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ACE Highlights

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Featured Courses

Ground Source Heat Pumps for Your Home or Neighborhood
ACE Highlights

A ground source heat pump (GSHP) can be a great way to heat and cool your home or business. A GSHP is very efficient and quiet, costs less to operate than any other heating system, and can last 50+ years. This course will introduce GSHP technology and financial incentives, provide an opportunity to talk with an Arlington resident who installed a GSHP in his home, and help you decide whether this would be a good option for your home. Also, learn about an exciting new project—Arlington has received a grant for a feasibility study for a “networked geo” system that would heat and cool a whole neighborhood even more efficiently. All proceeds from this event go towards the ACE Scholarship fund.

Basics of Earth Science
ACE Highlights

Explore the captivating geological features of our planet. We will delve into different geological formations and processes, learning more about mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, glaciers, deserts, and more, and highlight stunning examples like the Himalayas, Iceland’s tectonic activity, and the Grand Canyon. Online interactive tools such as Google Earth, the USGS Earthquake Map, and EarthViewer will help us visualize geological concepts and track recent global earthquakes. No prior knowledge or materials are required—just bring your curiosity about the complexities of the natural world.

Jesus Outside the Bible
ACE Highlights

Explore the considerable body of early Christian stories about Jesus that did not make it into the New Testament. These range from creative reworkings and expansions of familiar stories (we might call this early Christian “fan fiction”) to texts that present a radically different Jesus. The latter portrays a figure whose life and teachings bear almost no resemblance to the Jesus we meet in the Bible. We will discuss the shocking diversity of the early Jesus movement evidenced in these texts, as well as the complex process by which one set of ideas (and texts) became the dominant depiction of Jesus to the present day.

Astronomy and Our Universe
ACE Highlights

Come ponder the universe’s vast wonderland. Begin by putting everything into perspective with a grand tour of the universe from Earth to the Big Bang, then examine the lives of stars and the key role they play in the creation of the elements that comprise our world. We will learn about galaxies, where stars flock together by the billions. Then we’ll look at the variable sky, especially the new “movies” being made and the crazy celestial menagerie they reveal. We’ll probe the simplest yet scariest objects of all, black holes, and talk about cosmology—the history and future of the universe. In the final session, meet at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics near Harvard Square, home of the Chandra Science Center. View the historic Great Refractor telescope dating back to the 1840s and learn about the much more recent discoveries that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has made during its 25 years in orbit. Please Note: The final class will meet offsite at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

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