[Bioundgrd] SP.726 Doing Experiments: Learning About Nature, History, and Ourselves

[Janice Chang]

>From:
>Elizabeth Cavicchi
>
>SP.726 Doing Experiments: Learning About Nature, History, and Ourselves
>______
>Dr. Elizabeth Cavicchi Edgerton Center
>Dr. James Bales Edgerton Center
>Units: 1-3-2 [P/D/F]
>Tue, Thu, 9:00 - 11:00 AM, 4-409
>______
>This seminar explores creative investigation by recreating 
>historical experiments and conducting experiments of the student's 
>design. Students will put themselves in the place of historical 
>experimenters (such as Alessandro Volta, Joseph Henry, Michael 
>Faraday, and Frances Wick) by reading and redoing portions of their 
>original work. Class discussions of readings and each other's lab 
>projects provide new perspectives on the process of experimentation. 
>As a final project, students will use an historical observation or 
>experiment as a resource and stimulus for their own work.
>
>As an MIT physics and art major, Elizabeth Cavicchi measured forces 
>on balloon pucks and sculpted clay fountains. Currently Elizabeth is 
>a watercolor artist, and makes electrical spark coils to research 
>the electricity, and thinking, of nineteenth century experimenters. 
>She now has a Doctorate in Education.