This course develops the basic geometric, algebraic, and computational foundations of vector spaces and matrices and applies them to a wide range of problems and models. The material will be accessible to students who have taken at least one semester of calculus and is useful to most consumers of mathematics. The course focuses on real finite dimensional vector spaces and inner product spaces, although abstract and infinite-dimensional vector spaces will be discussed towards the end of the semester.

Standing as silent sentinels, trees in temperate regions record temperature, rainfall, amount of sunlight and response to disturbance in the width of their annual growth rings. We can use the patterns of these rings as surrogate climate records for years before people recorded weather data. In this project-based course, we will first learn the techniques of dendochronology, the science of reading tree rings, including collection and preparation of samples, data collections and analysis, and the biology of tree growth.

All life requires water to survive. Where do we get our water? Where does it go? Will there always be enough? How can we manage our water resources to ensure there is enough? What policies affect these decisions? This course explores these topics using a systems approach to gain an understanding of how our water resources are intimately tied with the surrounding ecosystem. Topics include the water cycle, hydrologic budgets, urban stormwater management and low impact development.

The goals of this Mellon Language Learning course are twofold. The first is to introduce students to key issues in global women's health with a focus on Central America. Topics will span the lifecycle and will be drawn from the fields of infectious disease, reproductive health, nutrition, chronic disease and health policy. Most readings will come from the medical and epidemiologic literature though attention will also be given to the political, economic and social factors that weigh heavily on health.

We will explore the complex microbial interactions and succession seen in the production of some ales. This will be a research project based course focused on questions of interest to brewers. The microbiology of many of the Belgian ales and some American dry hopped beers is quite complex and largely unexplored at the molecular level. The fermentation is natural and often involves mixed cultures of yeasts, and bacteria. Some microorganisms may participate in parallel, while others act in a sequential manner with a changing dominant biota during the course of fermentation.

This course will explore the work of scholars, essayists, and creative writers in order to use their prose as models for our own. We'll analyze scholarly explication and argument, and we'll appreciate the artistry in our finest personal essays and short fiction. Students will complete a series of critical essays in the humanities and natural sciences and follow with a personal essay and a piece of short fiction. Students will have an opportunity to submit their work for peer review and discussion; students will also meet individually with instructor.

This dramatic literature class will take a look at two forms of theatre that maintain their roots in realistic exchanges while allowing us to drift into realms of pure imagination. The semester will be divided into two. First we will explore the European roots of Theatre of the Absurd through the plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Harold Pinter. Then we will look at the South American tradition of Magical Realism and how it has inspired contemporary American playwrights such as Tony Kushner and Sarah Ruhl.

In this course historical and contemporary issues in sculpture will be introduced in relation to fabrication in a range of media including paper, clay, wood, plaster, steel, concrete and found materials. Student-generated imagery in sculpture will foster discussions around representation, abstraction, the body, art and technology, new genres, public art, and installation art. Readings, slide lectures, visiting artists and group critiques will further establish a challenging and critical environment for the development of objects, site specific work and installation art.

This course provides initial preparation for work in drawing and other areas of the visual arts. Students will develop their ability to perceive and construct visual images and forms across a range of subject matter. Projects address both the two-dimensional picture plane and three-dimensional space from a broad array of observed and imagined sources. A wide variety of media will be used to explore the body, found and imagined objects, collage, and structures in the natural and built environment.

What critical and creative tools can we explore to develop sexual safety education that is vivid and engaging? What does it mean to question gender norms? How can we design initiatives that involve young people actively in questioning gendered sexual behaviors that reproduce risk and damage to enable them to stem HIV epidemics? We will look at novels and films to explore how gender is culturally scripted, with particular emphasis on masculinity and formations of heterosexuality - then relate these to the context of HIV.