Online courses directory (423)

This course aims to explain the science of climate change, the risks it poses and the solutions available to reduce those risks.

Climate Literacy tackles the scientific and socio-political dimensions of climate change. This course introduces the basics of the climate system, models and predictions, human and natural impacts, mitigative and adaptive responses, and the evolution of climate policy.

This course introduces students to climate studies, including beginnings of the solar system, time scales, and climate in human history. It is offered to both undergraduate and graduate students with different requirements.

How will climate change affect the availability of water in the Western United States—where water is already the most precious natural resource? What water management challenges does the Western U.S. face? How do we manage natural disasters like drought, wildfire, and flooding? This course engages participants with cutting-edge science in exploring these and other questions about the intersection of climate change and water management in the West. This course: Provides an introduction to the topic of water in the West Highlights challenges of water management using the Colorado River Basin as the premier example Reviews and evaluates flooding, drought, wildfires, and interactions between these natural disasters using the Boulder Creek Watershed as an example Provides an educational context for these broad topics and introduces educators to resources and teaching approaches for their classrooms Join the discussion about the Colorado River Basin with Dr. Doug Kenney, director of the Western Water Policy Program at University of Colorado Boulder and Jeff Lukas, senior researcher at Western Water Assessment, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. We will discuss drought, wildfire, and flooding in a Colorado case study to examine the issue of water timing and distribution as influenced by climate change. Dr. Brian Ebel, Colorado School of Mines, Dr. Jeff Writer, University of Colorado Boulder, and Dr. Sheila Murphy, USGS, will also participate as content experts. This course is co-funded by Learn More About Climate, a program of the University of Colorado Boulder Office for University Outreach, and by the NASA-funded Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE) project.

Environmental problems do not recognize geographic or disciplinary boundaries. Therefore to develop sustainable solutions to environmental challenges...

Environmental problems do not recognize geographic or disciplinary boundaries. Therefore to develop sustainable solutions to environmental challenges we must incorporate the natural and social sciences and also deeply engage local communities. ...

How genetics can add to our understanding of cognition, language, emotion, personality, and behavior. Use of gene mapping to estimate risk factors for psychological disorders and variation in behavioral and personality traits. Mendelian genetics, genetic mapping techniques, and statistical analysis of large populations and their application to particular studies in behavioral genetics. Topics also include environmental influence on genetic programs, evolutionary genetics, and the larger scientific, social, ethical, and philosophical implications.

This course explores the cognitive and neural processes that support attention, vision, language, motor control, navigation, and memory. It introduces basic neuroanatomy, functional imaging techniques, and behavioral measures of cognition, and discusses methods by which inferences about the brain bases of cognition are made. We consider evidence from patients with neurological diseases (Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Balint's syndrome, amnesia, and focal lesions from stroke) and from normal human participants.

This undergraduate course is designed to introduce students to cognitive processes. The broad range of topics covers each of the areas in the field of cognition, and presents the current thinking in this discipline. As an introduction to human information processing and learning, the topics include the nature of mental representation and processing, the architecture of memory, pattern recognition, attention, imagery and mental codes, concepts and prototypes, reasoning and problem solving.

This course is an introduction to computational theories of human cognition. Drawing on formal models from classic and contemporary artificial intelligence, students will explore fundamental issues in human knowledge representation, inductive learning and reasoning. What are the forms that our knowledge of the world takes? What are the inductive principles that allow us to acquire new knowledge from the interaction of prior knowledge with observed data? What kinds of data must be available to human learners, and what kinds of innate knowledge (if any) must they have?

An introduction to computational theories of human cognition. Emphasizes questions of inductive learning and inference, and the representation of knowledge. Project required for graduate credit. This class is suitable for intermediate to advanced undergraduates or graduate students specializing in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and related fields.

This course is an introduction to computational theories of human cognition. Drawing on formal models from classic and contemporary artificial intelligence, students will explore fundamental issues in human knowledge representation, inductive learning and reasoning. What are the forms that our knowledge of the world takes? What are the inductive principles that allow us to acquire new knowledge from the interaction of prior knowledge with observed data? What kinds of data must be available to human learners, and what kinds of innate knowledge (if any) must they have?

The course focuses on casting contemporary problems in systems biology and functional genomics in computational terms and providing appropriate tools and methods to solve them. Topics include genome structure and function, transcriptional regulation, and stem cell biology in particular; measurement technologies such as microarrays (expression, protein-DNA interactions, chromatin structure); statistical data analysis, predictive and causal inference, and experiment design. The emphasis is on coupling problem structures (biological questions) with appropriate computational approaches.

In this course you will learn about how and why DNA and protein sequences evolve. You will learn the theory behind methods for building and analyzing phylogenetic trees, and get hands-on experience with some widely used software packages.

Understanding how the brain works is one of the fundamental challenges in science today. This course will introduce you to basic computational techniques for analyzing, modeling, and understanding the behavior of cells and circuits in the brain. You do not need to have any prior background in neuroscience to take this course.

This course introduces abstraction as an important mechanism for problem decomposition and solution formulation in the biomedical domain, and examines computer representation, storage, retrieval, and manipulation of biomedical data. As part of the course, we will briefly examine the effect of programming paradigm choice on problem-solving approaches, and introduce data structures and algorithms. We will also examine knowledge representation schemes for capturing biomedical domain complexity and principles of data modeling for efficient storage and retrieval. The final project involves building a medical information system that encompasses the different concepts taught in the course.

Computer science basics covered in the first part of the course are integral to understanding topics covered in the latter part, and for completing the assigned homework.

Learn about how the world’s oceans are regulated, protected and preserved.

What is the Earth made up of and how do we know? What causes the seasons? Are there longer-ranging cycles in Earth's climate?. Plate Tectonics-- Difference between crust and lithosphere. Structure of the Earth. Plate Tectonics -- Evidence of plate movement. Plate Tectonics -- Geological Features of Divergent Plate Boundaries. Plate Tectonics-- Geological features of Convergent Plate Boundaries. Plates Moving Due to Convection in Mantle. Hawaiian Islands Formation. Pangaea. Compositional and Mechanical Layers of the Earth. How we know about the Earth's core. Seismic Waves. Why S-Waves Only Travel in Solids. Refraction of Seismic Waves. The Mohorovicic Seismic Discontinuity. Seasons Aren't Dictated by Closeness to Sun. How Earth's Tilt Causes Seasons. Are Southern Hemisphere Seasons More Severe?. Milankovitch Cycles Precession and Obliquity. Precession Causing Perihelion to Happen Later. What Causes Precession and Other Orbital Changes. Apsidal Precession (Perihelion Precession) and Milankovitch Cycles. Plate Tectonics-- Difference between crust and lithosphere. Structure of the Earth. Plate Tectonics -- Evidence of plate movement. Plate Tectonics -- Geological Features of Divergent Plate Boundaries. Plate Tectonics-- Geological features of Convergent Plate Boundaries. Plates Moving Due to Convection in Mantle. Hawaiian Islands Formation. Pangaea. Compositional and Mechanical Layers of the Earth. How we know about the Earth's core. Seismic Waves. Why S-Waves Only Travel in Solids. Refraction of Seismic Waves. The Mohorovicic Seismic Discontinuity. Seasons Aren't Dictated by Closeness to Sun. How Earth's Tilt Causes Seasons. Are Southern Hemisphere Seasons More Severe?. Milankovitch Cycles Precession and Obliquity. Precession Causing Perihelion to Happen Later. What Causes Precession and Other Orbital Changes. Apsidal Precession (Perihelion Precession) and Milankovitch Cycles.

When and how did life emerge on Earth? How did humanity develop a civilization? Is there other intelligent life out there?. Earth Formation. Beginnings of Life. Ozone Layer and Eukaryotes Show Up in the Proterozoic Eon. Biodiversity Flourishes in Phanerozoic Eon. First living things on land clarification. Human Evolution Overview. Understanding Calendar Notation. Correction Calendar Notation. Development of Agriculture and Writing. Firestick Farming. Collective Learning. Thomas Malthus and Population Growth. Land Productivity Limiting Human Population. Energy Inputs for Tilling a Hectare of Land. Random Predictions for 2060. Chronometric Revolution. Carbon 14 Dating 1. Carbon 14 Dating 2. Potassium-Argon (K-Ar) Dating. K-Ar Dating Calculation. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 1. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 2. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 3. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 4. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 5. Earth Formation. Beginnings of Life. Ozone Layer and Eukaryotes Show Up in the Proterozoic Eon. Biodiversity Flourishes in Phanerozoic Eon. First living things on land clarification. Human Evolution Overview. Understanding Calendar Notation. Correction Calendar Notation. Development of Agriculture and Writing. Firestick Farming. Collective Learning. Thomas Malthus and Population Growth. Land Productivity Limiting Human Population. Energy Inputs for Tilling a Hectare of Land. Random Predictions for 2060. Chronometric Revolution. Carbon 14 Dating 1. Carbon 14 Dating 2. Potassium-Argon (K-Ar) Dating. K-Ar Dating Calculation. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 1. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 2. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 3. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 4. Detectable Civilizations in our Galaxy 5.

Hank Green teaches you biology!. Why Carbon is a Tramp. Water - Liquid Awesome. Biological Molecules - You Are What You Eat. Eukaryopolis - The City of Animal Cells. In Da Club - Membranes & Transport. Plant Cells. ATP & Respiration. Photosynthesis. Heredity. DNA Structure and Replication. DNA, Hot Pockets, & The Longest Word Ever. Mitosis: Splitting Up is Complicated. Meiosis: Where the Sex Starts. Natural Selection. Speciation: Of Ligers & Men. Animal Development: We're Just Tubes. Evolutionary Development: Chicken Teeth. Population Genetics: When Darwin Met Mendel. Taxonomy: Life's Filing System. Evolution: It's a Thing. Comparative Anatomy: What Makes Us Animals. Simple Animals: Sponges, Jellies, & Octopuses. Complex Animals: Annelids & Arthropods. Chordates. Animal Behavior. The Nervous System. Circulatory & Respiratory Systems. The Digestive System. The Excretory System: From Your Heart to the Toilet. The Skeletal System: It's ALIVE!. Big Guns: The Muscular System. Your Immune System: Natural Born Killer. Great Glands - Your Endocrine System. The Reproductive System: How Gonads Go. Old & Odd: Archaea, Bacteria & Protists. The Sex Lives of Nonvascular Plants. Vascular Plants = Winning!. The Plants & The Bees: Plant Reproduction. Fungi: Death Becomes Them. Ecology - Rules for Living on Earth. Why Carbon is a Tramp. Water - Liquid Awesome. Biological Molecules - You Are What You Eat. Eukaryopolis - The City of Animal Cells. In Da Club - Membranes & Transport. Plant Cells. ATP & Respiration. Photosynthesis. Heredity. DNA Structure and Replication. DNA, Hot Pockets, & The Longest Word Ever. Mitosis: Splitting Up is Complicated. Meiosis: Where the Sex Starts. Natural Selection. Speciation: Of Ligers & Men. Animal Development: We're Just Tubes. Evolutionary Development: Chicken Teeth. Population Genetics: When Darwin Met Mendel. Taxonomy: Life's Filing System. Evolution: It's a Thing. Comparative Anatomy: What Makes Us Animals. Simple Animals: Sponges, Jellies, & Octopuses. Complex Animals: Annelids & Arthropods. Chordates. Animal Behavior. The Nervous System. Circulatory & Respiratory Systems. The Digestive System. The Excretory System: From Your Heart to the Toilet. The Skeletal System: It's ALIVE!. Big Guns: The Muscular System. Your Immune System: Natural Born Killer. Great Glands - Your Endocrine System. The Reproductive System: How Gonads Go. Old & Odd: Archaea, Bacteria & Protists. The Sex Lives of Nonvascular Plants. Vascular Plants = Winning!. The Plants & The Bees: Plant Reproduction. Fungi: Death Becomes Them. Ecology - Rules for Living on Earth.