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In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of observing the night sky with a telescope. This course will teach how to find the basic constellations and how to use both manual and computerized telescopes to point at celestial objects in the night sky. While there will be some classroom time to teach fundamental concepts, the vast majority of the class will consist
What does it mean for a mathematical problem to be unsolvable? The very concept does not seem to have been much considered, until, in 1824, a young Norwegian named Niels Henrik Abel published a small pamphlet on an old problem. The pamphlet was one of the first markers of a sea change in mathematics, and by the time Abel died, six years later at the age of twenty-six,
AI tools can now write your essays, generate images from a sentence, and hold conversations that feel disturbingly human. You’ve probably already used them. But do you know how they actually work? Do you know who built them, what data they were trained on, and who benefits when you use them? This course takes AI seriously in three ways: technically, critically, and
Your journey toward learning the language of matter and its transformations on a molecular scale begins here. This course is the first in a four-course chemsitry sequence covering general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. We will begin with a foundational question that has intrigued philosophers and scientist for centuries and remains relevant today: What
In this class we will explore the concepts of energy, entropy and quantization to discover how their dancing interplay determines the structure and dynamics of the world around us. Our aim will be to understand the organizing principles that drive all chemical and physical processes. Doing so inevitably involves mathematics, but the associated understanding
Earth and Environmental Science work begins with making observations of natural phenomena and collecting quantitative field data. This course will teach the basic methodologies used by scientists to collect and analyze field data. This will include how to make and record careful observations of landscapes and Earth materials, how to
Earthʹs life‐supporting environmental systems are controlled by a complex interplay between geologic and biological processes acting both on the surface and deep within the planetary interior. This course will explore how earth materials and physical processes contribute to a healthy environment, and how humans impact geologic processes. Topics covered will include: earth
In this experimental class, we will create space for you to pursue work within or near mathematics, statistics, data science, etc. This course is intended for students at a variety of levels of experience with a solid interest in following questions and curiosity to lead to a deeper understanding. You will lead your work, in collaboration and with the support of
Galaxies are massive collections of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. They are both the birthplace of stars and planets and the signposts of the universe. By studying what happens inside galaxies, we are able to understand the conditions under which stars form. By studying the galaxies themselves, we can understand how the environment shapes their structure and makeup. By
Plants and macrofungi remain rich sources of natural products that exhibit a wide range of biological activities. In this course, students are introduced to phenols, flavonoids, terpenes, alkaloids, glycosides, and other classes of natural products. The course includes discussion, analysis of primary literature, and hands-on work involving
Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and their environment. Studying these interactions provides us with the theoretical foundation for understanding many of the most pressing environmental problems. Ecology is a broad field, encompassing research at the scales of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems with
What are genes? How do they work? How are they passed on? This course will provide an introduction to modes of inheritance as well as to genes, their structure, and their regulation. Topics discussed in this class will include, but are not limited to, the molecular structure of DNA and RNA, Mendelian inheritance, molecular properties of genes, and the regulation
Bennington’s campus supports beautiful examples of temperate deciduous mixed hardwood forests. Our forests are also impacted by legacies of past land-use and introduced plant species that affect biodiversity and ecological function. This class is a hands-on exploration of ecological restoration and invasive species removal in our own back yard. Students will
This is an introductory course on the theory and practice of analyzing and displaying geo-spatial information. The methods that students will learn have wide-ranging applications in the natural and social sciences. Students will learn how to utilize mapping and spatial geographic information systems software to analyze patterns within spatial datasets and communicate
In 1962, a group of programmers at MIT created Spacewar!, one of the first video games ever made. By the end of this course, you’ll build your own version of it. Along the way, you’ll learn what computer science actually is, which turns out to be less about coding and more about systematic design.
We use Racket, a language designed for
This foundational class covers modes of reasoning used in quantitative sciences and mathematics. While learning the art of mathematical modeling, i.e. translating the physical systems/real-life situations into mathematics, we will apply problem solving and practice effective communication of mathematics. This process involves isolating the essential variables and
Carl Friedrich Gauss wrote: "The study of Euler's works will remain the best school for the different fields of mathematics, and nothing else can replace it." The thesis of this class is that this is still true today. Leonhard Euler's (1707–1783) collected works run to 81 volumes and over 35,000 pages, the publication only having been (mostly) completed in 2022. Most of
Together with calculus, linear algebra is one of the foundations of higher-level mathematics and its applications. This is NOT just the algebra you know from high school. There are several perspectives one can take on linear algebra: it is a method for handling large systems of linear equations, it is a theory of linear geometry (including in dimensions larger than three),
The idea of old growth forests evokes romantic notions of "wild" and "natural" landscapes, especially in Vermont where our settler-colonial history includes rapid and widespread deforestation for logging and agriculture. How do ecologists identify "old growth" and what lessons about ecological structure, function, and processes can we learn from these
Physics is the study of what Newton called “the System of the World.” To know the System of the World is to know what forces are out there and how those forces operate on things. These forces explain the dynamics of the world around us: from the path of a falling apple to the motion of a car down the highway to the flight of a rocket from the Earth. Careful analysis of the
Since the arrival of Large Language Models like ChatGPT, many have wondered—even panicked—about how this new technology would impact creative writing. But literature has always been shaped by the technology of its time. In this 2-credit class, we will look beyond the common assumption of poems as ideally “timeless” to examine how poetry
How do collections of inanimate molecules drive complex biological processes that define what it means to be living? There is no simple answer. This course introduces the chemical and physical properties of biological building blocks, with an emphasis on the structure and reactivity of biological macromolecules. These macromolecules are examined in detail to understand how
