Splash Droplet Fall 2018
Course Catalog

Why was Baroque music (JS Bach) eventually replaced by Romantic music (eg: Beethoven, Wagner)? How do the mechanics of music making machines influence / control what kind of music is made? Starting from the keyboard performing Bach’s Toccata in D minor learn about the unexpected nature of that piece of music and what it teaches us. And why money changed it all….


Prerequisites
None

The class will focus on teaching basic jewelry making skills. We will go over how to make simple earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and how to use the tools, such as pliers, clasps, chains etc. It's for anyone interested in learning the foundation of jewlelry making. Everyone will leave with something they made.

Economics is an incredibly powerful tool for answering important questions. But too often, the actual economics gets buried in algebra and graphs, and it's unclear how to apply it to the real world. In this class, we will use fundamental economic tools to answer questions like:

- Why do people commit hate crimes? Is the optimal amount of crime really 0 crime?
- How can you apply behavioral economics to make your college applications stronger?
- Why do students sometimes have to pretend to be dumb in order to be popular?

This class is for all students who enjoy thinking about and answering interesting questions. At the end, we will break up into groups and compete in an "Iron Economist" round to see who can most clearly answer a challenging, open-ended question about the world using an economics framework.

This class will introduce students to a distinction between two kinds of sciences: those with the aim to deduce natural laws, and those with the aim to explore and understand specific phenomena in the world. The class will start with Kant and Herder, a teacher and student pair with divergent views on what the task of the philosopher is, and end with Franz Boaz, who specifies the characteristics of the two types of sciences one may engage with. Students will learn to interpret individual texts and to put texts in conversation with each other.


Prerequisites
Read 20-30 pages of Kant, Herder, and Boaz before class.

If real-life archaeology is much less glamorous than Indiana Jones’s adventures, then what do archaeologists actually do? Sometimes, archaeologists describe the profession as more like digging through other people’s trash. But what do they hope to learn? What kind of insight are they able to draw from long-abandoned structures, objects, and trash? More importantly, why would anyone chose to work in such a field?

This course will be an introduction to the history of archaeology and its current status as a discipline. Starting with the origins of archaeology, which continue to affect and be discussed within the discipline, we’ll move to a discussion of archaeological methods, ways of analyzing artifacts, and case studies that help to illuminate the way archaeologists train themselves to see the world, past and present.

Based on Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People," this course teaches students sincere leadership, including ways to make people like you and how to win people to your way of thinking. Historical and modern examples of the strategies put into use will be explained. Overall, this course delivers some of Carnegie's key messages of how we should interact with those around us and aims to inspire students to appreciate and respect everyone around us.

Most of us are pretty sure that some things are good, right and moral, while other things are bad, wrong, and evil. Donating money? Good for you! Stealing? Not so great. But when questions of right and wrong get trickier, we can start to wonder what these ideas of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ even mean. What makes an action moral in the first place? Is morality the same for everyone? Is it better to trust your gut or find a set of principles? Join us for an open-ended, interactive discussion of these questions in the spirit of philosophy.

For players interested in playing competitive chess. Will go over basics of chess analysis and how to improve from that.


Prerequisites
Some experience with the game (knowledge of chess notation, etc.)

My course will explore the intricacies of the 2018 midterm campaigns, from an objective and empirical analysis. I intend to provide insight into campaign atmosphere from experience in a swing state, and analyze strategies for policy memos from both Republican and Democratic politicians. I also hope to provide a contrast between campaigning for a legislative position and and executive position, and seek to explore how presidential candidates leverage their influence through midterm elections.


Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites! Prepare to be engaging in active discussion, speak often, and think critically!

We will be looking at some of Western society's most influential thinkers, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Stuart Mill. We will explore daily ethical dilemmas, and explore how these philosophers might approach solving them. These moral quandaries will be taken from television shows like those that aired on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network.

An overview of the history of money, why we use it, how it works, how money is created, and how much money there is.

Should we want immortality? The morals of living an eternal life have been hot topics in literature, art, and pop culture. From Dorian Gray to Edward Cullen to the Olympians, the issue of the mortal vs. immortal life has typically taken a black and white contrast in our culture’s ethical framework. But what's your philosophical take on it? Join the class for a discussion on whether or not the immortal life meets our ethical standards, makes a nosedive, or finds an in between, and why the question of immortality has compelled humanity throughout the ages.

Learn about Latin Verbs. Have you studied Spanish? Do you like conjugating? Well, Latin is like Spanish's dad. Verbs in Latin, like in Spanish and many other languages, tell us information about what is actually happening in a sentence. I jump, you love, we snorkel- verbs are the glue that sticks the language together. Come learn how the Roman's made things go!


Prerequisites
No prerequisites, just interest in verbs.

An "ekphrastic" poem is a poem written about a painting, or another form of visual art. In this course, we'll look at how different poets respond to visual representation, and think about the relationship between different art forms. We'll also try our hand at writing our own ekphrastic poem!

Come learn about constructed languages (AKA conlangs)! We'll talk about the history of invented languages, from Hildegard von Bingen's Lingua Ignota to Esperanto, Tolkien's Elvish languages, and modern projects like Dothraki. We'll explore what has motivated people throughout history to create languages, and what those people were like. If students are interested, we can also discuss resources for those who are interested in creating their own conlangs.

Quantum mechanics is known for being weird - it says things that don't fit with the way we intuitively think about the world. What does it mean to say that an object can be in two places at once - or alive and dead at once? Why can't we know where something is and how fast it's moving? In this class, we'll try to see why physicists came up with quantum mechanics in the first place, and we'll try to understand how it works. We'll be mainly explaining things with words, not with math.

Using simple calculus and algebra, someone who is truly terrible at math will explain biology in terms of some not-at-all scary numbers. A brief look at how disease modeling works and a concise explanation of why vaccinations work, even if some people decide not to vaccinate their children (but not if too many do).


Prerequisites
Pre-calculus (or really good understanding of algebra and a willingness to fake it).

Outside of icy Antarctica, less than a quarter of land remains wilderness untouched by human activity. Living in Chicago, we have a front-row seat to how some plants and animals have succeeded in and adapted to life in the big city, a type of human-constructed or “anthropogenic” habitat that just 200 years ago did not exist. With the aid of some hands-on specimens, we will talk about how human activity has been removing or reshaping entire habitats and ecosystems on land and in the ocean since the Ice Age, and the surprising diversity of species of living things that have taken up residence in these new anthropogenic biomes such as cities or croplands. We will also talk about why understanding how nature is affected by manmade environments is important to conservation and public health.


Prerequisites
An interest in biology and the environment, and in what lives in our city

Do you want to venture into the world of organic chemistry? Do you like watching two college students make fools of themselves while hyped up on waaaayyyy too much caffeine? I know I do! So come on down and learn about the chemistry that governs every living thing on Earth. We'll teach you some basic "orgo" (as the kids say) and hopefully get you as excited for chemistry as we are. Mostly we’ll be going over bond line structures, the stability of molecules, and if we can some cool reactions.


Prerequisites
You must have a knowledge of valence electrons and bonding. High school chemistry is recommended but nor required.

Quantum mechanics is weird and fun! Scientists are using this kind of physics to revolutionize cryptography, build new computers, and teleport information. This class will be an accessible introduction to the core ideas of quantum and their current cutting-edge applications.

Basics of honeybee life cycle, health, nutrition, and stewardship will be discussed. Modern beekeeping practices, equipment, and management techniques will be covered. Topics on practical beekeeping and challenges associated with urban beekeeping will be addressed specifically. Students will learn the special role that pollinators in general and apis mellifera specifically play in our local ecosystem.


Prerequisites
Interest in urban farming/beekeeping.

Everybody's seen movies in theaters, but have you ever wondered how the image actually makes it onto the big screen? Now you get to try it yourself! You will learn to project both 16mm and 35mm film as well as digital formats with a projectionist at the University theater and film society, Doc Films.

This course will teach students on the various resources they have to search and apply to scholarships, starting from the 7th grade. We will be talking in detail about the Questbridge National College Match Scholarship, a full ride scholar to one of 40 top tier schools in the nation that is partnered with Questbridge, UChicago being one of the larger partners with over 400 Questbridge Scholars currently on campus.