This course covers basics of cinematography and then lets students experiment. Students would see clips from films and learn about camera movement (dolly shots, vertigo effect, etc.), shot reverse shots setups, the 180 degree rule, framing, color choices, and how these techniques make up genres and styles (noir, comedy, cinema verite, dogme 95).

After a few pointers on writing (or structuring improvisation) and acting, students are then divided into small groups to work on filming a scene. Students can trade of roles between actor/director/cinematographer.

Did you know that there is only one color in history to ever be patented by a company? That would be Tiffany & Co. blue. Most recently, shoe designer Christian Louboutin attempted to patent the famous red color he uses amidst a battle with Yves Saint Laurent. This class will explore color and all the great battles it has caused throughout history. Believe it or not- simple color truly has sparked debates among painters and now fashion designers.In this class, we will be able to understand how color used in art is dependent on what technology offers. Long it may last!


Prerequisites
Basic Chemistry Knowledge is not required but useful- For instance, know what transition metals are. We will be breaking down colors into their chemical compositions

Winter is coming, and it's time to learn how to crochet your own scarf. This course will cover reading patterns, starting projects, and basic stitches. No experience required, materials will be provided.

Come dance some Sevillanas and Fandangos and learn this enchanting and passionate dance in the traditional Andalusian form.

We will learn some basic zapateos and use castañuelas to match our step, music, and hands.

We will also work a lot with properly porting our arms to match our body language.

Get ready to be introduce to many different styles of music as well!


Prerequisites
No prior dance experience necessary

Ever wonder how spanish people can hear the first three seconds of a song and spring up, grab a partner and start dancing for hours???

It's all in the music!!!

Come learn how to dance a Bachata, Salsa, Merengue, and Cumbia with a partner!

Taste a variety of the most popular dances on Latin America, and make some great friends while you're at it!

Once you learn, you can take them dancing in the city!!!


Prerequisites
No previous dance experience necessary, but a willingness to dance.

Electric Circuits can get surprisingly complex using only three basic components - voltage sources, current sources and resistors.
This class will cover several techniques of resistive circuit analysis, including Kirchoff's Laws, node and mesh analysis, linearity and superposition, and if there's time, Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits.


Prerequisites
High School algebra, basic knowledge of electric current, voltage and resistance (Regents physics is fine)

An arduino is not in fact an exotic animal - it is a small computer that can be used to create just about any electronic application. If you've seen the now-famous 8x8x8 LED cube demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXM-oGggrM, you can program it with an arduino.

You can build robots, light displays, music makers, and much much more using an arduino!

In this class, we'll talk about how to set up a basic arduino environment to build a very simple application involving LEDs. If we have time, we'll dive into more advanced topics.

Do not bring a computer to class; we will all be taking turns and programming together as a class using only one computer!


Prerequisites
Some programming background - it doesn't matter what language. If you know Java, C++, C, or any other object-oriented language, you will have an easier time understanding concepts.

Have you ever wondered how a computer can recognize objects? Everyone knows computers can do math quickly, but what if we have a picture of some coins? Do you think it could count them efficiently? How difficult do you think it would be to teach it how to do that?

During this introductory class on image processing, we’ll answer all these questions and show you that by seeing an image as a matrix, a mathematical object, a computer can actually extract a lot of information from a collection of pixels. Using simple euclidean geometry and some clever calculation, we’ll see how an equation defining a circle could teach a computer to see circular shapes using the Hough Transform. If time allows, we will also look at how computers learn to see things all the way from the inside of your body to the surface of Mars! So come along, and have your first encounter with computer vision!


Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with graphing functions and parametric equations. Some knowledge of programming will be helpful, but not required.

Is committing a crime always a bad thing? Are there ever instances when crimes can have benefits for an individual or society that outweigh its illegality? We will examine the morality and ethics of crime and determine its positive and negative consequences. Specifically, we will do this by looking at Raskolnikov of Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, in order to demonstrate the pitfalls of transcending law and order.


Prerequisites
None. A previous reading of Crime and Punishment is helpful but not required.

Love her or hate her, just about everyone has a (radical) opinion about Ayn Rand. I'm here to help you explore more about Ayn Rand, from highlights of her intriguing life to her lasting effect on American politics. Go beyond the half-baked arguments and truly understand the impact of the woman who singlehandedly (sans Aristotle—find out why in class) made her own philosophy. Some call her crazy, some call her a goddess, but either way—she's Ayn Rand.


Prerequisites
An interest in American politics is recommended.

Topics covered will include the structure of sonnets, the difference between Shakespearean versus other sonnets, and strategies for explicating sonnets for meaning. Students will read several sonnets, and will work in groups to analyze one before class ends, using the newly learned strategies.


Prerequisites
Familiarity with poetry and Shakespeare's writing helpful, but not necessary.

"Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me." (Sonnet 74).

This class will examine the motif and representation of erotic attraction in Donne's love poems and religious sonnets. We will be spending a wonderful hour closely reading and analysing 2 John Donne poems.

Oscar Wilde wrote "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the height of his wit, popularity, notoriety, and just general awesomeness. This play is funny, deliberately, wonderfully shallow, and frivolous. It's about as serious and heavy as a souffle. Which is why you'll have a great time spending 2 hours splashing about in its frothy wittiness and pondering the eternal question: "What is truth?"

Much more fun than reading Plato.


Prerequisites
Try to read the play before hand? Its very short! Or watch the movie, maybe... :D

Let's discuss the distinct interpretations of the concept of the conscious mind and conscious thinking within science fiction texts.
We will consider, for example, philosophical approaches to robotics as manifestations of conscious existence, and we will consider the approaches taken by various sci-fi text to portray and define consciousness outside of the human scope.
We will consider a wide range of science fiction works, such as those by Heinlein, Herbert and Asimov.


Prerequisites
None, just an interest or knowledge of science fiction writings

The Occupy Wall Streeters weren't the first Americans to march through the streets. In this class, we'll take a look at the United States during the 20th century, when society was electrified by men and women who fought for freedom, even as they were hated by most of the country. We'll examine the tactics that American radicals perfected, and discuss why some radical groups were successful, while others weren't. Get ready to learn about Malcolm X, unions, Martin Luther King, and how hippies actually accomplished something.


Prerequisites
No strict prerequisites for this class, but some knowledge of American history will be helpful. More important is your willingness to pay attention, ask questions, and have fun!

The goal is to learn how to solve over the integer domain simple diophantine equations, of the form ax + by = c (where a b c are fixed integer). For that, "students" will discover the gcd, the divisibility definition, Euclid's (Gauss) Lemma, and the mathematical logic. Some simple proofs will be done, depending on the class' speed.


Prerequisites
Knowing what the Greatest Common Denominator is will help. Otherwise, no calculus is required.

When I say "infinity" I only mean this: $$\infty$$, right? In this class we'll use symbols like these to describe infinity: $$\aleph_0$$, $$\bet_1$$, etc.

We'll use basic set theory principles to build the natural numbers, then play with them in relation to the integers, rational numbers, and real numbers. We'll then relate numbers to infinity... Is the infinity that describes how many integers there are different than the infinity that describes how many real numbers there are? In this class, we'll talk about why the answer is yes.

We will build up to infinity with literally no prerequisites...


Prerequisites
Being able to count!

Ever wonder why certain notes sound better together than others, or why a piano has the keys that it does? Come break out your calculator and solve unanswerable questions with math.


Prerequisites
Some topics of pre-calculus are ideal: logarithmic and exponential functions in particular. I'll review these quickly, so don't be too discouraged if you are iffy. Some knowledge of musical intervals will increase your mind-blown factor, but is not imperative.

I hope to cover some elementary group theory and maybe a little elementary number theory. SO groups, subgroups, isomorphisms, order, and maybe even the Sylow theorems!


Prerequisites
I will try to assume that one has not had any contact with higher level mathematics, and will be very thorough in proving things. Exercises for the reader are key to learning, but seeing on how this is a very beginning course I will be extra thorough.

In Greek mythology, Hercules had to kill the Lernaean Hydra as a part of his Twelve Labors. Many years have passed since then, and the modern-day Hydra that *we* must kill (yes, we absolutely must) has evolved to be much more vicious. In this mini-course, we will rephrase the kill-the-Hydra game as a simple mathematical problem and introduce some tools to tackle the problem. Along the way, we will learn that there are different types of infinity, and that we can count to infinity...and beyond.


Prerequisites
Students should be comfortable with the method of proof by contradiction. Also helpful, though not strictly necessary, is Michele Pratusevich's course: https://columbia.learningu.org/teach/Splash/2012_Fall/catalogpreview/15

Learn about the world's economy and how it's run, the factors that influence it, business cycles, supply and demand and the basics of Keynesian economics.

What is nothing? Does it even exist? This idea has baffled scientists and mathematicians alike for millennia. It frightened Aristotle, was too powerful for Newton to explain. It was satanic and declared evil by the Church. All theories fabricated to mask it failed miserably. And when it was finally discovered using the concept of a vacuum, it eluded us yet again. What is this all-powerful nothing? Explore the history of this scientific mystery in "The Concept of Nothing"


Prerequisites
None. Preferred a history in chemistry and physics, but not mandatory.

Every day, bacteria and viruses wage war on our bodies. The immune system is a finely tuned army that protects us from these intruders. Learn about the action that goes on behind the scenes to help keep you healthy.

What are viruses? Are they alive? How are viruses and bacteria different? Why can't I take an antibiotic when I have a cold? In the first half of this class, we explore the basic biology of viruses, learn about how they produce disease, and introduce some of the key concepts within the discipline of virology. To explore some of these concepts in more detail, the second half of the class will focus on the biology of human rhinovirus, one of the most successful disease-producing agents on the planet and cause of the common cold.


Prerequisites
college-prep biology helpful but not required

This course will introduce the basic ideas of particle physics, both theoretical and experimental, ranging from accelerator physics and the Standard model to the statistical analyses applied to the data and even the vibrant scientific atmosphere at CERN (especially during exciting times like these).

Emphasis will be placed on the Higgs boson and this summer's discovery, with a focus on the $H\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ analysis channel.

---
SUMMARY:
The Standard Model of particle physics, developed during the latter half of the twentieth century, explains in its current formulation a truly wide variety of particle phenomena. However, the mechanism through which fundamental particles attain their mass - electroweak symmetry breaking - has only recently (and rather tentatively) been observed experimentally at the LHC. This mechanism is predicted by the Standard model to manifest itself through the presence of the electrically neutral, spin zero Higgs boson. Indeed, in July of 2012, CERN formally announced the discovery of a boson with properties that seem to be consistent with those expected of the Standard Model Higgs (SM Higgs). However, more data is needed to confirm that this is so; quantities such as production and decay channel cross-sections, angular correlations of decay products, etc. must be precisely calculated.

A rough outline of the talk is available here:
http://nilaykumar.com/NilayLHCHiggsAugust31.pdf


Prerequisites
Basic background in the ideas of quantum mechanics (such as the importance of probability and uncertainty) but a general interest in modern physics will certainly be enough.

Did you know that scientists started making holograms in the 1960s? If we've known about it for so long, you might be wondering why they're not more widespread. Come learn about the basics of holography, how scientists and artists make and use holograms, and why holography is really the imaging technology of the future. We'll discuss light, optics, and perception, and we'll end with an overview of some of the awesome applications of hologram technology!

Discover the beauty of life, learn some basic biology, and come to appreciate the innate order in things

Solar power is on everybody's mind, but how do solar cells work and why isn't everything run by solar power already?

This course will explore what it means for light to be emitted or absorbed and how light energy can be harvested as electricity or stored chemical energy. We'll build a simple solar cell from berry-juice and titanium dioxide (white paint) and explore how it works. We will also briefly touch on the current challenges in solar technology.


Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with basic concepts of energy and the atomic structure of matter to get the most of this course. However, students of all background are welcome.

We will learn some beautiful math behind the theories that have changed our understand of modern and high-energy physics and we will look into current research efforts in this field.
We will discuss very high energy telescopes/detectors, their methods and the current status of very high energy astrophysical research.


Prerequisites
Knowledge introductory particle physics (or willingness to have open mind/try to learn) and computer science/coding. It would be helpful to know the large-scale structure of the universe --> e.g. galaxies.

1.7 million species have been identified by scientists since we started counting. It is estimated that around 10 million different species exist on earth. Each and every organism must find a way to outsmart or outplay the other 9,999,999 other residents of this blue planet. Some get by using ways you would expect to see. But some species use methods that are fantastic and mind-blowing. Some of the strangest animals on this planet live to see another day using bizarre techniques. Discover some of these animal anomalies.


Prerequisites
None

Have you ever wondered where we get all of our medicines, from the pills we take every day to the expensive regimens administered in the ICU of hospitals? Why are some medicines "natural" and others not? And are "natural" medicines really any different, or better for us?

Come learn about your meds, in this class designed for all eager minds!

Led by Columbia medical & pharmacology PhD students.

You need to start taking control of your life. You need to start living a purposeful life so that great things can happen. Based off OakTree Institute's class: My Life on Purpose with Mohammad Abbasi.

Want to learn how to write lyrical songs? Then this is the class for you! In this workshop, students will engage in a creative writing process that will make them aware of the nuisances in today's top charting songs. They will also be provided with the tools and guidance to create their own lyrical hit!

The first half of the class will be dedicated to lecture about music theory. The following second half will center will be more interactive, with creative writing prompts and educational games.


Prerequisites
A passion for music. No other prerequisites :)

You and your friend are arrested. You are put in separate rooms, and each is given the choice to condemn the other or remain silent. If one rats the other out and one stays silent, the former goes free and the latter gets a year in prison. If both talk, both get 3 months. If neither talks, 1 month each. What to do? Why? Game Theory concerns itself with problems, such as this classic, and their outcomes.

A class to learn useful tips and guidelines about competitive Impromptu speaking, and general improvised speech. The event refers to those in which a speaker is given 1 minute to use a simple prompt (a word or a phrase) and design a 5 minute speech (times may vary slightly in practice). Class will go over various useful techniques specifically for this kind of event, but also methods of bringing ideas together quickly in your head and creating a flow of logic. The trick is to use what you know, and put it together in ways you’ve practiced. It’s not as on the spot as you think!

Come learn how linguistics helps us understand one of the most important but taken-for-granted aspects of our lives: language. Specifically, we'll focus on trying to understand how we make sounds on a fundamental level. How can we classify and analyze all the sounds that make up English speech, or that of any other language? This isn't a matter of grammar or spelling--it's something completely different and really exciting!

This course will follow a wide variety of Ancient Roman individuals that shaped world history with their swords, philosophy, or mentally unhinged demeanor. The course will chronologically catalogue some of Rome's most influential (and insane) leaders. It will be a humorous and exciting journey that will display numerous studs and lunatics... and a few boring philosophers. The course will teach students: A) to be really awesome B) a bit of fun and interesting history C) how not to act when in control of the entire Mediterranean world.

Do you think England is good at football? Do you consider Maradona to be the greatest footballer of all time? If so, this is the perfect class for you!
Learn all the most important facts and legends of the world's greatest sporting event! Learn of the best artisans and tacticians to ever tread the football pitch! And of course, be prepared to watch goals, goals, and goals!


Prerequisites
An interest in the beautiful game and a taste for the sublime!

Everyone knows something about the life of Abraham Lincoln. But how much do you know about his death? In this class, we will discuss the complexities of the conspiracy as well as the players involved. Were the people executed for their role in the murder actually guilty? What happened after the killer fled Ford's Theater? Was this the only plot he had planned? Discover the answers to these questions and more about death of our nation's greatest president.