As carbon emissions continue to raise our global average temperature and stress biological and ecological systems, we are experiencing heat in historically unprecedented ways. Starting with the laws of thermodynamics, students in this course will explore phenomena associated with heat such as fire, entropy, inflammation, and transformation. Alongside the traditional skills of the scientific method (including observation, experimentation, reasoning, interpretation, and modeling), students will investigate the social and environmental impacts of climate change including wildfires, heat waves, rising seas, migration, and inequality. Students will learn to recognize and interpret meaningful patterns of information; to assess the validity of empirical claims, distinguishing between opinion and fact; and to understand the sociocultural relevance of scientific and mathematical thinking. Throughout the term we will also consider the importance of indigenous knowledge and explore creative solutions to the problems at hand.Science and Math (SCIMA) courses develop students' capacity for evidence-based reasoning through the study of life, earth, and physical sciences and of computational and theoretical mathematics. In these courses, students learn to recognize and interpret meaningful patterns of information; to assess the validity of empirical claims, distinguishing between opinion and fact; and to understand the sociocultural relevance of scientific and mathematical thinking.

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