| Greenhouse gases and the chemistry of climate change |
Liberal Arts |
3011 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
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Description
This course narrates the stories of three major atmospheric greenhouse gases driving climate change today: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. While exploring the chemical processes that have regulated these heat-trapping gases throughout Earth history, students will inspect the industrial events that have increased their concentrations at unprecedented rates in human history. Applying field chemistry techniques, they will interpret the movement of greenhouse gases at the interface between Chicago and Lake Michigan. Finally, this course evaluates approaches to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions as climate change solutions, with focus on initiatives led by women, gender minorities, Black and Indigenous peoples, and people of color.
Assigned readings from scientific publications will span the basic concepts of greenhouse gas chemistry, and their relation to Earth?s climate history. Several of these scientific readings will focus on evaluating works and data sets published by active researchers in the Chicago/Lake Michigan area. In addition, students will read and analyze book excerpts written by different leaders in greenhouse gas mitigation, which will meld several disciplines in science, economics, and environmental justice/ethics.
Every other class meeting will entail a field-driven laboratory component, requiring students to write and alternate presenting/critiquing laboratory reports of their data collection and analysis activities. They will also be evaluated on a group final project that assesses a greenhouse gas mitigation solution in Chicago, and includes the cumulative results of their field work throughout the term. Each group will be prompted to produce a data visualization and communication piece for non-expert audiences in the Chicago community.
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Class Number
2215
Credits
3
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| Astrobiology and Speculative Futurism |
Art & Technology / Sound Practices |
3098 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
|
Description
Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field of science that focuses on the existence of life beyond Earth. It leans heavily on understanding the habitability of life on Earth as a basis for understanding the probability and physiology of extraterrestrial life in the universe. Unsurprisingly, astrobiology has inspired generations of scientists, artists, and designers to envision not only alien life, but also the future of human life on Earth in the Anthropocene and on other planets. Set in AT/SP¿s Bio Art facility, this course blends concepts and methods of creative studies such as speculative design, futurism, and semiotics with fundamentals in natural science (biology, geochemistry, and astronomy) to imagine what life will look like beyond our current existence.
The artistic concepts will be explored via written material by Paola Antonelli, Anthony Dunn, Fiona Ray, etc.. We will focus on discussions of speculative design, bioart, and various lenses of futurism while mantinaining a harmony with scientific understanding of key concepts about life, ecology, and environmental chemistry.
At the same time, scientific readings and podcasts in this course will focus on the works of past Chicago scientists Enrico Fermi and Frank Drake who postulated the probability of extraterrestrial life, and several researchers doing active research on life in extreme Earth analog environments and other celestial bodies in our solar system (e.g., scientists at the Biosphere 2 facility and SETI Institute).
Students will consider various media ranging from scientific papers to short films and artistic dialogues to show a firm grasp on astrobiology and its philosophical implications. Hands-on experiments in the Bio Art lab will provide opportunities to practice various astrobiology research techniques. The final project will challenge student teams to imagine a potential future or extraterrestrial ecology and use that to design and create a potential gallery piece.
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Class Number
1150
Credits
3
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| Astrobiology and Speculative Futurism |
Liberal Arts |
3098 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
|
Description
Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field of science that focuses on the existence of life beyond Earth. It leans heavily on understanding the habitability of life on Earth as a basis for understanding the probability and physiology of extraterrestrial life in the universe. Unsurprisingly, astrobiology has inspired generations of scientists, artists, and designers to envision not only alien life, but also the future of human life on Earth in the Anthropocene and on other planets. Set in AT/SP¿s Bio Art facility, this course blends concepts and methods of creative studies such as speculative design, futurism, and semiotics with fundamentals in natural science (biology, geochemistry, and astronomy) to imagine what life will look like beyond our current existence.
The artistic concepts will be explored via written material by Paola Antonelli, Anthony Dunn, Fiona Ray, etc.. We will focus on discussions of speculative design, bioart, and various lenses of futurism while mantinaining a harmony with scientific understanding of key concepts about life, ecology, and environmental chemistry.
At the same time, scientific readings and podcasts in this course will focus on the works of past Chicago scientists Enrico Fermi and Frank Drake who postulated the probability of extraterrestrial life, and several researchers doing active research on life in extreme Earth analog environments and other celestial bodies in our solar system (e.g., scientists at the Biosphere 2 facility and SETI Institute).
Students will consider various media ranging from scientific papers to short films and artistic dialogues to show a firm grasp on astrobiology and its philosophical implications. Hands-on experiments in the Bio Art lab will provide opportunities to practice various astrobiology research techniques. The final project will challenge student teams to imagine a potential future or extraterrestrial ecology and use that to design and create a potential gallery piece.
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Class Number
1756
Credits
3
|
| The Unstable Nucleus: Nuclear Technology and Society |
Liberal Arts |
3207 (001) |
Spring 2025 |
|
Description
At the turn of the 21st century, scientists proposed that we have entered a new geological epoch, defined entirely by the impacts of human activities on the planet. They titled this epoch `the Anthropocene¿, and a specific working group of scholars has recently elected to mark the beginning of this period with the first detonation of the atomic bomb. How do we reconcile the realities of nuclear contamination with the popularity that nuclear energy has been gaining as a low-carbon, `clean¿ energy technology?
In this class, we study the science of radioactivity and the unstable isotopes behind the intertwined technologies of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. We will draw from current events like the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, recent advances in nuclear fusion, and Chicago¿s rich history in the development of the first atomic bomb. Through class readings, discussions, and homework assignments, we will utilize principles in isotope chemistry and radiation science to evaluate the impacts and risks of nuclear technology since the 1950s, and compare these scientific analyses to a plethora of artworks that have engaged in the same conversations. There will also be an opportunity to collaborate with a Chicago Public School and share our in-class findings and projects with a middle school science class in Chinatown.
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Class Number
2177
Credits
3
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| Great Lakes Citizen Science |
Liberal Arts |
3430 (001) |
Spring 2025 |
|
Description
The Great Lakes watershed is home to ~34 million people across the United States and Canada, holding enough volume to submerge the United States under 10 feet of freshwater (Michigan Sea Grant). This course will explore the historical and contemporary Great Lakes utilizing principles in chemistry, oceanography and limnology (the study of lakes). We will identify the key ecosystem services that the Lakes provide to all communities around it and sustainability challenges that these communities face in stewarding such services. Reading material will span scientific journal publications, scholarly essays, regional news articles, book chapters and movies. Weekly topics will include carbon sequestration, algae blooms, pollutants transport, lake ice, and the spread of non-native species.
With tools in geology and chemistry, we will all become citizen scientists of the vast Great Lakes system. We will probe records of lake floor sediments to consider how these processes have changed through time in parallel with human development around the Lakes, conduct laboratory measurements to evaluate knowledge gained through classroom lectures, and create our own citizen science devices to collect and analyze environmental specimens first-hand. In addition, we will explore the role of women, gender minorities, and Indigenous people in knowledge and stewardship of the North American Great Lakes. Students will be evaluated by weekly lab assignments, a collaborative writing project (turned into a zine), and a final citizen science design project. Note that no prior experience in chemistry and math is required to take this course.
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Class Number
1686
Credits
3
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