Greetings! Conlang-ing is the art of creating languages by hand. "Conlang" is a compound noun, short for "Constructed language". Some you might recognize are Esperanto, Lojban, Loglan, Klingon, Vulcan, Dothraki, and a myriad of J.R.R. Tolkien's works. This class is for those who a desire to learn more about linguistics (the study of languages) and create their own languages. This has been run before as a quick crash-course in previous ESP Splash! events, but this will be a more thorough course that will take the time to go step by step through language creation. Over the 6 weeks of the course, we'll learn and practice the four major components of conlang-ing... - Phonetics (sounds) - Graphics (visuals, writing systems) - Semantics (word structure and functionality) - Syntactics (grammar and cohesive meaning) ...and put them into practice in two ways: - as a class (contributing to an ESP conlang collaboratively) - in groups/individually (on whatever your heart desires personally) We'll take a look at famous and impactful conlangs, learn to understand the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), and make a lot of weird sounds as we struggle to pronounce unusual consonants :P Looking forward to seeing you in class! Violet Z. Cato (:

Greetings! This is a class for anyone from a total beginner to someone with a little bit of programming experience to learn good fundamentals and get a strong intro to programming. We'll talk through all the core concepts you need to know, and do lots of practice problems both individually and as a class to get firsthand experience applying them. We'll be looking at both procedural programming (via Python) and object-oriented programming (via Java). Is it important that you bring a device that is internet capable if at all possible (there will be some laptops as well), as we'll accessing our practice problems via browser. Looking forward to seeing you in class! Violet Z. Cato (:

Learn about natural and artificial sources of radiation, and how they appear in your everyday life. This class covers the uses, dangers, and scientific interest of radiation and radioactive material.