Splash! 2011
Course Catalog


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Arts Computer Science
Engineering Humanities
Lunch Mathematics
[Deprecated] Science [Deprecated] Walk-in Seminar
Miscellaneous

This is the catalog for Splash 2011. Please note that since our teachers are volunteers, most classes do not repeat from year to year. To view the Splash 2012 catalog, click here.



Arts

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A4992: Street Art Shirts Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tara Ebsworth

A4931: Typography and Typesetting Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tana Wattanawaroon

A5567: The Physics of Singing Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Joseph Lubars

A5037: Art and Science: The visual culture of HIV public health campaigns
Difficulty: *
Teachers: samira daswani

Over the last three decades, ever since 1984, when Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was discovered, a large body of imagery has come to represent this global epidemic. Public health campaigns aiming to bring about effective therapeutic intervention for AIDs rely heavily on the visual culture surrounding this infectious disease. This visual culture serves a multitude of functions, perhaps most importantly to bring about behavior changes in large populations. Artists, NGOs, governments, and other international foundations utilize the power of visual imagery to communicate certain ideas such as ‘safe sex’. The fundamental issue of how art communicates scientific discoveries to general audiences underlies most health related visual imagery.
This class will examine the intersection of art and science in HIV public health campaigns. The three broad questions that will be investigated are as follows:
1. What is the visual culture of HIV public health campaigns? What type of images has come to represent the visual culture of this disease?
2. In what ways do art and science come together to create visual meaning in the public health sector? How does art communicate health related scientific discoveries to common people?
3. What are effective and ineffective visual public health campaigns?



Prerequisites
No Pre-requisites

A5449: Movie Time! (Pi) Full!

A5093: What Musicians Should Know About Harmony Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Miriam Gershenson

A5391: Building the Wall: An Analysis of Pink Floyd the Wall
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Mateo Williams

Analyzing the story behind Pink Floyd's film and album The Wall.

A5159: Portrait-Drawing Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jessica Tran

A5209: Introduction to DJing Full!
Difficulty: **

A5221: It Doesn't Just Taste Good! Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Casey Dugan

A5415: Felt Animals: Hand-sewn and Portable Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Esther Kim

A5042: Birds and Music Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Evan Kuras

A5452: Movie Time! (Metropolis)

Like movies, but sick of mainstream Hollywood and summer blockbusters? Come join us as we watch some of the greatest (and alright, possibly weirdest) obscure films of all time!
(Movies will be followed with a discussion, if time permits)

This section will be watching Metropolis.


Prerequisites
This film is in German, so be prepared to read subtitles!

A5413: Writing and Performing the Ten-Minute Play Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Michael Cox

A5523: Infographic Design: Turning Data Into Art Full!
Difficulty: *

A5110: Beginner Salsa Dancing
Difficulty: **

Learn the basics of dancing salsa! Salsa is a fun, fast Latin partner dance. No need to bring a partner - we'll be switching it up throughout the class.

A5530: PANINI!
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Vincent Lee

Let's make panini!
Let's make them classy!
Let's make them awesome!

For sandwich connoisseurs.

A5048: Art of Improv Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Rahat Bathija

A5225: Advanced: It Doesn't Just Taste Good!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Casey Dugan

This version of "It Doesn't Just Taste Good" is for older students interested in making more complex sculptures out of chocolate. The goal is still to make them look so good that you won't want to eat them when you're through. But there will be emphasis on more complicated or intricate designs / forms and additional time to work on them. Examples of what I consider "advanced" sculptures from the past include: a model of MIT, a suspension bridge, etc. You can see more examples here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111405222431264859764/AdvancedChocolateSculptureExamples . As always, candy bars don’t count… :) Please come with an idea for your design so we can get started as soon as the class begins!

Those with food allergies: Chocolate may contain peanuts or peanut products. Sorry. :(

A4956: PVC Flute Choir Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:

A5152: History of Musical Theater Full!
Difficulty: **

A5165: Knit a House Scarf Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Trevor Walker

A5223: The Golden Ratio in Math and Art
Difficulty: **

Math in Art- what is the first thing that pops up into your mind? One of the key connections between the two is the golden ratio. Hit TV shows such as 24 have long been fascinated by numbers... and since you're reading this, you must be too! Come see how art allows us to derive the Golden Ratio and its importance in math. I plan to show how it has been seen in famous paintings such as "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. I will also show how it has been found in the very campus of Columbia University and in nature. Thus, I will then transition into talking about Nautilus Shells. I also plan to give a difficult (but fun!) math problem involving phi and then explaining the various unique and fascinating properties of phi. This course will conclude with summing up the beauty of art due to mathematics in part. You will hopefully leave amused by now being aware of the golden ratio and its presence in nature and museum walls.

A5292: Modern Music Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Lauren McGough

A4933: Hand-Drawn Holograms Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Robin Deits

A5281: Beyond The Rhyming Dictionary: Hip-Hop Songmaking and Structure Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Evan Moore

A5368: Animation in Adobe Flash Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ramya Swamy

A5329: Sing a Song in French!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Abhishek Nagaraj

Parlez-vous francais?! If you do, excellent -- if not, don't worry!

In this class we won't be doing anything that resembles itΨ(r,t)=ˆHΨ=(22m2+V(r))Ψ(r,t)=22m2Ψ(r,t)+V(r)Ψ(r,t)

Instead we will come to class and sing a song in french -- simple!


Prerequisites
None

A5237: How to Make Your Facebook Photos Worthy of Stalking
Difficulty: **

Everyone likes stalking their friends photos on Facebook. You know you do it too :) Why not post great photos for your friends to enjoy?!

This class will give you an introduction to important elements of good photo composition so that you too can have stalk-worthy photos on Facebook.


Prerequisites
Bringing a digital camera is recommended.

A5515: How to be on the run from people who are more powerful than you are Full!

A5341: How To Write 50,000 Words In A Month And Survive Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sahar Hakim

A5525: The Democratization of Verse: Poetry Discussion and Workshop Full!
Difficulty: *

A4957: Rope Corsets
Difficulty: *

This class will teach you how to tie a couple of different styles of rope corsets using basic knots. In addition to learning practical tricks we will also go over how to make your corsets comfortable and beautiful! Rope will be provided for you to practice with during class.

You don't need a partner or any previous experience. Your own thigh or leg is perfectly good to practice on.

A4932: Color Theory in 3 hours! Full!
Difficulty: ***

A5187: Where the Musical Scale Comes From Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Rob Speer

A5469: BHANGRA!!! (Awesome Indian Dance)
Difficulty: **

Come join us for the 5th year of the HOTTEST class of Splash! Learn a new style of dance and get a full-body workout while having LOTS OF FUN!!! Bhangra is an energetic folk dance from the north Indian state of Punjab, and in this class you'll learn how it's done from members of MIT's very own Bhangra team. We’ll start from the basics and then teach you a full Bhangra dance that you can take back with you and show off to your friends :)


Prerequisites
A smile and a strong desire to learn a fun new style of dance!

A5168: Conducting and Interpretation Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Daniel Zhang

A5180: The Day The Music Died Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: James Douberley

A5411: Intro to Beatboxing Full!
Difficulty: **

A5511: Aso, Shutter Speed, Aperture and All That: An Introduction to Photography Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jared Wong

A5470: Draw Manga!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ruwen Liu

Learn how to draw your favourite cartoon characters from the land of the rising sun. Cool digitizer tablet demonstrations included at no extra cost! Get your dose of essential photoshop skills and useful pikachu skills in one class.

A5389: Choral Crash Course Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Royal Morris

A5004: The Art of Calligraphy Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Thomas Boning

A5375: Improv Comedy Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Hannah Pelton

A4942: To Infinity and Beyond! The History of Pixar Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Ari Donnelly

A5326: Make Your Own Jigsaw Puzzle! Full!
Difficulty: **

A5497: The State of Boston Hardcore Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Amber Bennoui

A5508: Intro to Livecoding
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Thomas Murphy

Play two instruments at once!
Not impressed? How about 100?

Livecoding is performing music, live, with computer programming. Imagine being a coder and a rockstar (or pianist, or rapper) at the same time. It's so fun! I'll demonstrate the basics of how it's done, and show what musicians have done with it.

There are two sections of this class. This is the Arts one, and we'll spend more time on the basics of programming.
You don't need to know much (really anything) about music theory or programming.

A5344: Freelance Writing In The Internet Age Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jason Iannone

A5365: Weaving Chainmail Full!
Difficulty: **

A5342: A Brief History of K-Pop
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Sahar Hakim

So maybe you've heard of Korean pop songs like "Sorry Sorry," "Ring Ding Dong," "Gee," and "Nobody." Want to know more about the groups who sing them, or the origins of Korean Pop in general? Come hear about some of the biggest names in the industry, the up-and-coming stars, and, of course, the music they produce!

A5188: History of Video Game Music
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Rob Speer

Video game music has evolved over three decades from simple blips and bleeps into a genre of its own. This genre has been influenced by the technological limitations of its roots, and also by numerous crossovers from popular music, electronic music, film soundtracks, and anime.

In this class, I’ll give a tour of the history of video game music and the programmers and musicians who made it what it is, and we’ll take time to appreciate some of the most significant technological and artistic accomplishments along the way.

A5293: Learn to Draw Fractal Artwork!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jennie Zheng

What are fractals?

Fractals are some of the most beautiful things that occur in nature. They are defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole."

Some real world examples: snowflakes, blood vessels, broccoli, river networks and lightning.

We're going to take a look stunning examples of fractals found in nature and math.

After that, you'll be able to design, draw, and color fractals of your own to take home!


Prerequisites
Just come prepared to use a ruler and pencil

A4912: Cinematic Secrets: Symbolism on the Screen
Difficulty: *
Teachers: E Rosser

If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a movie runs at 24 frames per second... You do the math: there's a lot to be seen in every single shot you see in a movie. And all of it--from the rip on the main character's jacket to the color of the extra's dog in the background--was a deliberate decision by the directors. Come learn to interpret these decisions, hear some fun trivia, and engage in some good ol' fashioned cinephilia. You'll never watch movies the same again!


Prerequisites
An interest in cinema.

A5205: Learn to play Ukulele
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sam Fomon, luke plummer

Ukuleles are awesome and easy to play! Learn the basics of uking from the Uke duo masters, Lukulele and Fomo-master. Then play ukulele favorites by artists ranging from Jake Shimabakuro to Train!


Prerequisites
*Prerequisites* Must have minimum of 2 fingers distributed over at least 2 hands. Musical experience optional.

A5136: How To Make Stop Motions And Claymations! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: William Little

A5390: Learn to Use Finale! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Benjamin Boyajian


Computer Science

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C5323: The Cake is not a Lie: Baked Goods and AI Full!
Difficulty: **

C5301: How to be Anonymous on the Internet: An Introduction to Tor Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jack Hill

C5008: Intro to TI-84 BASIC Programming
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Chelsea Voss

Learn how to program your TI-84 calculator using BASIC, and come code some projects yourself!

TI-BASIC is an immensely useful programming utility -- it's more portable than your laptop, plus quick and easy to use. This skill will provide endless uses in math classes, as well as personal enjoyment.

Cope with only 27 variables!
Draw slope fields!
Prove that 2+2=5!
Graph radii of curvature!
Impress your friends!
Convert numbers between bases!
Make simple text games!


Prerequisites
You will need to bring your own calculator, either TI-84 Plus or TI-84 Plus Silver Edition.

C5354: Turing Machines Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Andrea Lincoln

C5258: Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Francis Plaza

This class introduces basic ideas of Object Oriented Programming, as implemented in Python. Students will learn about objects, classes, and inheritance. This class will have hands-on exercises.


Prerequisites
Experience and familiarity with Python programming. Should have basic understanding what variables are, variable types, and procedural or functional programming. Eager to learn.

C5574: Al Gore-isms
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jacob Hurwitz

Ever wondered how Google Maps finds a route so quickly, or how the Watson computer is smart enough to play Jeopardy? Well, we won’t answer those questions but we will learn about algorithms, which, sadly, have nothing to do with Al Gore.


Prerequisites
You should be able to think logically.

C5568: Intro to Livecoding (C.S. Section)
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Thomas Murphy

Play two instruments at once!
Not impressed? How about 100?

Livecoding is performing music, live, with computer programming. Imagine being a coder and a rockstar (or pianist, or rapper) at the same time. It's so fun! I'll demonstrate the basics of how it's done, and show what musicians have done with it.

There are two sections of this class. This is the Computer Science one, where you should have some experience with programming, so we can jump deeper into the music.
If you aren't very comfortable with computer programming, there's another section of this class under Arts.


Prerequisites
Familiarity with basic concepts of programming, especially functional languages (like LISP & Scheme)

C5451: 3D Computer Generated Imagery: Sculpting Digital Worlds Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: A Pottinger

C5502: A Hardcore Introduction to doing Math and Programming in Python Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Will Oursler

C4904: Learn how to [learn] LaTeX Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jason Gross

C5435: Distributed Computation Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Louis Wasserman

C5097: What's Better than Free?
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Lars Johnson

Why pay hundreds of dollars for software when there are free, open-source alternatives that are just as good? After a brief discussion about what open source software is, we will take a whirlwind tour of available open-source software. We will quickly overview a variety of programs including free office suites, 3D modeling programs, audio editors, graphics programs, and assorted productivity tools. (Although all of the programs covered work on the Mac operating system, many are cross-platform and work on Windows and Linux as well.)

C4999: Intro to Programming in Scratch Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Bianca Homberg

C5361: How the Internet Works Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Leonid Grinberg

C5374: From Wire to Web: Digital Computer Networks Explained Full!
Difficulty: ***

C5157: Writing Rootkits: The Pragmatic Programmer's Hands-On How-to Guide to Operating Systems Security Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Kevin Ellis

C5472: Silvio Micali's Mechanism Design
Difficulty: ***

Three of you are splitting a pizza, but there are only two slices left. Who deserves the biggest piece? How can you make money in this situation? In this class, we'll explore the theory of auction design - a mix of computer science and game theory.

Note: This class has not been blessed by Silvio Micali.

C5212: How to Solve a Rubik's Cube
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Eugenio Fortanely

That darn Rubik's Cube got you down? Don't know how to solve it but think that you can't be a full-fledged nerd until you can. Learn how!


Prerequisites
Ability to follow algorithmic instructions

C4924: Zippers Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Pavel Panchekha

C5522: Computability from the Ground-Up
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zach .

As complicated as computers are, they are based on a few simple models. Starting with primitive Turing Machines, all computer problems can be reduced to fundamentals.


Prerequisites
Basic understanding of programming, but no specific language is needed.

C5100: The Limits of Computation
Difficulty: **
Teachers: David Girardo

What does it really mean to do a computation? Most people are familiar with the common implementations: "Take some input, push some variables around, and spit something out". But how much of that do you really need? Do you absolutely need random access memory? Loops? Recursion? How much is just enough? In this class, we will look at "computers" and "languages" in whatever shapes they hide. From a two dimensional Billiards game on a doughnut, to a sequence of fractions. I will quickly introduce you to the Church-Turing Thesis, a rigorous way of defining full computer systems, as well as some of the fundamental "computation structures". Most of the class will be spent looking at some cool examples from the strange world of 'Esoteric' languages and hardware.


Prerequisites
Some programming experience

C5432: Intro to Complexity Theory
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Louis Wasserman

What is the mysterious traveling salesman problem, and why does it strike fear into the hearts of programmers? What does number theory have to do with the NSA, and why is it safe to send your credit card number to Paypal? Why is it called “Department of Computer Science & Applied Theology?”



Prerequisites
You should know what the graph of a logarithm looks like.

C5379: Supercomputers Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Predrag Gruevski

C5553: How Not To Run A Website
Difficulty: **

It's 2011, and it's really easy for anyone to set up a website. It's much harder to set up a website that hackers aren't going to take over within a day. We'll look at many of the popular attacks on websites (including buzzwords like "SQL injection" and "clickjacking"), why these problems came about, and exactly how hard it is to avoid these problems.


Prerequisites
Familiarity with either HTML or some programming language

C4909: Modern Cryptography
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Sweet Tea Dorminy

Ever wanted to know how banks, the government, etc. can keep a drive’s contents from being read, even if someone steals the hard drive? Or how to generate numbers that appear random without actually creating random numbers? Enter cryptography, the study of keeping secrets.

We’ll be running over basic principles of modern (symmetric) cryptography, discussing:
What does it mean for an encryption algorithm to be secure? (common attack methods, random output)
What do we do with an encryption algorithm? (hash functions, pseudo-random number generators, block cipher modes)
What do modern symmetric encryption algorithms look like? (DES, AES)

Note that this course specifically does not cover RSA or any other asymmetric cryptography.



Prerequisites
Some familiarity with basic group theory is helpful for understanding the math behind DES/AES. Some familiarity with the difference between pseudorandomness and true randomness would also be helpful.

C5499: Google Navigator and Bayes' Theorem
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jacob Steinhardt

Most smartphones have a "my location" button that tells you where you are currently located. The locator is accurate enough to be used for navigation through urban environments, where the streets are close together and there are many intersections. Have you ever wondered how this is done?

You might think the answer is GPS, but it turns out that GPS alone is not accurate enough for street-level navigation. We'll go over a way to combine GPS with other information to get more accurate estimates. If time permits, we'll go over how to use the same techniques to segment an image (that is, to divide it up into individual objects).


Prerequisites
Familiarity with probability, including what a conditional probability is.

C5099: course = "Hasklo" ++ (drop 4 course) -- An introduction to functional programming in Haskell Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: David Girardo

C5450: The Big-O: Algorithms and Analysis (and Sorting!)
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zach Minster

So you've written some code before, getting the job done in Java, C++, C, or some other programming language. Have you ever wondered how to prove to someone that your code works efficiently? How to describe exactly how long your program will take on a variable number of inputs? In this course we'll explore one of the most fascinating aspects of computer science - efficiency - and learn to write code that not only works, but works beautifully and promptly. Along the way we'll explore different methods of sorting, one of the most important problems in computer science, and see how analysis comes into play when working with sorting different types of data. Leaving this course you will have a much deeper understanding of how algorithms are classified and what the main problems in the academic study of computer science are. If you're interested in studying CS later on, this is a wonderful introduction into a world most high school students don't get to see until college!


Prerequisites
You should have some programming experience, either on your own or as part of a previous course (you don't need a lot) - if you're familiar with just the basics of arrays, loops, and recursion, then you have enough experience for this course. You should be fairly comfortable with mathematics (a knowledge of limits is useful but by no means required).

C5231: Distributed Algorithms
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Jonathan Schneider

Doing algorithms with n computers might seem strictly less hard than doing algorithms with just one computer, but there are all these pesky details to worry about. What if some of your computers break? What if messages sent by some computers never reach others? What if n/3 of your computers are hijacked by terrorists trying to force your algorithm to produce an incorrect answer?

This is what distributed algorithms is mostly about. We'll probably talk about some subset of the following classical results: synchronized leader election, distributed MST, the Two Generals' Problem, and byzantine agreement protocols.


Prerequisites
You should know a thing or two about ordinary algorithms. For example, you should probably know what O(nlogn) means and what Dijkstra's algorithm is.

C5070: Writing an Android App 101 Full!
Difficulty: **

C5101: Calculus? I thought we were talking about computers Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: David Girardo

C5006: Promiscuous Mode:Network Protocol Analysis
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Harvey Yee

Do you want to be in Promiscuous mode(Monitor Mode)? You may if you are a network engineer. Join us in learning what is involved in Network Protocol analysis, and along the way learn about network architecture and protocols. Depending on what is available in the class room, a demonstration of a wired or wireless network session will be provided. A free copy of Linux LiveCD will be provided so that you can continue your learning of network protocol analysis after this class.
Newly added based on popular demand is a demo of a router operation.




Prerequisites
A sense of curosity, adventure, and fun!!!

C5458: Introduction to Algorithms: Searching and Sorting Full!
Difficulty: **

C5467: Data Structures
Difficulty: **

There are a million words in the English dictionary, but when you start typing one on your iPhone, you quickly get a list of autocompletes. How is that possible? In this class, we'll see how to store enormous datasets on a computer in ways that make lookups easy.


Prerequisites
You should be familiar with the basics of algorithms, such as merge sort, heaps, and binary search. The Splash class "Introduction to Algorithms: Sorting and Searching" will cover all necessary prerequisites.

C5288: Adder? But I hardly know her! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Andrea Lincoln

C5078: Making Other People's Websites Better, with JavaScript Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Gary Wang

C5266: The Internet & Computer Networks
Difficulty: **
Teachers: J.D. Zamfirescu

Got some 1337 skills but at a loss when it comes to networks? Come learn about how the Internet and computer networks work!

I'll teach you how to use and abuse the internet's underlying network protocols TCP and IP, and application protocols like HTTP, SMTP, and POP. You'll also learn about some of the fundamental physical limitations that restrict connection speed.

Cool demos included!


Prerequisites
No prior knowledge required! You don't need to have 1337 skills.

C5064: The philosophical significance of computational complexity theory
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Nirmesh Malviya

Many mathematical problems being studied under computational complexity theory upon a closer look appear to seek answers to profound philosophical questions which have been debated for centuries.

This course discusses how complexity theory convincingly resolves some philosophical questions by mathematically formulating the problems and their proofs, and how a resolution of many open problems in complexity theory could shed light on their philosophical counterparts.

To make the 1 hour class accessible to students, the discussion about complexity theory shall be high level with minimal mathematical rigor.

C5464: Graph Algorithms
Difficulty: **

Have you ever wondered how Google maps works? In this class we will go over the theory behind it, developing a fast way of finding the shortest path from A to B.


Prerequisites
You should be familiar with the basics of algorithms, such as binary search, merge sort, and heaps. The Splash class "Introduction to Algorithms: Sorting and Searching" will cover all necessary prerequisites.

C5468: Randomized Algorithms
Difficulty: ***

Is it okay if an algorithm works ‘almost all’ the time? In this class, we’ll see how computers can use randomness to run faster. We’ll give randomized algorithms for finding medians, for testing if a number is prime, and for finding structures in graphs. Along the way, we’ll prove that the probability that our algorithms fail is less than the probability that the computer spontaneously bursts into flames.


Prerequisites
Know how merge sort works or take Introduction to Algorithms. Some knowledge of probability.

C5546: How This Website Does (and Doesn't) Work Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jordan Moldow

C5453: Intro to 2D Game Development Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: A Pottinger

C5096: Demystifying the Command Line Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lars Johnson

C5433: Script Kiddie Boot Camp Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Alex Goins

C5524: How This Website Does (and Doesn't) Work Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jordan Moldow

C5307: Computer Building 101 Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joseph Lodin

C5457: Introduction to Computer Science through Functional Programming Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zach Minster

C5431: Software Engineering: Building Big Programs Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Louis Wasserman

C5059: A Git Story: Because you need to understand version control
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Wylie Conlon

Do you program anything ever? Then you need this course.

We'll explore how someone like you might build a version control system that acts a lot like git. We'll talk about using git to manage your code. Then we'll look at a place to share your code online called Github, and look at why it's become so popular among programmers.

Optional: You can bring a laptop if you'd like to follow along, but it is not required.


Prerequisites
You should understand what a command line is. We'll talk about everything else you need to know!

C5331: File systems for Linux
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Mohan Chinnappan

1. Linux operating system fundamentals 2. File systems in general 3. Linux file systems 4. Ext2 file system 5. Ext3 file system 6. Ext4 file system 7. Status of Linux's new file system: Btrfs 8. ZFS and the future of file systems



Prerequisites
Experience in Linux, user level

C5283: Learn Haskell! Full!
Difficulty: ***

C4925: Modern Programming Language Theory
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Pavel Panchekha

Describes the various facets of modern programming language theory. Type theory, macro systems, safe computing, machine proofs, concurrency and parallelism, dynamism and extensibility, and similar are covered.


Prerequisites
Programming experience. Preferably in multiple languages.

C5430: Software Engineering: Building Big Programs
Difficulty: **

If you've ever worked on a program for longer than a week, you know it can start to run away from you, and become a tangled morass of code.

We'll talk about how big software engineering companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook avoid these problems and manage hundreds of thousands of lines of code without their programs degenerating into spaghetti.

C5003: Creating Your Own Website
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Edward Tremel

If you've ever wanted to create a website for yourself or someone else, this is the class for you. You might be surprised to learn how easy it is to make good-looking websites with only a few simple tools. We'll walk through creating a simple website while learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is recommended to bring a computer so you can follow along for a hands-on experience; no special software is required, and you don't even need to be connected to the Internet in order to preview your website.


Prerequisites
Some familiarity with computers will be helpful, but knowledge of programming is not required.


Engineering

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E5092: Hands-On Aerospace Systems Engineering Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Phillip Cunio

E5512: Constructing a Giraffe at Subzero Temperatures Full!
Difficulty: *

E4958: Peak Oil: What it is, and why it matters
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Joshua Velson

Energy from liquid hydrocarbons powers the modern economy. In recent years, the price of the oil these essential fuels comes from has gone up dramatically, sparking fears that the world really will run out of oil soon. However, others are pointing out that new technology is allowing humanity to continue producing.

In this class we will try to answer three fundamental questions. First, what does "peak oil" mean, really? Second, if new technology lets us find new sources of oil, why does peak oil matter? And finally, what are some ways out of the crunch?


Prerequisites
A basic background in introductory economics and an understanding of different measures of energy is recommended.

E4921: Introduction to Plane Crashes Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: M H

E5311: Introduction to Graphene
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Burhan Saifaddin

You will make tiny flakes of single layer Graphene (~0.5 nm). You will learn a little bit about the physics and properties of Graphene and how it is different from normal semiconductors and metals. You will learn about some of the potential applications of Graphene.
You will also learn about why scientific research and new technologies are essential to economic growth and development.




E5527: Balloon Engineering Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Amber Bennoui

E5090: Train Science
Difficulty: **

A whirlwind tour of railroading, ranging from the dawn of the industrial revolution through the present day. Locomotives, signalling, track structure, bridges and tunnels...plus the engineering behind it all. Whether you're a hardcore train buff or just a curious observer of steel-wheeled things, this is the class for you!

E5393: Toilets! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Reuben Aronson

E5345: Make your own Solar Panel! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Madeline Hickman

E5542: Of Motors and Music Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lizi George

E5012: Glowing Projectiles! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Saba Ghole

E5504: Duct Tape & Zip Ties Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Zach .

E4960: Next Generation Biofuels Full!
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Joshua Velson

E5423: How to Build an Atomic Bomb (7th-9th) Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Matthew Cole

E4976: How to Use a Slide Rule
Difficulty: **

Back in the day, when things were more hardcore, you couldn’t find a scientist or engineer without his or her trusty slide rule. Unlike the TI-whatever-they’re-up-to-now, slide rules are a purely analog method of calculation. Operating, not on batteries, but on the magic of logarithms, they can be used for multiplication, division, roots, powers, trigonometry, and more. We’ll talk about the history of the slide rule, and teach you basic and advanced calculations. Bring your own if you’d like!


Prerequisites
A knowledge of the basic trigonometric identities is a must.

E5534: Analyzing the Automobile
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Adam Seering

Have you ever felt (or made) your car shift before, and wondered what exactly it's doing? How about what antilock brakes are for? Or why your pickup truck starts sliding around every time it hits a little patch of ice? And what (beyond just "using both gas and batteries") makes a hybrid a hybrid?

Join me in a walk-through of the physics of automobiles. Cars are, at their core, just a bunch of simple machines piled together; I'll try to give you some factoids to help you start to figure out how your own car works and why it does what it does.


Prerequisites
Taken or taking a high-school-level physics class or equivalent

E5325: Face Detection Demystified Full!
Difficulty: **

E5394: Sensational Failures in Engineering
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Liza Plotnikov

Exploding space shuttles, collapsing bridges, exploding naval guns… sometimes designs fail, and sometimes they fail catastrophically. These failures can be dramatic, deadly, or sometimes just plain silly, but they have one thing in common: they are all preventable. In this class we’ll cover the technical missteps behind some famous engineering disasters (and some you may never have heard of). We’ll talk about how smart people can make bad designs, the importance of communication, and especially the value of common sense.

E5403: Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Small Things: an Introduction to Nanotechnology Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Liza Plotnikov

E5539: Build steam circuits! Full!
Difficulty: **

E5079: Physical Security Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Eric Van Albert

E5235: Rocket/Composites Design and Fabrication Class Full!
Difficulty: **

E5572: Modern Origami Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jason Ku

E5556: Gadgetry 101
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Adam Spanbauer

Speedy overview of everything that goes into making electronic devices.

-introduction to digital electronics
-microcontrollers and programming
-sensors and their communication protocols
-basic power electronics and applications
-communication with a computer
-design and layout of circuit boards in Eagle
-manufacturing and assembly of circuit boards


Prerequisites
No prerequisites. You'll pick more up if you've played with electronics before or have learned a programming language.

E5436: Satellite Design and Engineering - Do It Yourself!
Difficulty: **

What parts go into a satellite? How do you design for an extreme environment like space? Why do we build satellites anyway? Learn the fundamentals of designing vehicles for space with a tasty hands-on project.

E5052: Intro to Drafting Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ian Martin

E5085: Modeling: Bio-Circuits, Electronic Circuits, and the Power of Analogy
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Alioth Drinkwater

Modeling is the act of building understandable analogies that let us parse the real world. It is a crucial part of understanding and engineering complex systems. What can it teach us? Where can it lead us awry?

In this class, you'll try your hand at a few basic methods of modeling biology, and learn about the relationships and analogies between different engineering fields.


Prerequisites
HS bio or equivalent. (If you've read The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, you're good.) Note that this course does *not* require proficiency with electronic circuits. In fact, if you have experience with circuits and breadboards, you will probably find the circuit exercise uninteresting.

E5349: Build your own Rechargeable Solar Lamp Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Madeline Hickman

E4941: Introduction to Orbital Debris Removal
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Phillip Cunio

This course will describe the nature of orbital debris and detail the growing problem for operations in Earth orbit that it represents. The mechanics of orbits and the nature of debris creation will be discussed, and notable examples of orbital debris and orbital debris mitigation will be mentioned.

The course will close with a survey of feasible methods to remove debris from orbit, and students will break into small groups to brainstorm and create concepts to implement these methods. Students will be encouraged to share interesting concepts or key insights with the rest of the class.

E4997: Mating in Engineering
Difficulty: **
Teachers: michael buchman

Mating in engineering is when you attach two thing together. I will be going over different mating techniques in engineering. I will discuss welding, brazing, the use of different fasteners, glues, epoxy, dovetailing, and anything that can be used to structurally join two pieces of materials together.

E5507: Reverse Engineering Full!
Difficulty: **

E5545: How and Why your Car Works Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Adam Seering

E5073: How to Build an Atomic Bomb Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Matthew Cole

E4974: The Great Lego Challenge: A Hands-On Introduction to Engineering Design Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Adam Gleitman


Humanities

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H5218: Introductory Russian
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Pamela Alvarez

A basic introduction to the Russian language and the Cyrillic alphabet


Prerequisites
Prior study of a foreign language helpful, but not necessary

H5372: The Legacy of Isaac Asimov Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Phillip Seo, Zoe Snape

H5335: Abnormal Psychology - Truth and Fiction Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Veronica Gross

H5061: Paradoxes of Democracy: Fair Elections and Voting Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Stephen M. Hou

H5371: Queer and Gender Studies Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:

H5410: Dreams and Dreaming Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Carol Hardick

H5506: BEETHOVEN
Difficulty: **

Beethoven.

H5156: Human Typewriter Full!
Difficulty: **

H4947: Introduction to Thai
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tana Wattanawaroon

There are more Asian languages that involve exotic characters and outlandish tones than Chinese, Japanese and Korean! Learn about this awesome language where tone markers don’t describe the same tone on different characters. We will focus on the Thai alphabet, tone recognition, and useful expressions for tourists in Thailand. After this course, you will know how not to be a “farang” clown saying words used by opposite gender.

H5531: The 99% -- Here and Abroad Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Michael Shaw

H5075: The Linguistics of Thought
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Chelsea Kendall

Does the structure of the language you speak influence the way in which you see your world? Do the words in your vocabulary limit the scope of your thoughts? Linguists have been puzzling over these questions for decades, and the answers are still somewhat fuzzy. We will attempt to answer these questions for ourselves, taking our examples from current research into Yucatec Maya and Piraha as well as older work done on Hopi and Hawaiian Creole English. Along the way, we will explore the principles of languages and the tools linguists use to analyse them.

H5177: Board Game Design, A Comparative Study: Puerto Rico, San Juan, and Race for the Galaxy (Part 1) Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jayson Lynch

H5274: Behind Barbed Wire: What was the Japanese American internment? Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Naomi Schurr

H4949: The Sonnet Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lance Ozier

H5267: Introduction to Positive Disintegration - Part 1 Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Josh Shaine

H5402: Searching for Happiness: Perspectives from Jainism Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Finale Doshi-Velez

H5327: Comparative Film: Old and New Hollywood Full!
Difficulty: **

H5062: Introduction to Chinese Writing
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Stephen M. Hou

Chinese writing is unique among the world's major languages in that it uses thousands of characters as opposed to an alphabet with a few dozen letters. We will learn some basic characters, their organization and structure, the distinction between traditional and simplified scripts, calligraphic styles and typographical fonts, how new characters are created, how Chinese characters are used in the modern Japanese and Korean languages, and how Chinese is typed electronically. I will also discuss Chinese dialects and why the Chinese language did not (and will likely never) switch to an alphabetical writing system. About one-third of class time will be devoted to practicing writing characters by hand.


Prerequisites
This class is intended for students with very little or no previous experience with written Chinese, but previous study of any other foreign language is strongly recommended.

H5119: The Evolution of the Human Soul Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Seong-Ah Cho

H5528: Aperature Science Full!
Difficulty: **

H5270: Behind Barbed Wire: The Experience Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Naomi Schurr

H5399: Writing Stories, for Serious! Full!
Difficulty: **

H5348: A Conversation Between Poems and Paintings Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Rebecca Cox

H4922: How to Bullshit Full!
Difficulty: ****

H4950: How to Read a Poem
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lance Ozier

Have you ever read a poem and wondered what the heck is going on? Or, to paraphrase the poet T. S. Eliot, have you “had the experience but missed the meaning”? In this class you will learn some simple ways to help you make more sense of the poems you read.


Prerequisites
Interest in poetry, language, words

H5142: A Taste of the Classical Chinese Language - 【文言之味】 Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Stephen M. Hou

H5561: Advocacy and Lobbying 101 Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Brock Adler

H4980: Introduction to Socionics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Roan LaPlante

Socionics is a field of nonscientific (some argue protoscientific) analytical psychology developed by Ausra Augustinavicitue who was working with ideas of Jungian psychology, which is well popularized in Eastern Europe and almost unheard of in Western Europe or America. Socionics is best described as a language for understanding and interpreting processes of personality. It is by far most often used as a typology, assigning personality types to individuals and using these types to systematically predict relational compatibility. However, some would argue that it is more a philosophical language for modeling people, social interaction, and different cultures than strictly a model of personality. Perhaps most importantly, thinking about socionics provides a substantial conceptual framework for thinking about questions of personality, social behavior, cognition, and philosophy. In this class, we will first try to investigate the alphabet of this language, and also discuss the myriad issues in practice of actually applying it.


Prerequisites
none; familiarity with MBTI is potentially helpful but also potentially detrimental. familiarity with contemporary research on personality, social, developmental and cognitive psychology and Russian language are (potentially) invaluable for further study of socionics, but no background in psychology, socionics or Russian language is expected of any students in this class.

H5056: Cross-Cultural Bro Studies Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: W D, George Hansel

H5385: History of the American Musical Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Courtney Marchuk

H5513: How to plan and execute covert operations in deep cover

Learn the essentials of covert operations work. We will analyze the success and failure of many important covert operations in an attempt to discover the elements of a successful covert op. We will study important government-sponsored covert operations as well as terrorist plots and guerilla warfare. By the end of this class, students will be familiar with these operations and the reasons for their success or failure. We cannot legally claim that you will be sufficiently knowledgeable to plan and carry out your own covert operations after this class.


H5343: Rationality Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sophie Monahan

H5023: How Judges Think (Or Don't)
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Chris Peterson

An introduction to mainstream theories of legal consciousness, historical and present.

We’ll broadly review how formal legal actors have conceived of the roles (order? dispute resolution? tradition?) and origins (nature? god? man?) of law throughout history, and how these different views of law have helped shape society.

We’ll then do a deep dive into the issue of precedent and how it works, with a special focus on the critique of “activist judges” and whether or not it is conceptually coherent.


Prerequisites
None. However, students will get more from the class if they are specially aware of and conversant in basic concepts and issues in government structure and legal practice. For example, this course assumes a basic grasp of things like separation of powers, the idea that lawyers are advocates, and familiarity with "activist judge" as a claim that is invoked about how judges make decisions. If you are the sort of student who would take AP Gov or Poli Sci, or even if you just have the basic ideas down and want to learn some interesting stuff about how law works in practice, especially from a historiographic analysis, this is the class for you.

H5171: Musket, Saber, Cannon: Napoleonic Era Warfare
Difficulty: **

Why was Napoleon so successful? How did he dominate Europe with the French army? What were the forces at play in such battles as Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstadt, and Waterloo? This class examines the development of the French army from a collection of lackluster regiments serving Louis XIV to a seemingly invincible fighting force under Napoleon, as well as the strategy, tactics, operational methods, and willpower behind La Grande Armee and the other armies fielded by the other major powers, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain, during the era. Topics covered will include the conduct of war, the roles of different arms, the impact of permanent army staff, and more.


Prerequisites
Interest.

H5068: Market Economics: Supply and Demand
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zoe Thorkildsen

You hear about supply and demand on the news all the time, but what do they really mean? And are the newscasters even using the words correctly? (Answer: sometimes.) Learn about Adam Smith’s theory of the invisible hand, and about how markets reach equilibrium. We will also discuss elasticity of demand and supply and what implications they have for buyers and sellers in a market.

Any remaining time will be open for questions about economics in general.



Prerequisites
Basic algebra skills

H5373: Rapidfire Modern European History
Difficulty: *
Teachers:

Think you know what started World War I? What about the foundation driving Napoleon's greatest acheivements? What was the most painless way to die in18th century France, and what happened to Germany after its defeat in World War II?
Come learn a lightning-fast, rapid-fire vividly presented chronology of Modern European history! Afterwards we'll play Jeapordy!, simulate world war 2 battles, and talk about today's global society.

H5576: Board Game Design, A Comparative Study: Puerto Rico, San Juan, and Race for the Galaxy (Part 2)
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jayson Lynch

This is the second part of a two part course on board games and game design. This is intended for people who have taken Part 1.

In Part 2 we will play San Juan and Race for the Galaxy and analize these boad games using the ideas discussed in Part 1 of the class. We will then look into the history and relation of the games and discuss the games similarities, differences, and design in this context.


Prerequisites
Intended for students who have taken Part 1 of the class. Discussion may not be accessible without familiarity with the game Puerto Rico and some knowledge of game design and game criticism. There will be required readings.

H5369: History of Warfare through Board Games, Part 1
Difficulty: **
Teachers: David Xiao, Kevin Yue

What does it mean to fight a war? 1000 years ago? 100 years ago? 10 years ago? Today? Do you enjoy board games?

We'll introduce you to a few of our favorite strategy board games, let you play a round or two, and show you how these games mirror the evolution of warfare. From thousands of years ago to today, in every corner of the world.

Part I of two parts.

H4994: How to Develop a Rich and Varied Folk Music Tradition Without Even Trying
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ruth Byers

Visit the shores of Lake Siljan in Sweden and the fjords of Norway to watch the birth, near death, and resurection of music and dance tradition.

Scandinavia has a rich tradition of music played on the fiddle and it's variations, and is a case study on how geography and history can influence culture. Meet instruments like the Hardanger Fiddle (twice as many strings as a regular fiddle, whose sound is featured in the Lord of the Rings) and the Nyckelharpa or "keyed fiddle," which is, well, a fiddle with keys. Their musical tradition has been shaped by the mountains that isolated them and the trade routes that served as paths for tunes as well as physical goods. It was disrupted by the arrival of christian religion and changed again by the technology-induced end of isolation.


H5081: Thinking about Religion
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Amy Estersohn

Where does religion come from, and what is religion's use, anyway? Is religion more than a set of commonly shared beliefs and commonly understood practices?

This discussion-based class will introduce some theories of religion as we consider just what religion is, through the lens of scholars like Emile Durkheim and William James.

This class is appropriate for anybody who is curious about religion- whether or not you consider yourself to be "religious." We will NOT be questioning/defending the validity of religious beliefs; we are instead examining why and how religious beliefs have prevailed among human societies.


Prerequisites
This course is going to be a neat blend of anthropology, philosophy, religion, and sociology, so certainly bring your willingness to have your head spinning. I am keeping this class open to students in grades 7-12 though I recommend it for grades 10-12

H4963: The Films of Tarantino Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jacob Bailey

H5164: Intro to Korean Writing or The Coolest Writing System You Will Ever Meet Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Emily Westland

H5429: Anime in Academia
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jennifer Fu

Interested in anime but looking to do more than just watch it? Anime media studies is a growing academic field that spans multiple fields-- anthropology, arts, economics and business, globalization and culture, and more. Learn what kind of topics are covered in the world of anime studies, the different techniques that are used, and some of the anime-related research that's gone on in Japan, America, and at MIT!


Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of anime is suggested but not required.

H5275: Literary Analysis of Popular Culture Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jacob Cole

H5217: Introductory Latin
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Pamela Alvarez

A basic introduction to the Latin language


Prerequisites
Prior study of a foreign language helpful, but not necessary

H5074: Elements of freestyle rap
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Archit Bhise

Ever wanted to know how to compose your own rhymes and understand beats? Ever want to understand how hip-hop culture works and what is being portrayed? Ever wanted to express yourself in a lyrical manner? Sign up for this class.

We take a combined scientific and applied view to this idea. First half of the class involves the theory behind freestyle rap and the expressions. Next half involves students getting a chance to try it out.

H5232: Salve! A Crash Course in Latin Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Chelsea Kendall

H5330: Lost in Translation: Poetry, Language, and Meaning Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Amy Woodruff

H5496: Battle Ballads: The War-Time Music of the 20th Century Full!
Difficulty: **

H5271: Non-Linear Thinking in a Linear World Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Josh Shaine

H4951: Glorious Music Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lance Ozier

H5036: Writing/Wandering Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Alexander Cronis

H5426: Once upon a time, the end. The art of incredibly short fiction. Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: A L

H5338: Journalism and Why It Matters Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: David Han

H5251: College Essay Funtime
Difficulty: **

Is your Common App too common? Is your personal essay too essay and not enough person? Do you want your essay to be as awesome as you are?!*

Come join us as we unravel the mysteries of college essay. We will discuss sample essays, work through common prompts and guide you on your way to enlightenment.

* Yes, you do.



Prerequisites
Silly putty, at least three magnetic monopoles and those neutrinos we keep hearing about. If you'd like, feel free to email us an essay prior to class for feedback/comments/review/etc. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

H5317: Intro to Foreign Rap
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jeremy Rossmann

Ever heard French rap? Italian? Russian? How about Georgian, Armenian, Moroccan, or Polish rap?

Take this class if you want to listen to some of the most popular foreign rap and learn about its history! We'll look at both local and American influences on the foreign rap scene.

H5347: I'm Not a Prescriptivist, But...
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Diyang Tang

Everyone has a word-related pet peeve. Is there a word other people misuse that makes you a bit sad, since you like the word so much? Come exalt over words, but also come prepared to celebrate the fluidity of the English language and how word meanings change.

H5336: True Lies - Our Terrifying Judicial System Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Veronica Gross

H5017: Introduction to Ancient Greek
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Sam Trabucco

Join us as we embark on the study of ancient Greek. We'll start by getting oriented reading and writing words using the Greek alphabet (it's easier than it may seem!), then we'll dive right into basic grammar and vocabulary. Before you know it, we'll be reading excerpts straight from Plato and Homer!

Bonus: we'll settle once and for all what the correct plural of "octopus" is.


Prerequisites
Familiarity with another foreign language (especially Latin) would be helpful, but is by no means required.

H5038: Why you make worse decisions than you think you do.
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Amy Estersohn

This class will cover some of the shortcuts our brains use to help us make everyday decisions, from what we buy at the store to which treatments doctors choose to how we decide to take risks. We'll learn through games and simulations, so bring your strategy face to the table.

This class is intentionally listed as a 7-12 class-- older students may appreciate more of the economic theory and statistics of the games that the younger students may win. This class is also pitched at an introductory level-- I am happy to provide additional reading materials for students eager to learn them.


Prerequisites
1. A brain. 2. 10+ years of life experience. 3. Enjoy playing games. 4. Basic arithmetic skills may not be particularly helpful.

H5269: Introduction to Positive Disintegration - Part 2
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Josh Shaine

In Part 2, we’ll look more deeply into Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration and how the different levels of development are reflected in behaviors and emotions.

Among the ideas we will explore are positive maladjustment, auto-psychotherapy, and syntony vs. empathy.


Prerequisites
Either Part 1 or prior exposure to Dabrowski's work.

H5021: How To Apply To MIT (And Other Awesome Colleges)
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Chris Peterson

I will give an admissions information session, which will contain both a ton of information about MIT and a ton of information about how to apply to college in general.

H5500: What is Intelligence?
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Daniel Zaharopol

“If the Aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it,” wrote anthropologist Stanley Garn.

What is intelligence, really? Can we measure it? If so, what does it tell us about the human mind? Is it something that’s born into us by our genes, or does it depend on how we’re raised? What makes someone smart?

Psychologists and neuroscientists have been doing research into the remarkable processes that go on in our brain, trying to understand what gives us the ability to think. Together, we'll explore some experiments and try to better understand what "intelligence" means.

H5412: Cooking an Elegant Meal.
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Michael Cox

Learn the basic art and science of cooking composition and use it to impress you family, friends, or a date. Prepare an elegant dinner party for a very economic price--it's mostly ingredients that you already have in your house.

We'll be making a cheese souffle, green vegetables in béchamel sauce, lemon curd, and a dark chocolate pastry.

The essentials you'll learn in this class will give you the foundations for numerous culinary creations that are sure to impress.

H5446: Money and Power
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Nathaniel Lathrop

Ever wondered why money and power always seem to go to together? Not sure what to make of the ruckus over Citizens' United? Has your town been "occupied?"

Come discuss political theory, economics, and the politics of the present, as well as some history of class in America. Class taught by a die-hard progressive, but all viewpoints welcome.

H5364: Introduction to the FInnish language
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Nora Räsänen

Tervetuloa! Mistä tulet? Puhutko suomea? Did you understand that? No? Excellent! In this class you'll learn the basics of the Finnish language. As part of the Finno-ugric language family, Finnish is unlike almost any other language spoken today. In this class we'll start with the a,b,c's and by the end you will understand and be able to answer the questions at the beginning of this paragraph. Impress your friends with one of the most difficult languages in the world!

H5031: Build A Language Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Jennifer Melot

H5414: Ultimate Dictator Showdown: Hitler vs. Stalin Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Prakriti Paul

H4930: Parliamentary Procedure and Debate Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Simone Agha

H5189: History of Homosexuality
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joshua Frisch

Gays, Lesbians, and alternate sexualities have existed for thousands of years and controversies and opinions about them for nearly as long. We will discuss same gender relationships, different societies reactions and tolerance to them, and the affect that individuals had in a variety of places and times, modern and ancient, foreign and familiar. We will discuss issues ranging from the silly to the striking with, hopefully, a healthy dose of humor.

H5155: Introduction to the Loa Full!
Difficulty: **

H5215: The Occupy Movement:A Study in Civil Disobedience Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Andrew Cowan

H5564: Introduction to Fancy Econometrics
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Paul Kominers

Some policy problems are easy. Others aren't, which has led to the development of a number of fancy statistical techniques. This class will explain in qualitative terms why some policy problems are hard, and what the fancy techniques are that policy analysts use to solve them.


Prerequisites
Understanding of basic linear regression will be assumed.

H5382: History of Warfare through Board Games, Part 2 Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: David Xiao, Kevin Yue

H5207: Introduction to Swahili Culture and Language
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Rebecca Smith

Kuja! (Come!) We'll learn about the culture and history of the Swahili-speaking countries (specifically Kenya and Tanzania), and do hands-on activities such as shelling and grinding corn, which we will use to make the traditional food ugali.

We'll also learn some of the Kiswahili language and key phrases. After this class, you may laugh when you see Taco Bell or Jamba Juice, thanks to their alternative Swahili meanings!

Siku njema! (Have a good day!)

H5520: iz-lom
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Noor Doukmak

Sound familiar? Thanks to the media and Hollywood it should, but what does Islam really mean to the one billion people that practice it? We will strip stereotypes, boil it down to the basics, and answer the question, "Well, what does Islam have to say about Islam?" 5 pillars of practice, 6 pillars of faith, and one book of scripture. Join us for a view into a world most have heard of yet know little about.

H5422: Racism and Stereotypes in Today's Society Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Alexander Nowack

H4929: Greek and Roman Mythology Full!
Difficulty: **

H5264: What We Say to People, What People Hear Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Josh Shaine

H5134: History of Language
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Staly Chin

From the beginning of time... to the present day: How language has developed from "Ug" and "Oo" to the complication we have today. A short look into what forces destroy and build languages and the origins of different families of languages. And why this all matters.

Case Studies of English, Chinese, and Piraha.


Lunch

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L5582: Lunch Period
Difficulty: None
Teachers:

Enjoy a break for lunch with your friends! Please register for at least one lunch period.

L5583: Lunch Period
Difficulty: None
Teachers:

Enjoy a break for lunch with your friends! Please register for at least one lunch period.


Mathematics

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M5490: Game Theory
Difficulty: ***

Like games? You should take this class. Like money? We don't know how to make any!

Game Theory is the study of how you play to win against the smartest possible opponents, opponents who never make irrational choices. Whether it's some board game or the stock market, game theory lets you win, and better yet lets you know why you won.

Interested? Then join us for a quick hour-long introduction to the field!


Prerequisites
Calculus and Probability Theory

M5302: Groups, Escher, and Symmetry. Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sergei Bernstein

M5397: Creating Randomness:An Introduction to Markov Chain Monte Carlo Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Finale Doshi-Velez

M5279: Symmetry and Group Theory Full!
Difficulty: **

M4988: Rings and Things
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Dylan Yott

In this class, we will discuss a very diverse and fundamental class of mathematical objects called rings. Intuitively, rings are things with two operations, usually called addition and multiplication. There are some properties these operations need to satisfy by themselves, and they must also get along with each other. I will give examples and then attempt (and fail) to prove Fermat's Last Theorem.

Then, we'll get really crazy and talk about fields, a special class of rings where you can divide. I will of course give more examples. At this point, the class goes in whatever direction you want. I will briefly explain a few amazing applications of field theory and it's up to the class to decide which we pursue. Here are some possibilities:

1. Basic Galois Theory
-Why do complex roots come in pairs?
-What is the difference between i and -i?
-Why is there no quintic formula for polynomials?

2. Geometric Constructions
-Why can't I trisect this angle?
-Why can't I double this cube?
-No seriously... why not?

3. Solving polynomials
-I want to solve this polynomial, but my field isn't big enough. What do I do?

Note: Due to volume of material, I will most likely not give rigorous proofs. Rather, I intend for this class to give you a broad overview of what ring and field theory and why it is useful and fun!



Prerequisites
You should know: What a complex number is. What roots of unity are. How to work with polynomials. If you already have taken abstract algebra, this class may be too easy for you. Must be willing to have fun. I like participation :)

M4998: Zero to Infinity Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Bianca Homberg

M5080: The Halting Problem
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Bianca Homberg

Computers are powerful, sure. But can they compute anything you want them to? Is there anything computers absolutely can't figure out, no matter what? The answer here is absolutely yes--computers are not omnipotent.

In this class, we'll prove mathematically that despite whatever clever algorithms people can come up with, there will always be problems that are impossible for a computer to solve. (We'll look at one particular example called the Halting Problem). Along the way, we'll encounter and investigate two theoretical constructs which compute: deterministic finite automata (DFA's) and Turing Machines.


Prerequisites
Algebra II

M4961: Things Euclid Couldn't Do
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Carl Lian

You can do a lot of things with compass and straightedge. So many things, in fact, that Euclid wrote a whole series of books about things you can do with compass and straightedge. Yet, there were a few things he wanted to do, but they just seemed to hard. So hard, in fact, that many centuries later, using techniques of modern algebra, it was proven that they were impossible.

Specifically, you've probably heard that it's impossible to trisect an arbitrary angle using compass and straightedge. You may also have heard that it's also impossible to square the circle, or to double the cube.

While these facts are relatively easy to digest, and our set-up seems simple (all we're doing, after all, is drawing lines and circles), it turns out that getting a handle on \textit{why} these tasks are impossible is very hard. In this class, we'll define a field, an abstraction notion of a set in which we can add, subtract, multiply, and divide (except by zero!) to our heart's content, and think about field extensions, what arise after we throw in extra elements and somehow get a bigger field. Then, we'll be able to relate our new notions of abstract algebra back to our original geometric problem, and eventually be able to prove that, no matter how hard he tried, Euclid just couldn't have done certain things with a compass and straightedge.


Prerequisites
None formally, but we will be going through a large number of concepts very quickly. Before being able to approach the problem of (un-)constructability, we'll need to build up some definitions from linear algebra (vector spaces, bases), and talking about fields. It would help to have some prior familiarity with these, but is not necessary - we'll introduce all of the machinery we need.

M5094: To Infinity and Beyond - The Secret Life of the Infinite
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lars Johnson

What is the biggest number? Is the universe infinite? Beyond infinity? What? Yes, there are actually different sizes of infinity, some larger than others. Come explore a concept that has puzzled mathematicians for centuries. Discover some counter-intuitive and shocking results. Be ready for a very interactive class with frequent group participation.


Prerequisites
All that is needed is an interest in learning some cool mathematics (though you should know some basic algebra, for instance the difference between integers, rational numbers, and real numbers)

M5552: Uncanny Appearances of Sierpinski's Triangle
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end...
It's there - you can see it - sometimes cloudy, as if in a fog, but no! It's a swarm! and the swarm forms... you cannot believe it. But wait, again, not one, but infinitely many overlayed in beautiful pattern... it rises from the predictable, and from randomness... it is: SIERPINSKI'S TRIANGLE.

No, really, it's freaking ridiculous where you can find this infinitely-triangular-fractal, and the description above isn't exaggerating at all. Pascal's got nothing on this thing.

M5259: Why Math is cool!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joshua Frisch

For some reason, in the majority of public highschools mathematics mathematicians take is rarely, if ever, taught. This should not be taken as evidence that there is no such thing as cool math. In this class we will discuss several cool concepts in math, including modular arithmetic, the irrationality of the squareroot of 2, and the infinitude of primes and, if time permits A proof of Fermat's little theorem


Prerequisites
A willingness and interest to learn about interesting mathematics. Basic Algebra

M5082: Proving things with Dots and Lines
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sachi Hashimoto

Imagine we have some dogs, and some people who want to adopt dogs. Each person only likes some of the dogs, and each dog only gets along well with some of the people. Can we find a way of matching each person up with a dog, such that everyone is happy?

The capital of East Prussia until 1945 was a city called Königsberg. In Königsberg there were several islands connected to each other by bridges. If I give you a drawing of the islands and bridges, can you tell me how to travel across Königsberg using each bridge just once?

To answer to these questions and more like them, we turn to a field of mathematics called graph theory. Using dots and lines that join the dots we can come up with ways of talking mathematically about these problems. We will go through the basic theory, definitions, and prove some classic theorems about graphs, dogs and dog owners, cities and bridges, utilities, and handshakes by turning problems about things into problems about dots and lines.

Note: This is the version of this class for students in grades 9-12. There is another version for grades 7-9.


Prerequisites
Having written a proof of any kind before would help

M5395: Understanding Uncertainty: Statistics Storytime Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Finale Doshi-Velez

M4962: The Sylow Theorems
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Carl Lian

The Sylow Theorems are a set of three important theorems in finite group theory that describe a certain class of subgroups of finite groups. I will state and, using the magic of group actions, prove these theorems, and if there's time, we'll look at examples of how the Sylow Theorems are used in understanding certain finite groups.


Prerequisites
At the minimum, you should know what groups and subgroups are, and it would help to know what a group action is (we'll introduce them but very briefly). The more experience you have with group theory, however, the more you will appreciate the results are truly beautiful and unexpected.

M5280: Pascal, Sierpinski, and Dinner Parties
Difficulty: *

In a group of nine people, in how many ways can you pick three of them? In a group of four people, in how many ways can you distribute six $1 bills between them? (Giving nothing to someone is allowed.) Why are the answers to these two questions the same?

In this class, we'll explore a triangle of numbers called Pascal's triangle, and we'll see how it can answer the questions above. After that, we'll see that Pascal's triangle has many cool things hidden inside it, including the Fibonacci numbers, a pretty fractal called the Sierpinski triangle, and much more.

M5071: Introduction to Regression Analysis
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zoe Thorkildsen

Regression analysis is a statistical method that allows researchers to explore relationships between dependent and independent variables. These could range from the relationship between SAT scores and college admissions, or between natural resource abundance and likelihood of civil war. Far more than a simple correlation coefficient, regression analysis allows much more detailed and informative analysis. In this course, we’ll touch on research methods, basic statistics, conceptual mathematics, econometrics, and the study of social issues. You’ll get to participate in a mini-research project using statistical software to analyze some real world data using regression techniques.

We will move fast, be prepared.




Prerequisites
Basic conceptual understanding of introductory statistics material (mean, standard deviation, best fit line, correlation, the Normal distribution)

M5228: Force Fields 101: A Mathematical Explanation of Conservative Forces
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Christopher Natoli

Physics teachers will tell you that gravity is a conservative force and work done against gravity doesn't depend on the path you take. But what makes a force conservative, and what does path-independence have to do with it? The answer lies in vector calculus!

This class will cover all the multivariable and vector calculus needed to understand conservative fields (including partial derivatives, gradients, and line integrals). Once we develop a solid understanding of the mathematical definition of conservative fields, we will see how it applies to and deeply explains conservative forces in physics, particularly gravitational and electric potential. As an added bonus, you'll get to learn and use cool symbols like fx, f, and Fdr. Note that this class will be more mathy than physicsy.

(Disclaimer: This class has nothing to do with force fields in the science fiction sense.)


Prerequisites
You must be familiar with basic derivatives, integrals, and vectors, as well as basic mechanics (particularly potential energy).

M5158: Introduction to the Catalan Numbers
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Qiaochu Yuan

How many ways are there to write down n pairs of correctly nested parentheses? How many rooted planar trees are there with n+1 vertices? How many ways are there to divide a convex n+2-gon into triangles?

In this course, you'll learn why all of these questions have the same answer: the Catalan numbers Cn. You'll learn multiple ways to prove the surprising formula Cn=1n+1(2nn) (one of which involves the quadratic formula!). You'll get a glimpse of how deep the rabbit hole goes. (It goes pretty deep.)


Prerequisites
Familiarity with elementary combinatorics, such as properties of binomial coefficients, is essential. Some familiarity with power series would be a really good idea.

M4977: Sabermetrics: The Mathematics of Assembling a Winning Baseball Team
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Chris Kennedy

How do you know Manny Ramirez was a great hitter? Well, he hit lots of home runs, of course. But there’s a lot more to baseball than just batting average, home runs, ERA, and strikeouts. So much more, in fact, that lots of mathematicians make good money telling baseball teams how to win by looking at the right numbers.

In this course, we’ll dive into the world of sabermetrics, or the study of baseball through numbers. We’ll talk about how to figure out if a power hitter is really good (Albert Pujols) or just plays in a ridiculous ballpark (Carlos Gonzalez); if a pitcher wins a lot because he’s got a great defense behind him or because he’s actually that good; and how to come up with ways to rate defense other than fielding percentage (hint: Derek Jeter has never been a very good shortstop).


Prerequisites
You should know basic algebra and the definition of the mean of a set of numbers. Perhaps more importantly, you should be ready to talk baseball! If you are not a baseball fan, you will not enjoy this class.

M5255: It's Not What You Think Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jessie Zhang

M5541: Probability for Champs Full!
Difficulty: **

M5084: Proving Things with Dots and Lines Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sachi Hashimoto

M5109: Curved Spaces - An Introduction to Surface Topology Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lars Johnson

M5182: Nothing Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Qiaochu Yuan

M5443: The Fibonacci Sequence Full!
Difficulty: **

M5555: How to Win $$$ Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

M4919: How to Cut a Cake Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Josh Alman, Leon Zhou

M5229: Counting: Beyond "1, 2, 3..." Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Miriam Gershenson

M5573: Infinitely Many Proofs of Infinitely Many Primes! Full!
Difficulty: ***

M4971: How to Become a Mathemagician: Mental Calculations and Math Magic
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Adam Gleitman

How can you multiply two numbers in your head as quickly as possible? How can you add a sequence of numbers faster than someone can enter them into a calculator? How can you use minimal information to identify a special number?

In this class, entertainment meets education as I show you some incredible mathematical tricks, how to do them, and why they work. Take this class and learn how to amaze your friends!


Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with very basic algebraic manipulation.

M5566: Tea 'n' Math
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lauren McGough

Tea is warm; cookies are sweet; math is beautiful. Come enjoy all three.


Prerequisites
Exposure to calculus and/or not being afraid to not completely understand. (It will be awesome regardless of whether or not it is necessarily at a traditionally high-school-acccessible level, so as long as you are not afraid to see awesome things you might not totally understand, this class is for you.)

M5047: Building Calculus Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Dylan Yott

M5089: My Little Set: Compactness is Magic Full!
Difficulty: ***

M5554: Fractals and Fractal Dimension
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

Math through a kaleidoscope: http://www.fractal-recursions.com/
Beautiful, no?
This class will dive headfirst into the key concepts of Fractals including Symmetry, Expressible Infinity, and Chaos. Specifically, we will take an in depth look at the Sierpinski Triangle (briefly covering the difference between fractal dimension and topological dimension), the Lorenz Water Wheel (illustrating the ideas of the Butterfly Effect and Strange Attractors), and the well-known Mandelbrot Set. If you want to see mathematics from a completely alien perspective, this class is for you.

M4937: Matching People
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Josh Alman

Matching can be hard!

Say n men and n women want to get married. They each give you a ranking of the people of the other gender. Will you always be able to pair them off so that there is no man and woman who would rather marry each other than the partners you give them?

What if each gives you a list of people of the other gender that they are willing to marry? When can you pair everyone up with someone they are willing to marry?

What if some now include people of the same gender in their list?

Come match people!


Prerequisites
You should know what a graph (with vertices and edges) is, and be used to mathematical proofs.

M5262: Extreme Math Full!
Difficulty: ****

M5166: What is Infinity?
Difficulty: ***

Most people have heard of the concept of infinity, but pinning down a definition for it can be tricky. One might say that is larger than any number you can think of, but in that case, what can we say about +1? Is there only one type of infinity, or can you make something that is strictly bigger than ? Similarly, is it possible to make something infinitely small?

Another line of questioning comes from asking why should we care? If it is not possible, for example, to own dollars, then what use is infinity in the first place? We will discuss applications in physics where using infinity actually simplifies our problems. By the end of this course, you should have a sense of how infinity is a real and useful thing.


Prerequisites
We will be talking about sets, so it would be helpful to know the difference between natural numbers, integers, rationals, irrationals, reals and complex numbers. Some calculus would be helpful, but is not required.

M5049: Partial Differential Equations
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Benjamin Horowitz

Partial Differential Equations are really fun and really cool. It is basically ordinary (single variable) differential equations, but BETTER! In this little class we will talk briefly about the main methods of solving partial differential equations. We will also talk about boundary value problems and finally solve “the heat equation” using Fourier Series and separation of variables.


Prerequisites
Single variable calculus is a must. Ordinary differential equations and multivariable calculus would be useful, but aren't required.

M5233: Insolvability of the Quintic
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Dylan Yott

So I'm sure all of you are familiar with the quadratic formula. Well you may also be vaguely familiar with the cubic and quartic formulas. These are very ugly expressions involving square and cube roots and very, very messy polynomial expressions in the coefficients of your original polynomial. Nonetheless, we can write down the solutions.

So, what about the quintic? Surely we can solve the quintic with some horrendous expression for the roots. Surprisingly, it is possible to prove that it is impossible for such an expression to exist, and we can prove it.

This class will be an introduction to Galois theory, the study of permutations of roots of polynomial equations. We will begin with basic group, ring, and field theory and will quickly move onto computing Galois groups and making connections to fields. Finally, we will finish with a sketch of the proof that the quintic is not solvable.


Prerequisites
I will assume no knowledge of algebra, but I will have to move VERY quickly to cover all of this, so all I ask for is your patience and attention. Basic understanding of polynomials is a must!

M5417: Advanced Random Awesome Maths (High School Edition)
Difficulty: ****

Are you advanced? What about awesome? If so than come to this class!

We might do some stuff with Euler’s formula, Stirling’s formula, and the Gamma Function or we might do something totally different. Come and find out!


Prerequisites
Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, Division, and Calculus.

M5549: Mersenne Primes
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Benjamin Boyajian

Did you know that the largest Mersenne Prime has over 12 million digits? Primes of the form 2p1, known as Mersenne primes, have fascinated mathematics for centuries, and in this class, we will learn why. We will cover several important theorems about Mersenne primes, as well as the primalty test which made it possible for a 12-million-digit prime to be discovered. If we have time, we will also look at the history of Mersenne primes and the famous (often incorrect) conjectures that mathematics have made throughout the centuries.


Prerequisites
A relatively good background in number theory. It would be helpful to be familiar with modular arithmetic, but this is not necessary.

M5476: Generating Functions
Difficulty: ***

Sometimes in Math (or Science) there are these hammers which you can use to trivialize problems. Often, using a hammer takes some of the fun and excitement out of solving a problem, but usually that doesn’t keep you from learning how to use the hammer.

Generating functions are the hammer with which we demolish combinatorics problems. In this class, we will show how encoding combinatorial problems algebraically gives us a whole new level of insight into the subject, and conclude with a method that will allow you to compute almost any combinatorial sum you might encounter.



Prerequisites
Combinatorics and Calculus. You want to have had a reasonable exposure to both subjects. Functionally, calculus is more useful for the course; however, combinatorial reasoning will be highly useful.

M5098: Warped Worlds - an Introductinon to Hyperbolic Geometry Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lars Johnson

M5424: Lapras used Transform! The Easy Way to Solve Differential Equations
Difficulty: ***

Differential equations can be a real pain in the asymptote, chaining you into countless uses of the product rule or ugly integration by parts. But with the wonderfully straightforward tool known as Laplace Transforms, few linear differential equations can stand in your way! In addition to teaching you this powerful tool, we'll also explain how it can be applied to unusual functions like piecewise, step, and impulse functions, and we'll teach you useful tricks for partial fractions (a technique that was invented specifically for Laplace Transforms).


Prerequisites
Some basic calculus (including derivatives, integrals, integration by parts, and improper integrals) as well as knowledge of first order differential equations at the AP Calc BC level (for example, dy/dt = y + A).

M4916: Cutting an Apple with a VERY Complicated Knife: The Banach-Tarski Paradox
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Chris Kennedy

The Banach-Tarski Paradox is one of the crown jewels of “weird mathematics”—the art of using standard mathematical tools to come up with truly bizarre results. In this case, the result we’ll come up with is this: it’s possible to slice up a sphere into five pieces, rearrange them using rotations and translations, and end up with two spheres of the same size as the first.

Along the way, we’ll see plenty of math that’s interesting in its own right—groups, Cayley graphs, uncountable sets, and a little hyperbolic geometry. By the end of this class, you’ll understand that math is a beautiful and strange beast.


Prerequisites
An appetite for interesting math. Nothing we do will require advanced math, but come equipped with algebra II (in particular, a solid understanding of functions). But what we'll cover is also tricky and subtle, so be prepared.

M5204: Visualizing Math: The Magic of Mathematica Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Michael Gibson

M5005: Topology and Art Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tanya Khovanova

M5514: Probabilistic Modeling
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Jacob Steinhardt

In the early days of artificial intelligence, researchers tried to model decision-making by chains of logical deductions.

We have now come to realize that logic is much too strict for making everyday decisions. A much better approach is to use probabilities to represent uncertainties about the state of the world, and then update those probabilities based on new information.

In this class I will lay down the fundamentals of probabilistic modeling, then go into examples of its applications. These examples will cover hypothesis testing in experiments, improving the accuracy of measurements, de-blurring images, data mining, and modeling human thought.

NOTE: The first hour of the class will be self-contained, so it is possible to leave after one hour and still get something out of the class.


Prerequisites
Understanding of probability, including the notion of expected value. Calculus knowledge is strongly recommended (you should know what an integral is).

M5493: Diophantine equations
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Dmitry Vaintrob

What are the integer solutions to the equation 61a2+1=b2? In 1657, Fermat boasted that mathematics in France is better than in Britain, and challenged British mathematicians to solve this equation (they did). In this class we'll take him up on the challenge, and show America is no worse than the Brits. I'll talk the students through solving this and other Diophantine equations, and introduce some cool relationships between number theory and geometry.


Prerequisites
A good grasp of proof-based math, and willingness to come up with proofs on your own; familiarity with adding and multiplying quadratic irrationalities (e.g. what's 2+3221?)

M4926: The Riemann Zeta Function
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Chris Kennedy

The Riemann zeta function is one of the most famous functions in mathematics because of its connections to number theory (and the million-dollar unsolved problem that bears its name). But it's also the source of some wonderful identities, which is what this class is about. Come learn about the only time π2 is important, at least three completely different things called "Euler's formula", and why infinity is equal to -1/12. Seriously. Well, mostly seriously.


Prerequisites
A solid understanding of precalc is a must--you should especially be comfortable with sigma notation. More advanced math--a little calculus, for example--could be useful but is not required to understand what's going on.

M5498: Convergence, Continuity, and Space-Filling Curves
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Daniel Zaharopol

Intuitively, a continuous curve is one that has no holes: you can draw it without lifting your pen from the paper. Perhaps you've heard this kind of definition before. But it's not very satisfying! What does it mean that you can draw it without lifting your pen from the paper? What does it mean that it has no holes?

Amazingly, mathematics has a way of precisely defining what it means for a curve to be continuous. We can define other amazing things too, like a mathematically-correct (with proof!) way of adding up infinitely many numbers. We'll explore these definitions and then apply them to get a remarkable result: a continuous curve that covers the whole plane.


Prerequisites
High-school algebra is required. Beyond that, be ready for some very abstract thinking!

M5083: Latin Squares
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Sachi Hashimoto

A latin square is a square grid of size n by n that is filled with numbers 1 through n such that each number is in every column and every row exactly once. For example, Sudoku puzzles are a special form of 9 by 9 latin squares with the extra constraint that the 3 by 3 boxes also have each number exactly once.

It turns out many questions we can ask about latin squares are extremely hard: even simple things like 'how many different n by n latin squares are there?'

However, we also know a lot of really awesome things about them:

If you are given an n by n square that has n1 filled in numbers such that you haven't broken any of the latin square rules, then you can always complete this partially filled in square into a latin square.

But perhaps the Coolest Thing Ever, if you like graph theory, is that latin squares are really just graphs in disguise!

We are going to talk a lot about latin squares and graph theory, a little bit about open problems, and ultimately try to tackle a lot of really hard but also very interesting problems.


Prerequisites
Either the class 'Proving Things with Dots and Lines', or some basic graph theory knowledge. You should have seen a proof of Hall's Marriage Theorem OR take 'Proving Things with Dots and Lines'.

M5532: Prove It With Induction!
Difficulty: **

Mathematical induction is one of three key methods of proof, and is a powerful tool for every mathematician. Its most basic use is in the proofs of identities such as 0+1+2+3++n=n(n+1)2, but its full power extends far beyond that, into all realms of mathematics. Induction can even be used to prove that all pigs are yellow*.

*Note: It is not actually true that all pigs are yellow. The proof has a hidden flaw in it. Can you figure it out? Take our class and give it a try!


Prerequisites
An interest in learning the art of mathematical proofs.

M5477: Adventures in Logic Land Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Mika Braginsky

M5563: Introduction to Probability
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lawrence Chiou

Uncertainty exists everywhere---in science, in the weather, in politics, and of course in Las Vegas---but we certainly don't have to be uncertain about it! In this course, we present a basic framework for exploring the world of probability. Topics include basic combinatorial techniques, independence, and conditional probability.

M5202: Sabermetrics: The math and logic behind Moneyball
Difficulty: **

Sabermetrics is the study of sports statistics. Come learn about the math and logic behind how general managers make decisions which makes their franchises into dynasties or failures!


Prerequisites
None

M5252: What Oddness
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jessie Zhang

The "Theorem of Sandwich Awesomeness" says that sandwiches cut into triangles taste better than square sandwiches because each bite is different. However, have you ever tried dividing a sandwich into equal area triangles between three people? Or five people? Or any odd number of people? Is it possible? Come to class and figure out! Along the way, you will unexpectedly meet topics such as modular arithmetic and p-adic valuations.

M5112: 101 Mindblowing Ways to Think About Math and Physics (Part 1)
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Norman Cao

Want to learn a little relativity, when (1+x)n=1+nx, how to count from -512 to 511 on your fingers, and if cats in boxes really can die? Want to see an MIT student bust his voice and brains to teach you every trick in the book he knows for 3 hours straight?

101 Mindblowing Ways to Think About Math and Physics will go over 101 different revelations in nearly every branch of math and physics imaginable, and then some, each guaranteed to impress your friends who didn't attend and make you rethink everything you thought you knew.

Part 1 of 3 will cover geometry, sets, functions, series, complex numbers, and give insights into real analysis. And as my dad always told me, you don't really know math until you know real analysis. Part 2 (optional) can also be found in the Mathematics category.


Prerequisites
This series is geared towards students in precalculus, but any student with a grasp on functions and geometry should be able to follow along.

M4923: A Wretched Hive of Dots and Arrows
Difficulty: ***

Categories! Arrows! Morphisms! Arrows! Dots! Arrows! Transformations! Diagrams! Arrows! Commutative diagrams! Arrows! Universal properties! Functors! Arrows!

DID I MENTION THE ARROWS?


Prerequisites
None specifically, but math familiarity would make this more sensible. Also a tweed jacket and an armchair.

M5034: Arithmetic and Algebra of Quadratic Forms
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Holden Lee

A quadratic form is a polynomial in several variables where each term has degree 2. Quadratic forms over the integers are a rich source of problems for number theory.

For example, we can ask, which numbers are the sum of 2 squares? How about 3 squares? 4 squares? How many representations are there? What about other forms such as x2+ny2?

One of the first theorems in arithmetic geometry is Hasse-Minkowski: that we can get information about a form by looking at them over all the primes p
- that is, by passing to what's known as the p-adic field Qp. We will use this to prove Lagrange's Theorem as well as sketch the proof of the 15-theorem.

On the algebraic side, if we restrict our attention to binary quadratic forms, we get an even nicer picture: it turns out that quadratic forms correspond to ideals in quadratic rings, giving a "composition law" for quadratic forms.


Prerequisites
Number theory Algebra II Familiarity with proofs and abstraction recommended

M5243: Introduction to Group Theory and Burnside's Lemma
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Dennis Tseng

We will introduce group theory from the very beginning and build up enough tools to prove Burnside's Lemma, which is a useful tool in counting things up to rotational symmetry. At the end, we will apply Burnside's Lemma to one or two problems.


Prerequisites
The class will move quickly, but everything will be built from scratch and self-contained. Some experience with proofs would be nice. To understand Burnside's Lemma, we will introduce groups, subgroups, cosets, group actions, and the orbit stabilizer theorem. If you already know what these are, then you will be bored.

M5050: Semi-Riemannian Geometry: the Mathematics of General Relativity
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Benjamin Horowitz

Come learn about the very exciting field of Semi-Riemannian Geometry. In this class we will discuss: Manifolds, Diffeomorphisms, Vector Fields, One Forms, Dual Spaces, Tensors, Metrics, Connections, Curvature, and Topology on Manifolds. This is the mathematical foundation of General Relativity, and it will be a roller coaster of fun! There will be allocated time in the middle for a break and answering math (or other) questions.


Prerequisites
This class will be very abstract and move very fast (effectively half of a graduate level course in 2 hours). Knowledge of calculus is a must, knowledge of multivariable calculus and linear algebra would be extremely helpful.

M4990: Difference Equations Make A Difference Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Dylan Yott

M5370: Gamma Function and Zeta Function
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Adam Hood

Want to learn how to compute (12)!? How about the sum of all the inverses of the positive perfect squares? Then come to this class where you will learn about functions


Prerequisites
An expert knowledge of basic algebra and a solid grounding in calculus

M5559: Graphiti Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

M5113: 101 Mindblowing Ways to Think About Math and Physics (Part 2) Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Norman Cao

M5167: Estimation: CLOSE ENOUGH!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lawrence Whisenant

Need to know something exactly?
THEN SKIP THIS CLASS!
But if you want to be CLOSE ENOUGH, this is the class for you! How did we calculate the volume of Earth? Get a reasonable estimate in your head!

M5163: What Is a Proof and Why Should I Care?
Difficulty: **

An explanation of the concept of proof within the context of an axiomatic system, touching on practical, philosophical, and purely mathematical aspects of proof with many examples.

M5072: Introduction to Statistics
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zoe Thorkildsen

This course will provide a quick and breezy introduction to the basic concepts underlying statistical analysis. We'll start at means and standard deviations and hopefully get to t-tests by the end of the class, with some side forays into probability distributions.

This class will focus on conceptual understanding and developing intuition rather than an unending string of formulas.

M5032: Analytic Number Theory
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Holden Lee

One main part of analytic number theory is the distribution of the prime numbers. We will sketch the proof of the Prime Number Theorem and Dirichlet's Theorem (with error bounds). On the way, we will introduce important techniques from complex analysis, Dirichlet series, and the Riemann zeta function.


Prerequisites
SOLID understanding of calculus. Complex numbers. Number theory.

M5254: Bertrand's Postulate and Beyond
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jessie Zhang

Bertrand's Postulate states that there is always a prime between n and 2n. In this class, we will present a beautiful proof by Paul Erdos. In leading to the proof, we will cover methods such as induction and proof by contradiction, and expand on topics such as binomial coefficients, Legendre's Theorem, and estimations. If time permits, we will see how we may derive a weaker form of the Prime Number Theorem using the same methods, or see how Bertrand's Postulate may be used in interesting problems, depending on student interests.


Prerequisites
Algebra

M5481: Rigorous Statistics and Econometrics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Georgiy Kolyshev

One of the most powerful tools in statistics is the linear model. It is based on the idea that you can explain an outcome by looking at some input variables and an error term.

It is clear that a tall person is likely to be heavy. That being said, the relationship is not perfect as other unrelated genetic factors also influence weight. In the linear model, the outcome would be a person's weight, the person's height would be the explanatory variable, and the other factors would be the error term. In this example we get an equation like (weight)=β0+β1(height)+ϵ. The value of β1 tells us exactly how strongly a person's height affects his or her weight.

This class will focus on linear regression. If we were omniscient beings, it would be possible to look at all possible heights and weights in order to directly calculate the value of β1. Unfortunately, this is not usually possible and we are forced to build an estimator ^β1 of β1 using ordinary least squares (OLS) or other methods.

In this class we will prove theorems to justify the use of statistical methods in the real world. One particularly famous result that we will prove is the Gauss-Markov theorem which shows that the ˆβ estimators given by OLS are in fact the best linear unbiased estimators under certain conditions.


Prerequisites
I won't be using anything too complicated, but some familiarity with the concepts of calculus such as derivatives, integrals, and the extreme value theorem would be useful. Again, some familiarity with ideas from statistics and probability would also be useful. Mathematical maturity is really the most important requirement.

M5051: A Quick and Dirty Introduction to Linear Algebra Full!
Difficulty: **

M5557: True but not Provable Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

M5418: Advanced Random Awesome Maths (Middle School Edition) Full!
Difficulty: ****

M4940: Cellular Automata and the Game of Life
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Abubakar Abid

What are cellular automata? Just a grid of cells, each of which have a particular state and evolve through time based on simple rules. Despite their apparent simplicity, cellular automata have a variety of applications and are able to model fluid flow, social networks, and even voting behavior. This class will focus on the visual and theoretical aspects and will include a discussion of John Conway's "Game of Life."


Prerequisites
Pre-Calculus Knowledge is required. Programming Experience is helpful. (The more math and computer science you know, the more you'll get out of it!)

M5315: Superhuman Integration Techniques
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Andre Kessler

How can you determine the exact value of π/20sinθdθ or 10ln2xln2(1x)dx by hand? What about 0x22x1dx or other similar integrals? The answer lies in series expansions and some really wacky special functions. We will go from infinite product expansions of entire functions to the Gamma function, and learn how this can be applied to things you didn't know you could integrate. Learn to evaluate stuff that doesn't even appear to converge -- and learn to beat your computer to it! Along the way, you'll find out what sorts of implications the Riemann hypothesis has for the prime numbers, why the sum of all the positive integers is 1/12, what the volume of an n-dimensional hypersphere is, and how to get rid of infinity when you need him out of your calculations.


Prerequisites
Solid background in calculus, some exposure to power series, and love of math! This course will move very quickly.

M5069: Introduction to Symbolic Logic and Proofs
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zoe Thorkildsen

This class is all about the foundations of proving statements. We’ll start with the underlying theory behind proofs (symbolic logic) and then take some time to prove a few simple theorems from number theory.

Any time leftover will be open to work on additional proofs and ask questions of the teacher.




Prerequisites
Basic algebra.

M4928: Fractional Calculus
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: W D

I know you've taken first derivatives, second derivatives, hell, even nth derivatives. And I know you've all been wondering: is there life beyond the integers? Are we all forever trapped in the integral hegemony? The time is nigh to break free from your integronormative upbringings! In this class, we will discuss non-integer order derivatives, and make sense of statements like 12-order derivative, π-order derivative, or even i-order derivatives! We will discuss the many ways to define derivatives and integrals to arbitrary order, including using the Riemann-Liouville operator and pseudodifferential operators. We will not be discussing applications because applications are for ninny physicists and engineers.


Prerequisites
Calculus I

M5256: The Mathematics of Games
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joshua Frisch

Games, though they may seem frivolous they have applications to multi-trillion dollar, and multimillion live decisions in everything from Finance to War to Love. In this class we will learn The theory of Games, its applications to politics, and life in general, as well as well as various mathematical topics related to games.


Prerequisites
Basic Algebra

M5234: Math Jeopardy Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Dylan Yott

M5265: Fractals, Factorials, and Functions
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Jonathan Warneke

Love calc? Can you recognize patterns? Want to see a new dimensions of math? COME!


Prerequisites
Calculus!


[Deprecated] Science

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S5063: Why We Can't Have Nice Things Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Helena Liu

S5111: All about insects: collecting, preserving, studying, and more!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: sung won cho

Insects and bugs are all around us. There are over hundreds of thousands of species so far discovered. Compare that to the number of mammalian species, which only number 5000 or so!
I will teach anyone interested all about how to collect, preserve, and study these various insects and bugs. You will be surprised just how many species you could find around your house or at school. At my high school, I found and identified over a hundred different species, using only two capturing methods!
I will also briefly describe my high school research project that I did with beetles and the great experiences that stemmed from it.

S4917: Human Reproductive Physiology
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Georgina Dorminy

This fast-paced Biology class will explore the physiological basis of human reproduction, focusing the generation of gametes -- sperm and egg cells. We will also discuss other functions of sex hormones in the body, and briefly consider the biology of pregnancy.


Prerequisites
Know what mitosis and meiosis are. If you're able to explain the difference between them in two sentences, you'll be fine in this class.

S5203: Special Relativity
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Elizabeth Qian

You've heard of special relativity. You sort of know Einstein came up with it, and it has something to do with E=mc2. But what's it got to do with you?

You use electric and magnetic fields in the most basic physics class. Find out why they're actually the same thing in this crash course in physics at the speed of light.


Prerequisites
Math: cross products Ideally, be familiar with Ampere's Law, Gauss's Law, and the Lorentz Force. Otherwise, be very interested in physics and know about E and B fields.

S5485: Random Topics in Biochemistry
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Fred Yu

Why is carbon monoxide deadly? How do we purify proteins? What's an isoelectric point, and, even more, why the heck do you even care? Remember when they taught you in high school about glycolysis? Yeah, that version was pretty lame.

Come find out all about hemoglobin, how cool and awesome glycolysis really is, and more! You may also ask me random biochem questions, which I have a decent probability of being able to answer. If you allow me Wikipedia and Google, the chance increases slightly, and if semi-coherent/fact-based BS counts as an answer, the probability approaches 100%. It'll be good. :)


Prerequisites
One year of chemistry is strongly recommended. Slight familiarity with thermodynamic and kinetic principles is very, very helpful.

S5540: Color theory
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Vincent Lee

Learn everything about color gamut, CIELAB, light perception, light emission.

It's really awesome.

S5020: Criminal Justice 101 Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Shar Gunn

S5320: Your art teacher LIED to you! Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

S4986: Lagrangian Mechanics and an Introduction to Field Theory
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Benjamin Horowitz

What shape of wire will minimize the time it takes for a bead to slide down it? How are classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and general relativity all fundamentally related? In this class we will do our best to answer these questions, learning handy ways to solve physics problems along the way as well as explore calculus of variations.



Prerequisites
You should have a solid handle of single variable calculus. Multivariable calculus will be pretty useful. You should also know what F=mA means.

S5186: Fun Side of Mechanics Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jonathan Abbott

S5173: The Black Hole Information Paradox Full!
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Eric Newman

S5351: Time Loop Genetics
Difficulty: **

I am my own grandfather! But wait… What happens with your DNA when you go back in time to do that? What if you kill your grandfather instead? We intend to explore the genetic implications of going back in time and changing your family tree. We will consider both stable and unstable time loops. Come learn about the genetic implications of time travel with us!


Prerequisites
None. We will go over all the basic biology needed.

S5122: Deep Sea Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Nicole Kang

S4968: The Skinny on Fats
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Walter Augustine

Do you want to learn about one of the most widespread sources of energy on the planet? Do you want to learn how to make your butter last 6 months or more? Want to learn about two PUFAs that can improve memory and supercharge your brain?

Come learn about fats, oils, greases, butters, and other obnoxiously hard-to-name hydrocarbon chains. This class will introduce basic fatty acid structure, as well as relevant human biological functions. We will talk about good, bad, and just plain ugly fats in your food.(And you will also learn what PUFA means.)


Prerequisites
Some knowledge of biology and chemistry would be great.

S5115: Biological Design
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lily Chan

Biology is not about memorization! This course will introduce students to concepts of basic laboratory methods (plasmid construction and amplification, PCR, primer design) and discuss how these relatively simple methods can be used creatively to design organisms capable of performing a variety of functions. You will be encouraged to share your own ideas towards the end of class.


Prerequisites
Some background or interest in biology would be helpful (know what a cell is, the difference between a eukaryote and prokaryote, what a protein is, the structure of DNA...), although we will review this briefly in class as well. No lab experience necessary!

S5346: The Birth, Life and Death of the Universe Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Laura McKnight

S5440: DNA Topology
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Charles Du

What shape is a strand of DNA? Everyone knows it's a double helix. But what exactly does that imply? Come learn about the topological constraints on DNA, and how the cell copes with them!

S4927: Carbon Chauvinism
Difficulty: **
Teachers: W D

We, as carbon-based lifeforms, have the terrible tendency towards carbon chauvinism, the assumption that all lifeforms in the universe would also be carbon-based and resemble earth lifeforms. This is not only impolite, it's politically incorrect! This class will ask you reconsider your inherently bigoted carbonocentric bias as we explore new heteroelemental paradigms in the form of alternative biochemistries. We will discuss alternative biochemistries in known organisms (e.g., extremophiles) and in theoretical organisms (e.g., the possibility of silicon-based life).


Prerequisites
Basic chemistry

S5043: Brood Parasitism
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Evan Kuras

Who wants to build a nest when your egg can be raised by some other bird? Sounds pretty ingenious to me... Explore the mechanics of this special avian relationship.

S4920: Introduction to Genetics Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: M H

S5400: Game Theory, Altruism, and Evolutionary Theory
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Shulin Ye

If it's the "survival of the fittest," why does altruism exist? Why do Homo sapiens spend so much time and energy keeping track of other members of their species? And what does game theory have to do with any of this?

S5224: Entropy Done Right
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Charles Xu

Ever had to sit through a tedious explanation of entropy using heat engines or some vague handwavy nonsense about "disorder"? That's The Man trying to keep you down. So don't be a part of his system. Learn to count its microstates instead, and discover the true meaning of entropy. Like a boss.

In this class we'll lay out the foundation of statistical mechanics and discuss how entropy, properly defined, lies at its heart. In fact, it's more fundamental than even temperature itself, leading to crazy consequences like negative temperatures that are hotter than any positive ones. From this definition we'll explain the Second Law and its applications to black holes, the arrow of time, and the origin and fate of the universe. Time permitting, we'll also discuss the counterintuitive fact that entropy and information are essentially the same thing, and what that implies for computation.


Prerequisites
Familiarity with logarithms and basic principles of probability is a must. Some background in calculus is recommended but not absolutely necessary.

S5178: The Search for Alien Life
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Hemant Chaurasia

What do you think: are we alone in the Universe? Today we are closer than ever before to answering that question, with an exciting array of space missions making tantalizing new discoveries about other worlds and the possibility of alien life. The Kepler mission is discovering hundreds of alien planets; NASA rovers are discovering that Mars was once warm and wet like the Earth; and this is only the beginning!

Come and learn all about the search for alien life -- the missions, the science, and the insights we can gain by understanding our own cosmic origins. Are we alone? Join us so that we can find out together!

S5334: The Genetics Revolution facilitated by Biotechnology
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Bob Weinberg

Our knowledge of genetics has exploded over the past couple of decades due to innovations in DNA technology and enzyme manipulation.

The new genetics allows scientists to modify the genes of animals, plants and man. Gene therapy is being tested - to cure disease by curing the "bad" gene.

New varieties of animals and plants are being made in the laboratory. Some of these new organisms are patented for ownership.

The visions of Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World" will shortly be upon us. We will delve into the DNA technology in survey, and then examine some of the ethical and legal aspects of genetic manipulation.


Prerequisites
General Biology course

S5428: Anatomy of a Metaphor Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: A L

S5185: Nobel Prizes Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Nicole Kang

S5176: Neglected Diseases of the Bottom Billion
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Seyedeh Zekavat

"What do the world’s “bottom billion” — the approximate number of the world’s citizens earning less than $1.25 USD per day — have in common? Aside from poor living conditions, malnutrition, and political voicelessness, they are also all more likely to suffer from so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), scourges that have become a hallmark of extreme poverty in the world. These diseases, neglected by the public eye and in research agendas, actually account for over half a million deaths per year and debilitate over a billion people [1]." ~UAEM website

The goal of this class is to increase awareness of and pique interest in Neglected Diseases. Diseases covered may include: blinding trachoma,elephantiasis, Buruli ulcer, and the plague of leprosy.

S5201: Stormy Science Full!
Difficulty: **

S5010: Probability and Genetics Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Chelsea Voss

S5175: Multiversal Architecture Full!
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Eric Newman

S5300: Troll Science Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ben Horkley, Ian Martin

S5350: Exoplanets Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Laura McKnight

S5538: The Science of Bacon Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zach .

S4910: A Very Gentle Introduction to Cancer Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sweet Tea Dorminy

S5318: Brain Science and You: Sights, Sounds, Smells, and More Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Abby Noyce

S5190: Personal Physics Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Ashley Villar

S5304: Dark Matter Detection: Discovering what the universe is made of Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Adam Strandberg

S5250: A Visual Introduction to Special Relativity
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Christian Ferko

Special relativity is an extremely unintuitive subject - its predictions, such as length contraction and time dilation, are completely at odds with what we experience in our everyday lives. We will try to get a feel for these weird effects using a tool called the spacetime diagram. Examination of these diagrams will allow us to see visually why relativistic effects occur, bypassing some of the involved derivations we would need to see such effects mathematically.

You should take this class if you're looking for a qualitative way to think about relativity and are comfortable glossing over the mathematical rigor (if you've studied relativity formally, this class will probably bore you).


Prerequisites
Basic algebra and geometry skills, like comfort with graphing lines and looking at shapes in the plane.

S5533: The total science of a can of Rockstar.
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Vincent Lee

We will delve into all aspects and facets of a can of Rockstar. We will look at the biochemistry of the drink, the derivation of the chemicals, the typography, the color set, and everything.

S5509: Chemistry of Explosions Full!

S4975: Elevator Science
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Kate Rudolph

The only Splash class taught in an elevator!

Use everyday objects, like bathroom scales and stopwatches, to take measurements, test hypotheses, and answer questions about the elevators at MIT.

We'll spend the first half-hour in the classroom, talking about correct experimental design. Then it's out to the elevators of MIT for data collection. We'll head back to the classroom to do some statistical analysis and discuss future work.


Prerequisites
An introductory physics class would be helpful, but not strictly necessary.

S5160: Mechanics for BEASTS
Difficulty: ***

Yo dawg, we heard you like physics so we put physics in your SPLASH so you can physics while you calculus while you gyroscope while you SPLASH in gyroscopic fluid. Come learn all the classical mechanics your body has room for in two 1-hour sessions, from kinematics to gyroscopes with examples/experiments for all topics covered. You've never seen physics like this, and neither have we.


Prerequisites
Calculus is highly recommended for derivations and examples, though this will be kept at a minimum.

S5308: Physics of the Electric Guitar
Difficulty: *

Come and learn about the physics of electric guitar and be a physics rock star! The electric guitar is an awesome instrument which uses some of the most beautiful physics ever discovered: waves (lots of sweet waves!) boundary conditions, electric fields inducing magnetic fields inducing currents, amplification of signals, distortion and filtering...
Come learn how all this physics works and how it makes the electric guitar rock!


Prerequisites
None (Well an enthusiastic mind never hurt...)

S4918: Faster Than Light
Difficulty: **
Teachers: James Penna

Hyperdrives, warp drives, wormholes, folded space-it's not just science fiction! Come learn the actual sciences behind hypothetical space travel technologies and why they could actually work outside of the pages of sci-fi and the silverscreen. You will be exposed to sciences ranging from quantum mechanics to general relativity to ecology and may even help repair the Millennium Falcon along the way.


Prerequisites
Some calculus and geometry preferred, as well as basic physics.

S5459: Climate Change
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Andrea Dubin

Have you heard about global warming? Ever wonder what the climate has done in the past? Come learn about what our climate has done, and what we might expect it to do in the future.


Prerequisites
This is primarily a discussion based class, please come prepared to share your thoughts and opinions.

S5287: Baking Chemistry Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Helena Liu

S5184: "Fission" For Answers: An Introduction to Nuclear Chemistry
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Edgar Gonzalez

Where was the first atomic bomb made? How do nuclear bombs work and why are they so destructive? What is radiation and how can it hurt us? Are there any non-destructive uses for the discoveries and advances that have been made in the past 100 years? This class will feature a brief history of nuclear chemistry followed by a deeper look at nuclear fusion, fission, and radiation. We will also discuss other ways that nuclear chemistry has impacted humanity.

S4903: Your classical intuition is wrong!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jason Gross

Do you think you have a good grasp of physics? A good intuition for the physical world? Come learn about the predictions of quantum mechanics (and the experiments that validate these predictions) which violate your fundamental beliefs about the universe!

S5121: Ants
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Nicole Kang

Have you ever wondered how ants coordinate with each other so well, as if controlled by a singular mind? Are you bored of your current fears and want to fuel your nightmares with a real threat? Come learn about the evolutionary techniques of the Formicidae family, perhaps the only creatures on Earth as invasive and warlike as ourselves!

S5298: The Entire Universe In 3 Hours: A Crash Course in Cosmology
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Adam Strandberg

Cosmology is the field of science that attempts to answers some of humanity's deepest questions. What is our place in the universe? How did everything begin? Will it all end in fire or in ice, or never end at all?

Come learn about some of the attempts we have made to answer these questions, as well as some bits about the big bang, the expanding universe, general relativity, dark matter, dark energy, and techniques of astronomy.


Prerequisites
Some familiarity with basic classical physics (newtonian mechanics and electromagnetism)

S5333: You Are Not Human
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jennifer Hogan

How much of your body is actually human? You know, really living, breathing YOU. Not as much as you might think. There are 10 times more bacteria on you than human cells, 48% of your DNA comes from viruses, and your red blood cells are not alive. Come learn not about what you are, but about what you aren’t.


Prerequisites
Highschool Biology

S5420: Introduction to Synthetic Biology
Difficulty: *

Ever wonder if you could re-program cells to do whatever you wanted? With synthetic biology, the possibilities are endless!

Synthetic biology provides a unique opportunity to combine knowledge from electrical engineering, biological engineering, chemical engineering, and biology. This class will take you through the fundamentals of synthetic biology and introduce you to the applications of this fascinating new field!


S4907: Explosive Chemistry!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Sweet Tea Dorminy

Everyone knows that one of the best parts of chemistry is blowing things up. Come learn about the chemical structure and synthesis of explosive materials! Sadly, we can’t blow anything up ourselves, but we can watch videos of it. Along the way, we’ll learn about organic synthesis, how explosives are made; thermodynamics and characteristics of explosives, why things explode; and plenty of other awesome and explosive chemistry.



Prerequisites
Know what a Lewis structure is

S5396: The Lab-Manual of Sherlock Holmes Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Victoria Chang

S5569: Group Theory and Chemistry
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jonathan Lee

Did you ever wonder why chemical bonds form? Or what about how scientists and mathematicians work with symmetry? This class will teach introductory group theory (symmetry!) and how this applies to one of the strongest bonds in science.


Prerequisites
Algebra and enthusiasm!

S5321: Your sailing instructor (or physics textbook) LIED to you! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

S5434: Drug Discovery and Clinical Development Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Stephanie Bachar

S5503: Supernovae and the Expanding Universe Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Michael Shaw

S5154: Modern Physics Lecture Blitz

Physics is all around us. Every day we hear stories about bigger and better particle colliders, an expanding universe, and new forms of exotic matter. This course is geared at getting you up to speed on some of the newest and most exciting discoveries in modern physics. MIT's Society for Physics Students have compiled a set of lightning lectures on topics including:

-Cosmology and the Big Bang
-Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics
-Relativity and Gravity
-Statistical Mechanics
-Astrophysics

Come be a part of the cutting edge of physics.


Prerequisites
Lectures will be mostly qualitative, it will be helpful to be comfortable with algebra.

S5358: Senses and Sense-abilities Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Anna Ho

S5480: Systems Biology: Understanding and Designing Biological Systems Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Arvind Thiagarajan

S4987: Cosmology Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Benjamin Horowitz

S5291: Classic Examples in Physics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lauren McGough

I'll go through both the thought experiments and real experiments that motivate various areas of physics, and use classic examples to give insight into what the foundational equations of the theories actually say. The motivations and explanations will not be highly mathematical, but I will do computations to demonstrate the power of the theories.


Prerequisites
Not being afraid of math, though the main goal of the class is not computational

S4902: Molecular Dynamics
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Anubhav Sinha

Ever wanted to discover the science of computational molecular modeling? Come learn about the dance of the molecules and learn about the bleeding edge of computational chemistry!

S5405: What's a Quasicrystal?
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Liza Plotnikov

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is being awarded to Dan Shechtman "for the discovery of quasicrystals". In this class, we'll talk about what a crystal is in the context of materials science, how a quasicrystal is different from a regular crystal, what quasicrystals are used for, and why their discovery is deserving of a Nobel prize.


Prerequisites
high school chemistry

S5419: The Big Bang Happened Everywhere
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Molly Swanson

We live in a universe full of mysteries. You've probably heard that our universe started in a "Big Bang", but what does that really mean? It's not a "bang" in the traditional sense, but a stretching of space itself. Understanding the true nature of this expansion reveals a surprising fact: the Big Bang happened everywhere! What's more, over 90 percent of our universe is made up of substances we don't understand: dark matter and even more mysterious dark energy. Please come join us for an exciting discussion about our amazing universe.


Prerequisites
An understanding of graphing in the coordinate plane

S5044: The Nature of Nature Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Evan Kuras

S5521: Scale of the Universe
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Stephen Face

Do you like scales? What about universes? If so, then this class is for you!

From our solar system to giant walls of galaxies, I will show the scale of the universe and leave you with an appreciation of your insignificance.

S5095: Biology without terminology
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Mee Sun Lee

Sick of memorizing every term in your biology textbook? Also, sick of solving boring equations? Try learning in a different way! Several mathematical models to describe biological phenomena will be introduced.


Prerequisites
mathematical knowledge on differential equations or linear algebra would be helpful.

S5456: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Emma Nechamkin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat.

We'll talk a bit about a wave function, which is the basis of much of quantum mechanics. We'll explore what a wave function is, what an orbital is, what the basis for Schrodinger's cat is, and various approximations we make when we do quantum mechanics. We will also talk a little bit about the ways computational chemistry have affected the field.


Prerequisites
chemistry (preferably AP) physics math

S5123: Smallpox
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Nicole Kang

Smallpox, the sole killer of more people than all the wars in the 20th century and the Great Plague. There are many questions surrounding this virus. When did it appear? Why is it gone now? Is it still a threat? Join us in this terrifying adventure through history and how this disease turned the world upside down.

S5029: Entropy, and Deriving the Ideal Gas Law: Statistical Mechanics
Difficulty: **

Have you seen people walking around MIT with shirts saying PVnR and wondered why that was supposed to equal T? Have you ever
wondered why time moves forward; why cold things melt; how we are
supposedly running out of energy, despite the fact that scientists
tell us that energy is conserved; why engines cannot be perfectly
efficient? We will introduce the physical variable entropy and
describe some of its many uses in science. One of these will be to
derive the famous ideal gas law PV=nRT.


Prerequisites
Differential calculus; maybe some classical mechanics, although if you are willing to believe us when we say E=p2/2m and other basic results then you'll probably be fine.

S5439: Terraforming Planets: I Did the Fjords, You Know Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Allison Schneider

S5322: Your chemistry and physics teachers LIED to you!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

Entropy. Is not. A state variable.
And it's not a "measure of disorder" either (if it were maybe it would be a state variable).
Entropy is also not "always increasing" in any fundamental-force-of-physics-sense.
Why have you been LIED to so many times?

Well, chemists have a good reason - they treat entropy like a state variable because in thermodynamics, you usually can because experimenters always lose information and are never patient enough to retrieve it. But, while you can work with the formulas in this light, the theory explained in textbooks makes no sense. It is *cough* COMPLETELY FALSE *cough*

This class will be a rigorous explanation of entropy via the mathematics of information theory. We'll also need a rigorously defined notion of chaos and some high dimensional phase spaces... so, this class will be fast-paced and full of mathematical rigor.


Prerequisites
It might be useful (but not necessary) if you've seen the typical high-school-textbook introduction to entropy (those false things mentioned above) just so that it becomes clear, via the content of this class, that a different approach is necessary to well-define and justify the ideas that "textbook entropy" is getting at.

S5197: The Physics of the Universe in One Hour Full!
Difficulty: ***

S5313: Neuropharmacology: drugs and your brain Full!
Difficulty: **

S4954: Introduction to Special Relativity
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ryan Normandin

This is the class that will throw everything you know out the window. Time travel is not only possible, scientists actually know how to do it! The Law of Conservation of Mass is a lie. Energy Conservation is another lie. From a four-dimensional point of view, you are a strand of spaghetti. Come and learn how to not only time travel, but turn into a black hole while you’re at it!


Prerequisites
Algebra

S5570: Org-O in 1 hr!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Jonathan Lee

Learn all of organic chemistry in 1 hr.


Prerequisites
Some chemistry background is probably preferred, but probably not necessary.

S4938: Stellar and Star System Evolution
Difficulty: **

From nebulous birth to cataclysmic death, come learn about the stars. Explore the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and the Main Sequence, predict when star will die, and learn how a star can form and harbor planets. Impress your friends with your new-found knowledge of astrophysics!


Prerequisites
some physics

S5253: Maxwell's Equations and Vector Calculus
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Christian Ferko

The four Maxwell equations form the bedrock of classical electromagnetism - together they describe the interaction of charges, the propagation of light, the inner workings of circuits, and a great deal more. In this class we'll try to gain an appreciation for these equations, understanding what they mean and why they are so powerful.

The first hour of the class will be mostly preliminary work in vector calculus and basic properties of fields (I will try to explain all of the math as intuitively as possible, but some parts may become involved). In the second hour we'll tackle the equations head-on, and maybe see some applications as time permits.


Prerequisites
Solid understanding of single variable calculus; some background in electricity and magnetism (knowing about charges and electric fields, for example) is helpful.

S5380: Fermi Problems: Estimation 101.
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Christina Dedrick

How powerful is an atomic bomb? How many piano tuners are in New York City? How much energy is in a D-cell battery? How many cells are in the human body? Learn to answer these questions with just a pencil, paper, your brain and a little knowledge of the world around you.


Prerequisites
Familiarity with units, currently taking or have taken chemistry of some type.

S5226: Quantum Mechanics and What It All Means
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Charles Xu

Is the moon still there when you're not looking? What about an electron? If so, where? Why should there be a difference? Is there a difference?

Even as they've crafted quantum mechanics into the most fantastically successful theory ever, physicists still struggle with the basic question of interpreting what's going on. In this class we'll introduce the bare bones of QM, as well as the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation and why it's so deeply unsatisfying. We'll talk about how Einstein got it subtly wrong and why it took so long to pinpoint his error. Finally, we'll run through some popular alternative interpretations like many-worlds (the multiverse), de Broglie-Bohm pilot waves, and decoherence...plus the bigger issue of why/whether any of it matters scientifically.


Prerequisites
An open mind and not much else. What little math we need will be covered as we go along.

S5290: Biophysics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lauren McGough

Physics provides beautiful insights into biology. I'll talk about examples where a systems approach changes our understanding of biology, and where experimentally determined facts like scaling laws can help us uncover a basic physical model for mechanisms underlying biological phenomena. I'll work from the molecular scale to the organism scale to the population scale, showing that physics-based methods and mathematical models can deepen our understanding of biology and evolution.


Prerequisites
The class will use math and go through examples in some technical detail, so just be prepared for this

S5245: Salamander Regeneration Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Stephanie Tsai

S5306: Topics in Physics
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Kevin Burdge

Will cover some introductory mechanics content--useful for anyone taking a high school physics course. Will also address a few selected topics in theoretical physics.


Prerequisites
Concurrent or prior enrollment in a high school physics course.

S5376: Bose Einstein Condensate, Laser Cooling and the Race to Absolute Zero
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Megan Williams

What are Bose Einstein condensate? Are they really a fifth state of matter? How do they form? How could you used a laser to cool something and is absolute zero really possible? Sign up and find out!

S4908: Anthrax is Awesome: Why Administering Toxin Is (Sometimes) A Good Idea Full!
Difficulty: ****
Teachers: Sweet Tea Dorminy

S4979: The Physics of Spacetime: Black Holes, Time Travel and more... Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Ky-Anh Tran

S5114: 101 Mindblowing Ways to Think About Math and Physics (Part 3)
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Norman Cao

Want to learn a little relativity, when (1+x)n=1+nx, how to count from -512 to 511 on your fingers, and if cats in boxes really can die? Want to see an MIT student bust his voice and brains to teach you every trick in the book he knows for 3 hours?

101 Mindblowing Ways to Think About Math and Physics will go over 101 different revelations in nearly every branch of math and physics imaginable, and then some, each guaranteed to impress your friends who didn't attend and make you rethink everything you thought you knew.

Part 3 of 3 will cover physics. All of it. Parts 1 and 2 (optional) can be found in the Mathematics section.


Prerequisites
This series is geared towards students in precalculus, but any student with a grasp on functions and geometry should be able to follow along. Part 3 also requires a little knowledge about physics.

S5404: Why do Metals Conduct Electricity?
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Liza Plotnikov

Why do metals conduct electricity? Why do insulators insulate? What the heck is a semiconductor? In this class we’ll talk about what gives a material its electrical properties. We’ll also learn how there properties can be tweaked to build electronic devices (like the computer you’re using to read this course description).


Prerequisites
high school chemistry and physics

S5076: What You Won't Learn in Chem Class: The True Explanations Behind Chemical Phenomena
Difficulty: **

Ever wondered about why mercury is a liquid at room temperature? Or about the real reason why elements tend to react in such a way so that they achieve noble gas electron configurations? (The answer is far more nuanced than "noble gas configurations are stable.") Tired of having to accept chemical principles and observations without explanation? Then come to my class to learn the real reasons behind why substances behave and react in the way that they do; afterwards, you will understand and appreciate chemistry in a much more nuanced and accurate way.


Prerequisites
A year of high school chemistry or equivalent. (Completion of or current enrollment in AP (or IB) chemistry or equivalent is suggested but definitely not required.)

S4943: Introduction to Genetics Full!
Difficulty: **

S5442: Organic Chemistry Crash Course
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: David Huang

Learn how to synthesize Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), TNT, and all that wonderful drugs (....pharmaceutical ones of course) you use to fight diseases. This class will be a combination of theory and real world application. Live demo TBA.


Prerequisites
One year of general chemistry. If you got AP chemistry background, GREAT! you should definitely take this class then.

S5015: Weather of East Coast to West Coast - Why so different?
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jee Soo Yoo

In a rainy day in Boston, have you ever wished you had sunny weather all the time? Indeed, California has its nick name, "Sunny California." Why is the weather in New England and California so different?

Starting with some understanding on ideal gas, centrifugal force, and basic thermodynamic knowledge, we will discuss the scientific reasoning for the differing weather between the two areas. The course objective is to provide the students some sense in how different parts of science are merged together to understand natural phenomena of weather.

S5104: Biomathematics
Difficulty: **
Teachers: David Girardo

When people think of biology, they think of wet and squishy, test tubes and pipettes. What they don't know is that there's a whole world of abstract nonsense underpinning these studies, and advances in computer processing have revealed them. First, we'll briefly talk about some computational tools used to handle the vast amounts of data involved in genomics. Then we'll talk about replicator theory, the characterization of abstract life.


Prerequisites
Some programming. Comfort with abstract thinking.

S5058: Awesome Findings in Psychology Full!
Difficulty: **

S5562: Selected Topics in Introductory Physics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lawrence Chiou

You've used F = ma before but felt like all you did were some cut-and-dried problems. In this intensive course, we will go beyond plugging and chugging and spamming equations by examining some interesting and challenging examples in introductory physics, as well as by exploring some topics not frequently seen in high school physics courses. Topics include non-uniform circular motion; rotational motion; special relativity; the relationship between the magnetic and electric field; and systems with variable mass or acceleration.


Prerequisites
Though the course is self contained, most will find that a working knowledge of kinematics, Newton's laws, and electricity and magnetism will be necessary to keep up with the fast pace of the course.

S4952: Origins of Modern Science from Copernicus to Newton Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lance Ozier

S5551: Maxwell's Equations
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

These four equations describe one of the most universal and elegant relations in physics. They are Maxwell’s equations, unifying all observations of relativity, electricity, and magnetism. Don’t let the notation scare you off – this class has no prerequisites (as in, just be able to graph a function), but we will rigorously derive Maxwell’s explanation of electromagnetic phenomena (including light, electricity, magnets, …). “Derive” with the catch that, as I don’t believe in writing long equations on the board, everything in this class will be presented as a series of intuitive /and/ rigorous deductions, preserving concepts rather than constants. We will begin with only two observations. First, the relativistic nature of light: you can’t catch up to a light beam – it will always move away from you at speed c. Second, our observations of the force between two charges described by q_1*q_2/r^2: q_1 and q_2 being the magnitude of the two charges, and r being the distance between them. From these two observations, we will DERIVE the explanation of everything else. Aka, the world will unfold before you and it will be beautiful.


Prerequisites
All this said, and there being no “hidden prerequisites,” the world will need to unfold before you /very/ quickly. I basically just claimed that I would introduce all of single-variable calculus and about half of multivariable calculus in the first hour of class – which I believe is an attainable goal – but this class will be rigorous, will be extremely intense, and will require the full two hours.

S5055: The Incredible Water Bear! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ana Lyons

S5249: Centauri Tomorrow: Long Term Space Mission Planning
Difficulty: **

Taught by the MIT chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, this class will detail humanity's first interstellar mission.
The year: 2070. Artificially produced radio signals have been detected from the Alpha Centauri system 4.3 light years away-Humanity is no longer alone in the universe.
It has become priority one for NASA to begin construction on the first manned interstellar spacecraft to establish contact with the Centaurians-how will we get there? What will the spacecraft look like? How can humans survive the decades-long journey? What will we do when we get there? Learn the answers to these questions and more-today Earth, tomorrow Centauri.


Prerequisites
None-come with an appreciation for space travel and exploration and space science and engineering

S5571: Biochemistry Fundamentals in Disease Research
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Nevin Daniel

This is going to be a hectic, crash course (with discussion) in as many basic fundamentals of biochemistry on a high AP/college level that I can fit in and then use them to look at current research in 1-2 diseases (e.g. cancer). For people who want AP exam prep, background for a high school research project, or just are generally interested in biochem and medicine.


Prerequisites
AP Chemistry/AP Biology and some Organic Chemistry experience are definitely recommended.

S5179: Science Bowl: How to Win Full!
Difficulty: **

S5409: Dreams and Dreaming Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Carol Hardick

S5257: DON'T PANIC: The Psychology of Fear Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ranbel Sun

S5162: Chemistry of Explosions
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tejas Navaratna

Structural chemistry, thermodynamics of explosive compounds. Reaction mechanisms, molecular engineering, stability considerations. Development, application, and future of chemical explosives.


Prerequisites
high school chemistry

S5565: Physics 'n' Coffee
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Lauren McGough

If mathematicians turn tea into theorems, do physicists turn coffee into awesomeness? We think so - come find out how while enjoying physics, coffee, and associated snacks.


Prerequisites
No fear of math. Either exposure to calculus or lack of fear of not completely understanding would be helpful.

S5054: Weird Atoms and Strange Photons: The Quantum Nature of the Universe
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Hiro Miyake

It turns out that behind the scenes nature works in bizarre and wonderful ways. I'll explain some of these ideas at the size of atoms, where particles routinely walk through walls, are both everywhere and nowhere at once and where almost anything can happen. One place where these weird cases occur is at very cold temperatures, billionths of degrees above absolute zero. At these temperatures, millions of atoms can act as one huge atom. We’ll discuss these cryptic sentences and explain how weird our universe really is.


Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites. Just a desire to learn how nature works.

S4955: Introduction to Special Relativity Part II (Advanced)
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ryan Normandin

More Special Relativity! More complicated concepts, including Lorentz diagrams.


Prerequisites
Algebra Geometry

S5198: All About Birds Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Rebecca Shi


[Deprecated] Walk-in Seminar

[ Return to Category List ]

W5466: The Wonderful World of Shoelaces
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zach Minster

Believe it or not, there's more than just one way to lace up (and tie) the shoes on your feet. Want to learn to lace your shoes like straight bars, a spider-web, a starburst, a supernova, or a lattice? Want to learn how to tie your shoes so you'll (hopefully) never need to tie them again? Want to generally use your footwear to look like a boss? You'll see these methods and many more as you practice on your own shoes. Make a statement - use an awesome, unique lacing method (perhaps a different one on each shoe) with some colored (perhaps more than one color on each shoe) laces!

W5328: Rock Paper Scissors Tournament
Difficulty: **

A chance to display your new found techniques and achieve glory. Will you play the Scrapbook, Death and Taxes or perhaps the powerful Fistful of Dollars! Come play in our tournament in your spare time.

W5282: Monty Python
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tony Zhao

"One of the things we tried to do with the show was to try and do something that was so unpredictable that it had no shape and you could never say what the kind of humor was. And I think that the fact that "pythonesque" is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary shows the extent to which we failed."

Watch classic clips from Monty Python, including "How not to be seen," the Dead Parrot Sketch, and "What have the Romans done for us?"

W5149: Beaded Bracelet
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sara Goheen

Learn the peyote beading stitch using elastic cording and clear pony beads to make a bracelet.

W5577: Forward Engineering!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Vincent Lee

Come help build an electric scooter!

W5174: Liar's Poker
Difficulty: **

I call a Full House of 5s! Are you going to call higher or call BS on me?! Come and learn to (or just come if you already know!) play a game of bold claims and subtle bluffs!

W5019: Throwing Frisbees
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Lisa Liu

When you try to throw a frisbee ahead of you, does it somehow end up landing behind you? If you're absolutely baffled how to get these things to fly, drop in to learn from MIT's ultimate frisbee teams! And if you think you already have throwing down and also want to learn some other techniques, you're welcome too!



W5153: Physics Circus

Do you like playing with lasers? Ever wonder how a gyroscope moves? Magnets - how do those work? Come join us for some fun physics demos including air tracks, pendulums and experiments you can play with for yourself!

W4913: T-Shirt Transformation
Difficulty: **
Teachers: E Rosser

Inside your standard T-shirt, there's a beautiful piece of artwork, waiting to burst forth! Wait a second... take that portrait out of your shirt! What were you even...nevermind. Here. Take these scissors and have fun. Bring your own ideas, use ours, or just come and play with needle and thread!

W5240: Traditional Chinese Lion Dancing
Difficulty: **

Lion Dancing is a traditional Chinese dance performed during Chinese New Year and various other celebrations (weddings, festivals etc.). Come join us and see what it's like to be a lion dancer!

W4973: Schafkopf!
Difficulty: **

Do you dream of picking up big ladies in the blind? Do you dare to pick on red death? Do you have nightmares schmearing to the partner, only to find yourself failing to make schneider, or even worse, getting schwartzed?

Come play Schafkopf, a German trick-tacking card game of epic proportions -- and even more epic words. We pity the mauers.

W5132: Friendship Bracelet Making
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Kathy Yang

Learn how to tie simple knots and patterns with colorful threads to make friendship bracelets! Friends not required - you can make them for yourself too!

W5183: Set
Difficulty: **

Set is an awesome game that's all about finding patterns as quickly as you can... come play with us!

W5191: Dominion
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joshua Frisch

Dominion is an amazing deck building game by Donald X. Vaccarino which is easily capable of eating obscene amounts of your time, want to learn how to play and, possibly, get addicted! Come to this walk in seminar for a few fast and friendly games.

W5547: Candy Creations!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Reuben Aronson

Come be a civil engineer! Build elaborate constructions out of graham crackers and frosting. Build a bridge or the Empire State Building. And then eat them. :-)

W4996: Scholar's Bowl Tournament: Prove You Know Everything
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ruth Byers

Think you know more than your friends know? Scholar's Bowl is a fast-paced, 5-against-5 academic quiz game where you can prove to them it's true. Listen to the questions and if you think you know the answer, press your buzzer. Drop in to play a round or pull your team through the entire tournament.

*For those of you who have played Quiz Bowl, Scholar's Bowl is a simpler version on the same concept- take away tossups and bonus questions and insert just 14 straight-up (usually short) questions per round of academic awesome.

W5206: Chess Simultaneous Exhibition
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Daniel Grazian

I will be running a simultaneous chess exhibition. This means I will be playing a dozen or more people at once, moving from board to board. See if you can take me down!

W5285: Swing Dancing
Difficulty: **

Come learn how to swing dance! We'll start from the basic steps and move onto more complicated steps as time allows. No partner necessary; everyone will be rotating and switching partners as we go anyway.

W5211: Silent Football
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ami Greene

A game that is neither silent nor football.

Create a universe, defy hallucinogenic phantasms, spy for a nefarious lexicological dictator, bewilder the eye and mind, and interact with an incorporeal entity, all without leaving your seat.

W5340: Spades!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Valkyrie Felso

Come take a break from classes and play a quick game of spades (or two, or three...) No experience necessary.

W5030: Ninjas
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Benjamin Kraft

Be a ninja in Lobby 13.

W5103: Ultimate Frisbee - How to Throw a Disc
Difficulty: **

The first step in learning to play ultimate is to learn to throw a disc. This class provides a tutorial on how to throw a 175g Discraft Ultra-Star disc, the standard game disc of ultimate players everywhere.

W5011: Linguistics Problem Solving
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Chelsea Voss

اللسانيات! Мовазнаўства! भाषाविज्ञान! 언어학! Γλωσσολογία! Ngôn ngữ học! Linguistics!

Come solve fun problems from the Linguistics Olympiads, NACLO and IOL! A variety of languages, problem styles, and difficulty levels will be provided for you to solve. Logic and reasoning are your main weapon here -- no prior linguistics knowledge required!

W5487: Playing with Liquid Nitrogen
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jessica Parker

Have you ever shattered a rose? Levitated chalk? Hammered a nail with a banana? Everything is more fun at 77 Kelvin.

W4981: Solving Crosswords
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Taylor Sutton

In this walk-in seminar, I'll have lots of crosswords for everyone to solve! Crosswords from sources such as the New York Times and LA Times, ranging from easy to impossibly difficult, both themed and themeless. Perhaps a few cryptics will sneak their way in as well. Anyone welcome, even complete beginners.

W5484: Durak Playing
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sheina Godovich

Learn how to play this classic Russian card game and have a blast!

W5366: Salsa with Salsa!
Difficulty: **

Come by and learn to salsa dance and eat some chips and salsa.

W5305: Smoothie Experimentation
Difficulty: **

Ever wondered how to make a smoothie? Maybe you've made a few smoothies, but you've never really had a chance to experiment with different ingredients. Either way, this class is for you! Come help make tasty smoothies and then drink them!

W5077: Play Go!
Difficulty: **

This walk-in seminar is run by the MIT Go Club. Go is a truly great game with simple rules but endless complexity, so whether you are a complete beginner or an expert or anywhere in between, you should stop by and learn/play some go!

Some info about Go:
Go, also known as Weiqi in Chinese and Baduk in Korean, is a game that originated in China about five thousand years ago. Two players, black and white, take turns placing a stone on a 19 by 19 board. The objective is to control a larger territory than the opponent. The rules are so simple; yet from simplicity comes endless complexity and strategic depth. Whereas the strongest chess programs can routinely defeat grandmasters, the strongest Go program can be defeated by a strong club player.

W5239: Post-it Pokemon
Difficulty: **

Have you ever made a picture out of post-its? Do you like Pokemon? If the answer to both these questions is yes, then come in and help us as we individually re-create a Pokemon sprite with post-its as individual pixels. Come in and help out anytime, and help us create the masterpiece of a lifetime.

W5337: SPLASHLIGHTS: Micro LED Flashlights
Difficulty: **

Make a micro LED Flashlight!

LED + Switch + AA Battery = LED Flashlight.

In 15 minutes, make your own and take it home!

W5460: Gigantic Rubber Band Web
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Zachary Abel

Learn how to make huge, sprawling, stretchy, geometric webs out of household rubber bands. In this collaborative project, we will build a mathematically-inspired geometric sculpture that stretches, quite literally, from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. No artistic or mathematical abilities are required.

W5316: Tea Tasting
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Sweet Tea Dorminy

Come taste some classy tea. Not just one classy tea --- from green to white to black to pu'erh, we'll have all sorts of beautiful teas to taste!

W5026: Nerd Sniping
Difficulty: **

Problems. We will have them. You will do our problems. Mathy/physicsy/CSy/logicy/whatevery problems!

W5210: Object Manipulation and Acrobatics

Because you've always wanted to run away and join the circus. We will be going over poi, staff, rope dart, contact juggling, and whatever else we can find.

W5398: Get your (biology) questions answered!
Difficulty: **

You have questions? We have answers.

Come ask us ANYTHING you want about biology!

How can we sequence DNA? What makes slime molds awesome? How does the immune system work? Why don't antibiotics poison humans? How do Venus flytraps do that? Why don't all mutations cause cancer? What is selenocysteine? How could evolution produce life as we know it?

W5355: Liquid Nitrogen, and Ice Cream!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Laura McKnight

Come learn about some cool properties of liquid nitrogen, and get to try some ice cream made with liquid nitrogen.

W4953: Duct Tape Creations (without Wallets)
Difficulty: **

Make anything you've ever wanted to make out of duct tape! (As long as you don't want to make a wallet, they're boring.) Make a hat! Make a cat! Make some gloves or a dove. Really, anything.

W5247: Origami!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Katarina Dutton

Stop by and learn how to make something interesting out of a sheet of paper, or show off what you can do!

W5118: Bughouse!
Difficulty: **

Come play bughouse with us! In case you don't know, bughouse is a variant of chess involving teams of two and the ability to place taken pieces. We'll give you a brief intro and then play some games! Maybe we'll even do a mini-tournament!

W5108: Fish!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Anthony Lu

Canadian Fish, not to be mistaken for its little cousin Go Fish, is a card game of intense concentration, memory, and deduction. Plan to stay for 30 minutes or more. Prepare to be mentally tested.

W5181: Epic Fort Building
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Emily TenCate

Come learn how to create an epic castle from the most mundane of materials.

W5213: Magic: the Gathering
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Eugenio Fortanely

Do you like playing Magic? I bring you Magic: the Walk In Seminar. Bring a deck and come play against other students.

W5461: Factorials and other Mathyness
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jacobi Vaughn

This will be a short walk-in seminar based around factorials. If the concept has never been seen before, then it will be explained symbolically and with examples. Then the fun begins with fractional and negative factorials (including the gamma function maybe), assuming students are interested. Also any other cool mathyness I feel like rambling about.

W5483: Foodtongue
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Gary Wang

Food-tongue grass tongue cheese ham-sandwich. Mint tongue-slice fish food-tongue grass food. Fish gyro Kool-Aid-slice, mint-apple spinach red-pepper tongue mint tongue-slice quiche grass cheese English-muffin-tongue. Kumquat pasta-peach-sauce plantain tongue food-tongue!

How much of a language can you learn in half an hour? What if you're not allowed to ask for translations?

W5579: Mafia!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Saheela Ibraheem

Classic game of deceit, treachery and murder. Come play mafia and meet cool people!

W5242: Art of Problem Solving Meet-Up!
Difficulty: **

Are you an AoPS member? Come meet your fellow AoPS geeks! Three of us MIT freshmen - Felix (sunnyboy780), Luyi, and Joel (joelinia) - are TAs for the AoPS classes, and we want to meet as many of you as possible.

Of course, we'll have fun math problems for you to attack, and name tags so you can identify others by screen name.


Miscellaneous

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X5261: Rock Paper Scissors: Real Professional Strategies. Full!
Difficulty: *

X5141: Star Wars: Grand Army of the Republic
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Katherine Karwoski

Interested in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) used during the Clone Wars? Want to learn more about the different kinds of clones and what their functions were? We’ll be discussing the different types and specialties of clones and the command structure of the GAR. There will be prop replicas of clone helmets and blasters. This class will focus more on the function and structure of the GAR and less on the battles from the Clone Wars. If you want to learn more about the war and the events leading up to it, please also take our History of the Star Wars Galaxy class, part 3 covers the Clone Wars era.

This course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: History of the Star Wars Galaxy, Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, and two discussion courses.


Prerequisites
Students must have watched the Star Wars movies and must be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy.

X5406: Intro to Modern Yo-yoing! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: John Chow

X5580: Boffer Swords 101: Expanded Size Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joe Martin, Alyssa Zisk

X5216: Beginning Morris Dancing - an ancient English tradition
Difficulty: *

Morris dancing is an ancient form of folk dance from the small villages of England. No one knows where Morris dancing comes from, but we do know that people have been whacking sticks at least since Shakespeare's time.

We'll start off with a short history of Morris dancing and then members of the Red Herring Morris Team will teach several easy dances from the border region of England and Wales.

Come prepared to move, clash sticks, and have fun.

Sneakers or sturdy shoes are required. Live music will be provided by members of the team.

Some videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXE2htL-6NA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tVAS_WSkWA


Prerequisites
A love of clashing sticks, all things British, and the knowledge of which foot is your left one. No previous experience is required.

X5138: Languages of Star Wars (Xenolinguistics) Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Katherine Karwoski

X5067: Accounting 101
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Rahat Bathija

Students interested in Accounting will learn basic accounting skills. The class will introduce financial statements including balance sheets and income statements and learn how to read them.

X5219: Intermediate Morris Dancing - an ancient English tradition
Difficulty: **

This class will be a continuation of the Beginning Morris Dancing class. Depending on multiple variables, such as skills, the weather, and interests we may perfect the earlier dances, learn some more challenging ones, or move outside to perform some of the dances.

Morris dancing is an ancient form of folk dance from the small villages of England. No one knows where Morris dancing comes from, but we do know that people have been whacking sticks at least since Shakespeare's time.

Come prepared to move, clash sticks, and have fun.

Sneakers or sturdy shoes are required. Live music will be provided by members of the Red Herring Morris Team.

Some videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXE2htL-6NA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tVAS_WSkWA


Prerequisites
Beginning Morris Dancing or some experience with Morris Dancing.

X4991: Intro to Hipster Culture
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Justin M

Urban Outfitters, skinny jeans, flannels, and other hipster icons have become major aspects of the mainstream American lifestyle. Together we will study just how Hipsters came to be, what exactly being a Hipster entails, and where the culture might be going.


Prerequisites
Nada

X4905: ZDI.001 Introduction to Zombie Defense
Difficulty: *

The zombie apocalypse may be just around the corner, do you want to be fresh meat, or a prepared member of the Zombie Defense Initiative, ready for anything? Join us as we talk about the possible causes of a zombie apocalypse, proper preparation, and handy tactics for dealing with those shambling (or running) hordes of flesh-eaters!

X5227: Sushi Rolling (and Eating) Full!
Difficulty: *

X5086: Relaxation, Meditation, and Stress Reduction Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Alioth Drinkwater

X5091: ZT Stacking and T-Spinning Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Damien Jiang

X5199: Using Myers Briggs Indicator for Better Relationships and Career Planning
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Patricia Craig

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator is a powerful personality tool that can provide many benefits to your life. By understanding your Myers Briggs personality profile, and those of your friends, you can have more harmonious relationships. Additionally, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator can help you make better career choices. In this class we will give everyone a short version of the Myers Briggs personality "test" and we will delve into the sixteen Myers Briggs personality types.

X5135: History of the Star Wars Galaxy (PART 1)
Difficulty: **

This is class 1 of a 4-part course on the history of the Star Wars galaxy. Class 1 of this series will cover history from 100,000 BBY to 5,000 BBY. This includes events prior to the creation of the Star Forge, discussing the Celestials and their technology, and will continue all the way up to the end of the Great Hyperspace war. Class 1 also introduces some key information about the galaxy, the force, and technology that will be relevant for other classes.

This is a four-part course focusing on character profiles, important events (including the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith War, the Mandalorian War, the Second Sith War, the Battle of Ruusan, the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, the Birth of the New Republic, and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion), weapons and technology, and vehicles and vessels with a focus on the use and development of the force by the Jedi Order, the Sith, and other lesser known factions throughout. Class will consist mostly of lecture with short breaks for discussion of the material. This four-part course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Students must have watched all of the Star Wars movies (1-6, not including the Clone Wars animated movie) and be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy and have some knowledge of expanded universe material. It is preferred that students have read some of the Star Wars novels, however it is not required of them.

X5377: How to be a Boss (lecture)
Difficulty: *

This 2 hour lecture course will go over the essentials to being successful in one's endeavors, especially in regards to those endeavors that require social activity.

Basics in professionalism, appearance, confidence, and eloquence will be covered in this course. Whilst completion of the course cannot guarantee immediate jobs or internships, it will definitely put you in a better position to present yourself in public and social situations granted you use the techniques taught.

This is a prerequisite to the "How to be a Boss (recitation)" course. The lecture course does not require completion of the recitation course, but it is recommended for maximum boss potential.

X4906: Cooking on the Edge Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Kate Rudolph

X5200: Hard Times: Some Tools and Tricks for Managing Hard Times (Adversity) Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Patricia Craig

X4939: Colorful Throwable Paper Math (Modular Origami) Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Benjamin Kraft

X5491: Innovation in International Development Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Quynh Nguyen, Shawn Wen

X5193: Advertising 101. Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Shinya Watanabe

X5137: History of the Star Wars Galaxy (PART 2)
Difficulty: **

This is class 2 of a 4-part course on the history of the Star Wars Galaxy. Class 2 of this series will cover history from 5,000 BBY to 3,958 BBY. This includes Freedon Nadd's rise to power, The Great Sith War, the Mandalorian Wars, and The Second Great Sith War.

This is a four-part course focusing on character profiles, important events (including the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith War, the Mandalorian War, the Second Sith War, the Battle of Ruusan, the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, the Birth of the New Republic, and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion), weapons and technology, and vehicles and vessels with a focus on the use and development of the force by the Jedi Order, the Sith, and other lesser known factions throughout. Class will consist mostly of lecture with short breaks for discussion of the material. This four-part course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Students must have watched all of the Star Wars movies (1-6, not including the Clone Wars animated movie) and be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy and have some knowledge of expanded universe material. It is preferred that students have read some of the Star Wars novels, however it is not required of them.

X5039: Cupcake Battle! Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Melissa Ko, DD Liu

X5150: The Tea Tradition Full!
Difficulty: *

X5041: How to Solve a Rubik's Cube Full!
Difficulty: **

X5220: How To Get By in School Without Doing Any Work Full!
Difficulty: *

X4948: Game Show 101 Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Tana Wattanawaroon

X5299: A Brief Overview of Memetic Trends of the Early 2000s: Sergei and Beth Show Internet Videos for an Hour Full!
Difficulty: *

X5139: History of the Star Wars Galaxy (PART 3) Full!
Difficulty: **

X5475: Running Large Events (Like Splash!)
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Chris Kennedy

What does it take to pull off a big event? And just how crazy do you need to be to try?

In this class, we'll examine what goes into organizing events for hundreds or thousands of participants like Splash, but also academic conferences, quiz bowl/Acadec tournaments, career fairs, and so on. We'll cover everything from very early planning to event-day insanity to post-event evaluations.

Finally, we'll discuss how you can personally take charge of a Splash of your own, using the resources of a national network of Splash programs around the country.


Prerequisites
An interest in getting things done.

X5550: ESP Behind the Scenes
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jordan Moldow

Splash doesn't just run itself! Directors and other admins put in a lot of hard work to make this program run. And ESP runs many other programs throughout the year. Want to learn how to run an ESP when you go to college, or just want to hear what goes on behind the scenes? Come find out!


Prerequisites
A love for Splash and a curiosity for how it is run.

X5558: Why Knot?
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Zandra Vinegar

Basically, we're going to hang out and play some games. These games may or may not be related to knot theory, but we're not going to look at too much of the math too closely. We're mainly just going to play the games. Why come to this class? I don't know, but why knot?


Prerequisites
None as we're knot doing too much of the math. :)

X4982: Dissecting Video Game Characters: What Makes Them So Great?
Difficulty: *

Ever felt like you are fighting alongside Samus Aran from Metroid, walking the same journey with Link from The Legend of Zelda, or being scientifically enriched by Portal's GLaDOS? Ever played a game and felt sympathetic, endeared or touched by video game characters? Learn how characters are designed, and how they fit into video games! We will talk about different aspects of character design: appearance, traits, personality, and backstory influence.


Prerequisites
An interest in character design (not necessary video game characters)

X5145: Advanced Star Wars Discussion
Difficulty: ***

In this class, students will break in to groups to critically discuss provided topics in Star Wars, followed by a summary where groups will present their findings. This class will cover more advanced questions and topics than the normal (Star Wars) discussion class. While it is required that students have taken at least one of my History of the Star Wars Galaxy courses, it is still strongly recommended that you take all four of the history classes prior to this course, as they each cover very different and important topics which will provide vital background knowledge for this class.

This course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, History of the Star Wars Galaxy (4 parts), and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Students must have watched all of the Star Wars movies (1-6, not including the Clone Wars animated movie) and be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy and have some knowledge of expanded universe material. It is preferred that students have read some of the Star Wars novels, however it is not required of them.

X5024: Enumerable things
Difficulty: **
Teachers: David Lawrence

An enumerable set of objects is any set of objects that can be counted. In this class, we will consider the interesting properties of various enumerable sets, including: roller coasters, programming languages, mountains, prime numbers, interstate highways, operating systems, and donuts.

X5046: Problem Solving
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Saheela Ibraheem

Like figuring out puzzle solutions? Interested in new challenges, or proofs? Enjoy this class of logical, interesting fun!

X5057: Patrol Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Ceres Lee, Paul Weaver

X5352: Real-world Philosophy Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Brian Lee

X5510: Baking the Vegan Alternative of Things Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Amber Bennoui

X5116: Tarot Reading Full!
Difficulty: **

X5272: Choice Theory: A Look at How We Make Decisions Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jeremy Ziring

X5260: Embroidery: Stitches and Pattern-Making Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Kimberly Beder

X5445: How to (not) be awkward Full!
Difficulty: **

X5129: The Anatomy of Crossword Puzzles
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Taylor Sutton

Many prominent newspapers, such as the New York Times and LA Times run daily crosswords, and anyone can submit a puzzle in the hopes of having it published. In this class, we'll look at the different types of crossword puzzles,* practice solving a few, and then go through the construction of crossword puzzle by actually making one.

*: American-style only. No cryptics or other such things, sorry

X5133: Surviving in Minecraft 101 Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Staly Chin

X5146: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling Full!
Difficulty: ***

X5495: Journalism & News Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Kit Haines

X5381: The Basics of Fantasy Football
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Matthew Barron

This course will be focused on the basics of fantasy football, such as: draft strategy, scoring template, picking sleepers, and selecting players off the waiver wire.


Prerequisites
Interest in sports

X5214: Know Your Rights Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Andrew Cowan

X5363: "It's a free country!": Your rights in school Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Leonid Grinberg

X5124: Urban Space
Difficulty: **
Teachers: William Carbery

This course will explore urban space through a variety of lenses: perceptual, through models and through the controversial issues of Urban Renewal. Discussion of Boston will be especially encouraged as a way of talking about urban space and some of the unusual and exciting things that happen in urban environments.

Some guiding questions:
1) How do city residents think of urban space?
2) Can you predict where certain businesses and people will go in a city?
3) What happened after the Big Dig? Where did the West End go? What separates the Green Line from the Blue Line?

X4972: An Introduction to Negotiation Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Vrajesh Modi

X5087: Lowest-Tech Gait Lab
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Tobie Tepfer

Find out about the parameters of a gait cycle like cadence, stride length, and base of support. Then measure and calculate your own using the oldest and simplest method of getting a workable sample: dipping your feet into paint and leaving footprints on a strip of paper.


Prerequisites
Willingness to step into paint with bare feet! A few very basic math skills such as following simple equations and working with angles.

X5314: NetH@ck!
Difficulty: **

Welcome, Splasher! You are a neutral (fe)male human tourist.

Pick up your mighty ), don your trusty [, and descend into the dungeons with your adorable, loyal d to seek your destiny. The wimpy : and the frail F will offer you little resistance, but beware the might of the D and the fatal magic of the L.

---

Written entirely in C and created decades ago, NetHack is still nevertheless one of the deepest, most impressive video games ever made. It is almost surprisingly pivotal: Diablo is essentially a graphical (and less fun) port of NetHack.

NetHack is easy to learn, nearly impossible to master. Almost every situation is solvable with creativity, innovation, and a hint of luck. After all -- in how many other games can you beat the final bosses by throwing oranges at them?

NetHack is not an adventure for the faint-hearted. Many will descend into the Dungeons of Doom; few will make it out alive.

Will you be one of them? Will you be the one to ascend to demi-god(dess)-hood?


Prerequisites
Consider bringing your laptop only if you have a number-pad. Playing NetHack without a number-pad is an art I have not quite mastered. NetHack players of all levels are welcome. If you've never played NetHack before, perfect! If you have, come anyways, and we might both leave a few tricks the wiser. :)

X5035: Make your own "Melon Bread!" Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Koharu Usui

X5140: History of the Star Wars Galaxy (PART 4)
Difficulty: **

This is class 4 of a 4-part course on the history of the Star Wars Galaxy. Class 4 of this series will cover history from 4 ABY to 25 ABY. This includes events such as the Truce at Bakura, the rise of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Rebirth of the Emperor, and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion.

This is a four-part course focusing on character profiles, important events (including the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith War, the Mandalorian War, the Second Sith War, the Battle of Ruusan, the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, the Birth of the New Republic, and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion), weapons and technology, and vehicles and vessels with a focus on the use and development of the force by the Jedi Order, the Sith, and other lesser known factions throughout. Class will consist mostly of lecture with short breaks for discussion of the material. This four-part course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Students must have watched all of the Star Wars movies (1-6, not including the Clone Wars animated movie) and be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy and have some knowledge of expanded universe material. It is preferred that students have read some of the Star Wars novels, however it is not required of them.

X5002: The Game Mechanics of Pokemon
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Adam Gleitman

If you want to be the very best, then you need to know how the world around you works. In this class we will cover the basics of the game mechanics of Pokemon, including finding, catching, and training them. How can you find rare Pokemon more easily? Is it worth it to teach a Linoone how to Surf? How can a Magikarp take down a Mewtwo with ease? Why is it still hard to catch a legendary even though it only has a sliver of HP left? Take this class and find out!


Prerequisites
You should have played at least one of the Pokemon games. This class does not focus on any specific generation, so it will be applicable to pretty much any game.

X5421: The Amazing Race: Pokemon Regions Full!
Difficulty: **

X5297: Massachusetts Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Difficulty: *

In this class we will talk about fate, choice, love, house-elves, angsty emo teenagers, and anything else in the Harry Potter series that sparks your interest.


Prerequisites
You should have: 1. read all seven books 2. cried on your eleventh birthday when your letter from Hogwarts didn't come.

X5427: ZDI.003: Modeling a Zombie Apocalypse
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Eli Stickgold

Knowledge is power, but how do we learn about something that hasn't happened yet? In ZDI.003, we discuss techniques for building sophisticated computer models that let us predict the outcomes of a hypothetical disaster scenario. Experience with computer programming is not required, but may be helpful in understanding examples.


Prerequisites
ZDI.001: Introduction to Zombie Defense

X5444: Crimpity Crimpty Now Now
Difficulty: **
Teachers: E Rosser

Crimpity Crimpity ask me how.
Crimpity Crimpity humble pie.
Crimpity Crimpity boing! Ding! Bong bong ting!
Crimpity crimpity ping pong!

If you have not yet been exposed to (subjegated to? incited by? tortured with?) the crimps of the Mighty Boosh, prepare to be taken out to lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Pain. We'll watch and crimp along, memorise some good ones, perhaps make our own... Who knows? It might even come to a 4-way crimp.

Get ready to invent a new genre.


Prerequisites
Knowing a bit about British comedy show "The Mighty Boosh" might help. If this isn't you, what's wrong with you??! To the YouTubes with you!

X5383: Bubble tea and Sushi Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:

X4970: How to Have a Crushing Grip Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Walter Augustine

X5437: ZDI.002: Advanced Biological Concepts in Zombie Preparedness
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Stephanie Paige

Continuing on from principles established in ZDI.001, this course examines zombies through the lens of several fields of biology, including: genetics, pathology, physiology, epidemiology, and not-getting-your-face-eaten-ology.


Prerequisites
ZDI.001

X5147: Advanced Lightsaber Dueling
Difficulty: ***

This class will expand on the skills learned in Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, using them to teach students how to construct their own duel, which they will have time to practice. We will also be available to critique and assist in creating and learning your own choreography.

This course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, History of the Star Wars Galaxy (4 parts), and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Must have taken the Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling Class offered earlier in the day.

X4936: How to Write in Cursive
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Lisa Liu

Are you baffled by cursive? Do you think it looks nice, but don't understand how to go from one letter to another?

Learn (or practice) writing cursive here! We'll even use nice pens.

X5244: Basic Cross-Step Waltz Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Katarina Dutton

X4985: Ultimate Frisbee
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Stephanie Ger

Ultimate Frisbee is more than just throwing a disc around. It is a sport that has been picking up momentum around the country and the world. This class will cover the fundamentals of throwing and the rules that govern the sport. In addition, playing time will be included! Please come dressed in comfortable athletic clothes because we will be playing outside.

X4995: Splash Contra Dance Full!
Difficulty: **

X5208: Mafia Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Daniel Grazian

X5387: History of Disney Animated Films Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Courtney Marchuk

X5222: The art of Rubik's Cubing
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Gabriel Blanchet

In this class, you'll learn how to solve a 3x3 rubik's cube. If you're a quick learner, you may find yourself winning the timed solving competition we'll have at the end of class!

If you have a cube bring it! We will also have some extra cubes available.

X5000: Live, Laugh, Lead: Exciting Leadership Activities
Difficulty: *

Crossing deadly rivers of molten chocolate, escaping explosive minefields, and constructing great pyramids. Now what does all this have to do with Leadership? Come and find out…

Do you like games, teamwork, creative problem solving, or having fun? Want to know how this can help you become a better leader? Come and participate in fun interactive activities, and maybe learn a thing or two about leadership.

The Leadership Training Institute (LTI) is a high school mentoring program right here at MIT and will be sending mentors to lead what will surely be a jam-packed session of excitement and thoughtful conversation.


Prerequisites
Energy and a positive attitude

X5007: How Combination Locks Work Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Harvey Yee

X5473: The Gentlemen's Game: Bridge and Bridge Conventions Full!
Difficulty: *

X4966: Moral Relativism in Comic Books
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jacob Bailey

A look at the concepts of good, evil, and the gray area in between, framed in a discussion of comic books. By looking at such works as Batman, Watchmen, and Marvel Zombies, we will explore both sides of morality, and the ever-thinning line that separates them.


Prerequisites
Read: Watchmen

X5102: Internet Reeducation: It's Over NINE THOUSAND Full!
Difficulty: *

X5560: Introduction to Interstellar Warfare
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Bram Sterling

Defense of a gravity well against a first strike countervalue attack by an interstellar known-physics adversary with a substellar mass economy
Or, dodging rocks

Analysis of methods that might be used in a real interstellar war, without unexplainable technologies such as faster than light travel and energy shields. Topics include relativistic bombardment, singularities, Von Neumann devices, innocuous antimatter weapons

X5295: More Chainmail!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Alyssa Zisk

I got colorful/different sized/ maybe even different shaped rings to play with, and I can teach other weaves/ increasing or decreasing in weaves you already know. It's pretty much up to you.


Prerequisites
Know European 4-in-1. If you've taken a Make Chainmail type class from anyone before, you should be fine. If you have it from someone before this class meets, you should be fine too.

X5238: Introduction to Competitive Pokemon Battling Full!
Difficulty: **

X5143: Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy
Difficulty: **

This class will cover the unique variety of weapons, starships, and technology found in the Star Wars Galaxy. We'll discuss the inner-mechanisms of lightsabers and blasters and the 7 forms of lightsaber combat. You'll learn about the different weapons and starship manufacturers, and we'll discover some of the most exotic weapons and technology this galaxy has to offer.

This course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), History of the Star Wars Galaxy (4 parts), and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Students must have watched all of the Star Wars movies (1-6, not including the Clone Wars animated movie) and be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy and have some knowledge of expanded universe material. It is preferred that students have read some of the Star Wars novels, however it is not required of them.

X5105: Internet Reeducation: Love and Trolls
Difficulty: *

Do people accuse you of TROLLING? Do you know what makes the lolcat lol? Do you have a strong desire to kick Mother Nature in the face with your ENERGY LEGS?!? STOP BEING LAME AND COME LEARN ABOUT TEH INTERNETZ! This is the second of three parts of MOAR INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!1!! Feel free to sign up for all three parts, or pick and choose as fits your schedule...they'll all be different. It's the internet. There are no rules

X5462: Bike Repair
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Michael Eck

Bicycles are the most efficient vehicle known to man. Why not learn to make them even more efficient? In this course, we'll cover basic bike repair and build a functioning bike of our own from dumpstered bike parts.

X4993: Tofu: Beyond the Jiggly Cubes Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Ruth Byers

X5494: Chemistry and Cinnamon Rolls: An Interactive Study Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Nursen Ogutveren

X5378: How to Change the World
Difficulty: *
Teachers:

The world has a lot of problems - like poverty. Global warming. Unequal education. Poor health in third world countries. And so much more. But guess what? YOU are powerful enough do something BIG about it. Come learn how to be a Social Entrepreneur, someone who implements powerful ideas that make life better for people in our society.
Brainstorm ideas and find out how you can turn them into action, projects, and even a societal movement. Learn leadership skills, business strategies, and how to start your own nonprofit company - from a 501c3 nonprofit director. Come join social entrepreneurship networks like YouthVenture and DoSomething.org to meet other youth who care about the world too. Come because guess what - you're powerful enough to change the course of history.

X5447: Comic Books and Philosophy: Exploring Characters
Difficulty: **

Students will engage in a seminar (Socratic Style) that will explore the psyche of the heroes, villains, and civilians of the fiction worlds within comic book universes.

X5016: Beginning Bridge
Difficulty: **

Bridge - it's not just for your grandmother! Come learn to play this challenging card game. No experience with any card games required.

X5492: ZDI.004 Disaster Communication Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Andrew Farrell

X5106: Internet Reeducation: I accidentally the INTERNET
Difficulty: *

I internet reeducated your MOM last night, if you know what I mean. What? You don't know? Then come find out. This is the last of three parts of ALL THE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!1!! Feel free to sign up for all three parts, or pick and choose as fits your schedule. Every part will be different...this one will be most 'off the cuff', as it were. It's the internet. There are no rules.

X5169: How to play D&D (And convince your friends it's harmless) Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Tony Zhao

X5441: Boffer Swords 101 Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Joe Martin

X5286: Baking Around The World: A SWEET Adventure!! :D Full!

X5294: Make Chainmail!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Alyssa Zisk

Plate armor: Heavy. It waaaayyyy reduced mobility. Chainmail is still heavy, but not as heavy, and unless arrows are the biggest worry, it wasn't much worse. It was a lot cheaper too. So we're going to learn how to make it (it being European 4-in-1, one of the more common weaves in Europe.)


Prerequisites
two hands and an interest in making outdated armor

X5040: Christian Prayer 101
Difficulty: *

This class is both for those curious about what prayer means to Christians as well as for Christians looking for practical ways to make their prayer life more applicable and relevant in their day to day lives.

X5362: College Football Today
Difficulty: **

College football is more than just an awesome way to spend a Saturday afternoon. As an institution, it plays a major role in today's society, sometimes more so than its professional equivalent. This discussion-based class will cover the state of college football in today's world and how it has evolved over time. Are YOU ready for some football?

X5065: Solve a Puzzle Hunt Full!
Difficulty: **

X5066: Introduction to Japanese Mahjong
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Kyumin Lee, Chung-an Wu

Exciting. Challenging. Competitive. Cutthroat. What are we talking about? Why, Japanese mahjong, of course! Come and see why mahjong isn’t just for gambling parlors and old ladies anymore.

X5277: The Mystery of Consciousness Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Jacob Cole

X5310: Islam for Non-Muslims Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Harun Omer

X5309: Venomous Snakes of Australia Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Sarah Geller

X5148: The International Education Lab!
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Jessica Huang

Interested in helping to make education more exciting and relevant for youth around the world? Tired of how so much of our education is centered around test-taking, rather than what is useful in life? Let's work together to make learning about creativity, empowerment, community, and inspiration!

Come help D-Lab (http://d-lab.mit.edu) test and improve our hands-on educational modules, which we will be teaching in India, Ghana, Zambia, Brazil and elsewhere next January! At this workshop, learn about how to design and build cool technologies (ex: low-cost water testing kits, saltwater batteries, etc.) and then share feedback and suggestions on how we can make the lessons more awesome.

This interactive session will be a great way to explore the field of international development, while contributing your own ideas to make a difference in international education!


Prerequisites
None - all welcome!

X5438: Anime Courseware
Difficulty: *

MIT has over two dozen different majors, and choosing a course can be a daunting challenge. Anime, or Japanese animation, is a medium that spans a huge spectrum of different genres-- with a lot of titles in science-fiction, a genre that holds plenty of interest at a science, engineering, and technology school. Explore all of the courses at MIT through anime! Watch clips of anime representing all of the Institute majors, from Aeronautics and Astronautics to Physics, and learn about some our famous ani-alumni, anime characters who attended MIT!
This event is hosted by MIT Anime (http://anime.mit.edu/).

X5501: Machiavellian Trolling Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Amber Bennoui

X5575: War, Diplomacy and Trade Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers: Evan Hefner

X5144: Star Wars Discussion
Difficulty: **

This course will consist of a one hour lecture covering such topics as weapons and technologies, starships, planets, alien species and cultures, and the Force (of course!), and will be followed by an hour of discussion where students will break in to groups to critically discuss provided topics in Star Wars, followed by a summary where groups will present their findings. While it is required that students have taken at least one of my History of the Star Wars Galaxy courses, it is still strongly recommended that you take all four of the history classes prior to this course, as they each cover very different and important topics which will provide vital background knowledge for this class.

This course is part of a larger Star Wars series which includes other classes such as: Introduction to Lightsaber Dueling, Grand Army of the Republic, Xenolinguistics (Languages), Weapons and Technology of the Star Wars Galaxy, History of the Star Wars Galaxy (4 parts), and two discussion courses. These classes are adapted from a lecture series at UC Berkeley, and we have been teaching them for 2 years. Also they're awesome!


Prerequisites
Students must have watched all of the Star Wars movies (1-6, not including the Clone Wars animated movie) and be familiar with the Star Wars galaxy and have some knowledge of expanded universe material. It is preferred that students have read some of the Star Wars novels, however it is not required of them.

X4978: Butterfly Knife Spinning Full!
Difficulty: **

X5120: Butterfly Knife Spinning Full!
Difficulty: **

X5384: How to be a Boss (recitation)
Difficulty: *

This is the complementary course to the How to be a Boss (lecture) course.

Students will demonstrate how much of a "boss" they are (rather, demonstrate what they learned in the lecture) by giving presentations. This course will offer focused and critical feedback on what has been done right, and what needs improvement. It will also be much smaller in size than the lecture class, to provide a more intimate setting.


Prerequisites
How to be a Boss (lecture)

X5392: Nazis in Star Wars
Difficulty: **
Teachers: Arnold Ming

This course will look into the content of Star Wars and how it is reflects to the events of World War II with a specific insight of the rise of the Nazi party.


Prerequisites
Mild knowledge of European history before and during WWII. Know your Star Wars characters from the movies (there will not be any characters featured from the expanded universe)

X5489: The History and Art of Professional Wrestling
Difficulty: *
Teachers: Alexandre Todorov

You either love it or hate but it is impossible that you have never run into it. Professional Wrestling occupies a special niche within American pop culture, yet its reach, impact and incredibly rich history are either unknown or misunderstood. Thus, take a dive along side your humble guide into this world of good, evil and half naked athletes performing in front of thousands of cheering fans.