Introduction to Computer Science I
Computer Science 50: Introduction to Computer Science I is a first course in computer science at Harvard College for concentrators and non-concentrators alike. More than just teach you how to program, this course teaches you how to think more methodically and how to solve problems more effectively. As such, its lessons are applicable well beyond the boundaries of computer science itself. That the course does teach you how to program, though, is perhaps its most empowering return. With this skill
Privacy
Though it brings us many benefits, the march of technology makes an encompassing surveillance network seem almost inevitable, and radically changes our expectations of privacy. We owe many of the expectations of privacy we used to enjoy to a combination of immature technology and insufficient manpower to monitor us. But these protective inefficiencies are giving way to technologies of data processing and digital surveillance that will change our beliefs about privacy. We are widely tracked by pu
Freedom of Expression on the Internet
The Internet offers extraordinary opportunities for "speakers," broadly defined. Political candidates, cultural critics, corporate gadflies -- anyone who wants to express an opinion about anything -- can make their thoughts available to a world-wide audience far more easily than has ever been possible before. A large and growing group of Internet participants have seized that opportunity. Some observers find the resultant outpouring of speech exhilarating. They see in it nothing less than the re
Access to the Internet
Using the Internet depends, in the first instance, on access to the network. The initial emergence of "the Internet" in the early 1990s, from the increasing connectivity of a series of university and government networks alongside private services like America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe, occurred almost entirely across slow dial-up modem connections over telephone wires. Sufficient for email, Usenet news groups, transferring relatively small files, and later viewing simple web pages, slow tr
The Law of the Internet
The Internet is at once a constructive and disruptive technology. As more and more of our lives move online, we are faced with opportunities to do new and amazing things. Concurrently, we encounter problems that no one anticipated as we collectively built the internet as we know it today. This seminar will consider some of the most intriguing of the issues to which the advent of the internet has given and continues to give rise. It will focus on a cluster of topics about which any computer user
Elementary GLOBE: Earth System Play
The class will brainstorm, write, create, and produce a play in which they represent how all the Earth systems are interconnected. This play can be based on the Elementary GLOBE book "All About Earth: Our World on Stage" or on other student-generated topics representing interconnections of the Earth systems. The purpose of the play is to serve as a performance assessment providing students with the opportunity to display what they have learned about the Earth as a system in a creative manner. Th
Elementary GLOBE: We're All Connected
A learning activity for the "All About Earth: Our World on Stage" book in the Elementary GLOBE series. One of the "big ideas" in Earth system science is the notion of interaction among parts of the Earth system. In the Elementary GLOBE book All About Earth: Our World on Stage, the children in Ms. Patel's class discuss instances of how the four major spheres of Earth's system interact. They symbolize these interactions by using large arrows to link the system components: air, water, soil, living
Elementary GLOBE: Earth System in a Bottle
A learning activity for the "All About Earth: Our World on Stage" book in the Elementary GLOBE series. In pairs, students will create experimental conditions in terrariums in order to study what plants need to live. Variables to study include the presence or absence of soil, water, and sunlight. Students will record the growth of radish plants as well as observations of "the water cycle" in their terrariums. At the conclusion of their experiments, students will share their results with the class
What's Shaping the Global Internet Society?, Spring 2009
The Internet continues to evolve rapidly. How it evolves will have a huge impact upon how individuals will use it and the impact they will have on society. This course will examine how new technologies, government policies, standards decisions, business practices, and different worldviews are shaping how the Internet is being used in countries around the world. The course will begin with an examination how Internet policy, telecommunications policy, information policy, national security policy,
Marriage, Family Structure & Economic Development, Spring 2008
Families and households are universal in world history. Their specific forms, however, vary widely through time and across countries and regions of the world. This course aims to provide students with a deeper understanding of diverse family structures, as well as the connections between the family life and broader socio-economic environment in which they are embedded. We will examine how conditions in the economy, labor market, households, and culture of a society can influence the well-being a
Vectors: Grade 10
Grade 10: Vectors. Are vectors physics? No, vectors themselves are not physics. Physics is just a description of the world around us. To describe something we need to use a language. The most common language used to describe physics is mathematics. Vectors form a very important part of the mathematical description of physics, so much so that it is absolutely essential to master the use of vectors.
Accidental Scientist: Science and Technology of Cooking
This site looks at the science behind food and cooking. Learn about what happens when you eat sugar, bake bread, cook an egg, or pickle foods. Find out how muscle turns to meat, what makes meat tender, and what gives meat its flavor. Take tours of breads and spices of the world. Explore your sense of taste and smell.
Global Climate Change
This site offers a window into the world of scientific research on climate change. Learn about physical processes underlying the earth's climate, data on how the climate is changing and the role of human activity, and questions and uncertainties that researchers continue to explore. The site is organized in four parts: the atmosphere, hydrosphere (oceans and water), cryosphere (snow and ice), and biosphere (living organisms).
What is Inquiry?
Good science education requires both learning scientific concepts and developing scientific thinking skills. Inquiry is an approach to learning that involves a process of exploring the natural or material world, and that leads to asking questions, making discoveries, and testing those discoveries in the search for new understanding. Inquiry, as it relates to science education, should mirror as closely as possible the enterprise of doing real science.
Definitions of Copyright: What Do They Know?
In this lesson, students will begin to explore the often-perplexing world of copyrights by defining the essential elements of U.S. copyright law. Beginning with the Copy Quiz game and a free-form class discussion, students will tease out collective and individual ideas about the rights of creators and users. Then students will be asked to reflect on their experiences making and using creative works online and write down the questions that they want answered by the end of the unit.
Earth Exploration Toolbook Chapter: Creating Custom Map Images of Earth and Other Worlds
This chapter familiarizes users with Jules Verne Voyager, a freely available online map tool that includes data for Earth as well as 19 other planets and moons. Users create a variety of map images then save and import the images into a presentation or a word-processing document. In the activity, users explore the range of data that are available to create map images: 100 different types of data are available to characterize portions of Earth. In addition, Voyager has at least one type of data f
Earth Exploration Toolbook Chapter: Measuring Distance and Area in Satellite Images
Users download and analyze MODIS imagery from 2001 and 2003 to quantify the shrinking of the Aral Sea. The chapter steps users through downloading, installing, and measuring with ImageJ, a freely available image analysis program. Users employ the software to set the spatial calibration of an image, then select and measure distances directly from the image. Measurement results are reported in real-world units. Users also select, measure, and compare the area covered by the sea in three time-serie
Gulf Coast Geology Online Interactive Mapping System
This interactive mapping system is one component of the U. S. Geological Survey's Framework Studies and Assessment of the Gulf Coast Project. This project provides the geologic, geophysical, and geochemical framework for the region. The mapping system displays different aspects of the energy resources which reside in the Gulf of Mexico Basin, one of the major hydrocarbon producing areas of the world.
World of Crickets
These four activities, use crickets to teach the scientific process to elementary and middle school students. Students will make observations and record data on the types of food that crickets like to eat. In another lab, students determine if crickets respond to light or dark. A “Crickthermometer” activity asks students to design an experiment to find out whether they can predict air temperature by counting the number of times a cricket chirps. In the last activity, “The Musical World of
Mapping Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe's spiritual biography is often called the first autobiography in English. A married woman who attempted to live a life devoted to Christ, Margery sought official Church recognition for her status as a spiritual woman and mystic, while continuing to live and travel in the secular world. She experienced intense emotional visionary encounters with Christ, which have at times a strikingly homely quality. Her Book, dictated by her to a scribe, records these visions as well as her travel
