Global Arc

Musical instruments reside at the intersection of varied topics: sound, perception, embodiment, music theory, social values, and more; how has their design influenced the development of music and how might they be reinvented to spur new ideas? We will explore these questions through readings, listening, analysis, labs, and composition. Specific topics include: harmony and the keyboard; tuning and temperament; preparing the piano, digital and analog. More generally, we will consider the productive tension between qualitative and quantitative understandings of musical concepts.

STC209 examines transformations between visuals, sound, structure, and movement. This course explores the notion of generative art, and investigates the parallels between design processes in engineering and the arts. Students learn to work as artists and engineers, and create ambitious open-ended design projects exploring these themes. Transformations in Engineering and the Arts is taught by faculty from CST, COS, MAE, MUS, CEE along with visiting artists, and guest faculty from the Lewis Center for the Arts.

STC209 examines transformations between visuals, sound, structure, and movement. This course explores the notion of generative art, and investigates the parallels between design processes in engineering and the arts. Students learn to work as artists and engineers, and create ambitious open-ended design projects exploring these themes. Transformations in Engineering and the Arts is taught by faculty from CST, COS, MAE, MUS, CEE along with visiting artists, and guest faculty from the Lewis Center for the Arts.

The course will teach core principles of the life sciences through a set of key questions that biologists have sought to answer over the past 200 years. We will read historic scientific publications, discussing the basic biology at stake as well as what enabled each scientist to see something new. In addition, we will schedule several hands-on sessions with relevant materials. By situating key findings in their place and time we show how science is an inquiry-based, concrete, and ongoing activity, rather than codified and unchanging knowledge. Topics include cell theory, evolution, experimental embryology, genetics, and molecular development.

STC 309, also known as "Creative Kitchen," is a forum for students to explore and intensively workshop an idea for an independent, creative, technology-related project through serious play. Serious play refers to an array of playful inquiry and innovation methods that serve as methods for problem-solving, creation, and exploration. Serious play methods include, but are not limited to: improv theater, low-fidelity rapid prototyping, gamification, and audience engagement. In this course we will question the presentation of narrative, discover how to use methods of serious play in order to explore ideas, and examine projects in storytelling.

This course will teach STEM & non-STEM majors how to write about research in STEM fields with clarity and a bit of flair. Goal will be to learn to convey technical topics to non-experts in a compelling, enjoyable way while staying true to the underlying facts, context and concepts. We'll do this through readings, class discussion, encounters with professional writers and journalists of all sorts, across several different media. Most important of all, students will practice what they learn in frequent writing assignments that will be critiqued extensively by an experienced science journalist.

This seminar will examine the relationship between health and human rights. It will provide an overview of human rights violations in the world today and an analysis of their health consequences. The course will consider how individual and community health can be improved by protecting and promoting human rights. It will also evaluate the role of health professionals in caring for victims of human rights abuses, documenting the health consequences of human rights violations, and participating in human rights advocacy and education. One three-hour seminar.