CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
5-6 Morning
Energizers and Catalyzers in the Biochemical Process
With Viness Eugene
Come learn about the basics of biochemistry. In doing so, we will address several key questions in the exciting field of BIOCHEMISTRY. What role does biochemistry play in our daily lives, in our bodies, and in the environment? Why is understanding the biochemical process important? What are the inhibitors to this process? To answer these key questions, all while using their own fun biochemical pathways, students will be members of a team of principal investigators in a series of hands-on learning experiences to embark on a pathway to biochemistry.
Engineers Can Change the World
With Raina Clasen
Have you ever wondered what an engineer does? Get ready for a class full of tinkering, exploring, and designing! In this course, you will take on the role of an engineer to identify real issues in your community and work to solve one of them with a design team. We will use a four-step process called Design Thinking to help us along the way, which is comprised of “Discovering,” “Empathizing,” “Experimenting,” and “Producing” phases. We’ll learn through collaboration and hands-on experimenting (and have fun doing it!). By the end of the course, you will have solved a real problem and made a positive impact on the world, which is what engineering is all about!
Explorations in Neuroscience
With Renata Germino
In Explorations in Neuroscience, we will investigate the form and function of the human brain, such as how the parts of the brain work together. We will also examine what happens when the brain does not work properly. We will delve into our five senses and dissect cow eyes (an optional activity) to further examine how the human eye works. Visiting neurologists will teach us about the latest brain research. We will investigate the latest neuroscience findings, teach each other by creating our own brain research lesson, and share our presentations in a culminating research conference. Join us as we play synapse tag, explore the nervous system, and create model neurons in our quest to understand the brain!
Financing Your Future
With Barb Love
Have you ever wondered about investments, money management, or personal finance? How do people save money to buy houses, cars, or private jets? How could it be possible that people stop working and continue to live a normal life during retirement? In this course, we will simulate a financial life from your first job as a teenager to a plan for your retirement. Along the way, you will learn about the effects, both intentional and unexpected, of major-life decisions like choosing a career, purchasing insurance, or setting aside money for retirement. How are financial choices made? What factors should you consider? In this course, we will pack an incredible 50 years of life into nine days as we employ critical-thinking skills to learn how the financial decisions we make early in life impact important aspects of life down the road.
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
7-8 Morning
Blueprint to You
With Catherine Gamboa
What decides your hair color, your nose shape, and how tall you're going to be? Your DNA! In this course, you'll learn all about how your chromosomes are the blueprint that determines how your cells build up to create you! You'll explore how DNA is made, how it causes changes in the cells, and how it can affect your daily life! We'll also talk about some of the great controversies surrounding genetics and genetic testing. Come discover the blueprint to you and find out just what you're made of.
Do As the Romans Do -- An Exploration of STEAM Life in Ancient Rome
With Stephanie Long
Get ready to travel back in time to the age of wearing togas, gladiator contests, and chariot races in Ancient Rome. Have you ever wondered what it was like to be an Ancient Roman architect or artist? What engineering principles did they apply to the construction of the Roman road system and intricate aqueducts -- which endure to this day! In this course, students will explore the answers to these questions and more. Taking a STEAM approach to learning, we will learn about Roman numerals and use them to practice math skills at a Roman market and in the Forum. We will walk the streets and examine advanced Roman architecture, and build comparable structures using the engineering principles applied in ancient Rome. We will build Roman chariots for a Gladiator contest in the Roman Amphitheater. We will also travel to Venice to take part in a boat making challenge, and learn the art of Venetian mask making. Let's see where the adventure takes us on our trip back in time.
Engineering Hogwarts: Design Thinking in Fantasy Worlds
With Nirali Jantrania
Have you ever imagined yourself designing a better Quidditch broom? Or creating a spacecraft that could rival the Death Star? How about building a wall that could defend Helm's Deep from Saruman's armies? In this class, we will explore engineering and design thinking principles through the lens of fantasy and science fiction. You will be a designer, builder, problem-solver, scientist, and so much more as we learn all about how to become better engineers and better thinkers. We will do several projects throughout the class that will involve applying the ideas we talk about in magical ways, like building a catapult to help defend against the Death Eaters' invasion. So grab your wand, lightsaber, or one ring to rule them all, and hop on the Hogwarts Express, it's time to engineer!
How to make a Podcast
With Nicole Story
How does one read stories through listening? How can one write with their voice? With podcasts and audiobooks becoming increasingly popular forms of storytelling, we must reconsider reading and writing beyond the visual page. In this course, students will analyze aspects of digital storytelling to consider modern ways of constructing narratives through technology. We will examine podcasts, “read” audiobooks, and participate in sound walks in an effort to explore the approaches and significance of telling audio stories. You will then create your own piece of digital writing by scripting, editing, and producing a short podcast episode. This course does not require previous experience in recording or even technical savviness—what is desired is an interest in learning how to broaden your abilities as a reader and writer with audio culture and tools.
Life is a Balancing Act! A STEAM Approach on Understanding Balance
With Raymond Chrobak
What do you have in common with a circus tightrope walker and an Olympic ice-skating champion when you ride a bike? Each of you depends on the basic principles of balance. This course will investigate the phenomenon of balance. The principles of balance are very important in our living environment. As you design, create, and build various balancing objects, you will become a scientist, engineer, and artist. This is a hands-on, project-based, creative class that will culminate in making a balancing mobile based on a theme of your choice. Our learning experiences will give you a better understanding of adding balance to your life and understanding that life is a balancing act.
Math, Statistics, and Game Theory
With Simonas Cepenas
Welcome to the world of science! Are you interested in what scientists do? What tools do they use to discover relationships and certain patterns? If you answered yes to these questions this course is for you! In this course, you will learn how to use mathematics, statistics, and game theory to make and evaluate scientific arguments! We will play games, conduct experiments and use mathematical tools to answer scientific questions! Why richer countries tend to be democratic? Why democratic countries don’t fight each other? Why people vote? We will use math, statistics, and game theory to analyze these and other questions. We will also play games, and use mathematical reasoning to win them! You will learn that math is fun and useful in real life. You will also gain problem-solving skills and learn how to think strategically. Active participation and group work will drive our learning.
On the brink … Innovations in Warfare in World War II
With Sophie Band
Have you ever been curious to learn more about World War II? This course will provide a brief survey of the most destructive, impactful war in human history. The political, social, and human consequences of it shape the society we live in today. This class will trace the development of the war through advancement in technology and answer the question “how did technological innovations impact the war?” Students will study technological innovations from both the Axis and the Allied Powers. By analyzing a variety of primary sources including memoirs, letters, speeches, and film students will have a better understanding of the realities of life for soldiers on the front line and how the new technology impacted them. Students will learn about revolutionary innovations in warfare including radar, tanks, submarines, aircraft carriers and the development of the atomic bomb.
So You Want to Change the World?
With Stephanie Dugan
If it was up to you, what world problem would you solve? How have students changed the world in the past? How can you change the world now? In this course, students will become innovators and entrepreneurs to create new ways to solve old problems. Across the globe, kids face many problems, but it is not just up to adults to solve them. We will talk about these problems, and you and your classmates will choose a problem that matters to you, like healthy food, air pollution, disaster relief, animal rights, or saving our planet. As innovators, you will research this problem and develop a creative innovation to solve it. At the end of the course, you will present your innovation and convince adults to fund your idea. The future of our world is up to you; what will you do to change it?