The goal of this program is to lay a firm foundation for advanced work in computer science. The name Data to Information refers to our study of how bits, bytes and raw numbers gain meaning through increasingly abstract layers of interpretation. Organizing raw data into different structures can produce very different meanings. Through interpretation, correct or not, raw data becomes information.

Our work will emphasize knowledge of the fundamentals of mathematics, program design, algorithms and data structures, and the hardware needed to succeed in the computer field. Individual and collaborative problem-solving will also be stressed.

The content of Data to Information mirrors that of the first year and a half of a conventional computer science major at most liberal arts colleges. Here, it will be presented in an integrated and synergistic manner that strengthens connections among the various ideas and skills, enabling more rapid progress through immersion.

Program content will be structured around four yearlong, interwoven themes. The computational organization theme will begin with digital logic and continue through increasingly complex and abstract ways of organizing hardware into functional units. The programming languages theme will begin with the functional programming paradigm using Haskell, then continue into the analysis of data structures and algorithms, and finally introduce an object-oriented programming paradigm using Java. The mathematical abstractions theme will develop the mathematical tools and abstract ideas that support problem solving in computer science. The history and social implications of technology theme will explore the context in which quantitative and computerized tools have been developed and applied.

Equality is an ancient ideal, yet at best the United States has embraced it ambiguously and ambivalently throughout its history. Frequently, it has rejected the ideal altogether by selectively applying it-an oxymoronic result that effectively nullifies the ideal in favor of the opposite rule of inequality. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," yet he owned slaves. The framers claimed to cherish equality, yet they chose not to enshrine it in the Constitution. It wasn't until the 14th Amendment's adoption in 1868 that this ideal was represented as an enforceable constitutional guarantee. However, this did not prevent the states from passing Jim Crow laws to maintain white supremacy, or the Supreme Court from ruling that the Amendment did not mean what it said. Women were denied the right to vote until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, and the struggle to secure and maintain equal rights for many classes of persons continues to this day.

In this program, we will study this long and continuing struggle to secure equality for all Americans. We will begin by taking a critical look at the early cases in which the Supreme Court eviscerated the ideal of equality by circumventing the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. We will then study the many cases in the 20th and 21st centuries that have chipped away at Jim Crow and inequality. These involve struggles for equal rights in education, employment, public accommodations, housing, voting and university admissions. We will also examine the modern equal-protection cases that have gone beyond race to fight discrimination based on sex, age, disability, indigence, alienage, wealth and sexual orientation.

In addition to court opinions, readings for the program will include scholarly writings that explore 14th Amendment theory. Working in legal teams, students will develop appellate briefs on real equal-protection cases and will present oral arguments before the "Evergreen Supreme Court." Students will also rotate as justices to read their peers' appellate briefs, to hear arguments and to render decisions.

Government, at all levels, is a major collector and provider of data and user of information technologies, and often finds itself testing the limits of information technology and of the appropriate use of that technology. To help solve these problems, the National Science Foundation has sponsored more than 178 grants to date to support interdisciplinary collaborations that contribute to government strategic planning for information services while providing interesting and unique new research problems and data sets for the academic research community. The study of these projects, and of issues that face government information providers, provides both a cross-section of innovative research in information technology and an opportunity to study the use of information and technology in government organizations. This lecture series (open to the all Evergreen students as a part time course and as a public-service to the Olympia community) will examine a cross section of applied information and technology research, and help participants better understand the broader societal questions that must be addressed by those who build and use government information technology. The sponsoring programs are Student Originated Software (SOS) and Data to Information.

Students may enroll in the two-credit (lecture only) or a four-credit (lecture and seminar) option. In order to receive full-credit, students enrolled in the two-credit option must attend every lecture and write a personal reflection of each lecture. For the four-credit option, students must attend the weekly lecture and seminar, complete the required reading, and write either a weekly reflection on the reading and lecture, or a 5-7 page paper (with staged deliverables) on a topic relevant to the series.

What is the importance of disturbance to ecosystems? Humans have frequently sought to control, diminish or remove these discrete, "destructive" events from the landscape. Recent ecological research and management efforts have focused on understanding and using disturbance as a natural and important aspect of any functioning ecosystem. We will conduct field studies, lectures and labs to understand the role of disturbance in light of current issues and historical and recent knowledge about these important ecosystem processes. Ecosystems of interest will include, but not be limited to, the coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Disturbance has significant impacts on the structure and function of ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Our investigations will seek to describe disturbance regimes from the perspective of scale using existing and collected data. We will address the importance of those regimes to ecosystems and human culture. As we gain an understanding of the consequences of disturbance we will study how our perceptions about disturbance are changing (or not) and what the challenges are to managing ecosystems with disturbance as an important element in the landscape.

To better understand the role of disturbance and its impacts on ecosystems, we will examine current trends in research and conduct hands-on fieldwork. Weekly seminars will focus on reading and understanding articles from the primary scientific literature and some popular works on cultural responses to disturbance. To integrate fieldwork with critical reading of scientific literature, students will undertake group research projects in disturbance ecology to design and investigate a research question, collect and analyze field data and write a peer-reviewed scientific article. The focus of research projects will be on understanding the impacts of disturbance on successional trajectories. We will take organized field trips to important historical disturbance events in the Puget Sound to understand the variation in scale of the events as well as their long-term effects on the ecosystems they occur in.

The marine environment is a complex habitat that harbors a beautiful, abundant and diverse array of life forms. This program combines the study of the marine environment as both a habitat and a source of inspiration for the visual imagination. We will examine how to use our studies to pursue creative work in the visual arts and sciences.

In winter quarter, students will study marine organisms, beginning drawing, the difference between description and expression in the visual arts, and the representation of marine organisms in the visual arts. They will develop a basic science and visual vocabulary and learn basic skills in microscopy and digital imaging. In spring quarter, students will focus on marine habitats and book arts, and will apply the skills learned in the winter. Students will travel to local beaches and explore South Puget Sound in college boats. They will keep field journals, conduct field surveys and collect organisms.

Both quarters, students will attend a weekly seminar to discuss how human perspectives toward the sea have changed over time and in different cultural traditions. In seminar, we will also explore how the marine environment is represented in scientific articles, mythology, literature, poetry and visual images. Students will pursue their interests in the marine environment through a series of assignments that integrate science and art.