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Course Criteria
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4.00 Credits
This four-credit seminar provides an introduction to various disciplines with topics centered around the theme of flight. Topics include images of flying in myths and the arts; competing theories about the evolution of bird flight and the mechanism of insect flight; and human achievements in aviation. Through readings and open-ended discussion, we will touch on the nature of truth, the way science progresses, what makes a hero, and why flight appeals so much to the human imagination. Students are expected to enhance their skills at critical reading, thoughtful analysis, constructing logical arguments, and improving written and oral communication.
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4.00 Credits
This four-credit-hour course provides an introduction to collegiate writing and to various dimensions of academic life, but will focus on the critical appreciation of the world of energy. Currently, most of the world runs on non-renewable resources; this course is designed to help students develop viewpoints about these issues, and to express themselves in a clear, coherent way. The class will involve both literacy and numeracy, and students will learn to become comfortable handling some of the quantitative measures of energy use. The class will be characterized by intense yet open-ended intellectual inquiry, guided by reading, lectures and discussion, and will include practice in written and oral communication individually and in small groups.
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4.00 Credits
The unifying theme of this course is how astronomical practice and knowledge is central to ancient civilizations and how that emphasis continues today as manifested through scientific endeavor and also as strongly through the power of unifying myth.
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4.00 Credits
We live in a world that is increasingly shaped and dominated by computer systems. This seminar will explore ideas about the relationship between culture and computer/information technologies. Topics will range from the historical development of information systems to the shaping of online identities to the relationships between information systems and political ideology and conceptions of a digital future. The class will meet in three dramatically different spaces: our high technology seminar room, a virtual classroom of our own design, and the computer classrooms of the nearby Ashbury Senior Computing and Community Center (ASC-3). This course will have a service component that requires students to work six hours across the semester as teaching aides in the ASC-3 computing classes for senior adults. As students read about theories about information technologies and access, student service work will enable them to analyze these theories within the context of grass roots activism, participating in an adjoining neighborhood's goal to expand access to the "computer revolution." Students at all levels of computer literacy welcome.
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4.00 Credits
This four-credit seminar examines the development and impact of the concept of race. We will first focus on the causes of biological variability in species, leading to an evaluation of whether race is a useful device for understanding biological variability in humans. Second, we will examine how the understanding of race has changed over time within the biological sciences. Third, we will examine how scientific conceptualizations about race have influenced, and been influenced by, cultural beliefs. Through readings and open-ended discussion, we will critically examine the scientific process as it has been (and still is) being applied to the study of human races so that each student will ultimately be equipped to develop a scientifically sound conceptualization of race. Topics which will be covered include Social Darwinism, the eugenics movement, legislation to restrict immigration into the U.S., race-based medicine, and race and intelligence. Students are expected to enhance their skills at critical reading, thoughtful analysis, constructing logical arguments, and improving written and oral communication.
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4.00 Credits
How do drugs work? Using chemicals to alter biological processes has been documented since recorded history began. We ingest various chemicals to alter our mood, cure disease, or simply to make our lives more comfortable, however very few people take the time to ask how these molecules work. This seminar will touch on some historical aspects of how our society has discovered and used drugs in both social and medicinal settings, but will focus on the modern day process by which new drugs are identified.
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4.00 Credits
This seminar will focus on three age-related neurological disorders: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington disease. These diseases pose enormous social and economic impact, and current drug-based therapeutic approaches are limited and may not be suited to deal with the imminent problems. The seminar will examine lifestyle changes (i.e., diet, exercise, vitamins, and other habits such as reading) that are implicated in preventing or slowing down these disorders. The focus on a medical topic with important socioeconomic ramifications will provide a novel approach to enhancing critical thinking and communication skills.
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4.00 Credits
J speaks both Italian and English. After suffering a stroke, he finds himself switching to Italian in the middle of a sentence, even when he knows the person he's talking to doesn't speak Italian! He can't stop himself no matter how hard he tries. In this discussion-based seminar, we'll use cases like J's to understand how a mass of cells can give rise to something as complicated as human language. We'll use primary source readings from neuroscience to study topics such as the typical organization of language in the brain, bilingualism, sign language, and problems with language resulting from brain injury.
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4.00 Credits
This four-credit seminar will guide students to critically evaluate the evidence, uncertainties, and value judgments pertinent to some of the world's pressing environmental issues. We will begin by studying climate change. Students will decide the topics of exploration to follow. Through reading, field trips, discussions and writing we will investigate natural environmental processes and how they have changed with the growth in human population and technology. Students will learn about the scientific process and will consider the roll of science and technology and their limits in making decisions about shared resources.
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4.00 Credits
Based on the premise that cities are never "finished," and constantly being remade, we will look at the technological and cultural history of cities from the ancient world to the present day. Students will explore the history of building materials--wood, brick, steel, concrete, and glass--used in the construction of cities. We will also trace the development of city infrastructure such as water and sewage systems; streets, bridges, and subways; electricity, telephone and the internet. Specific technological innovations, such as the elevator and the automobile, will receive special consideration. We will move both geographically and temporally to visit the world's great cities, Athens, Mexico City, Tokyo, and New York City. As we do, we will study the examples of significant building projects, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chicago World's Fair, Washington, DC's Metro, and Cleveland's first skyscraper, the Rockefeller Building. The course will cover the history of the professions--engineering, architecture, and urban planning--that have contributed to the construction of cities, and will review the works of these practitioners, as well as that of artists, reformers, and utopians that have imagined new directions for the city. We will also explore first person narratives of the city, the impact of the city on personal and collective memory, and the possibilities and pitfalls of the "virtual" city. Through lecture, discussion, textual analysis, computer simulations, and writing assignments, Cities (Under Construction) will help students gain a deeper understanding of their role in remaking and sustaining the built environment.
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