Schedule for UEA segment of SCIE258

To each class meeting, please bring: Fara textbook, your notebook with all handwritten notes, a laptop or tablet suitable for reading and working.

For our class meetings this semester, no advance preparation is required. However, we will be reading and working in class, and some activities will count towards the PAE grade. That's why you need your textbook, notebook, and a laptop or tablet.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Please complete the modules form.

Norwich suggestions document (created collaboratively during class).

Announcements: travel reporting requirement; Cambridge trip; Thanksgiving dinner including confirmation and dietary restrictions by Oct 22; Group coach for Heathrow; Office hours and office location; home phone number and emergency numbers; check UEA email daily; HW3b due today, HW4b due Oct 12.

In-class activity: large-scale timeline, from the Big Bang to the Babylonians.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

In-class activity: historical research -- who really discovered the structure of DNA?

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Today's class will examine the achievements of Alan Turing. This will include a brief lecture on uncomputability, followed by an in-class activity based on reading the first two pages of Turing's famous 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, in which he defines what is today known as the Turing test. No advance preparation is required.

Saturday, November 10

Meet at Norwich train station by 8:25 AM. Depart on 8:40 AM train, arrive Cambridge 9:59 AM.

10:30 AM: Meet outside Emmanuel College for 1.5-hour walking tour of Cambridge focusing on science, hosted by tour guide Mike Nott.

The remainder of the day is flexible. You are required to visit a museum or similar venue of cultural/academic interest and take a few notes so that you can contribute to a subsequent class discussion (be prepared to speak for about three minutes). Suggested museums:

• The Polar Museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute
• Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (fossils, dinosaurs, etc.)
• Museum of Zoology
• Fitzwilliam Museum (fine art museum)
• ...or it may be easier to go to the overview of all Cambridge University museums.

Optional afternoon event: meet at the Maypole at 3:00pm, where the Dickinson program will be happy to provide you with a beverage.

Remainder of the day: free time. Return on any train of your choosing (e.g. the 4:35PM train arrives back in Norwich 6:13pm).

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Today's class will include:

• A discussion of what we saw and learned in Cambridge. Please bring your notes and be prepared to speak for 2-3 minutes about the site you chose to visit.
• A mini-lecture and class activity related to behavioral economics, including links to psychology and mathematics. Relevant links include:
  • Wikipedia article on the "guess 2/3 of the average" game.
  • Useful 1995 experimental study and analysis of this game by economist Rosemarie Nagel: "Unraveling in Guessing Games: An Experimental Study". American Economic Review. 85 (5): 1313-26. Available on JSTOR.
  • Excellent simple readable book on which the mini-lecture was based: Pastine, Ivan and Pastine, Tuvana (2017). Introducing Game Theory: A Graphic Guide. Icon Books.

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Please bring a laptop if at all possible, so that you can complete the evaluations with detailed and useful feedback.

Please complete the following evaluations (links will not be live until class begins):

1. Evaluation of teaching for SCIE258: This form evaluates the SCIE258 course and its instructor, using an electronic replica of the standard Dickinson teaching evaluation form. You are evaluating all aspects of the SCIE258 course, including the summer assignments, the study trip in London and Bristol before the semester began, the classroom sessions during the semester, the Cambridge excursion, and the research paper.
2. Evaluation of the Dickinson Norwich sciences program: This form seeks feedback on all aspects of your study abroad experience, including: intellectual and educational experiences such as your non-Dickinson UEA modules; practical issues such as living arrangements, food, and stipends; social and sports activities at UEA; activities within Norwich; travel opportunities within the UK and Europe; and anything else you perceive as relevant to your study abroad experience.

Timeline highlight discussion: [This will be done in class. There is no need to prepare beforehand.] Please look over your timeline assignment and choose the single event that resonates most with you personally, due to some combination of its importance and impact, or perhaps because you did not know about it before taking this course. Be prepared to speak for about one minute, describing your chosen event and why you chose it.

Brexit discussion: If time permits, we will have a discussion that attempts to answer the question "What is the Irish border problem?"

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Saturday, December 15, 2018