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Monterey Bay is home to the nation's largest marine sanctuary and also home to Stanford¿s Hopkins Marine Station. This course, based at Hopkins, explores the spectacular biology of Monterey Bay and the artistic and political history of the region. The course focuses on issues of conservation, sanctuary, and stewardship of the oceans and coastal lands. We will meet with conservationists, filmmakers, artists, authors, environmentalists, politicians, land-use planners, and lawyers, as well as scientists and educators, to learn what is being done to appreciate, protect, and study the coastline and near-shore waters at local and national levels. We will take a look at the discipline of marine biology to discover the range of topics and methods of research it embraces and to help define some of the larger issues in biology that loom in our future. The course emphasizes interactions and discussions between individuals, groups, and our guests; it is a total immersion experience. We will be together all of the time, either at our base at the Belden House in Pacific Grove or hiking and camping in Big Sur.nnStudents are expected to have read the several books provided as introductory material before the course begins, and each is also expected to become our local expert in an area such as plant identification, bird identification, poetry, weather prediction, photography, history, ethnography, etc. The course requires an individual research project of your choice on a topic related to the general theme. Final reports will be presented at the last meeting of the group and may involve any medium, including written, oral, and performance media.nnNote: This course will be held at the Hopkins Marine Station in the Monterey region, and housing will be provided nearby. Transportation from campus to the housing site will be provided once students arrive on campus on August 30. Transportation to campus from the Belden House in Pacific Grove will be provided on September 19. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu

Students will explore practical, social, and political issues surrounding energy and the West. Using Wyoming--the largest energy provider in the United States--as a case study, students will consider the availability and viability of coal, oil, and gas (including coal-bed methane production and fracking), CO2 capture and storage, hydropower, and wind and solar energy. They will consider questions of the security of energy supply, global warming, environmental impacts, and economics and public policy, with particular attention to the so-called water-energy nexus, a critically important issue for Wyoming. nnStudents will spend the first week on campus, then travel to various field sites in Wyoming, including a coal mine, a CO2 capture plant, a CO2 enhanced oil recovery project, a wind power plant, a hydropower plant, and a shale-gas site. They will meet with relevant policy experts and public officials to consider such questions as: nn¿ Where our energy supplies come from and how energy is extracted from the ground and transported to urban centers where it is used;nn¿ The nexus between energy and water issues;nn¿ Tradeoffs and co-benefits between different types of energy supplies, including energy security, environmental impacts, and economic development; nn¿ Public policy issues surrounding energy, the environment, and the economy. nnDuring the trip, students will work on group projects to evaluate energy mix and will present their work at the conclusion of the course. Participants will return to Stanford on September 19. Travel to, from, and within Wyoming will be provided (except incidentals) and is made possible by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College.

There is growing interest in the intersection of art and science, whether from artists adapting technology to suit their visions or from scientists and engineers seeking to explain various visual effects. To take advantage of possible creative sparks at the art/science interface, it is necessary for fuzzies and techies to have some knowledge of the language used by the other side. This interface will be explored through examining approaches used by an artist and an engineer in the context of the materials science of cultural objects. In-class lectures, hands-on studio practice, and field trips will be used to illustrate these different perspectives. At the heart of the scientific approach is the notion that a cultural object, e.g., a painting, is a physical entity comprising materials with different physical properties and different responses to environmental stresses presented by light, heat, and water. In support of this outlook, in-class lectures and discussions will focus on the basic concepts of color, optics, mechanics, composite structures, and response of the object to environmental stress, and we will visit Bay Area museums to see how artists employ such techniques. The hands-on studio experience is designed to increase students' confidence and develop their appreciation of differences in materials. It is not necessary to have any artistic training, only a willingness to experiment. The in-class studio projects will include working with line and shadow; color, binders, and mordants; global sources of pigments; substrates and writing; and material failure. Students will make one technical presentation on a topic in one of the five areas relevant to a painting: color, optics, mechanics, composites, and stress response. In addition, they will prepare one essay on the issues surrounding the intersection of art and science. Finally, they will complete a project related to one of the thematic areas covered in the hands-on studio sessions and make a final oral presentation describing their project. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

Ghost stories haunt our imagination. When the dead return they may scare us or warn us, they may pursue us with violence or burden us with sorrow. They shock us with the "boo" of surprise, just as they frustrate us by their elusiveness. Bloodchilling stories terrify us, but they also provide entertainment. The ghost story is one of the most enduring genres, from classical literature to popular film. Yet behind the door of the story lurk both anxiety and wisdom: anxiety about our own mortality and wisdom about the cultural place of the past, between memory and regret, mourning and forgetting. The undead point to what we have not accomplished, just as they direct us--since the ghost of Hamlet's father--toward deeds. In this seminar, we will explore some of these ghostly ambitions.nDuring the summer, in preparation for the seminar, students will read selected stories and novels and post comments to the course website. When we convene in September, we will discuss the summer findings and proceed to examine a selection of novels that explore ghosts and hauntings. Texts will include Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Peter Straub's Ghost Story, and others. We will also spend some dark and stormy nights with ghost films and even follow the trail to some hauntings at Stanford and in the Bay Area. Students are expected to participate regularly in the CourseWork discussion forum and work in small groups with other course members to discuss and present readings.

Emphasis is on how animal welfare sciences provide an evidence-based approach to optimize and balance each of these demands so that "good welfare is good business." Topics include how to apply principles of animal behavior to design environmental enrichments beneficial to both animals and complex mission of the zoo; assessing exhibits from the point of view of animal behavior and well-being, educational opportunities and guest experience; developing an enrichment plan; designing and building enrichments for animals; interacting with the public as docents; assessing overall effectiveness of new enrichment. Class includes experience at San Francisco Zoo.

The Rocky Mountain area, ecologically and geologically diverse, is being strongly impacted by changing land-use patterns, global and regional environmental change, and societal demands for energy and natural resources. This three-week field program emphasizes coupled environmental and geological problems in the Rocky Mountains and will cover a broad range of topics including the geologic origin of the American West from three billion years ago to the recent; paleoclimatology and the glacial history of this mountainous region; the long- and short-term carbon cycle and global climate change; and environmental issues in the American West that are related to changing land-use patterns and increased demand for its abundant natural resources. These broad topics are integrated into a coherent field study by examining earth/environmental science-related questions in three different settings: 1) the three-billion-year-old rocks and the modern glaciers of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming; 2) the sediments in the adjacent Wind River basin that host abundant gas and oil reserves and also contain the long-term climate history of this region; and 3) the volcanic center of Yellowstone National Park and mountainous region of Teton National Park, and the economic and environmental problems associated with gold mining and extraction of oil and gas in areas adjoining these national parks. Students will complete six assignments based upon field exercises, working in small groups to analyze data and prepare reports and maps. Lectures will be held in the field prior to and after fieldwork. Note: This course involves one week of backpacking in the Wind Rivers and hiking while staying in cabins near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and horseback riding in the Dubois area of Wyoming. Students must arrive in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 1. (Hotel lodging will be provided for the night of Sept. 1, and thereafter students will travel as a Sophomore College group.) We will return to campus on Sunday, Sept. 21. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

The title of this course is the title of one of the books that will be required summer reading. The course will introduce modern finance theory and cover a wide range of financial instruments: stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, mortgage back securities, etc. Historical returns on different asset classes will be examined. The efficient market hypothesis and the case for and against index funds will be discussed. The course for 2015 will examine the ongoing policies to stimulate the economy, including the quantitative easing policy of the Federal Reserve. There will be coverage of global financial markets. We will try to reconcile the long-run return on stocks, bonds, and money market instruments with the capital asset pricing model. We will try to connect financial markets with the problems of the real economy including the entitlement programs. We will talk with venture capitalists, Federal Reserve officials, hedge fund and mutual fund managers, and those who manage large institutional endowments. Students will be expected to write a short paper and make an oral presentation to the class. A wide range of topics will be acceptable, including market regulation, the introduction of new financial instruments, the functioning of commodity futures markets, and evaluations of the federal government intervention in financial markets. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

The Rocky Mountain area, ecologically and geologically diverse, is being strongly impacted by changing land-use patterns, global and regional environmental change, and societal demands for energy and natural resources. This three-week field program emphasizes coupled environmental and geological problems in the Rocky Mountains and will cover a broad range of topics including the geologic origin of the American West from three billion years ago to the recent; paleoclimatology and the glacial history of this mountainous region; the long- and short-term carbon cycle and global climate change; and environmental issues in the American West that are related to changing land-use patterns and increased demand for its abundant natural resources. These broad topics are integrated into a coherent field study by examining earth/environmental science-related questions in three different settings: 1) the three-billion-year-old rocks and the modern glaciers of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming; 2) the sediments in the adjacent Wind River basin that host abundant gas and oil reserves and also contain the long-term climate history of this region; and 3) the volcanic center of Yellowstone National Park and mountainous region of Teton National Park, and the economic and environmental problems associated with gold mining and extraction of oil and gas in areas adjoining these national parks. Students will complete six assignments based upon field exercises, working in small groups to analyze data and prepare reports and maps. Lectures will be held in the field prior to and after fieldwork. Note: This course involves one week of backpacking in the Wind Rivers and hiking while staying in cabins near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and horseback riding in the Dubois area of Wyoming. Students must arrive in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 1. (Hotel lodging will be provided for the night of Sept. 1, and thereafter students will travel as a Sophomore College group.) We will return to campus on Sunday, Sept. 21. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

Students will explore practical, social, and political issues surrounding energy and the West. Using Wyoming--the largest energy provider in the United States--as a case study, students will consider the availability and viability of coal, oil, and gas (including coal-bed methane production and fracking), CO2 capture and storage, hydropower, and wind and solar energy. They will consider questions of the security of energy supply, global warming, environmental impacts, and economics and public policy, with particular attention to the so-called water-energy nexus, a critically important issue for Wyoming. nnStudents will spend the first week on campus, then travel to various field sites in Wyoming, including a coal mine, a CO2 capture plant, a CO2 enhanced oil recovery project, a wind power plant, a hydropower plant, and a shale-gas site. They will meet with relevant policy experts and public officials to consider such questions as: nn¿ Where our energy supplies come from and how energy is extracted from the ground and transported to urban centers where it is used;nn¿ The nexus between energy and water issues;nn¿ Tradeoffs and co-benefits between different types of energy supplies, including energy security, environmental impacts, and economic development; nn¿ Public policy issues surrounding energy, the environment, and the economy. nnDuring the trip, students will work on group projects to evaluate energy mix and will present their work at the conclusion of the course. Participants will return to Stanford on September 19. Travel to, from, and within Wyoming will be provided (except incidentals) and is made possible by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College.