Are you tired from staying up all night completing your problem sets and lab reports? Have you ever wanted to learn how to write a screenplay? Or what makes a good story great?

In this 90 minute workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of storytelling and begin writing your first screenplay. All the while, we will discuss how science and storytelling benefit one another. (And I do not mean how awesome science fiction is)

This class will teach students some basics of ballet, beginning with barre exercises, followed by very simple combinations in the center. We will discuss ballet history and technique as well as watch videos of professional ballet performances.

We will know how to capture images using the manual functions of a DSLR.

This hour-long course is an interactive dance class that will teach students the basics of Bollywood-Fusion dance. By incorporating dance styles from all over India and the US, this course will highlight how cultural diversity shaped Bollywood dance. For those who are interested, grab a water bottle, a friend and get ready to have a great time!

This course is designed to give students quick tips to scoring higher on the SAT Writing portion of the exam. Topics that will be covered include ambiguous pronouns, parallel structure, ambiguous possessions, and etc. This course will also include identifying patterns on the exams.

We're going to discuss the basics of 3D printing and give live demonstrations showing our 3D printers in action!

We're going to talk about the various 3D printing techniques that exist, with a particular focus on the extrusion process, which is the one most commonly employed by consumer grade printers, and the ones you can build yourself.

We will then briefly introduce SketchUp, a freely accessible and easy to use 3D modeling software, and show how you can create your own 3D models.

Finally, we will show how to process your 3D model on a 3D printer software (MakerBot) and print your object!

During the course we will have one or two 3D printers in action so that everyone can take a look, and participants will get a 3D printed souvenir!

A high-level overview of how the search engine works from when a user enters "president Obama" to seeing pictures of Obama in a Google Image search.


Prerequisites
An eagerness to explore questions about computer science

Have you ever been interested in learning Chinese or traveling to China? As the world has become more globalized and as China has taken a firm position on the world stage, Chinese has become one of the most critical languages for us to learn. In this session, you will learn some of the basics of Chinese as well as some commonly used phrases.


Prerequisites
This course is for students who have none or very little Chinese language learning experience.

We will engage in a discussion about some introduction to philosophy thought experiments. Including problems of identity, mind, and ethics.

Learn the basics of communicating in ASL and how this unique language came about. By the end of the course, students will be able to finger spell and communicate basic phrases.


Prerequisites
None

This class will provide introductory instruction in creative writing. Students will learn about poetic forms and see examples these forms as well as examples of flash fiction, for the first half hour, and the last half hour will be workshop-style, in which students will try to write either poetry or flash flction based on a variety of prompts and then may share their work with the class if they choose to do so.

Interested in the world of community service? Ever wondered about those names you see on the sides of public buildings? Have you ever wondered what it takes to run a museum?

This class will focus on community service, nonprofits, and philanthropy and how these tie into Social Justice. We will also discuss Social Justice and how it is defined.

Konnichiwa mina-san! Do you like watching anime, Japanese dramas, and movies or reading Manga? In this class, you will have the opportunity to learn one out of the three Japanese writing systems, Hiragana. In addition, you will learn some Katakana characters so you can write your name in Japanese. Besides, learning the language, it is not complete unless you are exposed to the culture itself! So, you will learn about some fascinating facts about the Japanese culture as well!


Prerequisites
None

Basics in American Sign Language vocabulary and grammar. General and medical American Sign Language vocabulary will be introduced. Differences between ASL, PSL, SEE will addressed. Some focus will be spent on interpretation of music and on Deaf culture.

Computational Thinking and Problem Solving using Python.

I taught this course last year, and will be modifying it a bit based on experience. Otherwise I think it went pretty well!

All though this course is based around the programming language Python, it is not a programming course. Instead, this course will focus on using Python to explore an idea called computational thinking, a problem solving method that uses computer science techniques. While other programming classes will be about learning programming to build applications, mine will focus on problem solving for the sake of solving problems. If you're the type of person who enjoys puzzles or can't stop thinking about a problem until you have a solution, this will be your type of class.

The first part of the class will be focusing on learning Python syntax, so you have all the tools for problem solving. The next part will be focused on functional programming, focusing on creating functions to serve specific needs.

After all that formality is out of the way, I'll give tips on computational problem solving, and after that students are free to go off finding problems they find interesting to solve while I go around to help with any questions.

If you want to be in this course please download Python 2 from this link: https://www.python.org/downloads/

Thank you! If you have any questions, please email aboudaie@brandeis.edu

If there are 2 sections please opt for the smaller one, it will make your life better!


Prerequisites
Algebra 1 would be preferable.

Students will be introduced to the basics of HTML and CSS. They will learn how to make a webpage from scratch through the mechanics of HTML and CSS.


Prerequisites
Students must bring a laptop with them.

Pheidippides ran over 100 miles afoot to deliver the defeat of the Persians.
Ships spent months at sea, caravans spent days or years in the dessert.

And for what? To deliver a message.

A message that can now in the form of a TCP/IP packet travel anywhere on Earth and beyond in fraction of the time!

But how? How have we gone from Pheidippides, to the Telegraph, to the Telephone, to your mobile phone? From a phonebook to your Facebook? From mindless chatter to mindless chatter... on Twitter?

Join me to find out!

We will cover the basics of networking, the web, servers, text messaging, social networks, and what will happened when humans want the internet they know and love... on Mars!


Prerequisites
Moderate to extreme use of the internet.

How does Google search work? What does iOS Siri actually "understand?" How about predictive text completion? How could you build a grammar checker? What's the deal with machine translation?

What do all of these technologies and problems have in common? Natural language!

This course will provide insight into the basic foundations that natural language processing (NLP) requires and to get you thinking about how to approach solving problems involving natural language.

The first part of the class will introduce some of the inherent ambiguities and difficulties in natural language: word sense disambiguation, adjunct attachment, and quantifier scope.

-Word sense disambiguation: Is "I saw her duck" ambiguous?
-Adjunct attachment: Is "I saw the man with a telescope" ambiguous?
-Quantifier scope: Is "I have a picture of everyone" ambiguous?

The second part of the class will then focus on how to process and prepare unstructured natural language text for analysis. We will briefly explore the notion of what a "word" is, text tokenization, and token normalization.

-Words: What exactly is a "word?" Why is this important to define? Are punctuation marks words (would this be useful?)? What about proper names, e.g. "Mary Jane"--two words or a single word? Would you consider "'s" in "Mary's" to be a word?
-Tokenization: How do we extract the tokens (i.e. words) from an unstructured text?
-Normalization: Should we count "dog" and "dogs" as separate tokens? How about "love" and "loves"? Are "go" and "went" really different words?

In the third part of the class, we will do a hands on analysis together of unstructured text. I (or you) will ask questions about the data and then you will tell me how to solve it, while I code in front of you a live solution following your ideas.

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For the hands on activity at the end, I will be using Python with the Natural Language Toolkit library (NLTK). You do not need to download any of these, a programming background, or a computer, but if you have the know-how here are some links to get started.

Python 2.7.8: I use this because NLTK does not yet have a stable release for Python
NLTK: http://www.nltk.org/install.html

How much is your money really worth? In this class I will focus on the time value of money and provide many examples and applications that has a profound impact in everyone's lives.

Would you rather have $10 now or $20 next week?

What's all the mumbo jumbo terms about APR and down payment mean?
If you took out a loan, how much would you really be paying?

How can you make lots of money starting from something little?

All these questions and more will be answered in my class


Prerequisites
Basic arithmetic, understanding of PEMDAS. A calculator is recommended

In this class we will learn all about DNA! What is DNA? Why is it important? How does it work? Additionally, we will be extracting DNA from bananas!


Prerequisites
Recommended for students who haven't taken high school biology.

Why do some things make us happy? Sad? Angry?
How do chemical substance/recreational drugs affect our emotions?
How can we use this science to understand our own emotions and make ourselves happier?

These are questions that scientists and social scientists have recently made significant progress in, but there is still a lot to learn. This lecture will explore studies involving emotions and the underlying processes that lead to emotions, as well as how we can apply that knowledge to better our own lives. Since this is such a large topic, it will be boiled down to the absolute basics so that anyone can understand.


Prerequisites
None. But Psychology, Chemistry, and Biology may help for understanding some concepts on a deeper level.

Students will learn how science from their textbooks translates to their daily lives. One topic that will be discussed is how we can use chemistry to curl our hair. We hope to enhance students' learning in their science courses by giving them a different perspective on science.

Learn about one of the invisible issues in environmental studies today! Learn to identify invasive species that live in your area, and how these species are affecting our lives, some negatively and some positively!

Learn why sports are important in terms of taking on psychological challenges as you grow up. Sports can do more than just


Prerequisites
None

In this class we will present an introduction to determining the structure of organic molecules using the powerful technique of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging, or NMR. We'll learn how you can use NMR as a tool to solve the puzzle of identifying some organic molecules that you are in contact with in your everyday lives.

Ever wonder why you feel emotional about things that a puppy does but don't find fish nearly so cute? Learn about why we adore certain animals to the point of imagining what they think and feel while find other animals less fun to think about. Find out how this also connects to how we perceive other humans!

In 1675, after Dr. Willis noticed the urine of a diabetic tasted sweet through questionable research methodologies, he added the label “mellitus,” meaning “honey-sweet,” to this medical condition that has been studied and characterized since the ancient Egyptians. Learn about diabetes mellitus through the perspectives of history and society, with emphasis on the biochemistry, physiology, and medical treatment of this ancient and growing health care dilemma. Glucose-rich refreshments will be provided. Insulin shots will not.


Prerequisites
Previous biology or life-science coursework is recommended but not required. Review will be provided for relevant topics in biochemistry and molecular biology.

In this course, I will talk about interesting aspects of the human body, what happens when the body fails to compensate from changes in the environment, and what medical professionals can do about it.

Topics I"ll touch on:
Hypothermia
Dehydration
Pneumothorax
CPR
Shock
Heart attacks
Strokes
Seizures

Introduces students to the conceptual framework and experimental methods in medicinal chemistry. Topics include mechanisms of drug-target interactions, strategies for lead optimization and issues in metabolism, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.


Prerequisites
High School chemistry and/or biology

In this class, we will be exploring the effects of different ingredients in baking to create the delicious delicacies we eat today.


Prerequisites
Basic chemistry

In this class we explore different types of stars from our familiar yellow sun to more exotic stars like white dwarf and neutron stars. We also talk about the creation of stars and their ultimate end, sometimes ending up as black holes.


Prerequisites
No prerequisites, but a bit of science is always a helpful!

We would like to facilitate an exploration into the idea of "cultural acupuncture," taking where people have passions and energy and making that community service, outreach, and activism. We want to begin our hour with a TedX talk by Andrew Slack that describes how people who were moved by a story and used that story to get people excited about the world's need for improvement. We want to facilitate a discussion among our participants that focuses on how they can get other people enthusiastic about and involved in fighting for causes they care about. We want to end with a writing activity in which these participants can write their own story that engages an audience in such a way that convinces them of the need to fight for that cause in a way that this audience will get excited about their cause.


Prerequisites
None

This course is an introduction to mindfulness meditation, a practice that will teach you how to be calm in the midst of a busy life, and how to be more kind, compassionate and self-aware. We will explore several types of meditation, including body scans, eating meditation and sitting meditation.

Learn to Play Chess!

This course is an introduction to the popular computer game League of Legends. Anyone can join, regardless of skill level.

Whether you are looking for a part-time job or to get into your dream school, the interview is a key part of the process. Interviews are also the part that you have the most control over. This class is geared towards teaching you the tips and tricks to acing that interview every time.


Prerequisites
Students must have some sort of resume prepared (even if it just a list of things they've done); also please encourage them to dress in business wear.