The History of Music
Kyle Chattleton
Do you have a favorite genre of music? Have you ever wondered why you are drawn to it? Or what processes were created that allowed those sounds to happen? Have you ever considered what your grandparents listened to while growing up, or their grandparents, and the many generations before? For this course, we will answer these questions as we explore the history of music since the dawn of humanity! We will listen to everything from Beethoven, to The Beatles, to African BaAka music, and much more. All along the way we will apply what we have learned through fun and engaging activities. We’ll write classical music on parchment, play complex rhythms on drums, conduct debates on what makes an awesome tune, and compose a pop song by the whole class. If you’re a student who wants to study the music that challenged listeners and allowed different genres to flourish, who wants to better understand why some tunes just sound so good or so bad, who wants to get inside the head of musicians and composers, then this class is for you!
The Curious Case of Poe: A Course in Detective Fiction
Elizabeth Dorton
What spooky stories and poems inspired a whole new genre of literature? Edgar Allan Poe is considered the father of the detective genre. Through his spooky and scary stories, as well as his poems, he changed the way we read and think about the world entirely. In this course, we will become literary scholars and also detectives in our own right; by exploring Poe's writing, and visiting his local haunts, we will discover how his writing changed the way we read and write today. We will also act as detectives ourselves by writing and solving our own mysteries. In this course, we will examine both Poe's works and those of his successors, such as the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie's detective novels, and how certain themes have come to be featured in horror films as well, such as those directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Part of the course may involve writing our own mystery stories in groups, and attempting to solve one another's by investigating and through clues.
Through the Physicist's Looking Glass: The Physics of Everyday Life
Thomas Hefele
The world around us is made from and operates according to the laws of physics. Yet most of us go through our daily lives without even batting an eye about how physics makes this world possible. We KNOW that cars work, airplanes fly, and glasses improve our vision, but never ask "HOW?" Below this surface is a treasure trove of exciting physics that can be used to view the world in a new and fascinating light! In this class, we will be looking at how the world around us works through the eyes of a physicist. Many activities, from water balloon toss contests to studies of car crashes, will help us to understand the mysteries of the world we live in.
Inside Out: The Social Life of Emotions
Daniel Shutt
Emotions play a crucial role in the human experience. All of us know what it feels like to be happy, anxious, proud, and embarrassed. But how much of our emotional life comes from “inside”, and how much comes from the society in which we live? This class will take a sociological approach to the study of emotions, examining the role that society and culture play in shaping emotional experience. We will discuss topics such as the history of happiness, the evolution of love, and the cultural connection between mental health and feelings. Students will come away from this class with a better understanding of how their emotional experience relates to social forces such as gender, the economy, media, and medicine.
Build a Better Board Game
Chris Brodersen
Have you ever wondered why Yahtzee has you roll five dice? What would happen if we just rolled a 12-sided die instead of two six-sided dice in Monopoly? Over the course of the two weeks, we will develop our own board games. We will begin the course by taking existing board games and exploring how they have manipulated the probabilities within their own games. We will then progress to creating our own probability mechanism such as dice or a deck of cards. Finally, we will take that mechanism and create a board game around it. This class will be taught from a mathematical and analytical background, but no previous knowledge of mathematics or board games required. All you need is a strong desire to create and learn!
To Demolish, or Not to Demolish
Hannah Glatt
Ever thought about the decision to demolish a building? It is not always an easy choice to determine whether it is better to move an entire structure to a new location or completely remove it. The University of Virginia has actually chosen to move buildingsthree times already, but why did they make these choices? During this course, you will step into the shoes of an architectural historian and uncover the importance of buildingsand why theyshould remain standingthrough research, drawing, and discussion.