Events

EVENTS

Start-Up Events
         Each month for the six months prior to the first day of classes, we will hold a Public Conversations event (see details below), ideally in cooperation with another organization.  In addition to the community education and outreach functions, these start-up events will aim to build momentum, connections, word of mouth, etc.

Two Overnight Tiyulim (Field Trips)
•  Orot Choref (Winter Lights) in the Negev:  Chanukah + astronomy + Rav Kook
•  Ramot Kayitz (Summer Heights) in the Golan: pre-Elul + astronomy + Rav Kook
          -- This tiyul will take place a few days after Tisha b'Av and will conclude the academic year.

First & Second Semesters:  monthly co-curricular Shabbaton including Astronomical Melaveh Malkah
•  Shabbaton:  details to be determined
•  Astronomical Melaveh Malkah:  basic principles of scientific inquiry, some Astronomy 101, and the main event: special topics with telescopes

Second Semester:  monthly co-curricular Public Conversations (Current Issues/Problems in __________)
          The Public Conversations series brings together various disciplinary and practical perspectives on particular issues addressed in coursework.  Each event will feature three scholars and practitioners working in fields that are related to our areas of study and of interest to the general public.  (The events will be open to the public, and widely publicized.)  As appropriate and as opportunities arise, we will partner with other organizations to co-host the events.
          The events will begin with each panelist speaking for five minutes, to be followed by a conversation amongst the panelists, and they will end with questions from the audience.  The panelists' task will not be to argue a thesis, or describe a question that has already been answered or a problem that has already been solved; rather, they will detail a real, current, open issue in their field.  These events will focus on works in progress.  Individually and in conversation with each other, the panelists will introduce and develop the question or problem:  its context and origins, its significance, what work is being done to solve it (and where, by whom, how, etc.), some possible answers arising out of that work, and so on.
          The series has several objectives including providing additional context and depth to what students are learning in class, offering a model for the kind of complex and interwoven, inquiry-driven intellectual work that students will be doing in their courses ("the conversation model"), reinforcing the "real and relevant" emphasis of the curriculum, and providing students with an opportunity to coordinate various aspects of the events as one of their second-semester co-curricular elective options.  The series also aims to serve as a forum for community education and outreach, and as a vehicle for achdut Yisrael (Jewish unity): an opportunity for different sectors to come together for events addressing issues of general public importance.