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SPRING 2005 COURSE GUIDE
Category IV: Investigations in Science and Technology
These courses focus on a particular area of research using perspectives from several scientific disciplines and demonstrating connections among scientific principles, their technological applications, and social consequences. A lab or field experience is required. For additional enrollment information, see the Spring 2005 Schedule of Classes. You may also download the course descriptions in pdf version.
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The Origins of Humanity |
Humans and their Environment |
The Nature of Human Health and Disease |
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Language and Mind |
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ANTHROPOLOGY 200Lg
The Origins of Humanity
Professor Parish
MW, 2:00 - 3:20
The following course description belongs to Professor Stanford.
This class explores the evolutionary roots of humanity. It is intended to provide a foundation in how the scientific method can reveal aspects of our ancestry, using the fossil record of early humans, the behavior of living primates, and the behavior of living hunter-gatherer people. The course is a lecture format with a weekly lab and a field project. The core of this course is Darwinian theory, and all components of it. These principles explain how an ape ancestor evolved and diversified over 5 million years, leading to modern homosapiens.
Top of PageBIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 102Lxg
Humans and their Environment
Professor Kiefer
TTh, 2:00 - 3:20
The goals of this course are to teach ecological and evolutionary principles that control the size and species composition of populations plant species buy also the human population. We will see how the activities of humans have modified and destroyed natural communities, and how the human population is itself ultimately constrained by these principles. Each week the course material is presented in two 80-minute lectures and is discussed in one 120 minute discussion group. The discussion group also includes local field trips, a computer lab devoted to population dynamics, and several laboratory studies. Grades are based upon examinations, papers, and participation during the discussion group. This course explores principle of energy and material transformations, genetics, evolution, and ecology.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 150Lxg
The Nature of Human Health and Disease
Professors Petruska, Shugarman & Baker
TTh, 9:30-10:50
BISC 150L is designed to bring students to a level of understanding of modern Biomedical Science that will enable them to make rational decisions on personal, ethical, and political issues in health and disease. This level will be reached through lectures, reading of texts and news media, discussions, and laboratory experiments.
Topics include:
* The molecular and cellular nature of man
* Nutrition, aestherosclerosis, and osteoporosis
* Genetic diseases
* Cancer prevention and drug design
* Infection and the immune response
* HIV, HIV therapy, and AIDS
BISC 150Lxg is a participatory course. Frequent lecture-participation exercises will encourage students to attend and to take ethical and social positions on health issues; critical assignments will allow students to evaluate public and media views on controversial subjects; a research project will lead students to become true experts on a subject of their choice; and laboratory experiments will give an appreciation of modern biotechnology. Examinations, which count for about half of the course grade, will be open book and open notes. Course grades will be assigned according to a curve inlcuding all of the graded components.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 230Lxg
Brain, Mind and Machines: Topics in Neuroscience
Professors McClure & Greene
TTh, 12:30-1:50
The goal of BISC 230g is to bring the excitement of the neural sciences to a general education audience. The 1990's have been designated the Decade of the Brain by the US Congress; the next century might well become the Century of the Brain. The function of the brain is simple: it generates behavior. All behavior; any behavior. How this happens is not simple. Neuroscience is expanding our understanding of the brain and its functions in remarkable ways. We can visualize the human brain as people think and create. We can see parts of the brain become active as we feel emotions of love; of hate; of rage. The secrets of errors in the way the brain works are becoming known. We can learn about mental illness, and may be able more effectively to help those terrorized by it. Autism, depression, and ADD are all diseases which we can now study.
BISC 230g has a laboratory / discussion which meets for three hours each week, and is supplemented weekly by three hours of lecture. Laboratory sections are about 20 students in size. The course uses three examinations, several quizzes and lab reports, a verbal presentation, and a term paper as the basis for assigning grades.
BISC 230g examines thinking, perception, movement, sleep memory, emotion and other aspects of behavior in both healthy and diseased individuals. Examples come from many kinds of animals, from planarians and squid to monkeys and man. The fields of biology, chemistry and physiology are central to our study, but concepts from physics and medicine are also used. The fundamental principles include evolution, development, and psychological concepts of learning and behavior.
BISC 230g uses a standard lecture format and employs a textbook from the area of biological psychology, supplemented with selected readings. A laboratory manual written by the instructors will be used. For the verbal presentation and term paper (which are expected to be on the same topic), use of the library and standard reference sources will be required. The laboratory and other aspects of the course will require use of the World Wide Web, with which the student must become familiar. In addition to quizzes and examinations, assignments include lab reports, which average one every two weeks; occasional homework problems, which will be given in class to familiarize the student with simple calculations; the verbal presentation, and the term paper.
EARTH SCIENCES 150Lxg
Climate Change
Professor Berelson
MWF, 10:00 - 10:50
The following course description belongs to Professor Stott.
The Earth's climate influences all aspects of Earth's environment and plays an important role in determining the economic vitality development within a society. The Earth's climate also plays an important role in determining patterns of biological change. Earth's geological history teaches us that some climate changes that have occurred have been very abrupt and had dramatic effects on the Earth's biota. Future climate changes are inevitable and, to some extent, predictable. Yet predicting exactly how, why and when climate will change is very difficult, requiring sophisticated scientific data gathering techniques and advanced computer models in order to make even the most fundamental predictions, like what the climate will be tomorrow or the next day. Understanding the climate system and being able to make accurate statements about future climate change is of such importance to our social well being that climate research is a major focus in the United States scientific community.
This course is designed to provide the student with an introduction to the science of climate change. In this course we will examine how the climate system operates. We will investigate records of past climate on Earth ranging from the time of the dinosaurs to the dawn of man. We will examine the impact of climate change on biological, sociological and economic patterns on Earth. We will also examine some of the controversial aspects of potential future climate change, including global warming and greenhouse effect and El Niño. The course consists of three lectures each week and one laboratory . In the laboratory the students will participate in the development of scientific hypothesis which will then be tested by conducting an experiment or making observations. The laboratory assignments will provide a hands-on experience with the science of climate change.
The laboratory portion of the class is intended to help you understand the complexity of the climate system, how it operates and how it is susceptible to change. We will examine real climate data and will use this data to learn how climate change is evaluated. You will also be asked to form work groups (of approximately 5 people) to conduct a research project. The project will be to investigate a climate event. You can use all the resources you've learned in the class to document as much about the climate of this event as possible. The group will then present its findings on the last week of the class.
For further information about the course, visit the course website: http://earth.usc.edu/~geol150/.
EARTH SCIENCES 240Lxg
Earthquakes
Professor Teng
TTh, 12:30 - 1:50
In this course we explore earthquakes, volcanoes, seismic Sea Waves, and participate in a thorough discussion on the physical principles and their impacts to the human society, as well as how we cope with these hazards.
EXERCISE SCIENCE 205Lxg
The Science of Human Performance
Professor Girandola
MWF, 9:00 - 9:50
This course is designed to allow students to understand the scientific basis of human performance. What are the underlying factors that cause fatigue during exercise? Are these factors the same, regardless of what kind of exercise? What can be done to prevent or reduce levels of fatigue? In addition, the course looks at factors that can improve exercise tolerance, such as training, ergogenic aids and drugs. It is a course that will be of interest to the general student as well as the elite athlete. Lectures include discussions of the physiological, biochemical, morphological and nutritional contributions.
Lectures are three days per week, and there is a formal 2-hour lab section each week. The laboratory exercises will allow students hands-on experience to test some of the theoretical concepts that are discussed in the lectures. These experiments are aimed at helping students understand scientific conclusions. In other words, how do we know what we know? Some of the laboratory exercises include the measurement of aerobic capacity, body composition, strength and anaerobic capacity. It should be emphasized that athletic performance in the laboratory is NOT a prerequisite for an excellent grade.
GEOGRAPHY 260Lg
Natural Hazards
Professor Wilson
TTh, 9:30 - 10:50
The environment has always posed risks to its human inhabitants. While we may pride ourselves on just how far civilization has progressed in protecting us from the varieties of the physical world, we cannot escape the nagging worry that natural disasters seem to be impacting greater numbers of people and greater amounts of property than ever before. This course will provide an introduction to extreme geophysical and atmospheric events inquiring into the scientific nature of these phenomena as well as their time/space distribution. Methodologies for analyzing these events will be discussed and students will have the opportunity to make their own measurements and analysis through laboratory exercises. As different disaster typologies are developed in class consideration of structural and non-structural modifications and mitigation will be developed and students will develop an appreciation of how and why some strategies seem to ameliorate effects of hazards while others seemingly exacerbate the situation.
This course is designed to explore the interrelationship between science and technology by focusing on a related set of natural hazard phenomena including geophysical events (earthquake, volcanism, mass movement, and coastal zone erosion) and atmospheric events (hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding) as well as fire. How society has, continues to and will attempt to cope with these events is clearly a major thrust of this course.
LINGUISTICS 110Lg
In A Word
Professor Vergnaud
TTh, 12:30 - 1:50
Please contact the Linguistics department for course description.
LINGUISTICS 275Lg
Language and Mind
Professors Walker & Anderson
TTh, 9:30 - 10:50
The following course description belongs to Professors Mintz and Walker.
This course introduces students to the stuffy of language as a cognitive science, focusing on the mental representations of the sounds of speech. Some questions that will be addressed throughout the course are: What are the sounds of the world's languages? How can they best be classified and understood? How are sounds represented in the mind? How are sounds produced by the human vocal apparatus? How are sounds transmitted through the air? How are they decoded by the ear and by the brain? How do children learn to understand speech? So speakers of different languages perceive speech differently? How are signed languages similar to and different from spoken languages? What goes wrong when language is impaired in an individual? How is speech related to reading?
Throughout the course we will emphasize the scientific methods used by researchers to investigate these and other questions. Because this course is multidisciplinary in nature, drawing primarily from the fields of Linguistics and Psychology, students will be introduced to the different methods, techniques, and technologies used by researchers in both fields.
PHYSICS 200Lxg
The Physics and Technology of Energy: Keeping the Motor Running
Professor Wagner
MWF, 11:00 - 11:50
In this course we will be having laboratory experiences on a regular basis. I am a great believer in the importance of "hands-on" learning, and I think that your participation in these laboratories will give you a better understanding of measurements and quantitative reasoning.
The central topic of this course is energy. Everybody has some idea of what the word energy means. After the 1984 Olympics energy seemed to be best represented by Mary Lou Retton. That wasn't bad, but Physicists restrict the meaning somewhat. One early goal of this course is to develop an intuitive sense, we need to try to understand numbers. Numbers play an important role because the scale of energy needed to keep our society is huge. (How much of the nations' energyy supply does that Exxon supertanker sitting in San Pedro represent?) Energy is measured in strange units -- barrels of oil, tons of coal, cubic meters of gas, megawatt hours of electricity, etc.
There is some interesting and fundamental physics in the understanding about how energy passes through society. Physics says that energy is conserved, so who do we keep needing more? Why do we have waste? We will address these questions. We also want to understand the consequences of energy use -- depletion of resources, pollution, etc. During the course, you might want to imagine a situation; "If I were King," where you could invent a national or global energy policy; what would it be? I will ask you this question and then as time goes by, let's see if your view changes, and how.
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