It’s the unit you’ll never learn in your high school econ class. This class is a blend of economics and current events. We start with fundamental concepts like supply, demand, and elasticity, but apply them to topics like drugs, gambling, and black markets. Can we apply a numerical value to severity of a crime? How can our understanding of economics and crime shape future initiatives to reduce crime? We'll explore these and several other discussion topics with controversial answers.

Each week, we’ll talk about a different cultural, scientific, or historical aspect surrounding food. Topics include nutrition and human physiology, food as cultural symbols, world hunger, economics, and molecular gastronomy. Sample a true paleo diet, visualize meals for those living in extreme poverty, use chemistry to make food, and eat fancy hors d’oeuvres! There’ll be a wide variety of information, activities, and sample foods throughout the course.

Every week we'll focus on a different aspect of our relationship to the animal world, including pets, scientific testing, and animal intelligence. This class features everything from deep discussions on animal ethics to an entertaining video of monkeys demonstrating social inequity aversion. Bonus, slideshows of cute animals. This is a class for anyone interested in learning more about all types of animals and how animals impact our everyday lives.

A class fit for the budding stand-up comic, the witty, the sarcastic, the Colbert Report fan, or anybody interested in laughing while learning more about the art of satire. Satire, the use of wit to ridicule and criticize, is an integral part of our language and has been for millennia. Whenever you use that sarcastic tone so familiar to most teenagers, you're using satire. For this class, we'll talk about the history of satire, from Ancient Egypt to present day society. Satiric examples from art, literature, music, and pop culture might make you laugh. They might make you stop and think. Ultimately, you'll be able to see how important satire has been to the development of our culture and learn how to effectively use satire to get your point across.