Droplet Fall 16
Course Catalog

What good are old movies? Some are just plain great movies having terrific performances, great photography and / or writing. (Even in black and white! Even silent!) And some are just crap. But there's another entire use for old movies. Come find out what I mean and see if you really see into our past! Increase your awareness of things present and past!

Going over the history and techniques that constitute the art of popping, a dance born out of California in the late 60s and early 70s. Will utilize videos to supplement oral history. If possible, will also teach popping fundamentals: how to "hit" or "pop," the robot, dimestops, isolations, positions, etc.

A dance class featuring traditional West African and Caribbean dance styles with modern influences. An energetic and fun class sure to make you sweat!

Are you interested in morality? Do questions of right and wrong keep you up at night? Have you ever heard of the trolley problem? Come to learn about all of that and more in "Moral Philosophy"

Prayers are a large part of our relationship with God. But what forms do prayers take and what do these forms tell us? From Homeric Greek to 20th Century movies clips: how may we learn more about our relationship to God by re-examining the four forms of prayer.

This course will serve as a brief introduction to a few of the ways in which great thinkers in the Western academic tradition have answered the question "What is the good life for a human being?". This class will address the question in six historical and philosophical chapters:

THOUGHT: Plato and Socratic Influences
VIRTUE: Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius
REVERENCE: Saint Francis of Assisi
ENLIGHTENMENT: Immanuel Kant
POWER: Friedrich Nietzsche and Lord Byron
FREEDOM: Jean-Paul Sartre

-Recommended Texts-

Plato - The Symposium
Aristotle - The Nichomachean Ethics
M. Aurelius - Meditations
S. Francis - Admonitions
I. Kant - What Is Enlightenment?
F. Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
G. Byron - Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
JP. Sartre - Existentialism is a Humanism

NOTE: I don't expect you to read these before you come! I list them here in order to indicate what material we will be discussing, as well as provide support for whatever research you wish to do after the course is over.


Prerequisites
None! Just show up and be ready to discuss and think deeply.

What are the three ways humans have organized themselves? And how have we Americans set ourselves up for our "experiment"? Are we a democracy? Spoiler alert: It's not what you think! Come find out just how crazily our Founding Fathers didn't trust politicians!


Prerequisites
None

An hour long yoga class encouraging students to engage both the mind and body in their yoga practice designed with periods of both stimulation and relaxation. Don't worry though, plenty exercise too!

During the latter half of WWII, a group of painters, designers, sculptors, and audio producers were gathered together for a secret project funded by the US Army. These men were recruited to use their artistic abilities to create the world's first "ghost army" - a battalion of inflatable tanks, dummy artillery, and sound bytes of a regiment on the move. All of this was a dream of army captains who believed that they could fool the enemy into thinking the Allies had more men than they did. Despite its seemingly ludicrous and sometimes impossible purpose, this Ghost Army ran over 25 successful missions and saved hundreds of thousands of lives. In this class, we'll examine the men who ran the mission as well as the pretty badass inventions and ideas they spawned to fool the Nazis.


Prerequisites
N/A

This course explores the various biological indicators of sex, including genes and gene expression, hormone levels, and genitalia, and analyzes how these biological components compose our understanding of gender.

Gender is, contrary to belief, not a direct product of biology sex, but a function of
Society. We learn our genders through social conditioning, and the relationship they have to biology is complex. Are there more than two genders, what is transgender, and are these genders "true?

Our universe came into existence 13.7 billion years ago. We now call it "The Big Bang". But it was not just "big", it was "everywhere". Moreover, it was not just a "bang", it was a "stretch". Although "The Everywhere Stretch" is not a catchy name for it.
In this class, we will read the biography for our universe. We will start from its birth, then tell the story of how it evolved into the universe in which we live and love. (The whole universe was orange at some point in its evolution!)
Then we will cover how our universe will look like in the distant future (not thousands, not millions, but billions of years later). Eventually we will learn about how it will die, this time not with a bang but with a whimper.


Prerequisites
Awe, wonder and a tiny bit of existential crisis

Scientists estimate that between 1 and 5 billion species, or different kinds of living things, have lived on and disappeared from Earth since life first evolved on our planet about 3.8 billion years ago. Thousands of new species have been discovered in the last year alone. But what exactly is a species? Why are all domestic dog breeds generally considered to be the same species, while giraffes are now thought to be split up into five different species? What is it about plants and animals’ DNA, bodies, and behavior that distinguishes some organisms from others? And how, where, and why do unique and unusual species, like platypuses in Australia or fluorescently-colored mantis shrimp on coral reefs, evolve? In this class, we’ll talk about the process of speciation (the evolution of a new species), the roles that rare and unique species play within larger ecosystems, and the value of biodiversity–the variety we see in genes, species and ecosystems around the world–to human health and society.


Prerequisites
Interest in plants, animals, and the environment–some high school biology is encouraged, but not required.

Looking at Drosophila as a model organism, how they are objectively better than stupid worms or zebrafish or whatever. Class will begin with a brief overview of how a fly lab operates, then dive in to a couple of signaling pathways (probably Antennapedia or Hippo).


Prerequisites
Some experiance with biology

Learn tips and tricks to ace your SATs! We will focus specifically on the Critical Reading and Writing sections and will work through sample papers and questions. The goal is to teach you how to pick answers and use the test format to your advantage. Some topics that will be covered are:
1. How to answer vocabulary questions without memorizing the dictionary?
2. How to prep for the essay writing part of the test?
3. How to answer the Critical Reading questions?