DESCRIPTIONS SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MATH

Bees, Butterflies, and Beyond: The World of Pollinators

STEM 1016

Friday

Dates: 10/6 to 10/27 (4 weeks)

Time: 10–11:30 AM

Facilitator: Megan Schulz

Location: Butterfly Pavilion

Class Limit: 30 Participants

Sponsoring Site: OLLI on the Move

Pollinators are essential to our ecosystem, but they are facing many threats. This program will provide adults with an in-depth look at the world of pollinators, from the different types of pollinators to the threats they face. We will also learn how to plant for pollinators and what we can do to conserve them.

This program is for adults who are interested in learning more about pollinators and how they can help them. No prior knowledge is required.

David Attenborough: National Treasure of Britain

STEM 1011

Thursday

Dates: 9/21 to 10/26 (6 weeks)

Time: 9:30–11:30 AM

Facilitator: Gary Wyngarden, Master Facilitator

Location: Columbine United Church

Class Limit: 35 Participants

Sponsoring Site: South

In his native England David Attenborough is known as a National Treasure. An argument can certainly be made that he should be known as an International Treasure. For over 60 years he has been making stunning productions for the BBC and others, educating the people of this planet on the natural world. Now in his mid-nineties he continues to be very active. This course will focus on his recent book and documentary A Life on Our Planet (2020) which he has subtitled My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future. The course will also showcase some of his powerful documentaries, featuring the Serengeti Plains, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Rainforests, the polar regions and more. The class will run for six weeks and will include lectures, a lot of discussion and of course a lot of Attenborough’s videos. The book is highly recommended but not required.

Everyday Engineering: How our Technical World Works STEM 1006

Wednesday

Dates: 9/20 to 11/8 (8 weeks)

Time: 1–3 PM

Facilitators: Marc Rochkind, Senior

Facilitator/Al Segal, Platinum Facilitator

Location: Online

Class Limit: Unlimited

Sponsoring Site: West

When we think about modern engineering and technology, we instinctively tend to think about sophisticated computing devices, jet aircraft, robots, and lasers. But the products of modern engineering that have the most substantial influence on our lives are the ones we almost never think about—the everyday technologies that surround us in our homes and workplaces and the infrastructure systems that have been so beautifully integrated into the fabric of modern civilization that they are inevitably taken for granted.

That’s the Everyday Engineering this course will explore.

We’ll view 16 video lectures curated from “The Great Courses” class of the same name. The lecturer in the videos is outstanding and presents the material with language, concepts, and demonstrations geared to the level of a curious, intelligent lay person; no engineering or mathematical background is required. There will be ample time for questions and discussion of the material presented.

Famous Engineering Failures— and the Lessons Learned (?) STEM 1004

Wednesday

Dates: 9/20 to 11/8 (8 weeks)

Time: 9:30–11:30 AM

Facilitator: Stuart Gentry, Master Facilitator

Location: Columbine United Church

Class Limit: 40 Participants

Sponsoring Site: South

It was the middle of the night, August 3, 1933. Families along Cherry Creek were asleep in bed… until they began receiving phone calls that woke them up. “Abandon your house now! Hurry to high ground! The dam has broken!” A wall of water 15 feet high raced down the creek from Castlewood Canyon towards Denver. Miraculously, the emergency calls that went out that night managed to save the lives of all but two of the people that lived downstream. Unfortunately, the families that lived downstream from the Johnstown Dam in Pennsylvania in 1889 weren’t so lucky. Over 2,000 lives were lost that tragic day.

The historical case studies used in this course will describe failures with dams, bridges, buildings, and aerospace.

Underlying these stories will be the critical questions of “What happened?” and “What have we learned to avoid similar tragedies in the future?”

No engineering background is required for this informative course as we will explain key engineering concepts along the way. We will look at how consumer needs, visual aesthetics, government policy, and budget constraints contributed to these failures in an effort to learn what happened and how to avoid them in the future