14. E Cache La Poudre St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
Colorado College began a unique program in 1970 by adopting the Block Plan. The Plan divides the academic year into eight three-and-a-half week segments or blocks. Students take one principal course at a time and professors teach one. Some courses may last for one block, others for two or three blocks, depending on the nature of the material. The Block Plan offers the advantage of flexibility. Each class is assigned a room, reserved exclusively for its faculty and students, who are free to set their own meeting times and to use the room for informal study or discussions after class. Since competing obligations are few, time can be structured in whatever way is best suited to the material. No bells ring. Nothing arbitrarily intrudes after 50 minutes to cut off discussion. An archaeology class can be held at the site of a dig in southeastern Colorado for one block, followed by a second block for laboratory analysis. A biology class might have a week of classroom orientation, then go to the field for two weeks. An English class can spend one morning reading a Shakespeare play out loud and the next morning discussing it or getting together with an acting class to try a few scenes.
