Science Mathematics and Computing

Quantum Mechanics — PHY4211.01

Instructor: Hugh Crowl

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

The microscopic world is fundamentally different from the macroscopic one we encounter on a daily basis. The classical view of particles, mass, and even location break down at the smallest scales. The development of quantum mechanics as a field in the 1920s was a fundamental leap forward for our understanding of atomic physics. Countless current technologies and scientific

Science Mathematics and Computing

Real Analysis — MAT4128.01

Instructor: Andrew McIntyre

Credits: 4

Differential and integral calculus - nowadays referred to together as simply "calculus" - were developed in the late 1600s and early 1700s to allow infinitely small numbers and formulas with infinitely many terms. These techniques turned out to be immensely powerful, and it is impossible to imagine modern physics, engineering or mathematics without them. However, for almost two

Science Mathematics and Computing

Reimagining Memory in Biology and Beyond — BIO2140.01

Instructor: David Edelman

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

How are memories formed, stored, and accessed? This question has been central to psychology and neuroscience since their founding. In this class, we will first review psychological and neurobiological views of memory. We will then explore how memory as a dynamic process might be extended to biological—and even non-biological—systems outside the brain. We will survey cultural,

Science Mathematics and Computing

Science and Math Fifth Term Seminar — SCMA4105.01

Instructor: John Bullock; Amie McClellan

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 2

This two-credit seminar is required for all fall-term juniors with Plans that significantly involve mathematics or science (other students may register with permission of instructors if background is appropriate and space permits). The seminar is a forum for reading and discussion of primary and secondary literature with the goal of gaining a broad sense of the work of

Science Mathematics and Computing

Science and Math Fifth Term Seminar — SCMA4105.01

Instructor: tim schroeder; kathryn montovan

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 2

This two-credit seminar is required for all fall-term juniors whose Plan significantly involves mathematics or science (other students may register with permission of instructors if background is appropriate). The seminar uses students’ ideas/plans for advanced work as a vehicle for intensive exploration of the scientific process. We will look at the research methods employed

Science Mathematics and Computing

Science and Math Fifth Term Seminar — SCMA4105.01

Instructor: Andrew McIntyre and Kerry Woods

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 2

This two-credit seminar is required for all fall-term juniors whose Plan significantly involves mathematics or science (other students may register with permission of instructors if background is appropriate). The seminar uses students’ ideas/plans for advanced work as a vehicle for intensive exploration of the scientific process. We will look at the research methods employed

Science Mathematics and Computing

Scripting for Computer Graphics — CS2122.01

Instructor: Justin Vasselli

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

Computer Graphics is one of the most fun and accessible fields within Computer Science. The visual nature of it lends itself well to creative and artistic minds. It’s the perfect melding of math, computing and art. This course will cover the key ideas behind computer graphics. We will discuss different rendering algorithms and how they work, how 3D models

Science Mathematics and Computing

Seminar: Advanced Topics in Chemistry — CHE4276.01

Instructor: Janet Foley

Credits: 2

This advanced seminar is an opportunity for students to explore chemical topics in more detail than in previous courses. Topics of student and faculty interest will be pursued mainly through reading the research literature with background from other sources as appropriate. Students will present articles and facilitate the discussions. Evaluation will be based on student

Science Mathematics and Computing

Sensation and Movement in the Ocean — Canceled

Instructor: David Edelman

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

How do marine animals negotiate the challenges of a complex, ever changing, and often dangerous environment? How can we make sense of the rich repertoires of sensory and motor adaptations that are found among the diverse multi-cellular creatures that have evolved in the oceans over more than half a billion years? Finally, what kinds of nervous system innovations coincided with

Science Mathematics and Computing

Sensation and Movement in the Ocean — Canceled

Instructor: david edelman

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

How do marine animals negotiate the challenges of a complex, ever changing, and often dangerous, environment? How can we make sense of the rich repertoires of sensory and motor adaptations that are found among the diverse multicellular creatures that have evolved in the oceans over more than half a billion years? Finally, what kinds of nervous system innovations coincided with

Science Mathematics and Computing

Sets, Measure and Topology — MAT4106.01

Instructor: Andrew McIntyre

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

This course provides a brief introduction to three foundational areas of modern mathematics: set theory, measure theory, and topology. In set theory, we will see how to count well past infinity (ordinal and cardinal arithmetic), and we will also see how set theory forms a logical foundation for the whole of modern mathematics. In topology, we will see how continuous deformation

Science Mathematics and Computing

Spatial Data Analysis and GIS — ES4126.01

Instructor: Tim Schroeder

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

This is a practical course in the methods used to collect, analyze, display, and communicate spatial information. These methods are critical to the fields of geology, hydrology, ecology, environmental science and engineering, and include: compass and GPS data collection, projections, 3-D analysis, map and cross section construction, and use of analysis tools in geographic

Science Mathematics and Computing

Special Relativity — PHY4210.01

Instructor: Hugh Crowl

Credits: 2

Classical physics describes the motions of large things moving at slow speeds. That description of the universe, which physicists used to describe the motion of objects from apples to planets for hundreds of years, does not hold for objects moving very fast. In this class, we will look at how traveling close to the speed of light affects the physical properties of objects.

Science Mathematics and Computing

Stars and Galaxies — PHY2106.01

Instructor: Hugh Crowl

Credits: 4

All but a handful of the objects you see in the night sky are stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Although we know about these stars only from studying the light that reaches us from them, we know today that they are not just points of light, but large, gravitationally‐bound balls of plasma governed by the laws of physics. Stars, together with dust, gas, and dark matter, are

Science Mathematics and Computing

Statistical Methods for Data Analysis — MAT2104.01

Instructor: Katie Montovan

Credits: 4

This course focuses on developing the statistical skills needed to design studies, analyze large datasets and to be a critical consumer of statistical results. We will design studies, collect and analyze data, and create effective presentations of results. We will also analyze large observational datasets. Emphasis will be placed on gaining a solid conceptual understanding of

CAPA Environment Science Mathematics and Computing

Statistics and Their Presentation — MAT2114.01

Instructor: Kathryn Montovan

Credits: 4

Statistics is the art of finding meaning in mathematical abstracts. It is looking at patterns and trying to reason what those patterns mean for the future. Statistics have pervaded modern society--politics, business, economics, and all walks of science depend on statistics and the models contained within to estimate and confirm patterns within their data. This course will focus

Science Mathematics and Computing

Statistics and Their Presentation — MAT2236.01

Instructor: Kathryn Montovan

Credits: 4

Statistics is the art of finding meaning in spite of unavoidable uncertainties. Statistics is an important part of modern society -- with politicians, businessmen, economists, and all kinds of scientists depending on statistics and statistical models to estimate and confirm patterns within their data. In this course, we will focus on using basic statistical methods to

Environment Science Mathematics and Computing

Stimulus, Sensation, and the Brain: Psychophysical Investigations of Perception — BIO4126.01

Instructor: David Edelman

Credits: 4

How do animals extract information that is critical for survival from an often complex and ambiguous world? When an octopus sees a crab, what features and behaviors of that crab are capturing the octopus attention? How can we investigate sensory percepts in animals that cant report those percepts to us via natural language? What are the neural correlates of perception? In this

Science Mathematics and Computing

Studying Place: Projects — ENV4216.01

Instructor: Kerry Woods, Donald Sherefkin

Credits: 4

***New description*** How have interactions between culture and biological/physical environment shaped the history and current nature of the Bennington community and its surroundings? How does their interplay constrain and enable its future? How might planning for Bennington’s future best recognize this history and build on the landscape presented by it? Students will

Visual Arts Science Mathematics and Computing Environment

Symmetry — MAT4138.01

Instructor: andrew mcintyre

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

Symmetry is a central theme of modern mathematics and theoretical physics. The intuitive idea of symmetry has been abstracted by mathematicians in to a more powerful, general concept - group theory - by means of which we can analyze symmetries, not only of faces and snowflakes, but also of equations or mathematical structures. Mathematicians before the nineteenth century had

Science Mathematics and Computing

Systemic Generative Visual Investigations — CS4160.01

Instructor: Andrew Cencini; Guy Snover

Credits: 4

What is possible when the work of art is a computational system and the means of production are robotic? This advanced computation course will lead students from abstract computational structures to physical two and three dimensional forms. The conceptual artist Sol Lewitt stated, "The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the System." Our platform

Science Mathematics and Computing Visual Arts

The Art of Mathematics — MAT2439.01

Instructor:

Credits: 4

Are you interested in the interplay between art and mathematics? In this class, we will explore striking visual and spatial concepts that arise in sophisticated modern mathematics. We will do so without assuming any mathematical prerequisites. Topics include the structure of Moebius strips and solids; topology (the stretching and bending of space); the fourth dimension; the

Science Mathematics and Computing

The Human Animal — BIO2118.01

Instructor: Elena Demyanenko

Credits: 4

Humans are animals and share many traits with other animals. In this class a biologist and dancer will engage students in an exploration of structures and functions that permit all animals to process information, move, and react to their environments. How have these structures and functions evolved? Can these insights inform how humans think, respond, move, and create?

Science Mathematics and Computing Dance

The Infinite — Canceled

Instructor: Andrew McIntyre

Credits: 1

The infinite is a theme that recurs in human thought, in places as disparate as philosophy, architecture, literature and mathematics. We will look at how mathematics has been influenced by the infinite, and the ways in which it has come to terms with it. We will mostly look at what mathematicians call the theory of sets: can one infinite collection be called bigger than another

Science Mathematics and Computing Modules: Transferable Approaches

The Science of Consciousness — BIO4123.01

Instructor: David Edelman

Credits: 4

Most of us have an intuitive sense of what consciousness is. It is what slips away when we fall asleep and returns when we awaken. It is the awareness of a particular word, object, or scene. It is the feeling of an internal presence. For centuries, nearly all thought about the nature of consciousness was the sole preserve of philosophers, most notably Rene Descartes, John Locke

Science Mathematics and Computing