Previous Courses
Please note: Courses occurring prior to Fall 2016 were part of a different program model than those held beginning October 2016.
Spring 2019 Courses
Grades 7-8 | Grades 8-9 | Grades 9-10
Grades 7-8
Infectious Diseases – Waiting List Only
Infectious diseases are caused by organisms such as bacteria and viruses, and symptoms may differ depending on the organism a person is infected with. It is often up to doctors and members of clinical laboratories to determine what organism is making someone sick, and how best to treat them. In this course, you will learn about a variety of infectious diseases and the organisms that cause these diseases. Using your critical thinking skills, you will perform and review tests to determine the cause of an illness and develop a treatment plan. Whether you are interested in pursuing a medical career, or simply enjoy creative problem solving, this course will help you explore new avenues for those passions.
Natural Disaster Analysis
Natural disasters are a bit of a misnomer. People play a large role in shaping their impact- for better or worse. In this class, you will learn about how various natural disasters form, affect society, and are predicted by scientists. Additionally, you will see via case studies how human intervention can have drastic effects on the consequences of these events and how these lessons can apply to broader concepts in risk management. Using software to analyze geographical data, you will examine the risk of a natural disaster impacting an area of your choosing. Through the use of risk perception surveys, you will see how your own personality and cognitive traits can affect your behavior during these events.
Keys to the Past: Bioarchaeology and the Skeleton – Limited Availability
In bioarchaeology, bones are time machines that allow researchers to travel back and reconstruct how people lived in the past—their actions, their diets, and their roles in society. By repopulating the past with real individuals, bioarchaeologists work to answer larger questions about humanity, like why and how empires grow, or how violence starts and spreads. In this course you will learn to apply methods used by bioarchaeologists to determine age and sex, while also learning how to recognize trauma, illness, and even what people were eating. This course will be held in the Vanderbilt University Osteology Laboratory, where students will have the opportunity to handle real human skeletons.
Demystifying Data Technologies – Waiting List Only
Have you ever wondered how Netflix knows what movies you’ll enjoy or how YouTube suggests just the right music video to watch? We live in the Information Age. Every second, about 798 Instagram photos are viewed; 7,722 Tweets are sent; and 70,420 YouTube videos are streamed. With every click, drag, and tap, you communicate information to companies that analyze your data in an instant. In this lab, you will discover emerging ways that data are organized and processed. Topics to be covered include “Big Data” analytics, algorithms and workflows, and the latest in Graph Database technologies. This much is certain, no matter what you do later in life, the future belongs to those who know how to deal with all that data.
Grades 8-9
Paleobiology in the Modern Age – Cancelled
When most people think of paleontology, they likely conjure up the image of a dust-covered old man in the desert chiseling away at rocks and brushing away sand to expose an ancient fossil. While field discovery still does typify much of paleontological discovery, today’s greatest and most exciting discoveries are interdisciplinary in nature. This course will offer you an overview of the field of paleobiology, which examines patterns in diversity, ecology, landscape evolution, genetics, and more! We will cover 4 large concepts in paleobiology – taphonomy, paleoecology, diversity, and biogeography- and will conclude the course by working with real paleontologic data.
Philosophy of Pop Culture – Cancelled
What might graphic novels, film, short stories, or video games be able to tell us about the meaning of life? Why we are here? What does it all mean? In this class we will investigate these questions through a critical inquiry into the philosophical themes and ideas as they appear in popular culture. By utilizing careful reading, engagement, reflection, and discussion, we will analyze the ways various media work, tease out their philosophical bases or implications, and explore the extent to which popular forms of media are even capable of doing serious and advanced philosophy.
Grades 9-10
Creative Writing: The Author’s Process
This practical, hands-on workshop will immerse you in the writing process by developing core content for your very own short stories. You will access exercises fiction authors use to hone their craft, develop complex plot points, identify workshop techniques and revision strategies that will lead to a polished and compelling piece. This writing laboratory will also introduce resources and online platforms designed to help both early and advanced writers take the next step on their literary journey.
Out-of-the-Box Geometry
What happens when you bounce a laser off a mirror? What if the laser is inside a rectangle made of mirrors? In this course, you will use this simple scenario as the starting point to examine advanced mathematical concepts such as combinatorics, permutations, and distance metrics. If you love math and want to explore topics you won’t see in school, this course is for you!
Medicine and Society – Waiting List Only
This course provides a survey of health care encounters between providers and patients emphasizing clinical decision making for students who interested in health care professions. You will analyze the biomedical underpinnings, socioeconomic determinants, systems-based factors, practice-based factors, and ethics that affect health, disease, and treatment. You will examine how these factors will affect clinical decision making and daily interactions between physicians and patients. To do this, you will engage in a variety of learning activities including, but not limited to: didactic lectures, case discussions, journal clubs, and simulated patient cases.
Fall 2018 Courses
Grades 7-8 | Grades 8-9 | Grades 9-10
Grades 7-8
Writing Place and Space
For many accomplished writers, location is the lifeblood of their work. Their stories and essays show us that place can be as much a character on the page as any human. The inside of a 1972 Volvo can be more significant than the dialogue between driver and passenger. A front porch can embody a character’s self-awakening. When you know how to write well about place, you also make yourself a useful writer for magazine and publishers. In this advanced writing lab, we will explore how to turn writing about location into an employable skill, but more important, how to write to know ourselves and the places we call home, wherever they are.
The Psychology of Vision – Limited Availability
You might think that vision acts like a camera, passively capturing our visual surroundings so that we can interact with our world. In reality, vision is an incredibly complex process that only begins in our eyes. In this class you will explore the science of how we see by learning about how our eyes collect visual information and then how our brain processes this information. You will explore how optical illusions (like the infamous dress) arise from tricking our visual systems and how current psychological and neuroscience methods are investigating visual perception. You will also study what happens when the visual systems malfunctions from eye or brain damage.
Strength and Structure in Engineering Materials – Limited Availability
If you’ve ever wondered how amusement parks ensure that roller coasters won’t break, or how we know bridges won’t collapse once built, this course is for you! This course will introduce you to the basics of how engineers study and understand materials. You will examine topics such as stress/strain relationships and failure theories, using a circular polariscope to visually display stresses in real time as they affect materials. You will also have the opportunity to visit Vanderbilt Engineering labs, to put your newfound knowledge to the test by stressing materials until they break, and examining how and when the failure occurred.
Exploring Sequences
You may have heard of the fibonacci sequence, but did you know that sequences underlie many mathematical topics and problems? In this course, you will work on some problems that, at first glance, appear completely unrelated. But once you dig a little deeper, you will discover a deep mathematical structure that underlies all these problems. In the process, you will explore recursive functions, permutations, and continued fractions.
Grades 8-9
Antimicrobial Resistance
Why do people with diseases sometimes switch treatments? Why do some individuals refuse to take meds when they have an infection? Although antibiotics have been widely used since the 1940s to treat bacterial infections, bacteria are able to adapt to these drugs, impacting their effectiveness and threatening the lives of those with otherwise treatable illnesses. With the rise of antibiotic resistance, developing new antimicrobials is a priority. During this course, you will learn how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and to think like scientists to design their very own antibiotic.
Grades 9-10
Mood Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment* – Waiting List Only
Twenty one percent of individuals will meet criteria for a mood disorder during their lifetime, but how are these disorders diagnosed and treated? In this course, you’ll learn about how to answer these questions, and learn more about specific mood disorders such as major depression and bipolar disorder. You’ll also gain exposure to tools that researchers use to study these disorders such as behavioral paradigms, self-report measures, and neuroimaging. In addition to learning about these disorders, you will explore a range of careers that can be pursued within the field of clinical psychology.
*Due to the nature of the material discussed in this class, parents should consider whether this course will be appropriate for their student.
Rhetoric and Writing in the Digital Age – Cancelled
What is effective, persuasive rhetoric? What would writing that employed such rhetoric look like in a paperless world? And to whom should that writing be aimed? This course aims to answer those questions, giving you a brief glimpse into the work of a non-fiction writer in the twenty-first century while also resourcing you to thrive at such a task in such a setting. From brainstorming and research to argumentation and rhetoric, this course will march you through the writing process. As you construct a small essay throughout the day, we will consider both the end and nature of effective rhetoric and writing, discussing a whole host of possibilities and outlets for digital publication as well as strategies for excelling therein.
Living Bones: The Skeleton and Society – Waiting List Only
Skeletons are formed by the lives they have lived. Activity patterns are visible through wear and muscle attachments, while illness or trauma are visible in lesions and bone alteration – clues used by doctors, forensic anthropologists, and bioarchaeologists to recreate the lived experience. In this course, you will have the opportunity to work with real human skeletons in the Vanderbilt University Osteology Laboratory. In the lab, you will learn to apply the methods used by osteologists to determine age and sex from the skeleton, and will delve even deeper to learn how trauma, health, and even diet (through chemical analysis) can help us understand an individual’s role in society.
Spring 2018
Grades 7-8
Trajectories in Astrophysics
Some of the most interesting news in Solar System planets, extrasolar planets, stars, and galaxies is gathered by astrophysicists. This lab will introduce you to both observational and theoretical aspects of the profession. A Vanderbilt astronomy professor will work with you to gather open source scientific data about the universe, construct and analyze graphs and computer models, compare your models to real world experience, and construct the kinds of well-crafted research questions that may one day inform you own scientific explorations. When it comes to astrophysics, the possibilities are as vast and diverse as the universe itself.
Demystifying Data Technologies
Have you ever wondered how Netflix knows what movies you’ll enjoy or how YouTube suggests just the right music video to watch? We live in the Information Age. Every second, about 798 Instagram photos are viewed; 7,722 Tweets are sent; and 70,420 YouTube videos are streamed. With every click, drag, and tap, you communicate information to companies that analyze your data in an instant. In this lab, you will discover emerging ways that data are organized and processed. Topics to be covered include “Big Data” analytics, algorithms and workflows, and the latest in Graph Database technologies. This much is certain, no matter what you do later in life, the future belongs to those who know how to deal with all that data.
Neuroscience of Vision
You see with your eyes, right? Well, that’s partly true. Vision begins with the eyes, but everything you see happens in the brain. In this lab, you’ll have the chance to investigate the psychological and neurological tools and methods experts use (e.g. MRI) to study vision. You will explore how your eyes take in information, how your brain tries to make sense of it, different ways your eyes can be “tricked,” and how eye malfunction and/or brain damage can change perception. This experience will give you a greater understanding of psychology and neuroscience, expert research tools, and how the neurological and visual systems interact to create what you see—or rather think you see—in the world around you.
Risk Analysis
Decision making is an integral part of life. Our minds are flooded with a constant stream of information, and we have to make choices about that information—some minor and quick, others major and requiring a lot of attention. This class will introduce you to the “science” of decision. Quantitative risk analysis brings probability and statistics into everyday life. Through hands-on problems, you will gain experience with methods professionals use to make sound decisions in everything from investing and finance to baseball. We will explore the triumphs and pitfalls of using available data to predict events that involve chance. Most importantly we will join the quest to explain the complex world in which we live.
Materials Science and Engineering
People used to have to rely upon nature for all the materials they used in everyday life—for everything from tanks to toothbrushes. Now, when scientists need something, they make it. Materials scientists manipulate molecules to create the materials that are used in the world’s most advanced and sophisticated technologies. In this lab, you will engage in hands-on activities, case studies, and demonstrations to investigate the relationships between the structures and properties of materials on atomic, microscopic, and macroscopic scales. You will learn a bit more about how materials are designed with properties tailored to specific applications. By the end of this experience, you will see how, when it comes to engineering today, some of the biggest advances in technology are…well, small.
Grades 9-10
Bioarchaeology
Bioarchaeologists study human skeletal remains to “re-populate” the past with real individuals in order to answer larger questions about humanity—like why and how empires grow, how violence starts and spread, and even periods of feast and famine. In this lab, you will work in the Vanderbilt Human Osteology lab (with actual human bones) to explore methods that researchers use to discover age and sex, illness, trauma, and even diet of past individuals. This class will teach you to think a little bit more like a bioarchaeologist so that, when other people just see bones, you will see a story.
Rhetoric and Writing in a Digital Age
Rhetoric—the ancient art of persuasion. Rhetoricians used to practice their skills in public squares, and later books. Now, rhetoric happens in a digital world—without paper as your audience sits behind a computer screen. How does that work? This writing lab aims to get at that question by giving you a glimpse into the work of a non-fiction writer in the twenty-first century. You will learn more about how to generate ideas, research sources, and construct a good argument that employs persuasive language in this digital age. As you construct a small essay throughout the day, we will consider the nature of effective rhetoric and writing, discussing a whole host of possibilities and outlets for digital publication as well as strategies for excelling within a digital framework.
Microbiology Protein Research
Proteins! That is the “language” of bacteria. It is how they interact with your body, with each other, and with the medicines and other compounds research scientists seek to develop. In this lab, you will get up close and personal—really close—with the Helicobacter pylori (the bacteria that cause ulcers) and some of the chemicals it secretes to attack your body. You will gain experience using common laboratory methods, such as VacA Purification and coomassie gel staining. You’ll try your hand at an accelerated scientific research project and presentation using publicly available scientific databases. And by day’s end, this new “protein language” might be one that you speak.
Fall 2017
Grades 7-8
Entrepreneurial Problem Solving
So, you want to run your own business one day? Successful entrepreneurship begins with an aptitude for problem solving. In this lab, you will solve problems the way entrepreneurs do. You will utilize business strategies—from design plans, to product launch, and to daily operations—to gain experience addressing the kinds of challenges professionals face in today’s fast-paced, ever changing business environment. This lab will emphasize teamwork, mathematical concepts, and presentation skills, while establishing a foundation of core business principles.
Writing Place and Space
For many accomplished writers, location is the lifeblood of their work. Their stories and essays show us that place can be as much a character on the page as any human. The inside of a 1972 Volvo can be more significant than the dialogue between driver and passenger. A front porch can embody a character’s self-awakening. When you know how to write well about place, you also make yourself a useful writer for magazine and publishers. In this advanced writing lab, we will explore how to turn writing about location into an employable skill, but more important, how to write to know ourselves and the places we call home, wherever they are.
Non-Euclidean Geometry
Get ready to re-think everything you think you know about math! Forget about number crunching and memorizing equations! (Don’t really forget about them, because you need to know that stuff to pass tests.) That is not how really advanced mathematicians spend their time. PhD-level math is less about how to “do” math “things” and more about why math is the way it is. This mathematics course will introduce you to a more advanced way of doing math by working through a famous geometry problem about something as deceptively simple as parallel lines. Through this and other activities you will have a greater understanding that what many people call basic math “facts” may not be facts at all.
Forensic Anthropology
Skeletons are shaped and formed by the lives they have lived – evidence that can be used in establishing identity and cause of death. In this laboratory environment, students will have the opportunity to work with real human skeletons in the Vanderbilt University Osteology Laboratory where they will apply some of the methods used by forensic anthropologists to determine age and sex from the skeleton itself, and will delve even deeper to learn how trauma, health, and even diet (through chemical analysis) can give clues that are used to resolve victim identity. By the end of the day, these once silent bones will speak volumes.
Grades 9-10
Clinical Virology
Learn what it’s like to do research in the field of clinical virology from a Vanderbilt post-doc with expertise in HIV research. Through lecture, hands-on lab experience, and group projects, you will learn more about the properties of viruses and how they operate. With HIV principles as your model, you will also learn how scientists study viruses in order to treat viral diseases and prevent viral outbreaks. At the end of this fast-paced day you can expect to walk away with a new understanding of clinical virology, along with a roadmap of possible pathways that could lead to a career in biomedical science.
Adaptive Engineering
This lab will involve a service learning project that will introduce you to some basic concepts, techniques, and career paths in the field of engineering. A Vanderbilt biomedical engineering professor will introduce you to mechanical, electrical, and biomedical engineering skills so that you can redesign, rewire, and rebuild toys for children with developmental disabilities. Some topics will include circuit diagrams, mechanical free body diagrams, and the engineering design process. So get creative, and start applying your problem-solving skills to some of the real challenges engineers face every day!
Psychology of Sleep Disorders
Sleep. We spend one-third of our lives doing it, but we understand relatively little about how sleep works. In this lab you will explore the rapidly changing field of sleep medicine, learning theories on why we sleep, the brain functions that support sleep, and sleep disorders and how specialists treat them. Along the way, you will learn how to scientifically measure sleep and have the opportunity to develop your own research project on sleep disorders. This course will also include practical advice and guidance on pursuing careers in psychology and behavioral medicine.
Spring 2017
Recommended for Grades 7-8
Case Law in Practice
Case law involves the process of bringing a case to trial, making arguments from precedent, and filing appeals to higher courts. In this day-long course you will learn about the complex and ever-changing facets of case law directly from a lawyer with courtroom experience. In addition to this advanced content, you can look forward to real-world advice on what it takes to become a lawyer and what the practice of law looks like “in real life.”
Creative Writing: The Author’s Process
This practical, hands-on workshop will immerse you in the writing process by developing core content for your very own short stories. You will access exercises fiction authors use to hone their craft, develop complex plot points, identify workshop techniques and revision strategies that will lead to a polished and compelling piece. This writing laboratory will also introduce resources and online platforms designed to help both early and advanced writers take the next step on their literary journey.
Endocrinology
Led by a PhD candidate working in the prestigious Gannon Laboratory at Vanderbilt University, your Saturday lab experience will shine a light on the rigors of research into diabetes and the human endocrine system. Beginning with the basics of the endocrine system function and dysfunction, the heart of this course will explore the insights research can yield on the causes and treatments of diabetes. You can also count on practical know-hows regarding opportunities and varied career paths in biomedicine.
Environmental Engineering
Environmental engineering is a vast and varied field with statistical analysis and complex problem solving at every turn. This laboratory will feature the research and fieldwork of a Vanderbilt PhD candidate, who specializes in climate change and human infrastructure. Through the use of Geographic Information Systems, programing, and statistical analysis, you will have the opportunity to analyze climate trends and begin to understand their present and future impacts.
Recommended for Grades 8-9
Genetic Epidemiology
Vanderbilt University is at the forefront of the new Precision Medicine Initiative, a nationwide project to study the genomes of over 1 million people in order to better understand how diseases work in different populations. In this immersive experience, you’ll learn how scientists are working to make sense of that information. Using open-source statistical analysis software in conjunction with computer programming, you’ll utilize the tools and procedures epidemiologists are using to try to understand the relationships between genetic variants and human health.
Recommended for Grades 9-10
Autoimmune Disease and Research
Cutting edge technologies and analysis programs are giving scientists insight into how the immune system functions in sick versus healthy people. you will consider how this information is helping to identify targets for therapy, treatment, and disease prevention through vaccination. Taught by a Vanderbilt viral immunologist, this laboratory course will also offer practical advice on pursuing advanced studies and careers in the field of biomedicine.
Drug Policy: Impact and Implications
From historical records to personal narratives, this course will dissect the history of drug policies and their effects on ordinary people. The focus of this lab will lie with standard historical research methods–including how historians analyze primary sources–but you will also take stock of “boots on the ground” research, the fieldwork and interviews necessary to gain a firsthand understanding of how broad policy decisions impact people at the “grassroots” level.
Fall 2016
Recommended for Grades 7-8
Investigating Criminal Law
Students in this class will consider the complex and ever-changing facets of criminal law. You will learn about basic legal rules and concepts (like the difference between robbery and burglary), variations in criminal defense strategies, rules for evidence, and court procedures. You can look forward to fascinating discussions about controversial topics, real court cases, and a taste of debate through mock trial. While we won’t administer the bar exam, by the end of this class you will know a bit more about the practice of law and what it means to think like a lawyer. Business attire not required.
Psychology of Memory
In many ways we are defined by our memory, which is why memory and psychology are inextricably linked. This class will provide an introduction to how memory functions in the brain and how scientists are able to study it. After examining a number of famous experiments, you will design and run your own experiments in a team-based environment. Then, as time allows, you will use the same format and tools as professional researchers to write-up and present your findings. After a day in a psychologist’s shoes, your understanding of memory could be altered forever.
Animal Movement and Landscape Ecology
Humans require an incredible amount of natural resources to persist, often at the expense of the local environment. Here we will investigate how humans and their animal counterparts coexist to sustainably utilize the land. In a laboratory environment, you will access techniques and tools ecologists use to understand the ways animals utilize their fragmented habitats. You will learn how to measure and quantify a forest landscape, analyze your data, and run computer models to postulate the effects of land-use on the long-term stability of these ecosystems. Time allowing, you will have an opportunity to work on your own research question and practice the essential skill of presenting your scientific findings to a general audience.
Nuclear Containment Engineering
What to do with nuclear waste is a real and growing problem. In this lab, you will gain a basic understanding of how nuclear power works and the methods environmental engineers use to dispose of used nuclear materials. As budding engineers, you will design your own model containment structure, build it, and test it for stability and integrity using different analytical techniques. How do you dispose of something that could be harmful for centuries to come? Sand, soil, cement, and your own ingenuity!
Recommended for Grades 9-10
Female Criminals in the 19th Century
Historians are like detectives on the hunt to recover the voices of people who lived centuries ago. Archival sources provide the clues and evidence that lead researchers to fascinating interpretations and discoveries about the past. In this course, students will engage with archival sources to learn about the experiences of female criminals in the 19th century United States. Together, we will examine the evidence found in the documents to understand how criminal women interacted with the legal and prison systems in the United States as well as participate in the historical research process and hone skills utilized by historians every day.
Pathenogenic Microbiology
This lab is for students who have a thorough understanding of cellular biology and are ready to take their knowledge to the next level. If that sounds like you, then don your safety goggles and put on your gloves, because you are about to get up close and personal with some bacteria (mild strains of course). Pathenogenic microbiology is the study of how bacteria interact with human cells. In this class, you will work in a Vanderbilt lab with a research scientist to gain a deeper understanding of how pathogens affect human health; you will learn what it takes to run a study; and you will see how professionals share what they have learned with each other. Classtime will consist of lecture, lab time, and practice writing and constructing a professional publication.
Genetic Epidemiology
Vanderbilt University is at the forefront of the new Precision Medicine Initiative, a nationwide project to study the genomes of over 1 million people in order to better understand how diseases work in different populations. Students in this laboratory will get an introduction to how scientists make sense of all that information. Using some open-source statistical analysis software, and a bit of computer programming, you’ll participate in the tools and procedures epidemiologists are using to try to understand the relationships between genetic variants and human health. The next great breakthrough in human health may not happen inside a lab, but at a computer, maybe with you at the keyboard.
Spring 2016
Grades 7-8
Cancer on a Molecular Level
Did you know that cancer cells can “talk?” They use molecules to create a kind of information network between cells, and these signals inform the way different cancers attack the body; thus, researchers are increasingly looking at how cancers progress at the molecular level. When we better understand what cancer cells are “saying” to each other, we can develop more targeted treatments. This class will focus on the signaling networks that are often implicated in cancer and explore some of the latest basic research that is going on in the field. It is a perfect course for future doctors, biologists, and biomedical researchers who want to begin to understand cancer on molecular level.
Creative Writing and Pop Culture
This course explores narrative structure in a wide array of story arcs—everything from songs and videos, to movies, books, and even internet memes—to figure out how the “big picture” of the story you want to tell informs character, dialogue, imagery, and tone. Through investigation into emerging media, writing exercises, workshop, and revision, students will hone their writing craft with clarity and purpose.
Literature and Cognition
The human mind has a tremendous capacity for crafting, reading, and remembering stories and poems. Cognitive theory can help us understand both why and how our brains accomplish such feats. This interdisciplinary course embraces the fields of literature, psychology, science, and expository writing. Students will read cognitive theory texts along with novels, poetry, and short stories. We will also conduct psychological experiments and evaluate the contributions of cognitive science to our understanding of the human desire to create and read literature. We will focus on how we can use cognitive theory to make academic writing compelling, memorable, and persuasive.
Grades 9-10
Over and Over Again: Fibonacci Numbers and Iteration
The Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, . . .) is one of the most famous sequences in mathematics. In this course, we’ll use the Fibonacci sequence as a launching pad to study recursive functions and iterative processes. For example, how many ways can you line up Alice, Bob, and Camilla in alphabetical order, but without placing anybody next to their alphabetical neighbor (i.e. Alice next to Bob, etc.). Or (in electronics) how to find equivalent resistances of resistor ladders. In this class you can look forward to challenging and non-standard problems like these, collaborative problem solving, and the effective communication of mathematical ideas.
The Art of the Argument
It’s a fact of life: you want to change things for the better, but you can’t do it alone. You need to explain, persuade, and get the right people on your side. An effective argument is one of the best tools in your arsenal, and this course will teach you how to craft one! You will learn how to discover the possible lines of argument on any topic, and create and deliver a policy presentation on a topic of your choosing. You’ll leave this course with rhetorical tools to start changing the world, one argument at a time.
The Human Microbiome
Where are the latest medical breakthroughs happening? Your gut! And no wonder! For every human cell you have, there are ten microbes living in your stomach and intestines–the human microbiome. The bacteria, viruses, protozoans, and fungi living in, on, and around your body can make you sick, but they are also essential for your health and development, potentially affecting everything from autoimmune disorders to depression. We will study the human ecosystem in this course, paying close attention to the overuse of antibiotics, its impact on the microbiome, and the consequences for human health.
Fall 2015
Grades 7-8
Geospatial Ecology
This is not your typical ecology class. You won’t be traipsing through woods and fields gathering samples. Instead, you will be in space! This class is not about bugs and butterflies, but the interactions between human and natural systems (such as agriculture, natural disasters, infrastructure, urban sprawl, and so on). Utilizing satellite imagery and geospatial technologies we will examine how urbanization, globalization, climate change, and technological innovation shape, and are shaped by, the natural world. Students in this class will learn to analyze social and environmental data to make critical decisions about the root causes of–and possible responses to–global environmental change.
Literature and Comedy
What makes us laugh and why? At least as far back as ancient Greece, authors and philosophers have attempted to understand how comedy operates within the larger social framework and its role in promoting and even subverting social norms. In this course, we will review comic literary works and philosophical pieces dealing with the nature of comedy. We will pay careful attention to the way culture, class, and stereotypes might influence the way comedy “works” on us as well as how comedy has and can be used to bring about social and political change.
Theory and Research in Emotion Psychology
In this class, we will learn about theories and research in the psychology of human emotions, paying close attention to how different emotions affect attention, cognition, and motivation. This will also afford us a chance to review some fascinating studies and to better understand how experiments and research methods can give us insight into the human mind. You will come away from this class with a better understanding of how the experts think emotions might work in the human mind and the tools and methods they use to test their theories.
Grades 7-10
Crafting Your Story: A Creative Writing Workshop –
Do you have an idea for a great story? Maybe you already know the main plot points, or maybe the kernel of your story begins with a dynamic character or a captivating place. How do you take a good idea and turn it into a fully developed story? In this class, we’ll explore how writers find inspiration and the different approaches they use to begin crafting their stories. Through exercises, group activities and peer workshops, students will generate story ideas and create plans to develop those ideas into full length stories (or novels!). At the end of the course, each student will have a confident start on his or her writing project and a plan to bring it to completion.
Grades 9-10
Biophotonics
Scientists and engineers continue to innovate better technologies to solve some of the most challenging problems in medicine. One of the areas that focuses on developing these technologies is biophotonics. This field of study utilizes light to understand biological processes and systems, diagnose and treat various diseases, and investigate the development of more efficient laser instruments. We will discuss the properties of light and its interactions to learn how to apply specific imaging and spectroscopy techniques. We will then apply our new understanding of biophotonics to current challenges in medicine, examining how light can be used to tackle these issues.
Non-Standard Geometry
Standard geometry courses will teach you about obtuse angles, parallelograms, and the Pythagorean Theorem. But there will be none of that in this class! We throw out all the things that make school geometry insufferable and focus on some highly engaging, but rarely explored problems, like how M.C. Escher created his famous optical illusions, or what happens when you shine a laser beam in a room full of mirrors. Two-column proofs? Forget about it! Topology, tessellations, and Tetris! Oh my!
Spring 2015
Grades 7-8
Literature and Cognitive Theory
The human mind has a tremendous capacity for writing, reading, and remembering stories and poems. Cognitive theory can help us understand both why and how our brains do this. This interdisciplinary course embraces the fields of literature, psychology, science, and expository writing. Students will read cognitive theory texts along with novels, poetry, and short stories. We will also conduct psychological experiments and evaluate the contributions of cognitive science to our understanding of the human desire to create and read literature. We will focus on how we can use cognitive theory to make academic writing fascinating, memorable, and persuasive.
An ideal course for philosophically-minded book lovers.
Slave Revolts, Rebellion, and Resistance
Through the analysis of firsthand accounts and other historical documents, lectures, group discussion, documentaries, and manipulation of the statistics in the Slave Voyages Database, we will uncover the many different ways in which enslaved people across Africa and the Americas fought for their freedom. We will examine all forms of resistance and revolts, including slave ship insurrections, runaway slave communities in Brazil and Jamaica, slaves in the legal system, and the armed uprisings of the enslaved in places such as Haiti, Cuba, and the US in order to better understand how resistance and rebellion shaped the experiences of enslaved Africans and their descendents.
An ideal course for history buffs with a highly-developed sense of justice.
Straight Ahead? Non-Standard Geometric Explorations
We throw out all the things that make school geometry insufferable and explore some non-standard problems in geometry. WAVU math lovers of any grade (7-10) are invited to participate in this workshop-style, highly differentiated course. No two-column proofs here! Tilings, topology, and tetris? Oh my!
Math-lovers who are ready to go beyond the textbook.
Grades 9-10
Apocalypses in Pop Culture
The apocalypse is everywhere in pop culture. You see its themes in books, movies, video games, television, and graphic novels. But the seeds of apocalyptic can be found in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and other semitic documents. It was a favorite genre of those engaged in socio-political critique. In this class, we will seek to uncover the identities of those who shaped apocalyptic literature, discover why they were writing, and consider why this genre continues to be so popular in the modern world.
An ideal course for lovers of history, literature, and human culture (vivid imaginations required).
The Human Microbiome: Its Implications for Health and Disease
Where are the latest medical breakthroughs happening? Your gut! And no wonder! For every human cell you have, there are ten microbes living in your stomach and intestines! Scientists call it the human microbiome. Yes, you are an ecosystem! The bacteria, viruses, protozoans, and fungi living in, on, and around your body can make you sick, but they are also essential for your health and development, potentially affecting everything from autoimmune disorders to depression. We will study this human ecosystem in this course, paying especially close attention to the overuse of antibiotics, its impact on the microbiome, and its consequences for human health.
An ideal course those who want to venture into the hidden worlds of the human body.
Straight Ahead? Non-Standard Geometric Explorations
We throw out all the things that make school geometry insufferable and explore some non-standard problems in geometry. WAVU math lovers of any grade (7-10) are invited to participate in this workshop-style, highly differentiated course. No two-column proofs here! Tilings, topology, and tetris? Oh my!
Math-lovers who are ready to go beyond the textbook.