This class provides an interdisciplinary introduction to modeling social systems. Students will learn a variety of model and learn to apply each model in many contexts and to apply multiple models to any one context. These themes of one to many and many to one will be central to the course as we construct, manipulate, and evaluate a variety of models from political science, economics, sociology, biology, public health, and even physics. These models will provide students with new and provocative ways to think about why people vote, commit crimes, and attend classes, about what one's contribution is to society, and about why markets and democracies sometimes work and sometimes fail. Along the way, we'll touch on topics ranging from market crashes, the Wisdom of Crowds, racial segregation, the spread of ideas, and the distinctiveness of cultures. By the end, students will have learned several modeling techniques and be able to apply them creatively across a variety of contexts.

This is not a mathematics course, though it does require a willingness to think abstractly, to construct and unpack a fair share of two by two tables, to critically analyze lots of charts and graphs, and to do some algebraic manipulations.

Course Requirements:

No data submitted

Intended Audience:

Sophomores, juniors, or seniors

Class Format:

Lecture meets twice a week for 1 1/2 hours each and a discussion section that meets for 1 hour.