issues.

The courses allow students to go beyond textbooks to develop more research, critical thinking and reflective skills, while exploring areas of interest to them.

Lee McKinley, the “green” business professor, saw her Perspectives course as a way to bring practical theory to light in her classroom. “The challenge for students has been coming up with a business plan that involves sustainability,” she says. “It’s not just the matter of providing a green product—it’s who did you get supplies from, does the company exhibit corporate social responsibility and do they follow government mandates on environmental practices?”

In “Borders and Crossings: The Changing South” at Dunwoody Campus, students looked more deeply into the lives of Native Americans and Europeans from 1492 to 1840.

“We wanted to go beyond what students typically receive in an undergraduate survey course and to help them appreciate history on a human scale,” says history professor Katherine Perrotta, who co-taught the course with colleague Jerry Tiersmith in the fall.