Science Circles Introduction
Welcome to the Atlanta Science Tavern's Science Cricles page. A Science Circle is related to a standard Science Cafe / Tavern, but different in how it works. In a typical Science Cafe (see http://www.sciencecafes.org for full details), people gather in a cafe, bar, or home to learn about an interesting topic from an expert guest speaker scientist. Typically, these are short, informal talks and often leave the audience eager to learn more. This is where Science Circles come in…
In a Science Circle the actual members of Science Cafes self-organize to study a science subject in greater depth or to participate hands-on in applied science.
There is not a lot of guidance besides that. It's up to the members to self-organize and set their own agendas as to what they want to study or commit to doing.
Here are some suggestions for interesting and fun Science Circles:
- Get a group of people together to watch science documentaries from Nova scienceNOW: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/
- Gather people who want to explore a scientific field in more depth, like biology or astronomy, and study a course from The Teaching Company (for purchase at http://www.teach12.com) or MIT OpenCourseWare (free at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/)
- With the help of a trained scientist, or through following hands-on tutorials, actually conduct scientific experiments and research on your own to apply scientific knowledge. For example, see the DIYbio initiative here: http://diybio.org/about/
The First Atlanta Science Tavern Science Circle: Teaching Company Video Courses
To kick off the Science Circles initiative in Atlanta, one of our organizers, Josh, has purchased the following DVD courses from The Teaching Company. These are recorded lectures from top-rated university professors packaged in digestible 30 or 45 minute segments.
- Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition by Alex Filippenko (96 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
- Black Holes Explained by Alex Filippenko (12 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
- Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition by Michael Starbird (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
- Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology by Anthony A. Goodman (32 lectures, 45 minutes/lecture)
- Understanding the Brain by Jeanette Norden (36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Sample Videos from These Professors
- Here is a 1 minute video of Alex Filippenko discussing how human beings are made of "stardust":
- 10 minute video of Alex Filippenko showing and describing stellar explosions
- 8 minute video excerpt of Jeanette Norden discussing how memory works from her Understanding the Brain course
Invitation for Participants
Invitation from Josh:
If you are interested to start studying one of these courses over a number of weeks, studying about 1.5 hours a week, please email me at jsgough AT gmail DOT com to let me know which one you're most interested in doing. If I get enough interest in different series, then I can let someone else borrow the series and host that series in their own home. Personally, I can host about 8 people comfortably in my condo to watch the lectures. We can also vary that by going to someone else's house on alternate weeks too if anyone would like to volunteer to host.
I'm looking forward to this! As for me, my personal first vote goes to Understanding the Universe or Understanding the Brain.