This course relies on primary readings from the database community to introduce graduate students to the foundations of database systems, focusing on basics such as the relational algebra and data model, schema normalization, query optimization, and transactions. It is designed for students who have taken 6.033 (or equivalent); no prior database experience is assumed, though students who have taken an undergraduate course in databases are encouraged to attend.

This art history video discussion examines Jacques-Louis David's "Oath of the Horatii", oil on canvas, 1784 (Musee du Louvre).

This art history video discussion examines Jacques-Louis David's "The Intervention of the Sabine Women", 1799, Oil on canvas, 12 feet, 8 inches x 17 feet and 3/4 of an inch or 3.85 x 5.22 m (Musee du Louvre, Paris).

This art history video discussion examines Jacques-Louis David's "The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons", 1789, oil on canvas (Musee du Louvre, Paris).

This art history video discussion examines Gerard David's "The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor", c. 1510, oil on oak, 105.80 x 144.40 cm (The National Gallery, London).

Simulate the original experiment that proved that electrons can behave as waves. Watch electrons diffract off a crystal of atoms, interfering with themselves to create peaks and troughs of probability.

This activity allows pupils to learn the difference between diurnal and nocturnal animals, understand that when it is day here, it is night on the other side of the world, and that it is light when the Sun comes up and it is dark when the Sun goes down. At the end, pupils build a model of the Earth and can experiment with day and night.

Students explore the many different ways that engineers provide natural lighting to interior spaces. They analyze various methods of daylighting by constructing model houses from foam core board and simulating the sun with a desk lamp. Teams design a daylighting system for their model houses based on their observations and calculations of the optimal use of available sunlight to their structure.

This course explores natural and electric lighting that integrates occupant comfort, energy efficiency and daylight availability in an architectural context. Students are asked to evaluate daylighting in real space and simulations, and also high dynamic range photography and physical model building.

This three-act film tells the story of the detective work that solved the mystery of what caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. Shot on location in Italy, Spain, Texas, Colorado, and North Dakota, the film traces the uncovering of key clues that led to the discovery that an asteroid struck the Earth 66 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction of animals, plants, and microorganisms. Science practices in geology, physics, biology, chemistry and paleontology all contributed to the solution to this compelling mystery. Lesson plans are included that have students identify evidence and construct an explanation to tie it together. Summary questions are included at the end and a class discussion is recommended. (This activity will be the only one evaluated in this review.) Another resource is “Finding the Crater” where students “visit” different K-T boundary sites. There are also lessons where students analyze various characteristics of the asteroid such as its size and energy, chemical data about the asteroid, and the iridium fallout from an asteroid impact. A hands-on activity where students study the differences in foraminifera fossils below and above the K-T boundary is also included as well as an article that outlines more details about each of the discoveries covered in the film. You can view the film on the website or HHMI will send you a free DVD. Lesson plans including teacher notes and a student handout can be found at http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/following-trail-evidence.

This art history video dicussion examines Willem de Kooning's "Woman I", oil on canvas, 1950-52 (MoMA).

This art history video discussion examines Piet Mondrian's "Composition No. II, with Red and Blue", oil on canvas, 1929 (original date partly obliterated; mistakenly repainted 1925 by Mondrian). Oil on canvas, 15 7/8 x 12 5/8" (40.3 x 32.1 cm) (The Museum of Modern Art).

From Earth’s moon to Europa, our solar system is filled with interesting set of natural satellites. Through art and science, children learn about moons of our solar system with the Deadly Moons activity.

In this activity, students consider arguments for and against unrestricted immigration during the Ellis Island era. Students analyze political cartoons, letters, newspaper articles, posters, and other sources, noting evidence in the documents to support the viewpoints of the various figures in the 1903 cartoon "The Immigrant." This activity also includes modifications for low-level readers.

In this lesson, students learn that sound is energy and has the ability to do work. Students discover that sound is produced by a vibration and they observe soundwaves and how they travel through mediums. They understand that sound can be absorbed, reflected or transmitted. Through associated activities, videos and a PowerPoint presentation led by the teacher, students further their exploration of sound through discussions in order to build background knowledge.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about determining the greatest quotient without calculation.

Students learn about and practice converting between fractions, decimals and percentages. Using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robot and a touch sensor, each group inputs a fraction of its choosing. Team members convert this same fraction into a decimal, and then a percentage via hand calculations, and double check their work using the NXT robot. Then they observe the robot moving forward and record that distance. Students learn that the distance moved is a fraction of the full distance, based on the fraction that they input, so if they input ½, the robot moves half of the original distance. From this, students work backwards to compute the full distance. Groups then compete in a game in which they are challenged to move the robot as close as possible to a target distance by inputting a fraction into the NXT bot.

In an increasingly data-driven world, data and its use aren’t always all it’s cracked up to be. This course aims to address the critical lack of any or appropriate data in many areas where complex decisions need to be made.

For instance, how can you predict volcano activity when no eruptions have been recorded over a long period of time? Or how can you predict how many people will be resistant to antibiotics in a country where there is no available data at national level? Or how about estimating the time needed to evacuate people in flood risk areas?

In situations like these, expert opinions are needed to address complex decision-making problems. This course, aimed at researchers and professionals from any academic background, will show you how expert opinion can be used for uncertainty quantification in a rigorous manner.

Various techniques are used in practice. They vary from the informal and undocumented opinion of one expert to a fully documented and formal elicitation of a panel of experts, whose uncertainty assessments can be aggregated to provide support for complex decision making.

In this course you will be introduced to state-of-the-art expert judgment methods, particularly the Classical Model (CM) or Cooke’s method, which is arguably the most rigorous method for performing Structured Expert Judgment.

CM, developed at TU Delft by Roger Cooke, has been successfully applied for over 30 years in areas as diverse as climate change, disaster management, epidemiology, public and global health, ecology, aeronautics/aerospace, nuclear safety, environment and ecology, engineering and many others.

Introduction to the theory and application of large-scale dynamic programming. Markov decision processes. Dynamic programming algorithms. Simulation-based algorithms. Theory and algorithms for value function approximation. Policy search methods. Games. Applications in areas such as dynamic resource allocation, finance and queueing networks, among others.

Foundations and philosophical applications of Bayesian decision theory, game theory and theory of collective choice. Why should degrees of belief be probabilities? Is it always rational to maximize expected utility? If so, why and what is its utility? What is a solution to a game? What does a game-theoretic solution concept such as Nash equilibrium say about how rational players will, or should, act in a game? How are the values and the actions of groups, institutions and societies related to the values and actions of the individuals that constitute them?