This video segment describes the players and events of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and how it galvanized the Civil Rights movement as well as white resistance.
Wrestle with ethical issues concerning genetic rights and practices from the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.
Introduction to theories of syntax underlying work currently being done within the lexical-functional and government-binding frameworks. Organized into three interrelated parts, each focused upon a particular area of concern: phrase structure; the lexicon; and principles and parameters. Grammatical rules and processes constitute a focus of attention throughout the course that serve to reveal both modular structure of grammar and interaction of grammatical components. This course is concerned with the concepts and principles which have been of central significance in the recent development of syntactic theory, with special focus on the "Government and Binding" (GB) / "Principles and Parameters" (P&P) / "Minimalist Program" (MP) approach. It is the first of a series of two courses (24.951 is taught during the Fall and 24.952 is taught in the Spring). This course deals mostly with phrase structure, argument structure and its syntactic expression, including "A-movement". Though other issues (e.g. wh-movement, antecedent-contained deletion, extraposition) may be mentioned during the semester, the course will not systematically investigate these topics in class until 24.952. The goal of the course is to understand why certain problems have been treated in certain ways. Thus, on many occasions a variety of approaches will be discussed, and the (recent) historical development of these approaches are emphasized.
Extensive reading and discussion of case studies on educational technology that focuses on three areas: effective media design, relevant educational issues, and the existing and anticipated methods for distribution and the business concepts behind them. The primary case study is Star Festival, a multimedia curriculum about Japan that encourages users to explore issues of cultural and ethnic identity. Students expected to develop a project that shows an understanding of the types of business models that facilitate educational technology in the classroom. Graduate students are expected to explore the subject in greater depth. Taught in English.
This video segment follows neurophysiologist Allen Counter as he studies an epidemic of hearing loss in Moriussaq, Greenland, one of the quietest places on Earth. Footage from NOVA: "Mystery of the Senses: Hearing."
Bonnie Chen builds on students' prior knowledge of mutations to lead her class through a simulation of wading birds feeding.
Marilyn Havlik leads students through a simulation of the Hardy-Weinberg Principle to develop their understanding of population genetics.
This unit introduces some of the main themes and issues in discourse research using Martin Bashir's famous interview with Diana, Princess of Wales as a case study. Through this it examines the role of discourse in shaping social interaction and its psychological implications for the study of minds, selves and sense-making. The unit aims to demonstrate that in studying discourse we cannot help but study social life.
This student module is designed to help students write and analyze ethics cases in business and research ethics. It provides a short taxonomy of ethics cases, tips on identifying and writing cases, and a four-step framework for analyzing them. Converging, interdisciplinary research shows that identifying, developing, and studying ethics cases strengthens decision making and enables a concrete, "thick" understanding of basic and intermediate moral concepts. This module is being developed as a part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, "Collaborative Development of Ethics Across the Curriculum Resources and Sharing of Best Practices," NSF-SES-0551779. It makes full use of the student module template developed in conjunction with this project.
