ESG Undergraduate Seminars

ESG sponsors 5-10 six unit pass/fail seminars each spring on a variety of innovative subjects not covered in the regular curriculum, including psychology, chemistry, social networking, mathematics, and physics.  These seminars are open to all MIT students as well as ESG students and are intended to be hands-on and experiential in nature.  Seminars listed below will be offered in spring 2012.  For more information about our series, see the article by Dr. Holly Sweet.


Spring 2012 Seminars at ESG

All seminars are six units P/F credit.

 

    ES.010 Chemistry of Sports: Understanding How Exercise Affects Your Body Chemistry

    Instructors: Dr. Patti Christie & Steve Lyons

    Time: Wednesdays 3-5 p.m. plus  additional workout sessions TBA

    Location: 24-619

    This seminar is an exciting way for students to study and apply chemistry knowledge to the improvement of their biological systems. We will be focusing on three sports (swimming, cycling and running), with a slight emphasis on running. There will be both a classroom and laboratory component to the seminar. The classroom component will introduce the students to the chemistry of their own biological systems. We will look at nutrition (to understand how to fuel and rebuild your body), anatomy and physiology (to better build your system), and how the body can be improved (or hurt) through physical activities. We will examine the chemistry of sports equipment including swimming (wetsuit and swimsuit manufacture), bicycling (including a field trip to a bicycle shop), and running (how running shoes are manufactured). We will also look at ways your body deals with exercise through building up and repair of muscles, improvement in lung and cardiovascular capacity, the chemistry of supplements and their effectiveness, and how we can use this knowledge to improve our physical fitness.  The two components to the laboratory portion of the class are the running study and training for and completing a triathlon. The students can earn up to 2 PE points during the term if they attend the supervised Triathlon training workouts. The students can also earn some PE points by completing the Mooseman Triathlon in NH in early June. Upon completion of the running study, participants will own a new pair of Newton running shoes and a heart rate monitor. This seminar is open to all MIT students.

     

    ES.S10: Fiber Seminar

    Instructor:  Debra Slocum (dslocum@mac.com)

    Time: Thursdays 3-5 p.m.

    Location: 24-618

    Ever wondered how your clothes were made or what they are made of?  New England is full of cities and towns where textiles were the major product for many years, where in fact, advances in textile machinery became the driving engine for the transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy.  We will look at fibers, where they come from, how they are processed, and why different fibers are used for certain processes.  We will also look at the history of fiber processing.  Then we will actually take raw fibers and process them into yarn and either weave or knit them into something fun and useful.

    Debra Slocum received the MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1989.  Her background is in robotics and control systems and she is currently the head coach for a FIRST robotics team in Concord, NH.  She has been spinning, knitting, crocheting and working with fibers for over 30 years.

     

    ES.S11 Chemistry Related to You

    Instructors:  Prof. John Essigmann, Dr. Patti Christie & George Zaidan

    Time: Tuesdays 3-5

    Location:  24-619

    Every student at MIT takes a GIR class in chemistry, usually during their first year.  We would like to make this chemistry class as relevant as possible to first-year students.  The goals of the seminar are:

    1.      Determine which concepts in 5.111/5.112 are the hardest to understand.

    2.      Do literature and internet searches on those topics to see how they are taught elsewhere.

    3.      Work with the team to produce innovative educational modules for each of the concepts identified above.

    4.      Design, write and produce a concise report on how to make those concepts better taught at MIT.

    5.      Write problem sets that make the concepts relevant to your potential major here at MIT.

    This seminar will introduce the participant to the methodology of educational research and the processes used in course design; the project has the potential to become a paid summer project for interested students.

     

    ES.S20 Polymathy: The World in 10 Curves

    Instructor:  Visiting Lecturer Charles Fadel, MIT alumna Nadezhda Belova

    Time: Wednesdays 7-9 p.m.

    Location: 24-619

    Feed your inner DaVinci by exploring the range of human disciplines from philosophy to physics, from anthropology to zoology. By focusing on ten curves (from hyperbolic to sigmoid to cusp etc), you will explore how phenomena represented by the curves can be found in all walks of life and disciplines—not only scientific and technical fields, but in the social science and humanities as well (e.g. philosophy, history, law, art, music, etc). By the end of the course, you will have gained a keener understanding of the *concepts* behind the curves. You will construct your knowledge through exploration and synthesis. In doing so, you will co-create an innovative example of how to teach polymathy, practice project-based learning (very little lecturing) and skills such as collaboration, and design the course materials, video and book/e-book for the next generation.

     

    ES.S41 Speak Italian…with your mouth full

    Instructor:  Dr. Paola Rebusco

    Time: Thursdays 7-9 p.m.

    Location:  24-615

    The participants to this seminar will dive in the Mediterranean diet while learning basic conversational Italian. For the past 50 years scientists have studied the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, but a good diet is not based on recipes only, it is also rooted in healthy habits and in culture. On the other hand it is well known that language immersion courses are more effective and lasting than traditional language courses. Each class is based on the preparation of a delicious dish and on the bite-sized acquisition of parts of the Italian language and culture. At the end of the seminar the participants will be able to cook some healthy and tasty recipes in their dorm and to understand and speak basic Italian.

    Paola Rebusco teaches physics at ESG and is a native Italian, who among other things worked as a cook on a sailing boat.

     

    ES.S60 The Art and Science of Happiness

    Instructor: Dr. Holly Sweet

    Time: Mondays 3-5 p.m.

    Location: 24-619

    In the seminar we will look at current theories on happiness and positive psychology as well as practical implications of those theories for our own lives. We will explore the concept of happiness, different cultural definitions of happiness, and the connection between happiness, optimism, and meaning. Time will be spent on sources of unhappiness particularly applicable to undergraduates (such as academic failure and social rejection) and how to help turn those crises into opportunities for growth. Weekly class discussions will be supplemented with speakers, movie clips, in-class exercises, and student presentations on a topic of their choosing. Readings will include excerpts from The Art of Happiness, Stumbling into Happiness, The Geography of Bliss, and Learned Optimism.


    ES.S61  Introduction to Trading

     Instructor: Kanjun Qiu, Di wu, Ted Hilk & Thiago Vieria

    Time: Mondays 7-9 p.m.

    Location: 4-145

    Faculty supervisor: Professor Alex Slocum

    The goal of this seminar is to teach students trading fundamentals and strategies not commonly taught in business or finance classes.  Our class will help prepare students for future full-time jobs and internships.  At the end of the term, students will be able to understand the basics of trading and exchanges, discuss markets fluently, generate models using Excel, and most importantly, are able to create their own trading strategies.


    ES.S70: More than a Website: Creating Your Own Dynamic Brand on the Interweb

     Instructor: Graham Ramsay

    Time: Tuesdays 7-9 p.m.

    Location: 24-618

    How do can we best communicate our ideas in the year 2011?  How do we present ourselves professionally to others?  How can each of us use technology to our advantage when looking to apply to graduate school, get the ideal job, internship, or consulting gig?  How can we use the web most effectively to promote that great idea for a startup, help get the capital we need, or promote our products and services?

    This seminar addresses the many facets of presenting oneself and one’s ideas to the greatest effect using a wide variety of tools currently available.   Through guided in-class discussion, case study, and hands-on exercises this class will explore:

    •          how to identify your essential skills, knowledge, and talents in order to effectively promote yourself and your ideas
    •          which tools are most effective in presenting your ideas to a specific audience
    •          using video, audio, and images to articulate your ideas
    •          using blogs and vlogs (video blogs) as a tool for self promotion
    •          basic theory and practice of sound web design
    •          how to effectively write about yourself and your ideas
    •          the use of social media as a tool for self-promotion

    This class will include guest speakers with specific expertise in communications, marketing, and self-promotion.  The final project for the class will be the creation of a dynamic website by each student as a means for promoting his or her ideas for a specific audience.