Summer Term Undergraduate Courses

This course examines both the evolution and mechanisms of hormonal effects on behavior across animals, including humans. Topics will include the effects of hormones on sexual differentiation, reproductive behavior, parental behavior, stress, and social behavior. Additionally, this course emphasizes developing skills in hypothesis testing and critically assessing the scientific literature. Cross-listed with Behavioral Biology and Neuroscience.

Prerequisite: AS.200.141 (Foundations of Brain, Behavior and Cognition) or AS.080.306 (Neuroscience: Cellular & Systems II) or AS.020.152 (General Biology II) or instructor's permission.

The course examines human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Lectures and seminar-based discussion of the primary literature will cover some of the major approaches and areas of study within the fields of (1) evolutionary anthropology, (2) evolutionary psychology, (3) human behavioral ecology, and (4) evolutionary medicine.

Prerequisite: AS.290.101 (Human Origins) or AS.200.208 (Animal Behavior).

This course builds on the concepts presented and discussed in General Biology I. The primary foci of this course will be on the diversity of life and on the anatomy, physiology, and evolution of plants and animals. There will be a special emphasis on human biology.

Prerequisite: AP Biology.

This online course is primarily delivered asynchronously; however, your instructor may schedule live interactions as well. Please refer to your syllabus for these opportunities and for important course deadlines.

This course examines the origins of human structure, function and behavior from an evolutionary perspective. It includes study of the evolution, behavior and behavioral ecology of nonhuman primates; hominid evolution (including the paleontological and archaeological records); and the origins of human cognition, social behavior and culture.

Population genomics is the study of the structure, function, and variability of the entire genetic complement of organisms considered on a population scale. By examining how gene variants change in structure and frequency in populations over time, we can study the process of evolution and how it contributes to biodiversity and the formation of new species; this information can be used to increase the efficacy of conservation efforts. By studying gene variants underlying diseases at the scale of populations, we can better diagnose complex polygenic diseases like cancer. This course introduces the fundamentals of population genomics and provides an overview of the subfields of evolutionary genomics, conservation genomics, and medical genomics.

This online program is primarily delivered asynchronously, but students are expected to meet both daily and weekly deadlines for class assignments. Your instructor will also provide optional opportunities for synchronous sessions, such as office hours, group discussions, and supplemental lectures. Attendance for synchronous sessions is voluntary and based on students’ availability.

Prerequisite: At least one semester of high school biology is recommended, but not required.

Required Text: There are no required textbooks for this program; all readings and resources will be made available to you throughout the program.

The Romantic era of literature, spanning about 1780-1840, obsessed over revolution: political revolutions, philosophical revolutions, and artistic revolutions. They often came to believe that the way to achieve these revolutions was, at least in part, a revolution of the mind. Breakthrough science of the era, combined with the Haitian and French Revolutions and the ethical and psychological questions prompted by abolition and the settler-colonial revolutions in the Americas, led writers across the globe to openly speculate on the nature and limits of freedom, the imagination, and human potential, as well as explore the nature of thinking through poetry and prose. As such, this era has proved an especially rich one for what has been called cognitive literary studies: the careful, selective use of the insights of cognitive science to interpret these explorations. Through this approach, we will not only see how Romanticism prefigured many insights cognitive studies has proven, but see how Romanticism’s urgent questions about revolt, oppression, and liberation challenge further cross-disciplinary inquiries into the mind.

This course looks at the evolution of the universe from its origin in a cosmic explosion to emergence of life on Earth and possibly other planets throughout the universe. Topics include big-bang cosmology; origin and evolution of galaxies, stars, planets, life, and intelligence; black holes; quasars; and relativity theory. The material is largely descriptive, based on insights from physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, biology, and anthropology.