What can we do about the climate crisis? What will it take to actually restrict global warming to reversible, sub-catastrophic levels? Come join us on an exploration of where that 1.5C marker comes from and then actions from restoring forests and wetlands to subsidizing renewable energy using a cutting-edge global climate-economic simulator!

Students will engage as stakeholders in a climate summit tasked with limiting global warming to less than a disastrous 2 degrees Celsius. Following a brief introduction to climate change physics and policy tools, students will take on roles in a simulated United Nations negotiation to chart the world’s course to prevent climate catastrophe using an interactive climate policy simulator based on the best available economic, climate, and energy models. We will cover what is causing climate change, what actions are required to halt warming, and how students can take action in their communities.

What are all those organs for, anyway? How do cells come together to form tissues with complex functions? Why do we need all this stuff? We'll answer these questions together from a functional, engineering perspective by designing an animal together. We'll start with a quick refresher of cell biology, identify some essential functions of an animal, and build up our animal's capabilities from cells -> tissues -> organs, covering topics from warmbloodedness to physiology and disease!

What is the bureaucracy? What powers do federal regulatory agencies have? How do they interact with Congress and the Presidency? Come learn about what Cabinet Secretaries, "career officials," and commissions do for the environment and consumer protection, and how you can have input on new rules and regulations!

What happens to democracy when politicians get to pick their voters instead of the other way around? We will learn about why legislatures would gerrymander a district, what goes into the process, and how to do it yourself through interactive, realistic examples. We will also explore gerrymandering's effects, its current challenges, and some of the statistical methods available for pinning down what counts as a gerrymandered state, as well as what you can do about it!