" This class provides an introduction to quantitative models and qualitative frameworks for studying complex engineering systems. Also taught is the art of abstracting a complex system into a model for purposes of analysis and design while dealing with complexity, emergent behavior, stochasticity, non-linearities and the requirements of many stakeholders with divergent objectives. The successful completion of the class requires a semester-long class project that deals with critical contemporary issues which require an integrative, interdisciplinary approach using the above models and frameworks."

Urban governance comprises the various forces, institutions, and movements that guide economic and physical development, the distribution of resources, social interactions, and other aspects of daily life in urban areas. This course examines governance from legal, political, social, and economic perspectives. In addition, we will discuss how these structures constrain collective decision making about particular urban issues (immigration, education‰Ű_). Assignments will be nightly readings and a short paper relating an urban issue to the frameworks outlined in the class.

This course covers French politics, culture, and society from Louis XIV to Napoleon Bonaparte. Attention is given to the growth of the central state, the beginnings of a modern consumer society, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, including its origins, and the rise and fall of Napoleon.

A family of free, online social-studies courses, OER Project curricula are adaptable to a variety of local curricular standards. OER Project teachers also gain access to professional-development opportunities and a community of teachers, scholars, and learning experts.

In this course, you will learn the basics of French, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. At the end of the quarter you will know how to introduce yourself and volunteer basic information, and how to ask questions of others. You will also have some knowledge of French and Francophone cultures and protocols. This class is divided into four modules, which follow the chapters in the textbook. In each module you will be asked to read, write, speak, and listen in French. The class also includes a quarter-long cultural immersion project, in which you will be asked to conduct research on specific aspects of a non-European Francophone country and report your findings to the rest of the class.

Introduction to French language and culture. Emphasis on the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical concepts through active communication. Immediate exposure to authentic French via video sources and printed materials for developing cultural awareness as well as linguistic proficiency. Coordinated language lab program. For graduate credit see 21F.351.

As in French I, in this course, you will learn the basics of French, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. At the end of the quarter you will know how to introduce yourself and volunteer basic information, and how to ask questions of others. You will also have some knowledge of French and Francophone cultures and protocols. This class is divided into four modules, which follow the chapters in the textbook. In each module you will be asked to read, write, speak, and listen in French. You will have daily homework assignments to complete. The class also includes a quarter-long cultural immersion project, in which you will be asked to conduct research on specific aspects of a non-European Francophone country and report your findings to the rest of the class.

Further development of linguistic proficiency through active communication. Expansion of vocabulary and completion of the basics of French grammar. Continued exposure to culturally authentic audio and video materials in the classroom and the language lab. Study of short texts. Increased practice in writing. For graduate credit see 21F.352.

As in French I and II, in this course, you will learn the basics of French, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. At the end of the quarter you will know how to introduce yourself and volunteer basic information, and how to ask questions of others. You will also have some knowledge of French and Francophone cultures and protocols. This class is divided into four modules, which follow the chapters in the textbook. In each module you will be asked to read, write, speak, and listen in French. You will have daily homework assignments to complete. The class also includes a quarter-long cultural immersion project, in which you will be asked to conduct research on specific aspects of a non-European Francophone country and report your findings to the rest of the class.

This is the first semester in a two-semester introductory course focused on current theories of structure and mechanism in organic chemistry, their historical development, and their basis in experimental observation. The course is open to freshmen with excellent preparation in chemistry and physics, and it aims to develop both taste for original science and intellectual skills necessary for creative research.

This is a continuation of Freshman Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 125a), the introductory course on current theories of structure and mechanism in organic chemistry for students with excellent preparation in chemistry and physics. This semester treats simple and complex reaction mechanisms, spectroscopy, organic synthesis, and some molecules of nature.

Since the discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix in 1953 by Watson and Crick, the information on detailed molecular structures of DNA and RNA, namely, the foundation of genetic material, has expanded rapidly. This discovery is the beginning of the "Big Bang" of molecular biology and biotechnology. In this seminar, students discuss, from a historical perspective and current developments, the importance of pursuing the detailed structural basis of genetic materials.

Are you interested in investigating how nature engineers itself? How engineers copy the shapes found in nature ("biomimetics")? This Freshman Seminar investigates why similar shapes occur in so many natural things and how physics changes the shape of nature. Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? How do birds fly? Why do bird nests look the way they do? How do woodpeckers peck? Why can't trees grow taller than they are? Why is grass skinny and hollow? What is the wood science behind musical instruments? Questions such as these are the subject of biomimetic research and they have been the focus of investigation in this course for the past three years.

Students study aquatic organisms in relation to the environmental conditions of lakes and streams. The course develops substantial quantities of data concerning the local watershed. This data is used by community partners in many contexts.

METEO 469 is a required course for the Bachelor of Arts in Energy Sustainability and Policy on-line degree program, geared towards students who are able to study only part-time and at a distance. This course provides an introduction to global warming and climate change, covering the basic science, projected impacts, and approaches to mitigation. Watch this introduction video by the course author, Michael Mann:

Human-caused climate change represents one of the great environmental challenges of our time. As it is inextricably linked with issues of energy policy, a familiarity with the fundamentals of climate change is critical for those looking to careers in the energy field. To appreciate the societal, environmental, and economic implications of policies governing greenhouse gas emissions, one must understand the basic underlying science. METEO 469 serves to lay down the fundamental scientific principles behind climate change and global warming. A firm grounding in the science is then used as a launching point for exploring issues involving climate change impacts and mitigation.

The objective of this course is to introduce large-scale atomistic modeling techniques and highlight its importance for solving problems in modern engineering sciences. We demonstrate how atomistic modeling can be used to understand how materials fail under extreme loading, involving unfolding of proteins and propagation of cracks.

Explores the impact of the printing press upon European politics and culture during the first several centuries after Gutenberg and compares these changes with the possibilities and problems inherent in contemporary electronic technologies of the word. Assignments include formal essays and online projects. There has been much discussion in recent years, on this campus and elsewhere, about the death of the book. Digitization and various forms of electronic media, some critics say, are rendering the printed text as obsolete as the writing quill. In this subject, we will examine the claims for and against the demise of the book, but we will also supplement these arguments with an historical perspective they lack: we will examine texts, printing technologies, and reading communities from roughly 1450 to the present. We will begin with the theoretical and historical overviews of Walter Ong and Elizabeth Eisenstein, after which we will study specific cases such as English chapbooks, Inkan knotted and dyed strings, late nineteenth-century recording devices, and newspapers online today. We will also visit a rare book library and make a poster on a hand-set printing press.

Examines interactions across the Eurasian continent between Russians, Chinese, Mongolian nomads, and Turkic oasis dwellers during the last millennium and a half. As empires rose and fell, religions, trade, and war flowed back and forth continuously across this vast space. Britain and Russia competed for power over Eurasia in the "Great Game" of geopolitics in the nineteenth century, just as China, Russia, and others did in the twentieth century. Today, the fall of the Soviet Union and China's reforms have opened new opportunities for cultural interaction. Topics include: the religious traditions of Central Asian Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and Confucianism; caravans and travelers like Marco Polo and Rabban Sauma, the first Chinese to travel to the West; and nomadic conquest and imperialist competition, past and present. Source materials include primary documents, travelogues, films, music, and museum visits.

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.