Past Mini-Course Abstracts

Below is a sampling of mini-course abstracts submitted by past GRASSHOPR applicants:

Green Energy: Solar Cells and Fuel Cells

John Gregoire - Physics

M, H

This mini-course will be a discussion of the “energy problem” the world is currently facing:

. How big of a problem is it?

. What is its relation to political and social issues?

. Where does the energy humans use currently come from?

. Can we think of  other ways to create usable energy?

Once we understand the questions, the remainder of the course will focus on teaching the science behind new energy production methods.  While we may touch upon variations of existing technology such as batteries, nuclear energy, “clean coal” and combustion engines that use non-petroleum fuel, focus will be given to fuel cells and solar cells. The students’ background in chemistry and physics will dictate the level of the lessons but the goal is to provide an understanding of the technology from a broad perspective.   I would like the students to understand that whether we use ethanol from corn or hydrogen gas made from water, the sun provides the energy.  While this may not be clear at first, it will become apparent as we go through demonstrations with photovoltaics, electrolyzers, and fuel cells.

Get Your Game On: The Probability Behind the Strategy of Games

Abra Brisbin- Applied Math

M, H

Each session of this course will focus on a different game and an aspect of probability that is involved in the strategy of the game. The students will play short versions of the game to discover the probability involved, and then discuss the mathematics.  Some possible activities include Settlers of Catan (statistics of rolling dice), simulating the Monty Hall problem (conditional probability), and Monopoly (Markov chains).  It’s not necessary for students to have previously studied probability in order to enjoy and learn from this class.

How Do Animals Talk?

Sara DeLeon- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

M

As humans, we mainly use our voices to communicate with each other.  Other animals communicate in different ways; some sing, some dance, and some smell a certain way.  But how do they do it?  What do they do to produce their communication method?  Why do they communicate in that way?  And what does it mean?  By learning about their different methods and exploring their techniques, we can have a greater appreciation for their abilities and the specialized way they transfer information between individuals.  I envision a mini-course exploring animal communications by focusing each session on an animal that communications in a different way (auditory, olfactory, visual, tactile, etc).  Each session will have information about the method, as well as information about the example animal.  To emphasize the material, there will be an activity that will involve trying to communicate only how the animal of focus communicates.  

Farm to Fork: Does Pizza Grow on Trees?

Megan Gregory, Erin Marteal, Christine Hadekel, Tom Archibald, Kathryn Werntz, Ohnmar Khaining, Jennifer Gardner, Sara Rostampour, Anne-Lise Cossart      

Horticulture, Crop and Soil Sciences

M, H

Have your students ever wondered where their pizza comes from?  In this mini-course, students will explore agriculture and food systems in New York State by: tracing their food from farm to table; learning about the specifics of that process by joining in lively discussions and activities like talking to community members (farmers, processors, retailers, policymakers) and visiting a local farm; building skills in sustainable food production – constructing a worm compost bin, starting transplants, or creating a window garden in recycled containers; and sharing their experiences transforming the food system in a public showcase.  (This mini-course is a group collaboration, and will be taught by two grad students from the group per session).

Amazing Optics!

Hui Liu - Applied and Engineering Physics

M, H

The course will introduce daily optical phenomena such as reflection, refraction and diffraction.  Simple experiments will be shown such as bended chopsticks in water for refraction and rainbow effect by prism.   And depending on the students’ level and time schedule, further lecture can be given about the above three phenomena.   For example, with the principles of reflection, there is a Brewster angle at which no reflected light can be observed if the incident light has certain polarization.  This is not an intuitive concept but is has some surprising common applications such as polarized sun glasses.   Another important angle is the critical angle of internal reflection above which no refracted light can be observed.   This concept is not very difficult once explored, and is the basis of all optical communication today!  The mini-course can be very flexible for grades 7-12.   I can adjust the focus of the lecture to be either more introductive or more mathematical.

What’s With All This Green Stuff?

Stephanie Topp - Plant Biology

M, H

What is photosynthesis?  Where does photosynthesis take place in a leaf?  How can the rate of photosynthesis be measured?  How can an understanding of the process of photosynthesis be applied to developing innovations in reducing atmospheric CO2?  The objectives of this mini-course are to understand the basic principles of photosynthesis and engage in inquiry-based learning via scientific investigations.   Students will gain a basic understanding of a chemical equilibrium, measure the production or consumption of specific chemical compounds, and formulate hypothesis and design of experiments to probe a common observation.   I believe inquiry-based learning would be valuable to the students because it focuses more on whole class participation and discussion, putting the responsibility of planning and thinking more on the students.  Photosynthesis is a common concept in biology courses and the content of the lectures, discussions, and experiments can be modified to the appropriate levels.   I believe that by teaching the material to the students in this manner, they have a more interactive learning environment and hopefully can have a little fun.  

The Haitian Experience: History, Culture and Society

Crystal Andrea Felima - Africana Studies

M, H

As the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is a symbol of hope, independence and ingenuity.  Despite being known as the first Black independent country, Haiti has suffered tremendously due to economic and political instability. This course will introduce students to the Haitian experience by observing Haitian culture, history, language and current socio-political conditions.  We will focus on the different themes (ex. slavery, independence, US occupation, government and economy, etc.) that affect the life and society of Haiti today, and examine how these themes are interrelated.

Physical Phenomena and Scientific Modeling

John Amend - Mechanical Engineering

M, H

I see this course as a supplement to a math, physics, or technology class.   It will center on the process of scientific modeling – how we describe physical events, primarily with mathematical methods, in order to understand them – which is intrinsic to the study of all science.  The course will be interactive and demonstration-based, with demonstrations primarily taken from the physics and mechanics fields.  The goals will be to show students how they can apply the knowledge they already have to solve real problems, and to introduce them to interesting phenomenon that will excite them and possibly awaken their interest in careers in science and engineering.

“It’s Alive!”: Making and Molding the Myth of Frankenstein

Megan Eaton - English Literature/Media Studies 

H

This mini-course will begin with a reading of the Greek myth of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals.  Fire’s great, of course, but this isn’t all Prometheus gave us.  The Titan also inspired Mary Shelley’s 1818 Novel “Frankenstein: Or, a modern Prometheus,” which has in turn inspired countless retellings of the monster’s story.   In “It’s Alive!” we will trace the myth of Frankenstein through literature, film, traditional and musical theater, and comics as it morphs into the horror tale of the green-skinned, bolt-necked figure we know today.  The discussion-focused course will ask questions such as: Why is the monster popularly known by this name even though it really belongs to his creator?  How is the myth presented differently in different media?  What can its journey through history tell us about humans’ relationships to outsiders?  And, most importantly, why has this story remained so fascinating for hundreds of years?  Materials may include Percy Shelley’s poem “Prometheus Unbound”; excerpts from Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; film clips from Frankenstein (1931) and Young Frankenstein (1974); “Monster of Frankenstein” comic books; the original Off-Broadway cast recording of Frankenstein: a New Musical; and Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s new book Frankenstein: A Cultural History.

Sticky, Slimy, and Small: An Introduction to Materials Science

Pinshane Huang  - Materials Science

M

How do geckos walk upside-down on ceilings?  How is plastic made, and how can it actually be good for the environment?  What makes nano-materials special, and what can they do for us?  We will answer these questions (and more!) in a hands-on approach to materials science most appropriate for 5th-7th graders.  In this course, we will learn how materials are important in the world around us and what exotic materials scientists are designing today.  Nominally, the mini-course will be structured with each class covering one class of material (crystals, polymers, fibers/fabrics, nano- and bio-materials), with a short lab activity for each lesson.

Example activities include: 

-- Cooking up biodegradable plastic polymers from gelatin.

-- Growing crystal-covered “snowflakes” to examine what crystals are and how they form.

-- Examining the world of biomimetic technologies, such as swimsuits imitating shark skin and self-cleaning paints which mimic lotus petals.  

Pharmaceuticals, from Laboratory Bench to Patients

Sara Yazdi - School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

M, H

Scientists work diligently to find cures to diseases, but even after the cures are discovered, how do you get the medicine to function in the patient who needs it?  The mini-course would start with a general overview of the design requirements for various forms of drug delivery (i.e. injections, oral tablets, etc), and will highlight the roles that engineering and physics play to meet biological requirements.  Class activities would include making small pellets using paraffin or other safe lipids and encapsulating food dyes that would represent drugs.  The pellets can be suspended in water as a representation of drug release in the stomach and GI track, and will let students discover the importance of drug dosage and its impact on release.   Another activity would highlight different materials used for making of drug carriers such as lipids and polymers and would discuss their advantages and shortcomings.  The final activity would take advantage of what was learned throughout the class to understand drug’s warning labels and opening the forum to discuss drug interactions, their side effects and effectiveness.

Where Will All the Flowers Go?  The Impacts of Climate Change on Plants, Animals, and Communities

Emily Pollina - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

M, H

Picking up where Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” leaves off, this course will consider the effects of the much-discussed changes in global carbon dioxide levels, temperature, precipitation, and sea levels on plant and animal communities, and focus on the multitude of related questions that arise.  Beginning from the global scale, students will consider the movements of biomes further north and higher in altitude.  What will our hometowns look like in 100 years?  Forest?  Meadow?  Desert?  What animals are you most likely to see out your window?  Which species are most likely to go extinct during these movements, and what can we do about it?  Using this information about biome changes, we will discuss the implications of climate change for global changes for agriculture.  What areas of the world will be best for growing food in 100 years?  What crops are most likely to be grown in Tompkins County and the surrounding area during that time?  How will climate change impact plant and animal’s interactions with their pests and pathogens?  Should we expect to see an increase in disease in the future?  We’ll wrap up with a discussion of the effects of climate change on human health.  What are the most serious concerns health officials have about climate change?  How will the global distribution of infectious diseases (e.g. malaria) change as the climate changes?  What steps are being taken to address these concerns?

To Be Or Not To Be: Understanding Shakespeare

Matthew Bucemi - English Literature and Language

H

My concept for this mini-course is to help high school students who are anxious about Shakespeare or just eager to learn more about him both assuage that anxiety and learn how to understand his drama in the process. Shakespeare and his language are notoriously difficult for high school students, and I’d like to be able to take away some of the mystery that surrounds him and show how his work can be enjoyed, appreciated and studied in a university setting.  We would discuss close readings of different passages, act out scenes, talk about interpretations and adaptations, watch film clips and discuss the way that Shakespearean tropes, quotes, plot devices and ways of presenting a story can be found in contemporary popular culture.  I’d also like to provide historical context, talk about Elizabeth I and the early modern period and break down the barriers that surround the period as something ancient and distant to put it in perspective as an engaging and exciting time in political, social and literary history.  I feel it would be interesting to reference and work with some of Shakespeare’s play that most high school students have not yet read: The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale are a few examples of texts I’d like to bring into the classroom and interact with in our discussions.  I think that this course would be extremely useful for high school students who have to deal with Shakespeare or will have to soon enough, and that it could provide them the tools for being better English students while they are still in high school but especially when they make the leap to higher education and continue to be confronted with the Bard and his drama.

Everyone Talks About the Weather…

Mike Kelleher - Atmospheric Science 

M

Why is it going to snow tomorrow?  This is the sort of question that some meteorologists spend years trying to figure out.  How we predict weather is a constantly-evolving science, so this mini-course will first feature some of the background knowledge necessary to begin forecasting.  The structure of our atmosphere is the first step in understand weather prediction as well as a discussion on how our atmosphere is observed.  Another lesson will be a hands-on experience with some meteorological instrumentation with the outdoors as our laboratory.  The course will also feature instruction on severe weather in both summer and winter, including floods, hurricanes, thunderstorms, nor’easters and lake effect snow.  The culmination of the mini-course will be for the students to develop and present a forecast of their own for Ithaca or a selected city using the tools and information learned in the previous lessons.

For the Love of Language: Wandering through the Wonder of Words

Jennifer Cragun & Cori A. Winrock - English/ Creative Writing 

M

Like nesting dolls of imagination, unlocking creative language is a multi-layered activity, leading to inspiring discoveries which cascade into further discoveries.  Our perspective toward teaching young creative writers mirrors poet Kenneth Koch’s: “Children have a natural talent for writing poetry and anyone who teaches them should know that.  Teaching really is not the right word for what takes place: it is more like permitting the children to discover something they already have.”  Taking children seriously as writers involves teaching them not only respected and established literature, but also work by their own peers.  We hope to expose students to writing that invigorates and inspires them.  We are all taught that writing is a way to relay information, yet writing can also be a valuable means of exploration—how is the world rendered through sensory experience, sound, image, metaphor and memory?  In the six sessions of poetry and fiction we will explore the wonder of words through sensory explosions, word walks, group poeming, and character concoctions.  Thinking imaginatively, students will learn to express ideas and emotions through these different modes of writing.

Running on “e-” – An introduction to Electrochemical Energy Systems

Michael Lowe - Chemistry/Chemical Biology

M, H

 As the United States tries to diminish its dependence on fossil fuels, there is a renewed focus on using cleaner, more renewable energy sources. These resources invariably require some way to store electrical energy. As a result, there is much publicity – but less explanation – about lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.  These systems can efficiently interchange electrical and chemical energy, enabling the use of chemistry to directly effect electrical work. This mini-course encourages students to observe and demonstrate the basic principles of electrochemical energy conversion. Specifically, the course will help students to understand why electrical energy storage is necessary, the types of storage systems (eg. batteries and fuel cells), and how to interconvert chemical and electrical energy.  Using inexpensive and (mostly) widely-available materials, students can prepare and experiment with small-scale batteries, capacitors, and fuel cells. Their experiences will provide a foundation for broader discussions about chemical and physical phenomena, as appropriate for the grade level and background of the students. The concepts of the mini-course could complement instructional topics ranging from introductory thermodynamics, to the physics of elementary circuits, to introductory chemistry or earth science.

How Do You Think?

Mark Albert - Computational Biology

M, H

Over the span of this mini-course, we will learn the ins and outs of how we think.  When we do or experience things – see, hear, smell, touch, taste, remember, rehearse, fear something, understand or produce language, move our bodies – very specific parts of the brain are used.   Students will get a rough introduction to each part and how they all interact.  This will be much like a course in geography where, instead of a map or globe, we will navigate the brain, piece by piece.  Each student will get a brain-shaped stress ball to color as we go over each part.  The emphasis will be on developing an intuition through examples, rather than rote memorization of names and locations.  At the end of the mini-course, students should be able to take many everyday thoughts and actions and roughly map them to specific brain regions, and make educated guesses as to what might happen if the brain was damaged in certain areas. 

How to See the Invisible: the Multifaceted Microscope

Maxim Sheinin - Physics

H

The main objective of the course is to teach to the students the principles of microscopy, with a particular emphasis on the light microscope and its usage in biology.  The course will begin with the basics of geometrical optics (ray propagation, lenses, image formation) and the variety of simple experiments (finding the focal length of a lens, magnification) that can be done.  The next step will be wave optics, diffraction related experiments, and concept of resolution.  More advanced concepts in microscopy, such as phase contrast, possibly polarization and interference, will be introduced afterwards (depending on the equipment availability).  Fluorescent microscopy is a powerful tool in biology nowadays, so I’d like to touch upon this with an easy experiment that demonstrates fluorescence using just a UV lamp and some fresh spinach.  While the course is geared to be mostly physics-oriented, I would like to demonstrate the natural connection between physics and biology, and how better knowledge of physical principles can result in better understanding of the biological world.

Mind-blowing Science—from Relativity to Alien Biology

Daniel Tamayo - Astronomy

H

This course is a survey of some of the most fascinating topics in science, ranging from physics to biology to astronomy.  They are topics accessible to high school students and the general public that are usually only discussed in specialized college courses—courses that most people don’t take.  This course seeks to rectify this situation and bring exciting and incredible “advanced” science to the high school classroom.  Proposed topics for the mini-course are: Special relativity and how to outlive your great-grandchildren; Quantum mechanics, ghost electrons and Schrodinger’s cat; Topics in evolution (evolutionary arms races, why was sexual reproduction evolved and the Red Queen Hypothesis,  Hox genes and how to make a fruitfly grow a leg out its head, selection at the level of genes); DNA, RNA and the origin of life; The scale and history of the universe, neutron stars and black holes; Are we alone in the universe? (The Drake equation and astrobiology).  This is a great opportunity to get students interested and excited about science through an interactive discussion that forces them to think critically, question their assumptions and rethink the way they see the universe—what I consider to be the joy of science.

The Wild World of Animals

Meghan Filbert - Animal Science

M

This mini-course will explore the diverse and fascinating world of animals.  Exotic and native species will be identified, with a special emphasis on various different examples of animal nutrition and its relation to animal health.  Students will discover what animals eat, and how that is intimately linked to the structure of their bodies.  After nutrition and health, this course will introduce students to the interaction between animals and humans, explaining the importance of livestock and their uses.  How to raise and feed farms animals, along with examples of products we use and consume from them will round out the animal learning adventure.

The Spin Stops Here:  Reviewing Controversies in US Public Policy

Kevin Casey McAvey - Applied Economics 

H

Whether you turn on FOX News or MSNBC, information is thrown at you in a way that often sacrifices accuracy and unbiasedness in favor of sensationalism.  In such a world, it is little wonder that many of us – whether high school students or adults – have trouble deciphering the “spin” from the facts, particularly in relation to many of our most pressing public policy issues.  It is the goal of this course to present the facts on a number of disparate policy issues, and help students to formulate how they feel, what they believe, and where they stand as they prepare to engage society as voting members.  Intended for upper-class high school students, this course will provide students with unbiased information on prevalent policy issues, teach students how to formulate their own opinions through the use of evidence and reasoning, and foster constructive discussion between students on such issues.  Depending upon the decided duration of the course, between three and six issues will be covered, topics to be determined.  (This course is intended for high school students, particularly upperclassmen or very intellectually enthusiastic underclassmen.) 

Galileo, S’mores and Micro-Black Holes

Carl Ferkinhoff - Astronomy

H

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and space scientists and enthusiasts will be recognizing the 400th Anniversary of Galileo’s first observations of the Universe.  This mini-course will explore the impact of Galileo’s discoveries on science and society as well as the importance of general astronomy to our everyday lives.  Through activities and multimedia presentations, students will uncover how astronomy gives us more than just pretty pictures of space as well as the importance if ongoing projects and their immense impact on our lives for generations to come.

Phytohormone Action!

Margaret Frank & Dezi Elzinga - Plant Biology

H

Phytohormones are involved in virtually every process of plant development.   In this course students will investigate the role of plant hormones in seed germination, shoot and root growth, flowering, etc. Each student can pick their own favorite plants to work with.  I will help them design their own experiments to see how different hormonal applications (concentrations, combinations, timing of treatment, etc) affect the development of their plants.   From examining the outcomes of their own treatments and combinations, students will be able to deduce some of the functions of the various hormones, and what important roles they may play in a plant’s life cycle.  The class will examine some of the molecular mechanisms that underlie phytohormone action and the importance of phytohormones in agriculture and adaptation to different environmental stresses.   

Wall Street 101

Kim Weston - Applied Math/Mathematical Finance

H

With all the scary talk of Wall Street and finance in the news, it’s important that students soon to enter the Real World understand the basic ins and outs of the financial world.  This course will provide an introduction to some of the basic concepts in mathematical finance.  First, we will investigate the time value of money starting with a discrete interest rate compounding and working up to continuous compounding of interest (and discovering the number e in the process!).  After discussing stock options, we will work in a one-period binomial stock price model to compute stock option prices.  This model consists of two times, where the stock price is known at time 1 and can take on one of two values at time 2.  Under this framework, option prices can be solved by solving a system of two equations with two unknowns.  The one-period binomial model seems very simple compared to the complex models that one can imagine being implemented on Wall Street.  Actually though, the one-period model can be extended rather easily to a multi-period binomial model.  At the end of the class, we can look at an implementation of a multi-period model with real stock data and see that options can be priced with high accuracy.

Exploring the Physics of the Small Things

Chen Li - Physics

H

At very small scale on the order of the size of atoms, physics becomes very strange and seemingly unrecogniable from the physics of everyday objects.  However, what we can observe – the motion of springs, bending of a flash light in water – may not be so different from the physics of so called quantum effects.  In this mini-course, we will learn how the fastest laser on earth and the material that causes light to slow down to a bicycle’s speed follow similar physical principles as the everyday objects that we are familiar with.  Minimal mathematics will be used because the emphasis will be developing a good understanding of how things work.   We will follow a path of exploration of six physical phenomena (plasma, ultrafast lasers, slow light, etc.) that will depend on what the students are most interested.  The course will be flexible with plenty of chances to ask questions. 

What the Heck Happened on “Lost” Last Night?!: Special Relativity and Other Science in Popular Fiction 

Ron Lamberty - Physics

H

Lately the popular fictional television show “Lost” has been dominating late-night airwaves, including talk of physics topics as far ranging as magnetic monopoles and special relativity.  Of course, any way to make physics look cool would be great, and what’s cooler than watching TV in class?  What I would primarily like to discuss would center on special relativity, the math of which is as simple as square roots and fractions.  We could potentially air short clips from the show motivating the discussion, but the course material itself would focus on the physical reality and analyze how much fiction is contained in the popular show’s “science fiction.”  Several famous paradoxes from special relativity could be raised (such as the twin paradox, or “the ladder and the barn”), as well as discussion on time travel.

Numbers, Circuits, and Cells: Mathematics and Computers in Cancer Biology

Satyaprakash Nayak - Engineering

H

The important take-away knowledge that students will come away with from this mini-course are a basic understanding of cancer biology, and how the modern tools of mathematics and computers are being used to provide new solutions to this centuries old disease.  In this regard, the course will be divided into three distinct modules, the first part of the course will be devoted to basic cell biology, especially growth and division of a cell and what goes awry in the cell which can make it cancerous.  The second part will be basic kinetic theory which is used to mathematically study a cell and simulate its behavior based on simple reaction kinetics laws.  Finally, the last module will be a small introduction to computer simulation of these kinetic models and use of the predictive power of these models to gain an understanding of new cell-based therapies for cancers.  I feel this course will be good introduction for students to three distinct and important areas of science, and they will also be able to appreciate how three diverse fields on study can be combined to solve challenging problems regarding human health.

Physics is Phun! The World Around You, How Things Work

Lauren Aycock - Physics

M,H

The content of this course would include teaching different concepts in physics such as forces, energy, electricity, and waves on a fundamental level, and talking more in-depth about the physics concepts behind what they are learning in their ordinary curriculum.  The idea behind this mini-course is to have students engage in various activities, such as giving the students a wire, battery and a light bulb and asking them to get the light bulb to light, or a small cart with a fan on it, and see what happens when the different components are rearranged and manipulated.  After seeing what all of the various outcomes are, we will work together to unravel why things happened the way they did, which can then launch us into the physics and theory that makes it all work!

Obsession, Love and Gender in French Literature

Jennifer Row - French

H

 This class, geared towards advanced French students (language or literature) is designed to be a supplement to the curriculum by giving students a taste of French culture outside of the canon as well as a brief introduction to themes of gender and sexuality studies.  We will examine the theme of “obsession” as related to desire, sexuality, and gender in three different genres: film (Ma Vie En Rose), theatre (Antigone) and a contemporary novel (Hygiene de l’assassin).  I would like to use the first session to think generally about gender and sexuality theory (using Simone de Beauvoir’s quotation, “One is not born, but becomes, a woman”) as well as pose questions about sexual stereotypes in France and the U.S. and to think about the importance of such stereotypes in society.  This will provide a good way to examine French language, culture and society, and how they have developed their identity and views with these complex issues.  We will also look at the idea of obsession from a psychoanalytic point of view:  what conditions create an obsession? And what does obsession really look like?  Using literature, film, and theatre, students will get a vivid picture of the unique French perspective of people and the world.

From Practice to Theory, an Engineering Approach

Vadim Pinskiy

Engineering

H

The main purpose of this course is to introduce and examine engineering disciplines from an applications point-of-view, rather than a theory based approach.  This course will focus on elements of biomedical, mechanical and electrical engineering.  Everyday applications such as the hydraulics of automobiles, the mechanics of robots and several other systems will be examined, as well as innovations that the students probably have not heard of or even thought possible. Hands out activities will be introduced that will tie all of the above elements together.   As elements of the applications are examined, the underlining theories, equations and principles will be introduced.

How Did Astronomers Figure Out That Out?

Ann Martin

Astronomy

M/H

Astronomers can't visit the whole Universe, so we use mathematics, physics and critical thinking to examine it. The physics and math that students learn in high school has been used to solve many astronomical problems: What are stars made of? How far away are other stars and galaxies? How can we tell that galaxies contain dark matter? Through hands-on activities, students in this mini-course will solve these problems, while also learning about the scientific process. The course will also focus on applying critical thinking skills and adopting a skeptical vantage point. We'll look at basic topics in astronomy that are exciting and approachable: making simple spectroscopes demonstrates how astronomers analyze the elemental composition of far-off stars, while trying to apply the scientific method to astrology reveals pseudoscience. Playing with a model Spandex Universe shows how strange and interesting our Universe is. For astronomy that hits closer to home, students can experience the difficulties of planning a mission to another planet by trying to lead their own "human rover" through a maze using only a limited menu of commands. Mini-lessons on statistics show students the dangers and pitfalls of some common statistical misconceptions, while also showing the usefulness of a statistical approach. The course could be easily adapted to physics, chemistry, or mathematics settings.

How To Make People Like You (And Other Useful Lessons From Social Psychology)

Matt Wallaert

Human Development

M/H

What do standing on a shaky bridge, going to see a scary movie, and eating spicy food have in common?  They are all situational factors that might influence whether people like you!  The phenomenon behind the effect is known as the misattribution of arousal, and it is one of the many interesting findings that social psychologists have discovered over the last fifty years.  This mini-course is designed to cover some of these most basic discoveries, with the goal of teaching specifically about social psychology and its application in everyday life while fostering excitement about the idea of thinking and science outside of the traditional biology/chemistry/physics realm.  Each lesson in the mini-course focuses on a different practical theme, including interpersonal relations, concepts of the self, and decision making, and reviews the relevant social psychology literature using established studies and real-life examples from history, modern culture, and personal anecdotes.  The course culminates in a class-designed and run experiment (likely questionnaire-based) that draws on the most popular lesson theme, with the final class reserved for discussion of the class findings.

Ithaca Abroad: An Introduction to the Developing World

Brock Williams

Applied Economics/International Development

According to the 2003 Human Development Index, a child born in Bolivia has a life expectancy of only 64 years, must fight for his share of an economy that creates a meager $2,587 in GDP per capita, and has a 63% chance that they will spend their life living below the nation’s poverty line. What does that mean to a student in Ithaca, New York? Hopefully through this survey course on the Developing World, the students will be exposed to the realities of life in a low-income country and answer that question for themselves.  The current situation regarding income distribution and other development indicators will be examined by focusing on examples of the students’ peers in developing countries.  The students will also be exposed to some of the different aid organizations including NGO’s, World Bank, United Nations’ projects etc, and will discover how a few dollars targeted to the right things can make a great difference.  The goal for the course is to broaden the students’ understanding of the world at large and the conditions facing the majority of the people who live in it, and perhaps in the process help the students realize how fortunate they are and encourage them to take advantage of the countless opportunities at their fingertips!

Bacteria--the Bad and the Beautiful

Scott Gabriel

Biochemistry

M/H

Take a look at your hand; just on the tip of your finger over 100,000 bacteria are going about their life. In fact, bacteria have been found in every imaginable place on Earth. These ubiquitous creatures however have a mixed reputation. On one hand they provide us with many indispensable services yet, they also are known to cause disease and have been used as weapons.

This mini-course aims to have students engage in inquiry-based learning centered on bacteria. Students will first be invited to hypothesize and test where they think they would discover bacteria in their natural environment and examine microbes under microscopes.  Following isolation experiments, we will research how our society benefits from and is threatened by bacteria. The remaining portion of the class will be devoted to learning about antibiotic discovery and resistance as a case study of one way in which bacteria both help and hurt us. The students will participate in exercises illustrating how disease can be spread to understand the risks of certain bacteria, and will develop a bacteria vs. bacteria warfare experiment with Bacillus subtilis, a gram positive soil bacterium which produces several anti-microbial compounds.  Students will be encouraged at all times to think like scientists using the scientific method, and have fun exploring the world around them. 

The World Without Modern Materials

Nick Robertson

Chemistry

M/H

You mistakenly step into a time machine hidden in a dark alley in New York City. You rush to get out and find you are no longer in the New York City you know... The street names are the same, but the cars have been replaced by horse-drawn carriages and the skyscrapers are now small buildings! The hoards of people in fashionable clothing walking around are gone, replaced with people in drab cotton clothing.  Worse yet, there are no computers, flat screen televisions, or telephones – there isn’t even electricity!  Having grown up in the 21st century, you know that those advanced technologies do exist, but how exactly would you even begin to go about making an iPod, a Northface jacket, or even just a plastic milk jug?  The objectives of this mini course are to take a step back and look at the technologies that make modern life possible. Where do the raw materials come from? How are these converted into usable technologies? Through a combination of discussions, group work, demonstrations, and labs, the students in the course will investigate these questions. The goals of this course are to help the students gain a better appreciation for how science and math impact everyday life, how our actions as individuals in a civilization impact the environment, and expose them to the vast array of careers in science and math. 

Nature's Dance with Symmetry

Amrita Hazra

Chemistry

E/M

Have you ever folded a maple leaf into half or wondered why bees make hexagonal cells in their hives?  This course is intended to give students an interesting and enjoyable introduction to the world of symmetry and science and make them realize that symmetry is an integral part of everything they see around them.  It will cover the basic elements of symmetry such as axes of symmetry, mirror planes, and inversion center, and then move on to the broader applications of symmetry in our surroundings and day-to-day life as well as in physics, chemistry, biology and even music.  The mini-course will then move on to examine some of the basic laws of science related to symmetry phenomena which we all experience around us in everyday life.

Your Brain's Illusions: Why Scientists Love to be Tricked!

Lauren Emberson

Psychology/Cognitive Science

M/H

Put your left hand a few inches in front of your left eye and your right hand a foot or so in front of your right eye.   Close your left eye and after a few moments your right hand will appear smaller than your left.  Open both eyes and they are the same size again!  Through the study of illusions like this one, researchers have garnered important insight into how the human mind works.  In this mini-course, we will explore perceptual illusions as well as neurological case studies to guide us into the inner workings of the human brain and how it guides our behavior. In addition to demonstrating some main findings in cognitive science, we will follow how researchers use the scientific method to isolate the underlying causes of real world phenomena and illustrate the creative exploration involved in scientific research.

Sing Like a Bird! The Biology of Birdsong

Becky Cramer

Neurobiology/Behavior

H

Birds’ bright colors and beautiful songs have been symbols of life, hope, and peace throughout history. This integrative course will teach students how birds produce songs, how songs change as they travel through dynamic environments, and how listening birds use the information encoded in song to make reproductive decisions. By the end of the course, students will have learned about the physics of sound, the basics of neurobiology, and the principles of evolution by natural and sexual selection. Throughout the course, we will discuss links to human biology and conservation; in particular, comparisons of song learning in birds and language development in humans.  We will even analyze the impact of heavy metal and sound pollution on birdsong. The course will involve taking students outside to observe bird behavior in the wild, where they will learn that observing the natural world, even in a backyard setting, can be rewarding and informative.  Hopefully the charisma of birdsong will engage students even more in science and conservation.

Hollywood Science

Wesley Olds

General Science/Applied Statistics

E/M/H

Have you ever watched a movie and asked yourself “Could that really happen?”  For example, in the movie “Daredevil” the main character that is blind uses the sound of raindrops to “see” a woman’s face.  How does he do that?  To answer those questions you first need to understand the science behind them.  This course will use movie clips as springboards to discovering some basic ideas about science and the world around us.  The course can be easily adapted to any age level by adjusting the difficulty and by choosing age-appropriate movie clips (ex. - projectile motion can be taught at upper levels with “Spiderman” and at an elementary level using a “Road Runner” cartoon clip).  Goals for the mini-course are that the students will come to realize that science can be fun and thought provoking at the same time, that you don’t have to be a “super genius” to understand it, and that science is happening all around us all the time (not just in a science classroom).   And by the end of this course, the students may never look at movies the same way again once they understand the science that goes on “behind the scenes”! 

Tracking the Elusive Gene:  Computers, Math, and DNA

Abra Brisbin

Applied Mathematics

M/H

Have you ever wondered how scientists identify the genes for different traits, such as height, eye color, or cystic fibrosis?  In this mini-course, students will investigate the math and computational methods scientists use to identify genes.  Activities will include using Play-doh and human chains to model recombination; logic puzzles tracing the effects of a disease gene in a family; a simulation of the effects of selection on the distribution of mutations, using students' arms and legs to represent regions of the genome; and making mock transgenic yeast out of paper sequences of DNA.  The course will be of particular interest to students in a biology course who wish to delve a little deeper into the area of genetics, or to students in a math course who are curious about real-life applications of what they're learning.

Amoebas to Zebras: Biodiversity and our World

Laura Martin

E

This course will introduce students to the concept of biodiversity on both a local and global scale. Topics will include: species, habitat, adaptation, food webs, and our impact upon the ecosystem. The major biomes of the world will be explained, with familiar and unfamiliar examples of unusual (and cool) organisms. The focus of the course will be backyard biodiversity: the diversity of life within our own city, and each lecture will be accompanied by a hands-on activity. Example activities include: the students drawing their own conceptual organisms, using a microscope to see what organisms live in leaf litter collected from the students' backyard, and an identification walk outdoors. We will also discuss the impact that we as a species have upon the environment in the context of pollution, deforestation, and agriculture.

Major Moments in Science: How Discoveries in Physics and Astronomy Have Changed the Way We View the World

Carl Ferkinhoff

Astronomy

M/H

The earth orbits the sun.  Light and electricity are the same thing.  Time is relative.  Matter is energy.  Particles are waves.  All of these things are scientific fact that many of us take for granted in today’s world.  These ideas others like them have drastically changed the world we live in, and have given us much of the technology that fills our daily lives. But, just a few hundred years ago humanity saw the world in a very different way.  This course will highlight several key scientific advances, including the Keplerian model of the solar system, electromagnetism, relativity, the unification matter and energy, and quantum mechanics. Students will examine the historical and scientific context that led to the advances, basic principles of the theories, and the societal implications of the discoveries.

The Power of 2: If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me!

Bethany Diddle

Health

M/H

Students in grades 6-12 are entering a time in their lives where adulthood is on the horizon. It is important they realize the choices they make from this point forward are critical in guiding the direction of their life’s path. This mini-course will provide an introductory, inspirational toolkit to help the students make the best decisions possible, so that they can lead a healthy, positive, and productive life by being both mentally and physically fit.  Being a lifelong athlete, I plan to present an inspirational overview of what it means to have a healthy body.   We will brainstorm ideas about what the students can do individually, have each student create personal fitness goals, and begin to track their progress.  There are many vices that can detract from mental health as well, and we will discuss these issues and challenge the students to become acutely aware of what is going on around them and to identify non-beneficial situations.  Again, we will brainstorm ideas, set personal goals, and track progress. Additionally, guest speakers from Cornell may be invited to speak and enforce the importance of maintaining a healthy mind and body.

Roadmaps for Medicine: How Our Medicines Find Their Way

John Huynh

Biomedical Engineering

M/H

Discover how biological, chemical, and engineering design principles are used to overcome obstacles in the exciting field of drug formulation and delivery.  Specific topics include traditional drug formulation, mechanisms of pharmaceutical stability, transdermal delivery systems, stimuli-sensitive systems, controlled release devices, hydrogels, targeted drug delivery, gene therapy, and pulmonary delivery. Topics in the course will also review basic human anatomy and physiology, biomaterial properties, Fick’s law of diffusion, Michaelis-Menten kinetics, polymer synthesis, and governmental regulatory issues.

Greed is Good: An Introduction to Personal Finance

Vic Anand

Accounting

H

The goal of this mini-course is to teach students the basics of personal finance and how to become sophisticated consumers of financial products.  We will cover the basics of investing and borrowing, and will introduce the concept of interest. The main institutions that will be discussed are banks, credit cards, student loans, stocks, and mutual funds.  The course begins with simple questions: What should a student do with extra cash from a part-time job? Put it in a bank or mutual fund? What happens to the money after it goes to one of those places? What exactly are stocks and mutual funds?  The other component of money management is debt. Students will inevitably encounter credit cards, and those that go to college will likely have loans.  How do they work?  What are the risks of debt?  When is debt appropriate?  Students will learn through examples and exercises what interest is, and how it is calculated.  They will be given real credit card statements and taught how to analyze them, as well as how to read the “fine print.” They will learn how to read the stock pages of a newspaper such as The Wall Street Journal, as well as the stock pages of financial web sites such as Yahoo! Finance.

Seeing is Believing: How Light and Matter Interact to Make a Picture

Elaine Farkas, Robin Smith

Applied and Engineering Physics

H

The aim of this mini-course is to explain at a basic level how electromagnetic radiation interacts with matter, and how these interactions are exploited for imaging technologies such as microscopy, MRI, and x-ray imaging.  It’s fascinating and important to understand the mechanisms underlying such phenomena as CT scanning, fluorescence microscopy, and MRI.  Processes discussed will include scattering, absorption, absorption with fluorescence emission, and diffraction.  The focus will be on biological applications using common medical tests and microscopies as examples. We will start with an explanation of the nature of the electromagnetic spectrum.  Then, simple models of atoms, molecules, and lattices will be used to develop explanations of the different radiation-matter interactions that give rise to imaging capabilities.  The basic technology used in these imaging techniques will be discussed with an emphasis on light microscopy.  We would also like to plan a tour of our facility, which employs both linear (1-photon fluorescence) and nonlinear (2-photon fluorescence and second harmonic generation) microscopies.

The Power of One: How a Single Cell Can Be Used to Make Lifesaving Therapeutics

Jamie Betker

Bioengineering

E/M/H

Alexander Flemming stumbled upon penicillin by accidentally leaving an agar plate on a sunny windowsill after a failed experiment.  Penicillin would have been a failure too had it not been for the development of fermentation procedures by Oxford scientists.  New advances in medicine are relying on the fusion of engineering and biochemistry to enhance the efficacy of treatments. Using computer modeling programs, biological feedback circuits, and nanotechnology, biological and biomedical engineers are uncovering new angles in therapeutics. For example, Taxol, a powerful anti-cancer drug, was developed and produced by Cornell engineers using their eclectic knowledge.  This mini-course focuses on cutting-edge methods used by these scientists including hands-on activities like DNA sequencing/PCR, computer-based HIV vaccination modeling, and touring the clean room facility at Cornell.  The basic biochemistry and systematic analysis of biological systems would also be addressed at the appropriate grade level to ensure proper background knowledge. 

Be Food Aware, Not Food Scared

Lakshmi Iyer

International Agriculture

H

Where does our food come from?  The aim of this mini-course is to educate the next generation of consumers on the food choices that they make every day, and the implications of these choices.  Ithaca is an ideal area in order to understand how local markets operate, and what the challenges and positive aspects to local markets are.  Gaining an understanding about how foods are traded, and why trade is inevitable is an important component of this curriculum.  Where do we get most of our vegetables from?  Generating a class map of where the class obtains most of its food and counting food miles could be fun and valuable exercises.  What is the GMO scare really about?  We hear the word GMO every day, but rarely do we get an objective view of what it means.  Having an informed discussion is the start to making informed choices.  When we educate the next generation of consumers regarding their food choices, we help them become responsible adults.  With the right knowledge, we will make healthier, more socially-conscious decisions when we purchase food.  Understanding that we could have an effect on the world is an important step towards utilizing our responsibility as consumers in the U.S. 

Ideas and Inspirations for Mathematical Problem-Solving

Keigo Kawaji

Biomedical Engineering/Mathematics

M/H

This course introduces mathematical problem-solving in four non-typical curriculum topics: two-person mathematical games, number theory, Euclidean geometry, and the combinatorics/pigeonhole principle.  In two-person games, we will examine mathematical games and their winning strategies that rely on properties such as symmetry, parity, and the invariant principle.  In Number Theory, we will examine a brand of mathematics that works extensively with integers, and cover topics such as modular arithmetics, quadratic residues, and divisibility rules.  For example, we will show that no integer solutions x and y exists to the equation, x2 + y2 = 2007.  In Geometry, we will go over congruence proofs of triangles, and examine several circle and triangle geometry problems.  Students will be exposed to a proof that claims “All triangles are isosceles”, and will look for a flaw in the steps of the proof.  In Combinatorics/pigeonhole principle, we will spend one session on each of the two topics, in which we introduce and develop some ideas in discrete mathematics.  Students will be exposed to a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques that are used in solving various mathematical problems, and develop problem-solving skills.  As a long-term goal, students will learn how to write their own mathematical proofs over the course of the program.

What Would You Pay for a Dollar?

Chris Kerns

Management/Finance

E/M/H

“What would you pay for a dollar?” On the surface, a trivial question; dig deeper, and the answer to that question (and “What would you take for a dollar?”) provides the answers to almost every financial decision you’ll ever make.  The underlying concepts of borrowing and lending are pretty strait forward: you can either pay rent to use other people’s money (credit cards, mortgages, loans), or charge rent on the money you let other people use (savings accounts, bonds, the stock market).  Yet millions of Americans don’t realize how much they are committing to pay in the future for that dollar today.  Financial literacy doesn’t depend on income – many farmers retire comfortably while one out of four NFL players reportedly has “financial troubles” within one year of retiring.  In this mini-course, we’ll discuss the basics of managing money in simple terms.  Students will learn the fundamentals of finance: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, a risky dollar is worth less than a safe dollar, and you can’t get something for nothing.  We’ll show how E-Bay and the NYSE aren’t very different (supply and demand), and why taking financial advice from strangers is even more risky than trusting an unknown mechanic.  We’ll discuss some of the options for saving for retirement (IRA’s, 401Ks) and how much the rising prices of movie tickets and Big Macs affect your savings.  Students will come away better prepared to make intelligent decisions as they enter adulthood.

Lights, Optics, ACTION!

John Nguyen

Biomedical Engineering

E/M/H

The world we live in is surrounded by light.  Everyday light enables us to go about our daily routines.  However there is more to light than meets the eye.  This course will focus on the some of the basic principles of light.  The Optical Society of America (OSA) has prepared an optics module designed to help facilitate the understanding of basic light principles.  These include making telescopes and using magnifying glasses, as well as seeing the color spectrum using very simple techniques.  As the end of the course nears, lasers will be presented as an example of how these basic ideas are pulled together, and how such advanced technology can be used to study other basic biological systems.    

Ghastly Ghouls and Grotesque Maidens: The Prose and Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe

Jessica Metzler

English

M

"Edgar Allan Poe is dead.  He died in Baltimore on Sunday, September 7.  This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it."  So began Rufus Griswold's now notorious 1849 obituary of Poe.  Poe's colorful life, the scathing literary criticism he penned, and the morbid subject matter of his meticulously crafted fiction and poetry made him one of the most revered and reviled authors of the nineteenth century-and a figure that still fascinates today.  As he is credited with inventing the detective story, this mini-course is fittingly dedicated to exploring the various mysteries Edgar Allan Poe's prose and poetry present to the reader.  Students will first unravel the various sordid myths surrounding Poe's life and death before moving on to a historical exploration of American Gothic literature in the nineteenth century.  Students will learn about the formal elements of Poe's work and have the opportunity to write their own poetry or fiction influenced by Poe's treatment of the supernatural and his aesthetic concerns.  Finally, the course will examine Poe's lingering presence in contemporary popular culture and attempt to determine why this enigmatic author seems to perpetually rise from the grave.  The course will cover poetry including "The Raven," and "Annabel Lee," and short stories such as "The Black Cat," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "Ligeia."   

From Thinking to Buying: Understanding Where Our Purchases Come From and How to Make a Difference

Sarah Alexander, Ian Bailey

Development Sociology

H

In this mini-course, we will explore some of the most common items that students buy, including coffee, shoes and coca-cola.  We’ll examine the supply chain focusing on the producers or workers who make, grow or harvest the items and how they finally arrive at the store.  In exploring the entire production, distribution, and consumption of consumer products, we will investigate the environmental, social, and political implications of globalization.  Through participatory learning, we’ll find ways that students can take an active role in informed decision-making about what they buy, with a special focus on how items are labeled including fair trade, local, organic and sweatshop-free.  The students will learn from hands-on activities, including “the commodity chain game,” where students participate in distribution of the consumer price along the chain of production, and “global soccer”, a soccer game where the rules are modified to demonstrate the role of world trade policies.

Values We Live By: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Kyong-Min Son

Government

M/H

This course aims to introduce students to some of the basic concepts in political philosophy.  More precisely, we will read classical texts together with a particular emphasis on three concepts: justice, liberty, equality.  These concepts are the basis of core values that affect our way to see the world around us and live our life, ordinary and political.  Therefore, by encountering these concepts, students can deepen their understanding of the world and develop their own independent thinking.  Students are expected to read the course materials and actively engage in class discussion to make this mini-course effective.  This course is also well-suited to a group presentation and writing component.