Several public programs are offered by LearningQUEST each term as its gift to the community. No registration or fees. Registration for members is suggested during online registration or in-person registration. Please help spread the word and be sure to invite your friends and neighbors.

Spring, 2026

P1-The Relationship Between Energy, Fitness and Nutrition
Instructor: Auston Cherbonneaux
Dates: 1 Tuesday Feb.17
Time: 2 – 3:30
Location: AUD

While many have heard of the calorie, its origins and how heat became associated with respiration are less known. This program will explain how this fundamental measurement for nutrition, fitness, and health was conceived with ice spheres and guinea pigs by de la Place and Lavoisier. It will also cover how the concept of heat energy became associated with biological function from the work of Joules, Helmholz, Faraday, Leibig, Voit, Rubner, Atwater, and Peters. The course will conclude by exploring how the role of electrons in thermodynamics fundamentally changed the concept and philosophy of energy, and how to understand biophysical energy from the environment to promote and maintain the body and its biological systems

P2-The Birmingham Easter Campaign: April – May 1963
Instructor: David Lilly
Dates: 1 Wednesday Mar. 4
Time: 1 – 2:30
Location: AUD

We’ll explore the massive non-violent campaign that attacked Birmingham’s pervasive segregated reality of the early 1960’s. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and local Birmingham Civil Rights groups took to the streets in a boycott of Birmingham businesses during the Easter season. The violent pushback from Birmingham’s political leaders shocked the nation.

P3-The Art of Living Dangerously
Instructor: Richard Bangs
Dates: 1 Friday Apr. 24
Time: 1 – 3
Location: Venue will be announced

This multi-media presentation highlights 50 years of exploration and pioneering adventure travel. Based on the book of the same name, it features first descents of some of the world’s great rivers and early expeditions into countries such as North Korea, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Angola, Sudan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and more. The program premiered at The Explorers Club in New York and has been presented across the United States. Now, for the first time, it comes to Huntsville.

P4-From Bats to Beetles! Our Nighttime Pollinators
Instructors: Hallie Porter, Tim Gels
Dates: 1 Wednesday May 13
Time: 1 – 2:30
Location: AUD

This program explores the often-forgotten nighttime pollinators that work in gardens and beyond. Tim Gels will discuss who they are, their importance to the ecosystem, how they are threatened, and what can be done to help them.