Biofuels, fuels made from biological sources, are highly controversial. One of the most significant but highly debated critiques of biofuels is the "Food vs. Fuel" idea. "Food vs. Fuel" proponents claim that by using food resources and taking up land that might be used for food production or natural vegetation, biofuels harm the environment and the most vulnerable at the same time.

In the first half of this class we will go through the facts on the current state of biofuels in the world today and lay out the ways in which current biofuels technology (corn ethanol, sugarcane ethanol, etc.) affects food resources. In the second half, the two teachers will make the case for their differing views on the subject.


Prerequisites
Although not necessary, a basic understanding of chemistry, economics, and some background on the issues at hand will be helpful.

A huge nerd goes through the ways you can reconstruct modern chemistry at industrial scales if you were flung back to the Middle Ages! (and had sufficient resources). We will focus on a few of several modern products that will be chosen by the students at the beginning of class. Products we can discuss will include smokeless gunpowder (among other things that go boom), antibiotics, refrigerants, nitrogenous fertilizers, and chemically-based artificial lighting.


Prerequisites
There will be lots of chemistry in this class. It is highly recommended that you have at least one year of chemistry.

Come to this class ready to ask questions about what we call "religion" and to appreciate how philosophers, psychologists, and scientists who died long before you were born asked the same questions you're asking.

This is not a class for definite answers (other than 42, that's a definite answer.) This is instead a class for questions, and lots of them.

Do people (or animals) have free will? Is consciousness a subjective experience, or a byproduct of predetermined biological factors? How much choice does one truly have in their thoughts and actions? These deep metaphysical questions will be explored through current understandings of quantum mechanics, philosophy, and psychology.


Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of physics and psychology is a plus but not necessary.

Capitalism is often blamed for the recent financial collapse, the greed that pervades modern American culture, and the destruction of culture abroad. But when did this criticism of the market system originate? In the mid-nineteenth century, with the famous philosopher of communism, Karl Marx.

Das Kapital is Marx’s (giant) critique of industrial capitalism, explaining how the capitalist exploits the laborers and forces them into cruel inhumane conditions. In this class, we will follow Marx’s argument in Capital, Volume I from his labor theory of value all the way up to his dark conclusion: the workers must rise up, for they have nothing to lose but their chains.


Prerequisites
Some knowledge of the industrial revolution. No experience with Marx required.

PART OF THE CORE SEQUENCE TRACK, this class will be based off the first semester of Contemporary Civilization, a mandatory seminar for students of Columbia College. In other words, it’s a concise introduction to some of the key ideas and texts of Western philosophy, starting in Ancient Greece (Plato) and ending (hopefully) in 17th century England (Locke). Hopefully, participants will be able to understand and question how the ideas from this tradition still influence us today.


Prerequisites
No experience required, only curiosity!

PART OF THE CORE SEQUENCE TRACK. I can't do the course justice describing it. Take it. It's incredible.


Prerequisites
A healthy curiosity

SAT Writing crash course!

If you have ever wanted to learn how to become a more effective fiction writer then this class if for you. Students will learn how to write more effectively through range of readings, exercises and discussions. Students may be asked to write short passages during the class. Works by professional fiction writers will be critically analyzed during the class so that students can learn how these writers write effectively. Tricks of the trade (including ways to get out of "writer's blocks") will be discussed.

How does one determine right from wrong? Two centuries ago, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed a solution: an action is considered good if the pleasure that it produces outweighs the pain. In this class, we will examine this theory, known as utilitarianism, and debate whether it is possible to quantify pleasure and pain in the manner that Bentham and others proposed. We will also examine some criticisms of utilitarianism in order to arrive at our conclusion about how to determine right from wrong.

Stream of consciousness is a narrative device that strives to describe the multitude of thoughts that enter and exit the author's head. Authors James Baldwin and Sherman Alexie uncover the undercurrents of cultural Racism in America through their stream of consciousness and how this process identifies the topics we want to speak about but often don't in popular race rhetoric.


Prerequisites
An interest in literature and highschool understanding of literary analysis.

How does space create identity and identity redefine space? We will examine space as a social construct and how our identities change many times throughout the day depending on where we are.

How can we live with these changing identities without being overwhelmed by them, especially in this global age where spaces are overlapping because of the Internet?

There are a lot of rumors going around prime numbers: unlimited, impossible to find, used for encryption, etc. We'll try to explore their properties in a clear but accurate way.


Prerequisites
No real prerequisites, but any calculus class or knowledge of algebra would help.

PART OF THE SAT SEQUENCE TRACK. A crash course in the Mathematics section of the SAT.

Find out how to value companies (eg. Google, Boeing, Burberry) like they do on Wall Street. We will cover concepts such as relative valuation, cash flows, liquidity, and risk analysis.


Prerequisites
Algebra

If you've ever been on Twitter or Facebook and read some tweets/status updates, you've taken part in something incredibly complex: processing the language of social media with ease and deriving some meaning and attitude from it. Outside the sphere of social media, of course, you process natural language every day, in your conversations with peers, in books, newspaper articles.. you name it. Computer scientists love these problems. We take natural ("everyday") language and try to create models to process it. (Siri/Google Voice, anyone?) But there's something special about the extremely ungrammatical nature of Twitter (coupled with its hashtags and internet slang), and this class will introduce you to some of that complexity, as well as how to make sense of it.


Prerequisites
Some interest in language/social media/computer science/linguistic models

An introductory class to programming in the only international language - Java! Learn the basics of what it means to program, from data types to methods to classes.


I'm a sophomore in the school of engineering, making computer science fun since 1993 :)


Prerequisites
This is for students that had little or no prior exposure to computer science. Encouraged to bring a laptop (if possible).

Ever wondered if the tesseract from Avengers were true? Or may be you even wondered what is that Blue Police Box everyone keeps calling TARDIS?
In this class, I will try to explain all those things and a bit more!

Discover how a computer scientist approaches problems. This class will introduce students to current concepts and the latest innovations in computer science that apply to everyday situations. Students will work to come up with algorithmic solutions and analyses to problems related to many fields within Computer Science.


Prerequisites
An open mind!

What do Twitter, Facebook, Google, and just about any other website you visit on the internet (including this one) have in common? They all use Javascript!

We will explore the basics of programming from the standpoint of web development. (And you will see how Javascript serves to enhance a user's experience on a webpage)

Understanding how the brain works is one of the most difficult challenges of our time. This issue has come into the spotlight with President Obama's 2013 State of the Union Address in which he has agreed to give $3Billion to fund the Brain Activity Map (BAM) Project. As part of BAM, the world's leading scientists will attempt to map the entire circuitry of the brain!
Since neuroscience is such a great and vast field, we will focus on a very specific topic within it: dendritic spines. These are tiny protrusions that arise from dendrites and are thought to be necessary for proper brain function. Some even hypothesize about their role in intelligence...

What role do these spines play in brain function and what are the implications of the BAM project? Take this class to learn more


Prerequisites
Basic Biology

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.

Stars are more than pretty objects in the sky-- they reveal invaluable information to scientists. Redshifts in stars uncover the true age of the universe. Binary systems are used to identify elusive black holes. And formations of galaxies indicate the behavior of the early universe.

In this course we will explore the various techniques used to extract as much information from stars as possible. We will explore locations of super massive black holes, the looming star Nemesis that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, and how every element around us came into being.


Prerequisites
Students should have a basic understanding of physics and maybe a bit of chemistry.

There are 50 trillion cells in the human body that all came from one initial cell. How does that happen?
The cellular process of mitosis, meiosis, and cytokinesis are essential for the existence of any multicellular organism. In the course, we will talk about how one cell divides into two. This elementary idea is riddled with difficult questions. For example, why do your red blood cells and your nerve cells look so different when they should be identical copies of each other? This is the problem that stem cell researchers try to understand. We will discuss the fundamentals of cellular differentiation and its potential medical impact. While we are on the topic of different cell types, we will cover in depth a pesky and problematic cell: the cancer cell. If we have time at the end of class, I will share a little bit of my own experiences with cell division. I have been doing independent research in a cytokinesis lab at the Columbia University Medical Center for the past year, and I would love to share a little bit of my own research with the class to give everyone an idea of what it's like to conduct modern biological research.

Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicist who ever lived, called $$e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$$ "the most remarkable formula in mathematics". He said this with reason, as this equation includes imaginary, logarithmic and trig expressions. Want to learn why exponentials and trig functions are the same thing?

This class will take the royal road to trig identities in order to understand this mathematical "jewel" and how it applies to physics, specifically classical waves and quantum physics!!!


Prerequisites
Interest in math, understanding of power series/expansions and complex numbers. Calculus knowledge helps.

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

When you're not probing the human mind and soul in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization, you'll learn about some of the greatest discoveries about the natural world in Frontiers of Science--the weirdness of quantum particles, the dangers facing ecosystems, and how the massively complicated and mysterious computer between your ears works. But you won't come out of the class only knowing stuff that makes you sound intelligent at cocktail parties; you'll also know some basic principles of scientific thinking, which will change how you view the world and make you a more well-rounded and capable citizen.

We'll discuss what evolution is and how it works (it's real easy, I promise). Then, we'll go through the many misconceptions about evolution and tackle them one by one.

Blood splatters, fingerprints, corpses, and more!

The principle of least action is an extremely powerful reformulation of Newton's laws of motion that is plays a vital role in a myriad of fields, ranging from the mathematics of symplectic geometry to the deep and fundamental laws of quantum field theory.

In this course, I will motivate the need for Lagrangian mechanics, mostly on the basis of its independence of vectorial forces and instead, the emphasis on energy. I will give a general derivation, a couple of examples, and describe the implications in modern physics, such as quantum mechanics as general relativity.


Prerequisites
Experience in single-variable calculus and calculus-based mechanics is required; some multivariate calculus and experience with ordinary differential equations is recommended.

How does sound work? All the sounds that you encounter in everyday life - such as a car horn, the barking of a dog, or your favorite song - are produced by invisible waves that travel through the air at high speeds. In this class, we will examine what makes certain sounds appear to be so different from others, and why some sounds appear to be musical while others do not. We will also learn why musical intervals such as an octave or perfect fifth sound pleasant while intervals such as a minor second sound unpleasant.

Nowadays, we study far-away planets and stars with fancy equipment and complex math. However, Greek astronomers like Aristarchus and Eratosthenes were able to accurately determine the sizes of the Earth, Moon and Sun, as well as the distances between them, with little more than patient observation and rudimentary geometry. In this class, we'll study astronomy the Ancient way, pretending that we don't have calculus (or the internet!) to aid us, as we derive basic astronomical measurements.


Prerequisites
If you know what sine, cosine and tangent are, you'll be more than prepared!

PART OF THE SAT SEQUENCE TRACK. A crash course in the Critical Reading section of the SAT.


Prerequisites
Just a passion for the SATs! (joke or else no one would sign up for this class)

Have you ever wondered what the stock market is all about? Are you interested in Finance? In this class we will cover the basic of financial markets, and go into detail on some of the strategies investor and traders use to beat the market.


Prerequisites
An Interest and a very basic understanding of Finance and Economics.

A lecture on algorithms to help improve daily life. This course will provide strategies from being more productive with school work to being able to manage your own psychology in order to have a more successful and happier life.

We stare into mirrors everyday, nitpicking at the seemingly tiniest flaws in the pursuit of beauty. Together we will explore and discuss the ways in which we have come to see women being defined in singular terms of beauty and sexuality in modern society.

Learn the ancient roots and modern practice of Feng Shui, a traditional Chinese method of guiding energy flow to bring good fortune to homes, businesses, and daily life. We'll look at the basic concepts behind Feng Shui and how you can readily apply Feng Shui tricks to your room and routine.

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!

A workshop based class, meant for people who have taken the Introductory Class or who have experience in competitive impromptu from beforehand. After starting with a quick refresher on the basics and how we are going to approach crating speeches, we will get right to it and begin practicing. Through a combination of free practice and application of specific techniques you will be taught, the goal is to learn and improve through hands on experience.

This course will be an attempt to navigate through the nebulous and sometimes intimidating process of university admissions with the help of a current student. Where should one look for info? How should one use this info? What other factors should I be aware of when replying? Hopefully an hour will be enough to clarify as many questions as possible!


Prerequisites
None - but older kids should benefit more from this class...

Why wait to do the things you've always dreamt of doing?

Take advantage of your time and do what you want- travel the world, go on all-paid for trips, bond with nature, enjoy yourself in a summer camp, etc.!

Truth is, there's lots of options available for high school students, and money should never be a discouraging factor given the various financial options usually available (e.g. scholarships). Furthermore, you can use these events to help build up your resume, so that it's a win-win situation.

Come hear about your various options available through my own experiences studying abroad and going to summer camps for free, and all the things I wish I'd known as a high schooler.

"The love that ended an empire" ultimately culminated in the execution of Tsar Nicholas the II of Russia and his family, thus ending the 304-year reign of the Romanov family. Who was Rasputin, and why did this notoriously treacherous peasant have the full trust of the Empress? Find out how hemophilia, a licentious peasant, World War I, and the personalities of all the ministers, royalty, and revolutionaries involved led to the end of one of the largest empires ever to exist.

To what extent did Joseph Stalin’s judgments from 1922 to 1929 account for his success in the power struggle after Lenin’s death in 1924? After Lenin’s death in 1924, there was a power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. This lecture aims to determine the extent to which Stalin’s judgments, up until 1929, accounted for his success in the power struggle, taking into account the dominant failures committed by Trotsky that helped Stalin consolidate power. The focus will be on the various themes of Stalin’s power base before the death of Lenin, Stalin’s initiative in suggesting continuity between him and Lenin, and Trotsky’s misjudgments that Stalin took to exploit. There will be documents evaluated as evidence for the above three categories, include the books The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia by Richard Overy and Autopsy For An Empire by Dmitri Volkogonov.


Prerequisites
None.