This is an archive. See the current website at www.summer.harvard.edu.

Chautauqua Short Courses for Teachers

Funded by the National Science Foundation, these two three-day seminars are rejuvenating sessions for faculty from community and small teaching colleges. The courses provide an opportunity for invited scholars to share new knowledge, concepts, and techniques with college teachers. The aim is to enable undergraduate teachers in the natural and social sciences to keep their teaching current.

Courses

For the most up-to-date information, including eligibility requirements, continuing education unit (CEU) credits, and registration fees, see the Chautauqua website.

Circadian Biology: From Clock Genes and Cellular Rhythms to Sleep Regulation

J. Woodland Hastings, Charles A. Czeisler, and Steven W. Lockley, Harvard University
May 23–25
Register through the Chautauqua website (Course 55)

Note: This course is on the Harvard campus, with sessions in Cambridge and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Co-sponsored by the TUCC Field Center.

Living organisms possess an internal biological timing mechanism called the circadian clock. Its most fundamental functions are to control the time of day at which different processes occur and to measure the day length and regulate processes, notably reproductive, seasonally. Although sleep is usually associated with higher organisms, even simple organisms, like paramecium and amoebae have circadian (about 24-hour) cycles of activity and rest, and exhibit other rhythms with many features that parallel those of higher animals. Moreover, although a brain center is of central importance in the clock of humans and other vertebrates, single isolated neurons from that center exhibit circadian rhythmicity.

This course considered genes and proteins associated with the biochemical and cellular organization of the core clock in both mammals and lower organisms, the key properties and functional roles of the circadian clock, how the slightly inaccurate biological clock is reset by light and synchronized to the environmental light-dark cycle, and how specific drugs and clock mutants in model organisms have led to an understanding of the mechanism. Clinical uses of circadian rhythmicity are presented from experimental studies of human rhythms, including control of the sleep-wake cycle and hormone rhythms, circadian rhythm disorders in the blind, measuring and treating jet lag and shift work disorders, the effects of aging and menopause on sleep and circadian rhythms, the problems of trying to sleep in spacecraft, and sleep disorders within the normal population.

For college teachers of all disciplines. Prerequisites: None.

Faculty

J. Woodland Hastings is professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University, Charles A. Czeisler is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Steven W. Lockley is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Experimental Economics

David Laibson and Robert Neugeboren, Harvard University
August 15–17
Register through the Chautauqua website

Over the past several decades, experimental methods have made their way into the study and teaching of economics. Game theory has proved useful in this context, providing a catalog of well-defined experiments that can be reproduced in laboratories and classrooms and shared among economists, psychologists, political scientists, and others. Experiments can give students insight into fundamental economic phenomena. Lecture and textbook presentations can be complemented by classroom exercises, in which students make decisions and interact. This can reduce skepticism and increase excitement about economic theory as well as expose interesting questions that invite interdisciplinary and creative thinking.

In this short course, we play games that demonstrate phenomena of broad interest in the behavioral and social sciences, including prisoner’s dilemma and public goods problems; coordination problems; bargaining and fairness; adverse selection; and the winner's curse. We compare our own with published results and discuss what they tell us about actual human behavior, as well as the theoretical models we use to study it.

For college teachers of social and behavioral sciences. Prerequisites: None.

Faculty

David Laibson is professor of economics at Harvard University, where he teaches a course on psychology and economics. Robert Neugeboren is lecturer on social studies at Harvard University, where he teaches a course on strategy, conflict, and cooperation.



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