A self-described expert in human mating has teamed up with an astronomer to teach a one-credit course on developing outreach programs for children and teens in a less-privileged area of the Ithaca community.

"We really want to engage undergraduate residents on West Campus with the Ithaca community; we feel there is a disconnect between the university up the hill and the town below," said Arvind Chandrasekar, a Becker House graduate resident fellow. He and fellow Becker House graduate resident fellow Nick Robertson are graduate student leaders for the course, Fieldwork, Human Development 402, a collaboration between Carl L. Becker House, the newest residence hall in the West Campus Residential Initiative, and the College of Human Ecology.

The first outreach event on April 6 drew 16 young people to Becker House from the Southside Community Center and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC). They played forensic sleuths in a mock crime lab, ate dinner in the Becker House dining room, watched performances by four Cornell music and dance groups and made ice cream with liquid nitrogen (and took some ice cream home afterward).

"We want to demystify this big institution on the hill and make it a place they can understand and relate to. The diversity on campus mirrors the diversity in Ithaca itself," says Jim Bell, associate professor of astronomy, leader of the Pancam camera team on NASA's Mars rover mission, a Becker House fellow and one of the faculty leaders for the course.

Cindy Hazan, a faculty member in human development and the professor and dean of Becker House, agreed that the course is a perfect extension of the West Campus Residential Initiative's mission to bring students, faculty and staff together through intellectual, cultural and social activities. "In what other context would I, as a psychologist who specializes in human mating, be team-teaching a course with Jim Bell, the Mars guy?" she marvels. "It's one of the many things I love about the new house system."

"Cornell can easily become a world detached from the Ithaca community. Everyone here gets so busy, sometimes we start to think that we are Ithaca -- but clearly that is not the case," says HD 402 student Caitlin Lucey '09, who operated a fiber analysis forensic station at the event. "The kids give a personality to the city that is Ithaca. We bonded over cafeteria food and music, TV and homework troubles; we heard about their lives and dreams."

The course in supervised fieldwork is currently in its inaugural semester and includes 18 undergraduate students from Becker House. The students also have considered arranging a senior dinner at GIAC or a community cleanup, yardwork or painting. Says Bell, "We are asking ourselves: 'What can a group of 22 people here do to help our community?'"

The course was co-designed by Bell, Chandrasekar, Robertson and Hazan. The initial idea came when Bell discovered the Faculty Fellows in Service (FFIS) program through the Cornell Public Service Center (directed by another Becker House fellow, Leonardo Vargas-Mendez), which offers small grants (up to $2,000) for faculty to bring community service into the classroom.

"We all worked together on this," emphasizes Bell. "Nick and Arvind are a big part ... these guys are role models for me. They are working hard on their theses but at the same time volunteering much of their time to mentor undergrads."

A broader goal of the course is to foster teamwork and forge bonds among the residents in the house. "In a few years we'd like to see all five houses in West Campus with similar activities," says Chandrasekar.

Graduate student Thomas Oberst is a science writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.