Science & Technology   

This course will talk about ways of getting ready for the growing season, how you can extend your growing season, growing the best seedlings that you can, and how to effectively get your plants ready to be planted out into your gardens. This course will consist of the following topics: Seed Starting, Extending the Growing Season, Bed Preparation, Composting, Planting, and Pruning. There will also be demonstrations on several of these topics along with detailed handouts for the students.

Through PowerPoint and class discussion, we’ll study the physics of forces and how they affect the way things move. Using the knowledge gained from that study we’ll move on to examine plate tectonics, earthquakes, and vulcanism. As a group we’ll look at YouTube videos that illustrate the phenomena. Questions and comments from class participants will be encouraged.

A significant percentage of the world’s population lives with the threats posed by various natural hazards. In this course we’ll explore the causes and effects of natural events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, and the places most likely to experience them. We’ll also look at reasons why people choose to live in risky places and some of the factors that affect their perceptions of risk and their likelihood of preparing for potential disasters. Finally, we’ll address some of the social and psychological reactions of disaster victims and factors that can help in recovering from such traumatic events.

What can individuals do about climate change? A lot! This series of six 80-minute in-person meetings is designed for people interested in learning more about climate change and climate justice, becoming more effective in communicating with others about it, and taking action to mitigate its impact on our planet and ourselves. The course begins with the problems, basic science, and equity issues, but mainly focuses on understanding the wide range of available climate change solutions and how you can get involved, both as an individual and working with others.

Learn about some unusual plant groups and their very unusual abilities as they adapt to their environments. The class will cover topics such as carnivorous plants, aquatic plants, plants that generate heat, bizarre pollination strategies, and novel dispersal mechanisms.

This course will talk about various types of gardens, the plants that can be utilized in those gardens, why we should be using native plants, plants that can be used medicinally, and those with edible flowers. This course will consist of the following topics: Bird Gardening, Butterfly Gardening, Rain Gardens, Utilizing Natives, Medicinal Plants and Edible Flowers. There will also be demonstrations on several of these topics along with detailed handouts for the students.

Together we will embark on learning the basics of Massachusetts Native Wild Birds. We will start with our introduction and meet my copilot, Coco the Red Tailed Hawk. We will also discuss the distinctions and habits of songbirds, raptors, waterfowl, gamebirds, and shorebirds. We will discuss diseases, zoonotics, poisons, and most importantly how to keep our wild birds safe.

This course will show the origins of flight and elaborate on how modern-day aircraft fly. Planes stay aloft by the use of turbine engines and wing design.  The science behind this will be discussed by showing examples and explaining the principles of flight.  The class will also include the beginnings of rocket development, explaining the NASA space programs and their achievements. A full review of the Challenger Disaster, what really happened and why it was allowed to happen will be discussed.  We will review the principles of buoyancy, (how do large ships keep from sinking), along with other scientific principles and other theories using physics. All math will be done by the instructor with a full explanation of the problem being shown. Join us in this course and learn about the science we use every day.