Discovering Science
Through Nature: Exploring the Bard Lands |
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Professor: Emily White |
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Course
Number: SCI 113 |
CRN
Number: 10321 |
Class cap: 16 |
Credits:
4 |
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Schedule/Location:
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Tue 10:10 AM
- 1:10 PM Reem Kayden Center 114/115 |
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Thurs 10:10 AM
- 12:10 PM Reem Kayden Center 114/115 |
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Distributional Area: |
LS Laboratory
Science |
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Bard’s campus includes approximately
1000 acres of land that borders the Hudson River estuary and provides access
to a range of habitats including marshes, swamps, streams, forests, and
fields. The natural areas that make up and surround campus are impacted by
the human-built environment, offering innovative opportunities for students
to explore natural science while observing and documenting environmental
change. In this course, students will use the Bard Ecology Field Station as a
resource and launching-off point for an interdisciplinary scientific
investigation of the Bard lands. Methods from field ecology, natural history,
environmental monitoring, analytical chemistry, and sustainability science,
will be used to conduct work at campus study sites such as the Saw Kill,
Annandale Dam, Tivoli Bays, the Hudson River, the Bard Farm, and Montgomery
Place. Using the Bard lands as a microcosm, this course will address topics
such as land-use planning, drinking water procurement, wastewater processing,
food production, hydropower generation, and biodiversity protection. In
addition to sessions in the classroom and laboratory, students will walk and
spend time outdoors on campus and the adjacent Tivoli Bays Wildlife
Management Area. Assignments will include readings, keeping a field journal,
field reports, data visualizations, and a final field guide project. |
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Paint and
Examination of Paintings |
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Professor: Simeen Sattar |
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Course
Number: SCI 123 |
CRN
Number: 10064 |
Class cap: 20 |
Credits:
4 |
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Schedule/Location:
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Tue 10:10 AM
- 12:10 PM Hegeman 201 |
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Thurs 10:10 AM
- 1:10 PM Hegeman 201 / Rose Laboratories
205 |
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Distributional Area: |
LS Laboratory
Science |
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This course is about the composition of pigments,
dyes and paints, the chemistry underlying selected techniques (e.g. Attic
vase and fresco painting), and scientific methods for examining paintings,
with an emphasis on case studies. As light and atoms and molecules are
central to paints and techniques for examining paintings, the course begins
with these foundational topics. Laboratory work includes synthesis and
analysis of pigments and dyes, preparation of binders and paints, and fresco
painting. Students registering for this class commit to reviewing elementary
topics from high school chemistry and taking an online quiz before the start
of the semester. |
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Life and Death of
Stars |
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Professor: Simeen Sattar |
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Course
Number: SCI 143 |
CRN
Number: 10065 |
Class cap: 20 |
Credits:
4 |
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Schedule/Location:
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Mon 10:10
AM - 12:10 PM Hegeman 201 |
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Wed 10:10 AM
- 1:10 PM Hegeman 201 / Albee 100 |
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Distributional Area: |
LS Laboratory
Science |
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This course is about the life-stages
of stars, from their formation in clouds of gas and dust to their
often-spectacular ends. Everything we know about stars comes from the light we
receive from them, so a major theme of this course is how we decipher the
information contained in the light they radiate. This requires devoting some initial time to
light and atoms. After this foundation, we will study the nearest
star, the Sun, in some detail. We then consider the classification and
evolution of stars of all types. The laboratory component consists of working
with astronomical data and spreadsheets. Problem-solving involving algebra is integral to
this course, so good math skills are a prerequisite for enjoyment and success
in this course. Students registered for the course commit to
reviewing basic algebra skills, scientific notation and unit conversions
through online worksheets and taking a quiz before the first class.
Prerequisite: Good passing score on Part I of the Math
Placement. |
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Food Microbiology |
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Professor: Gabriel Perron |
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Course
Number: BIO 102 |
CRN
Number: 10003 |
Class cap: 18 |
Credits:
4 |
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Schedule/Location:
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Fri 1:00 PM
- 5:00 PM Reem Kayden Center 111/112 |
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Distributional Area: |
LS Laboratory Science
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Crosslists: Experimental Humanities |
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In this course designed for non-majors,
we will study the microorganisms that inhabit, create, or contaminate food. The
first half of the course will introduce students to topics in food safety
such as food spoilage, food borne infections, and antibiotic resistance. In
the second half of the course, students will learn how to harness the
capabilities of the many microbes present in our environment to turn rotting
vegetables or spoiling milk into delicious food. Students will also learn how
next-generation technologies are revealing the important ecological dynamics
shaping microbial communities in transforming food with possible beneficial
effects on human health. Throughout the course, students will learn how to
design, conduct, and analyze simple experiments while working with
microbiology techniques, including DNA sequencing. No prerequisite. |
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Natural History of the
Hudson Valley |
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Professor: Bruce
Robertson |
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Course Number: BIO 169 |
CRN Number: 11010 |
Class cap: 16 |
Credits: 4 |
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Schedule/Location: |
Mon
Wed 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Reem
Kayden Center 102 |
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Laboratory: |
Fri 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM Reem Kayden
Center 111/112 |
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Distributional Area: |
LS Laboratory
Science |
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This course is designed to train
students in the field, lab and museum skills of natural historians and to
teach them how to identify plants and animals of the Hudson Valley, both in
the wild and in the lab. The smaller, lecture portion of the class will
introduce students to concepts in systematics and taxonomy, the history of
natural history, the value of natural history to science, and how citizen
science is exploiting crowdsourcing of natural history data. The
laboratory portion of the course will focus on teaching students how to
identify plants, birds, amphibians, aquatic and terrestrial insects, and
fish. Students will learn how to use binoculars, dissecting scopes, traps,
nets and other tools to visualize or capture specimens, and use field guides,
phone apps, dichotomous keys and other resources to identify them. Field
trips will take place on campus, in the Tivoli Bays Wildlife Management Area,
and at several off campus locations throughout the Hudson Valley where
students will practice their identification skills, collect specimens, and
interact with naturalists from outside the Bard community. Students
will build and curate their own insect and plant collections that will be
added to Bard’s existing collections, use natural history information to
answer some basic questions about the distribution and abundance of a species
they choose, and as a final project they will create a natural history guide
for a focal taxonomic group of their choice. |
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