Splash! 2007
Course Catalog

Come join the folks at Doc Films, the oldest student film society in the country, for a movie and discussion. Our theatre, the Max Palevsky Cinema, is a professional big screen movie theatre, and the film will be projected on 35mm film. (If you're interested in learning how to project film, take a look at the course called "How to Project a Film" offered in both the 1st and 2nd course block.)

Want to learn how to create your own t-shirts and clothing? Tired of buying overpriced shirts when you know you could make them yourself? Think you're the next top fashion designer? This is the course for you! We'll explore different methods of creating your own shirt, including screen-printing, stenciling, and alteration, and then you'll have an opportunity to try making a shirt of your own! We'll provide all the supplies you need.

Come learn the basic principles and theory of motion picture projection, including topics such as: film gauges, image quality, aspect ratio, differences in film & video media, different types of sound tracks. Our projection booth is a fully equipped professional booth, complete with two 35mm projectors, a 16mm projector, a digital projector and more.

Come learn the basic principles and theory of motion picture projection, including topics such as: film gauges, image quality, aspect ratio, differences in film & video media, different types of sound tracks. Our projection booth is a fully equipped professional booth, complete with two 35mm projectors, a 16mm projector, a digital projector and more.

How can an audience accustomed to complex action sequences, digitally enhanced imagery, and loud special effects enjoy classic films, many without color and some without sound? The object of this course will be to engage the students in active viewing of a film. This will take the student beyond an entertainment seeking experience and open the cinema to wide ranging exploration, dialogue, and criticism. We will review excerpts from film theorists such as Bazin, Panovsky, Eisenstein, Cavell, and Deleuze as well as make reference to both classic and contemporary films.

If you want to feel more comfortable thinking on your feet, then this class is for you! Focusing on the basics of improvisational acting, we will go through various improv handles (i.e. set ups conducive to practicing improvisational acting skills) and discuss what makes something funny. Timing, physical motion, vocal techniques and picking a character will all be focused on in turn. Must be willing to participate in class and not be afraid to make a fool of yourself!

Ever wished you could make your own scarf or hat for those freezing Chicago winters? Take this class to learn the basics of knitting and get on your way to completing your first project! WeÕll go over casting on, knitting and purling, and casting off. Come enjoy a relaxing, fun class and learn a skill you can use in the future.

Already know how to read music? This class will teach you the theory you need to back your skills and give you a more intuitive sense of music. WeÕre not guaranteeing perfect pitch, but at least youÕll be able to hear all the perfect fifths in any superheroÕs theme song. We will cover degrees, intervals, triads, seventh chords, and their respective qualities. We will also cover scales, major and the three types of minor, and be introduced to modes (Ionic, Dorian, Phrygian, etc). Ear training will be emphasized for intervals and scales. WeÕll also cover some of the more miscellaneous topics, such as trills, mordents, pedaling, what it means for a stringed instrument to play pizz or arco, and whatever you wish to know. If some of the words here are foreign to you, you should definitely come and find out!

Come out and learn to swing dance. We will be teaching beginning six-count east coast swing, with perhaps some more advanced moves depending on how quickly students pick it up. Swing is a lead-follow dance that originally developed in the 1920s/30s. It can be used at many events today, from social swing dances to wedding receptions.

No matter who you are, where you live, or what you do, you deal with fonts (or typefaces, as they're also called) almost constantly. Come find out a little bit more about typefaces, their history, and how to design one. We'll start with a brief look at the history of fonts from the invention of the printing press to modern digital type design, and then try to draw our own typefaces! Plus, as an added bonus, everyone who takes this class will receive a beautiful specimen book showing off some really cool fonts designed by the folks I work for.

Come learn the basics of making a movie. In this class, you'll learn a little bit, then get to try what you've learned by helping film some of the other classes going on.

Why is thinness attractive? Why is it much rarer for women to have multiple husbands than men to have multiple wives? Why do male peacocks have such long and fancy tails, while female peacocks are brown and ugly? Here, we introduce evolutionary psychology - a study of how we've come to think the way we do, the evolution of species inside and out.

It seems like more companies every day are going organic, or at least trying to look like it: even Lay's now has "all natural" potato chips in a hippie-friendly brown bag. But are they doing it because they really care? The answers are mixed, but here's a hint: it's not always about altruism. We'll talk about everything from ethanol cars to modern design to backyard-grown veggies.

Students will be introduced to the culture of Jordan by a teacher who has just returned from an eleven week stay in this beautiful Middle Eastern country! A very brief history and geography lesson will set the stage for a discussion and sampling of various cultural elements (dress, food, religion, etc.) and the corresponding ways in which visiting westerners may have to adapt in order to fit into and better appreciate Jordanian culture.

Students will be provided with a very basic knowledge of Arabic structure as well as the most elementary conversational phrases of this beautiful language through a series of discussions and activities involving student interaction as well as different types of media.

This class is meant to be an introduction to the US Supreme Court. We will be talking about how a justice is supposed to think, basing decisions on precedent and an objective reading of the law. We will also discuss the personal ideologies that can influence that thinking. Throughout, we will be debating actual Supreme Court decisions on matters ranging from free speech to privacy rights to affirmative action. To culminate, we will simulate an oral argument before the Court with class participants acting as attorneys or justices.


Prerequisites
Aimed at students in grades 10-12 with some knowledge of US government and history, but all are welcome.

Students will be provided with a very basic knowledge of Spanish structure as well as the most elementary conversational phrases through a series of discussions and activities involving student interaction as well as different types of media.

Confused about what in the world has been going on with Chicago's weather over the past year? Scared about global warming and want to do something about it? Make sure you take this course! We'll briefly go over some of the science of global warming and what could happen if nothing changes, and then we'll explore what techniques governments have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If you don't want any more polar bears to drown, come see how we can slow global warming!

We will discuss the history, science, and ethics that went into creating the atomic bomb, and we will also take a look at the art associated with these issues, including the Henry Moore sculpture that's right on the U. of C.'s campus! Bring your sneakers and something to draw with, and cross your fingers for good weather so we can go outside!

This class is for students who enjoy active discussion, inspection, and participation. We will comb through the Mayflower Compact word by word and talk about the document in a social historical light. From there we will jump off into a wider discussion about todayÕs society, exploring topics such as notions of faith and what it means to be a pilgrim. This class will be a discussion-based one in which individuals are encouraged to think, question, listen, and share.

So, you've heard of this whole Linux thing. Maybe you're just a bit frustrated with Windows; maybe you've been scared off by Linux in the past. In this class I'll show you how to install Linux on your own computer and how to use it for basic stuff like word processing and games, and I'll also glance briefly at the Linux command line and some of the amazingly powerful things you can do with this operating system.

I'll be answering questions throughout the class and at the end I'll open it to general questions and discussion, so bring something to say!

Each student will take home an Ubuntu Linux Live/Install CD.

What does it mean to have freedom of religion? Does that mean than anyone can believe anything? What happens when beliefs contradict in the public square? Illegal Religion looks at the history of religion in the United States from a legal and policy perspective Ð what the government has done concerning competing religions and how the Supreme Court has interpreted your right to believe.

In this class students will vote on a topic around which to organize. We will then spend the class working together to develop a strategy. We will identify our targets and allies, practice recruitment one-on-one's, and plan a hypothetical action for which we will write a press release.

Ever heard of Linguistics? Want to know what it is? HereÕs a chance to find out about the study of communication that is uniquely human. Take a look at sounds, sentences, meaning, and even a little psychology to try and make sense of it all.

Are you interested in international relations? Do you like debating some of the greatest global problems of our time? Do you like arguing with everyone? Do you like winning arguments with everyone even better? Then Model United Nations is for you! Learn how to use parliamentary procedure, debate the issues, write resolutions (in the style of the real United Nations), solve global problems, and win arguments about pretty much anything!

While many view the Cold War simply in terms of political or military strategic conflict, we will take a look at the US-Soviet struggle through the lens of the ideas that defined the two sides. We will start in the 19th century with a discussion of liberalism and Marxist communism. Next, we will talk about history from the Russian Revolution through World War II and the impact of ideas on the post-War world order. Finally, we will discuss major Cold War events from the viewpoint of the divide between liberalism and Marxism. Throughout, we will discuss the merits and faults of the two ideologies and how those impacted how history played out.


Prerequisites
Aimed at students in grades 11-12 with some knowledge of US/World history, but all are welcome.

When Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, the Americas had been inhabited for over 10,000 years. Far from the romantic conception of "noble savages" treading lightly on a primeval wilderness, native peoples built cities, established advanced economies, and systematically exploited their environments to create civilizations that rivalled their contemporaries in the Old World. We'll examine evidence from anthropology to zooarchaeology as we explore the hidden history of the American continents.

Take part in the first annual Hyde Park Jazz festival as part of Splash Chicago! We'll talk a little bit about jazz, then take you to a workshop given by University of Chicago professor and jazz expert Travis Jackson and a concert featuring Mwata Bowden & the Jazz X-tet featuring Saalik Ziyad.

Chinese calligraphy has been an integral part of the Chinese culture. In ancient China, calligraphy was considered the standard method of writing. However, nowadays people considered it more often as a work of art. A calligrapher is like a painter where every character forms a unique image. The best thing about this class is we will learn not only how to write the characters but also understand more about Chinese language and its culture.

With the development of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, humanity faces a turning point in which a radical transformation can occur. These advances, however, are not without controversy, especially since many of these issues re-evaluate the notion of humanity. This seminar will explore issues in biopolitics and the philosophy of transhumanism, which anticipates these radical changes and attempts to embrace them.

The goal of this course is to discuss the social organization of Ants and other social insects as a system very different from most forms of human sociality. Unlike human societies, Ant colonies organize vast numbers of individuals without using any form of central leadership or any special relationships between individuals. We will discuss the major differences between ant societies and how they work and discuss the extent to which human societies are antlike. Finally, we will talk about what sorts of situations make human beings organize in an antlike manner and the situations in which such organization is effective.

Take a break from the classroom and take a tour of the University of Chicago campus, with a tour guide willing to answer any of your questions about the campus and the University.

Take a break from the classroom and take a tour of the University of Chicago campus, with a tour guide willing to answer any of your questions about the campus and the University.

College Admissions 101 will take you through the application process with a real, live Admissions Counselor from the University of Chicago. We'll cover essay-writing, interviewing, how to ask teachers for recommendations, if testing really matters, as well as where to find the perfect college, and how to pay for it. The class will be student-motivated, so bring your questions and any samples you're willing to share with the class.

College Admissions 101 will take you through the application process with a real, live Admissions Counselor from the University of Chicago. We'll cover essay-writing, interviewing, how to ask teachers for recommendations, if testing really matters, as well as where to find the perfect college, and how to pay for it. The class will be student-motivated, so bring your questions and any samples you're willing to share with the class.

Students will explore the difference between logical and rhetorical modes of being convincing, with the dual ends of answering the question, "what does it mean to be convincing?" and of learning how to convince. We'll use brief selections from Plato and Aristotle as well as brief treatment of problems in twentieth-century philosophy of logic and language to explore the relationship between reason and rhetoric. We will cover basic logical fallacies, rhetorical strategies, and the identification of "bullshit." In addition to providing an introduction to argumentation, we'll discuss the role good argument might play in certain kinds of characteristically political disagreements.

First you'll watch me perform a short impromptu speech. After analyzing and discussing the performance, you'll perform speeches of your own on randomly selected topics and receive instructor and peer feedback. Active participation is a must, so come ready to speak and have lots of fun doing so!

Imagine this: you're hiking at the Indiana Dunes State Park, when suddenly your friend falls and hurts his ankle. It looks bad Ð he can't stand up. It's getting dark, and you hear thunder. What do you do? Come find out in the Wilderness First Aid class! You'll learn basic first aid you can use in any situation, such as splinting and bleeding control, as well as how to deal with injuries when you're away from civilization. Please note Ð you won't be able to get a first aid certification, but you will have fun and get to practice skills you can use hands-on!

This will be an informal creative writing workshop with an emphasis on freeform poetry. We will undertake various exercises that stimulate creative thought in poetic souls. We will explore the art of group storytelling, develop sensitivity to the senses, abound in alliteration, and venture into Slam poetry. Come prepared to experiment, to be unreservedly creative, to develop your personal writing skills, and to appreciate the beauty and artistry of your peersÕ work. Come, be inspired, and discover your own profundity.

This will be an informal creative writing workshop with an emphasis on freeform poetry. We will undertake various exercises that stimulate creative thought in poetic souls. We will explore the art of group storytelling, develop sensitivity to the senses, abound in alliteration, and venture into Slam poetry. Come prepared to experiment, to be unreservedly creative, to develop your personal writing skills, and to appreciate the beauty and artistry of your peersÕ work. Come, be inspired, and discover your own profundity.

A talented new generation of poets and writers in 1920's Russia produced brilliant new work under the threat of imprisonment – for themselves and their families – in the labor camps, or Gulags, of Russia. Anna Akhmatova gave poignant expression both to the poet's and to the layperson's experience with the Gulag in 1920's Russia in what many readers and critics deem her masterwork, the cycle of poems entitled Requiem. This class will discuss the interplay of Gulag and poet in early Soviet Russia and apply it to a special example, a beautiful translation of Requiem.

What does it mean to be a hero? What was expected from a hero? Who was a hero? These questions are becoming more important in a world that is increasingly susceptible to terrorist attack, natural disasters, and dangerous situations as we look to heroes to save us. Nonetheless, natural disasters, war and conflict have been occurring for thousands of years. What is a Hero? explores what it meant to be a hero in the classical world.

What is consciousness? Is it the ability to think, the state of mind to be able to plan, the capacity to react or something else? Which animals are conscious? All, none, just humansÉ? These are the types of questions we will discuss while using modern research papers and opinions throughout history as our guide. Come take part in this interesting view point of psychology and the mind.

In this class, you are going to write about something in which I know youÕre an expert: you! We will play some writing games, talk about what goes into any piece of solid writing, and then do some writing on our own.

Ever wondered what the language spoken by the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle was like? This is a crash course in Attic Greek, or "philosophical" Greek, a language spoken more than 2,000 years ago in Athens. We will go over the Greek alphabet and basics of the language's structure, as well as how to read and translate some sentences from the Greek.

This class is designed as a beginner introduction to fundamental concepts of computer programming and a quick survey of the C programming language. General programming concepts will be fleshed out through concrete examples in C. Topics covered will include: data types, flow control, functions, recursion, pointers.

This will be a rapid introduction to the Lambda Calculus, a theoretical model of computing originally proposed by Alonzo Church in the 1930s. We will explore how, starting from the barest primitive ideas, you can derive all the comutational power of a modern desktop computer! NOTE: This is not the calculus you've heard about in school! In fact, there are almost no numbers involved, and you don't need to know any math - just have a curiosity for some slightly abstract reasoning.

Blogging is a huge phenomenon on the Internet and in real life; all the newspapers say so. But you don't need to know the ins-and-outs of politics to become an influential blogger by your own merit. Blogs are a fast-developing part of the Internet, and there are blogs on just about anything that you're interested in. In this workshop, we'll explore some real-life blogs, and then it's your turn to try it. You'll learn the basics of blogging, what types of blogs are out there, the keys to smart blogging, and how to get started on your own.

Two kids get into a competition to name the biggest number. They start out 1, 2, 3, then they go through all the usual customers --- a hundred, a million, a billion --- until one of them finally says "infinity." The other one is silent for a minute, and then says "infinity plus one."

So what *is* infinity? What does it mean to have one infinity bigger than another? Aren't any two infinite things just... the same? Come find out why "infinity plus one" is just the same as infinity, why "infinity plus infinity" is just the same as infinity, but why there *are* actually bigger sizes of infinity!

You probably know how to use a computer, and maybe even how to program one in C, BASIC, Java, or python. But do you really understand how one works? Do you know what happens in the hardware when a computer first turns on? Exactly what role does the operating system serve, and how does it interact with your applications? We'll take a whirlwind tour through computing, learning about the layers of abstraction and complexity that build up to the software most of us use every day.

This class will give you a very quick introduction to French. We'll go over some basics, including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, and you'll learn a few words and phrases by the time the hour's up.

100 happy gnomes live in a small town. One day an ogre comes along and says "I'm going to come back tomorrow with 100 black hats and 100 white hats. I'm going to line you all up, so that each person can see only the color of the hats in front of them, but not the hats behind them (nor their own). Then I will ask the last person (who can see everyone else's hat color) to guess his own hat color. If he is wrong, I'll eat him. Then I'll ask the next person - if she is wrong, I'll eat her. And I'll continue forward along the line until I get to the end. Since about half of you will guess right, I should get a full meal of 50 gnomes." How can the gnomes foil the ogre's plan? Come to this class and we'll answer (and enact) this and other logic puzzles involving colored hats.

Students will learn about alternative and independent media outlets where their voices can be heard and respected. Tools like blogs, online art and music outlets, and self-publishing services will be explored. Issues of intellectual property, creative commons, and copyright as they relate to the internet and other channels of media will be explained.

As an introduction to complex numbers and the related Gaussian integers, this class will use these tools to solve a fascinating problem dealing with Pythagorean triples. The class combines the elegant world of the imaginary numbers with the world of right triangles in order to generate all possible Pythagorean triples.


Prerequisites
Knowledge of basic Algebra

This course will be an introductory excursion into the study of systems, drawing examples from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Issues tackled will include the development of general systems theory and related areas, abstraction and mathematics, and the debate between reductionism and holism. Special focus will be on interdisciplinary research, future directions, and the conflict between realism and contructivism.


Prerequisites
No prior knowledge required, but a knowledge of, or interest in abstract math and philosophy will be useful.

Mathematics is its own language. In this class, I'll introduce you to some of the common words and phrases in the language. By the end of the class, we'll try to write a story using solely mathematical notation. If you already know what $$\forall$$, $$\in$$, and $$\Sigma$$ mean, then this class is not for you.

The best computer images --- those used in movies and high-quality renderings --- come from a process known as "ray tracing," literally meaning that you trace rays of light to see what image they form. We'll take a look at how ray tracing works and how math lets you generate these pictures, then we'll look at some of the amazing results of even simple ray tracing programs. You should know algebra and geometry for this course. Programming experience is not necessary!

The world is going Web. Google Desktop is starting to gain market share on Microsoft Office. Blogs aren't just on the evening news; in some places, they're starting to compete with it. If you're a programmer, database-backed Web apps are most definitely here to stay. In this class, I'll be teaching you some basic design patterns that you can use to take your existing programming knowledge and apply it to the Web. I'll also delve a bit into relational database design, how to store all the information that your Web app contains. As a class, we will write a basic working blog application.

Warning: This class definitely requires programming knowledge! I'll be focusing on the Python programming language and the Django web framework. Anyone who has written a significant application in any major language should catch on fairly quickly, though.


Prerequisites
Knowledge of a computer programming language, preferably Python

Polyomino puzzles are about tiling flat surfaces, like a chessboard or your bathroom wall. This will be a hands-on class in which we will experiment with puzzles and prove some things about them. There will be some explanation, but most of the time you will working on puzzle problems as a group. Think Tetris.

We will use telescopes and a homemade spectroscope on the roof of one of the buildings on campus to observe our closest star: the Sun. We will also discuss amateur observational astronomy, solar observations, sunspots, and other interesting facts about the Sun. Students will be free to ask questions and conduct hands-on observations with our equipment. If it is too cloudy to see the sun, we will instead spend more time discussing solar science, our instruments, and how professional solar observatories work.

Note: The roof of Ryerson Hall is not handicapped accessible, so unfortunately students with handicaps cannot take this class. Students will be outside for most of the class and should dress properly for the weather.

The case for hopeful and hopeless monsters!

What exactly is Darwin's theory? Could he be wrong? After all, he lived years before genetics became a standard division in biology. Here, we introduce the basics of developmental genetics and biology with evolution, exploring various theories other than the commonly accepted theory of natural selection, such as Lamarque's theories. Using examples such as hopeful and hopeless monsters, we will incorporate genetics and developmental biology with Darwinism in order to find a better version of his famous explanation.

From the smallest bacterium to bananas to cats and dogs and even to you and me, we all share Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. This simple, four base molecule provides the foundation for the genes that code every component for every cell, every tissue, every living being. This class will explore the basic structure of DNA and genes and delve into what the study of these can mean for the future of the medical field and society at large. Honestly, DNA is just really cool. Come learn about it.

Do you know where the electricity in your house comes from, or how it gets there? Do you know what mechanisms are used along the way? In this class we will talk about the different ways power is generated, and how it is transmitted and distributed. We'll also discuss some of the products used and what they do, such as transformers, busways, circuit breakers, etc. No mathematics is required and we will cover any basic physics knowledge that may come up.

This class is for students interested in the experimental techniques employed by microbiologists and biochemists today. Students will learn the tools that real scientists used to make the some of the most important medical breakthroughs in history.


Prerequisites
A high school biology class, including some experience with biochemistry. Aimed at 10-12 grades.

This class will seek to confer a basic understanding of RNA interference, the exciting genetic technique for which Andrew Mello and Craig Fire received the 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine. It will include a brief review of Mendelian genetics, a detailed introduction to traditional forward genetics, and an introduction to reverse genetic techniques concentrating on RNAi.


Prerequisites
A high school biology class, including some experience with genetics and the cell. Aimed at 10-12 grades.

500 years ago, scientists did and thought a lot of crazy things. And the eccentric Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was certainly no exception. One of the most colorful scientists in history, Tycho made some of the most thorough and extensive observations of the night sky in the days before telescopes. In this class, students will learn about Tycho, his fabulous island observatory, and details about life and science in the late 1500s.

This course will provide an introduction to current brain and spinal cord research that is brining scences from science fiction to reality. This will include, but not limited to, bionic man-like artificial limbs to Matrix-like brain-machine interface technology.