For senior Shane McIntyre, the act of pretending to be a newborn baby, curled up in the fetal position after classmate Kursten Strothman just gave birth to him, was a situation the sports management major never thought he’d see himself in.

Similar out-of-the-ordinary scenarios are played out every day in their class. They include cheerleading competitions, football games and a mock “Ricki Lake Show,” to name a few.

Welcome to CAHA 492, Counseling Adult Education.

In Wednesday and Tuesday’s class, students sat in a circle yelling scenarios while classmates took turns acting them out. They were practicing for their capstone presentations, which include impromptu skits. Section one of the class will do its presentations at noon to 1:50 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10, in the Heritage Room at the Holmes Student Center. Section two will present at noon to 1:50 p.m. on Dec. 9 in the Heritage Room.

The class is adult education instructor Max Elsey’s brainchild.

“I designed, brought it and taught it,” he said as he watched his students do a yoga skit.

The class doesn’t require lecture, homework, tests or papers. Discussion and a weekly journal entry, though, are a testament to the trust between him and his students, Elsey said.

The class is all about experiential learning, Elsey said. The students learn about their intrinsic (private self) and extrinsic (surrounding environment) natures.

“Very seldom do the two connect,” he said.

For Deanna Morello, a junior elementary education major, getting up in front of a classroom full of students pretending to be Ricki Lake interviewing two male students also pretending to be each others’ boyfriend was a situation she never thought she’d be in.

Coming in to the class, she didn’t expect to learn much, but discovered she could overcome her fears of public speaking.

“It really taught me how to be confident in front of other people,” she said.

Morello said this class will stick in her head the most because it taught her so many things related to the real world, like interviewing for a job and the confidence for her future job as a teacher.

McIntyre also didn’t know what to expect coming to the class, but has gotten much out of the class.

“You really learn about your personal boundaries and focus on how to overcome your fears,” he said.

Two sections of the class are offered in the spring semester and are taught by Elsey. The courses’ registration numbers are in the spring course schedule book.