Sparks Short Courses

Sparks Short Courses (a.k.a., "Sparks") are small-group, low-unit pass/fail courses for first-year undergraduates. The goal of each Spark is to share a spark -- a spark of insight, a spark of creativity, a spark of inspiration -- that speaks to the heart of a field or research area in which they are engaged. Sparks are intended to help undergraduates early in their Caltech experience to connect individually with faculty and to experience the same thrill of discovery that drew faculty into their own fields of interest.

Since enrollment in each Spark is limited, early registration is recommended.

The goal is to figure out how to measure, to no more than 1 significant figure, as many important physical quantities as we can, using no more equipment than can easily be found in the kitchen or hardware store (or possibly a nerdy home, like a cheap microscope or LED). Examples (students will be encouraged to think up others) could be the speed of light, atomic mass unit, Boltzmann's constant, flux of radiation from the sun, moon and stars, radius of the earth, earth's magnetic field, density of air and its refractive index, speed of sound, heat capacity of some materials and their heat conductivities, SPF factors of sunscreens and other materials, surface tension, diffusivity and viscosity of liquids, heat of vaporisation of water and of dry ice, coefficients of thermal expansion, human metabolic rate, power output, and calories in food.

Up to 12 students. Meet 1x a week for 1 hour brainstorming + design and experimentation.

Up for the challenge?

Whales dive to precisely the depths where the density of krill is highest and perform multiple lunges, taking on 1/3 of their body volume in water that they then filter. How do they achieve this in the black silence of the ocean?

Do whales have belly buttons and if so, why?

Do they have the genes responsible for producing enamel even though they lack teeth, if so, why?

How does the amplitude of the swimming motion of a whale depend on its size and how is speed of the swimming related to the amplitude and frequency of motion?

Given that 3 million whales were removed from the oceans in the 20th century, how much less whale poop does that correspond to and how does it compare to the entirety of fertilizer in all the world's farms?

This course will use the whale as a vehicle to examine many of the great themes of modern science. This course will involve a combination of reading, laboratory experiments using DNA sequencing to explore whale evolution and illegal hunting and several field trips to watch whales in the wild.

Up to 15 students. Meet 1x a week for 1 hour discussion + reading, lab assignments, field trips.