Spring Numbers Sections

Morning Sections (MWF 11:30am-12:30pm)

 

Living in a Green World: What Are Plants Worth?

Randy Long, Visiting Asst Prof of Biology

• Core 121-01 - MWF 11:30am-12:30pm

Plants provide us with food, shelter, oxygen, and enjoyment. But how many of us consider their actual worth and what affects plant growth? This course offers an engaging introduction to quantitative reasoning through experiments on plant growth in a greenhouse setting and investigating the dollar value of urban vegetation by analyzing its economic, environmental, and social benefits. Students will explore fundamental concepts such as measurement, data collection, statistical analysis, and scientific inquiry by designing and conducting experiments to understand factors influencing plant development. Emphasizing critical thinking and real-world applications, the course connects mathematical principles with biological and urban processes, fostering an appreciation for how quantitative methods can illuminate and address complex natural and societal issues. No prior experience in statistics or biology is necessary.

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Take Charge: Tackling Environmental Problems

Liz Safran, Assoc Prof of Geological Science

• Core 121-02 - MWF 11:30am-12:30pm
• Core 121-07 - MWF 1:50-2:50

Please see the description below under the 1:50pm list of sections.

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MWF 1:50-2:50pm Sections

 

The Promise and Peril of Cryptocurrency

Mark Dahl, Director of Watzek Library

• Core 121-10 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Hailed as digital gold by some and derided as financial rat poison by others, cryptocurrency has fueled celebrity scandals, international crime, and regulatory battles over the past decade—all while consuming terawatts of power. This course will examine whether cryptocurrency represents a positive social and economic innovation, a destabilizing and destructive force, or merely a passing fad.

In the first few weeks of the course, students will explore the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and learn about emerging blockchain applications such as smart contracts and decentralized finance. In later weeks, the course will delve into cryptocurrency’s societal impacts across a variety of topical areas. Key topics include the boom-and-bust business ecosystem surrounding crypto, its qualities as a store of value and speculative asset, political and regulatory issues around crypto, its cultural influence and socioeconomic implications, its uses in unstable economies, its connections to crime, its environmental impact, and its future prospects. In addition to engaging with these topics through readings and discussions, students will develop skills in data analysis and visualization in weekly lab sessions.

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Fire, Energy, and Civilization

Julio de Paula, Prof of Chemistry

• Core 121-04 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

The ancient Greeks described the composition of all matter and nature in terms of the “elements” earth, air, fire, and water. This course dives deep into “Fire,” more commonly referred to today as “Energy.” Early energy sources such as the burning of wood, followed by coal, and then oil, have led to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The prospect of climate change has motivated the development of a dizzying array of alternative energy technologies that use sources as diverse as tides, kelp, and the deep earth. This course will discuss fundamental concepts such as heat, work, the laws of thermodynamics, and the generation of electricity. Then we will center our inquiry on this guiding question: “What must be done to reach the goal of net-zero global carbon emissions?”

To address this question, we will investigate energy usage in agriculture, manufacturing, buildings, and transportation. We will explore the influence of energy on community health, poverty, and security. Our inquiry will be rooted in mining publicly available datasets that we will analyze with online tools and spreadsheets. We will interpret and construct graphical representations of data and work in teams to tackle the pressing challenge of an equitable transition to global net-zero carbon emissions.

This section is intended for students with no previous experience with statistics.

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Art in Math, Math in Art

David Lovitz, Visiting Prof of Mathematics

• Core 121-08 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

This course is about concepts that appear at the intersection of art and mathematics. Topics will include symmetry, tessellations, fractals, hyperbolic geometry, perspective, and more. We will also look at how different artists have explored mathematical ideas with their artwork including M.C. Escher, Daina Taimiņa, Bathsheba Grossman, Paul Dancstep, and others. Through hands-on projects, we will create our own works that are inspired by and use mathematical ideas.

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Probability, Quantification, and Ideology: Numbers in Their Human Context(s)

Colin Patrick, Visiting Asst Prof of Philosophy

• Core 121-06 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

In this course we’ll learn about and critically examine: some of the benefits and pitfalls of quantificational and data-driven reasoning; some of the philosophical questions arising from efforts to assign numerical values to probability, human characteristics, behavior, and responsibility; and the increasing trend of outsourcing impactful decisions to computer algorithms and AI. We’ll learn some of the basics of inductive logic, scientific method, and probability theory, with an emphasis on thinking carefully and critically about the mathematical formulae they use, and what the numerical values they operate with really mean in context. We will explore North American Indigenous epistemology, with a focus on its similarities to, and differences from, Eurogenic science and inductive reasoning, and its uniquely valuable perspective on many of the course themes. Lastly, we will think critically about the ideological purposes often lurking behind efforts to assign numbers to individual human beings – from their intelligence to their responsibility for carbon emissions – assessing, for example, the scientific and logical merit of studies seeking to reveal the foundations of gender and gender-based social disparities in neurological and other biometric data.

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The Science of Meditation - {added 10/20}

Bruce Podobnik, Assoc Professor of Sociology

• Core 121-11 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

This course introduces students to meditation/mindfulness practices, as well as the growing body of research in fields such as neuroscience, psychology, sports studies, and the social sciences about the effects of meditation. Students will work together on a group project where data is gathered on the outcomes of simple daily mindfulness practices that approximately 30 undergraduate volunteers will engage in over a ten week period during the semester (on psychometric measures of things like self-reported anxiety rates, ability to focus attention, ability to carry out challenging tasks, etc). Statistical tests such as chi-square and t-tests will be used to measure these survey outcomes quantitatively. Students in the course will also write a research paper in which they examine the use of numeric/statistical/biometric data to assess some aspect of a meditation/mindfulness practice that they are interested in, as reported in the academic literature. Students will be assessed on their engagement in class discussions, their critical engagement with reading via daily quizzes, their work on the group survey project, their research paper, and the class presentations they will give at the end of the semester. By the end of the semester each student should have a stronger sense of the benefits and potential limitations of attempting to quantitatively evaluate the effects of meditation/mindfulness practices — as well as an improved ability to conduct a survey and examine survey data results, write formal research papers, and give public presentations.

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Measuring Environmental Meaning

Jim Proctor, Prof of Environmental Studies

• Core 121-05 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

Do you worry about environmental crisis? Are you convinced that we need to change our values to address environmental crisis in a lasting way? Then a good first step is to understand these values: who believes what and why. Measuring Environmental Meaning will help you learn how to do just that. You will appreciate problems in how environmental values have been studied to date. You will explore a new approach called EcoTypes. And you will devise, implement, and analyze your own environmental values survey. Participating in this course will convey skills in Google Sheets, descriptive and inferential statistics, and survey research—and you will find yourself thinking about environmental values in a deeper, more contextual, more sophisticated way. While nominally a Numbers course, Measuring Environmental Meaning blends the strengths of multiple fields: typically we assume Words courses explore meaning, and Numbers courses explore measuring, but this course does both. If you like connecting the different things you are learning at Lewis & Clark—say, text and ideas with equations and statistics—this course is for you.

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Take Charge: Tackling Environmental Problems

Liz Safran, Assoc Prof of Geological Science

• Core 121-02 - MWF 11:30am-12:30pm
• Core 121-07 - MWF 1:50-2:50

You may have come to Lewis & Clark to make a difference in the world. The fundamental premise of this course is that you can and should start doing that right away. Working in teams, you will grapple with a real-world, unsolved environmental problem and map out a pathway to addressing it. YOU will be in charge of the entire problem-solving process, and toward the end of the semester you will present your plan to a panel of experts. We will also take a field trip to a site related to our focal challenge. This course employs a radically different approach to learning than traditional classes – one that puts you in the driver’s seat.

Speaking of driving (or not!), this year we will focus on creating an environmentally responsible and cost-effective transportation plan for Lewis & Clark College. There is no “right” answer to this problem; you are seeking to develop the best solution you can in the face of diverse and at times conflicting stakeholder interests and constraints at the heart of this, and indeed all, wicked environmental problems. Welcome to your Take Charge experience!

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Coding, Data, and People

Liz Stanhope, Prof of Mathematics

• Core 121-03 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

This course introduces you to coding and data skills to address questions about the human experience. For example: What is the relationship between wealth and happiness? Do critics treat movies differently depending on the gender of the director? This course examines many such questions, including those that you propose. You will develop skills for analyzing and visualizing real-world data using the Python programming language. The target audience for this section is students with no previous experience with coding or statistics.

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What Do Numbers Sound Like? An Exploration of Digital Sound and Music

Stephen Tufte, Assoc Prof of Physics

• Core 121-09 – MWF 1:50-2:50pm

One of the primary ways that we receive information about the world around us is through our ears. Since the late 1800s we have been able to measure, record, and play back sound information using mechanical devices. In the last 50 years we have dramatically shifted the way that we do this. The vast majority of the sound information that currently barrages us is now digital.

This course will present the physical basis of sound (pressure waves in air) and will discuss how we can measure sound waves, with a strong focus on the modern approach of digitizing sound; in other words, turning sounds into numbers. We will learn how to use digital sound recorders along with powerful computer software to measure, store, transmit, and mathematically process this sound information into more meaningful forms.

By learning to analyze the sounds that surround us quantitatively, we can address a wide range of interesting and important questions. For example, what is high-fidelity and how is this affected by compression algorithms? Does vinyl sound better? What is a sound spectrum and how is it useful? How has the shift to digital music affected how music is recorded, distributed, and consumed? How are sounds used to scientifically investigate nature (e.g. seismology, echolocation, ultrasonic imaging, animal communication)?