For several Ames-area seniors, it’s almost time to dig out their notebooks and pencils.

Starting in March, about 500 senior citizens in Story County will start their semester with the ISU College For Seniors Program. The program will offer 16 courses in Ames and two in Des Moines to those 50 and older.

Classes range from digital photography and Internet acquisition to listening to classical jazz. A series of lectures titled “The World Turned Upside Down” will explore international issues.

Betty Licht, College For Seniors coordinator, said it allows for the continuation of education throughout people’s lives.

“It gives them the opportunity to learn something they never had the opportunity to learn before,” she said.

Phyllis Miller, a senior student who has taken nearly 20 courses in the nine years College For Seniors has been running, is planning to enroll again this semester.

“I really believe in keeping your mind active as well as your body,” she said. “College For Seniors helps me do that.”

Miller also said she enjoys College For Seniors because there are no final exams, no papers to write and no grades.

To allow potential students to learn more about College For Seniors, there will be a preview of courses at 2 p.m. Monday in rooms 260-262 of the Scheman Building. Instructors will be available to answer questions and register students.

Many of the instructors for College For Seniors are current or retired ISU professors. Thomas Beell, professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication will teach a film history class this spring.

Beell said there are differences between teaching younger students and seniors.

“The seniors seem so genuinely glad to be there. It makes you feel welcome and that what you say is important,” he said.

Beell said his students in College For Seniors participate more in class discussion. “Incidentally most of the seniors stay awake,” he said. “I can’t say that for my younger students.”