"When I was a kid, whenever I'd feel small or lonely, I'd look up at the stars. Wondered if there was life up there. Turns out I was looking in the wrong direction. When alien life entered our world, it was from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean." That quote's from Pacific Rim, which is a movie that is kind of not really related to this class at all because it's about real aliens. But it turns out that the life that teems way below the surface of our oceans is pretty fascinatingly bizarre. Come look at pictures of some really weird fish and help hypothesize and learn about why they look as strange as they do.

We'll listen to some electronic music together, and talk about it. What makes this music "weird" or "normal"? What makes it "pleasant" or "unpleasant"? What compels us and drives us away about electronic compositions? Be prepared to expose your ears to styles you may have never heard before. We aren't aiming to be nonjudgmental, but we are aiming to be open.

What's inside your computer? A CPU, hard drive, a motherboard -- stuff like that. What's inside those? Wires and transistors. But at the very heart of your computer, beating with all the regularity of an insistent square wave, is an idea. That idea is what we know as the digital abstraction. What is it about that sequence of 0's and 1's we always hear about that is so valuable to us? Learn about how digital systems make complicated behaviors predictable and controllable. We'll talk about binary mathematics, boolean logic, and the ways systems manage digital signals.

Our lives wouldn't be nearly so easy (or cool!) without our wild, excitable friends, Direct and Alternating Current. Take this class to learn how to befriend (and master) these strange beasts. We'll start by learning the very basics of circuit design, and soon after we'll start building our own projects, ranging in complexity from a simple light switch to a look into the complex and flexible world of microcontrollers.

Come make Wacky Cake! With chocolate buttercream frosting! And decorate it! It will be delicious!