Courses Taught @ UR
In a compelling commencement speech to the Cal Tech graduating class of 2008, Robert Krulwich describes the importance of talking about science to nonscientists. He warns that this is not a trivial task; it is easy for scientists to rely on the jargon that is comforting to those of us "in the know", but alienating to those outside of the field. Krulwich argues that this is the source of a major problem in today's society: the truths of scientific knowledge must vie with sometimes conflicting ideas from myths, movies, the media, and politics, many of which are presented in flashy and easily digestible ways. The scientist's job, then, is "to put more stories out there about nature that are true and complex - not dumbed down - but still have the power to enthrall, to excite, to remind people that there's a deep beauty, a many-leveled beauty in the world."
Though the most obvious component of teaching is to promote mastery of the course material, I believe a more imperative goal is to encourage students to participate in the mission that Krulwich proposes. Not only should students walk away from the classroom with increased course-specific knowledge, but they should also acquire an appreciation for sharing this knowledge with others and integrating it into their lives. To this end, I strive to create courses that prepare my students to become effective consumers, practitioners, and disseminators of science.
BCS259: Language Development
In the beginning, we are little bundles of flesh that cry when we are uncomfortable...and that's just about the extent of our communicative skills. But within a few short years, typically developing children are fully participating members of the language community. This is remarkable because human language is an incredibly complex system. In this course, we ask the question: How do we acquire a system of such incredible complexity, and in such a short period of time? We will consider the steps children take along the path to learning language, including how they learn about sounds, words, higher-level sentence structure, and how to communicate effectively. We will also explore factors within the child and his/her environment that make this remarkable feat possible.
The course will be focused on theories and big ideas, as well as understanding how data and careful scientific investigation supports these theories. This class will be structured as a combination of lectures and seminar style discussions.
Sample Syllabus
BCS310: Senior Seminar
This is a 2-credit course that must be taken in the senior year by all BCS majors who do not enter the Honors Program. (Students in the Honors program take BCS 311 instead.) The main purpose of the course is to provide students with experience reading, evaluating, and discussing primary research papers. Each student chooses a topic of particular interest, becomes familiar with the topic, chooses a classic paper for the class to read and a recent paper that cites the classic, and leads a discussion of the topic and papers. In addition to analyzing the main conclusions of the papers, and the logic and assumptions behind those conclusions, we will discuss the broader implications of the work. Students also write an evaluation of the articles as though providing peer review for a journal, and they complete peer reviews of their classmates' evaluations. Students' grades depend on their performance as leaders, discussants, peer reviewers, and authors of reviews.
Sample Syllabus
BCS172: Development of Mind & Brain
Under construction