Splash Biography

This course tackles one of the core courses in chemical engineering: transport phenomena. Transport phenomena covers mass, momentum, and heat transfer. Mass transfer governs the transdermal drug delivery of a nicotine patch and how fast it will take paint to dry. Momentum transfer involves fluid dynamics. Heat transfer analysis can reveal how long it will take a brownie to cool out of the oven. We will tackle one of these real world problems in depth while also using differential equations, dimensional analysis, calculus, and chemistry. This class will introduce high school students to an important subject in chemical engineering and we will have real brownies to celebrate the problem solving!!!

In this class, we will explore dynamical systems. Dynamical systems are a means of describing how one state develops into another state over the course of time. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a pipe, and the number of fish each springtime in a lake. One common model that is a dynamical system is the predator-prey model. It tracks the population of rabbits and foxes as a function of time, given the differential equations that describe the rate of population growth as a function of the current population size. We will explore this classic example. We will also answer the questions: what would happen if a billion rabbits over the Earth's carrying capacity came from Mars and how different factors, like how many fish are eaten by sharks can be affected by the current size of the population. This class will rely on calculus and will introduce students to the beginning of differential equations.

We will explore how economics can tease out surprising correlations and causations in our day to day life. We will learn why shopping for jam can be so exhausting, how ice cream stores stay open in the winter, and more. This class will present fun-filled examples along with the science so students come out with a better appreciation of how economics can reveal mysteries in their high school lives and beyond.

Have you ever watched Drop Dead Diva and been inspired by the sharp legal arguments? Are you interested in history and law but been put asleep by technical and ancient legal applications? Have you done debate and mock trial and wished for snazzier topics to argue? If so, this is the class for you! We will learn how to apply legal rational to girly debate topics like the legality of banning pink hair in school, of People magazine, and whether girls should be taught with a different teaching style than boys. We will begin the class looking at some classic legal knowledge and then we will apply it to in-class debates!