Spontaneous 5-Minute Classes on Whatever You Want

Spontaneous 5-Minute Classes on Whatever You Want Over one weekend in the fall (Splash!) and one weekend in the spring (Spark!) 3,000 middle and high school students descend onto MIT campus for a whirlwind of learning. Ive blogged about teaching at these events before. A few weeks ago, I agreed to teach a class with my friend Davie 12: its called Spontaneous 5-Minute Classes on Whatever You Want, and heres the course description: You choose the title, we improvise a 5-minute lesson on it! Bring your wackiest topic suggestions, and watch us embarrass ourselves as we teach you about them on the spur of the moment. Every time I re-read that, I wonder what possessed me to agree to do this. To practice, I e-mailed French House to ask for sample prompts. Every night, I randomly pull up three of these prompts randomly, to practice the process of WHAT???? HOW DID SOMEONE EVEN COME UP WITH THIS???I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THISWell, I guess I know a LITTLE bit about something tangentially related to thisOkay, I have an idea for how to begin, at leastfive minutes of improv. The prompts I received were so good that I cant resist sharing. If you decide to get up and practice improvising 5-minute classes on these topics, I would love to know what techniques you used / what you said / how you dealt with topics that you really know nothing whatsoever about. Creative responses in the comments section encouraged. Without further ado, a window into the minds of my friends: The science of Doctor Who Probabilistic reasoning during mental disorders The squid as art form Introduction to falconry Everything you ever wanted to know about ytterbium How to impress your friends with homemade poi An overview of go playing computers 10 tricks you can do with a hat How to tell if you have anosognosia The etymology of entymology The troll in fiction (and reality?) Evolution of popular beard styles Universals of human grammar Learn to lucid dream History of the sword The phantom time hypothesis Metaphysics of saint thomas aquinas Is the mind a machine Kolmogorov complexity Controversies of the mirror test Why are man-hole covers round? Auto-tuning and other editing tricks: Whats really happening? Animal fur: The Fluffy, the Bald, and the Shaggy How to build the best marshmallow-roasting fire Unfortunate feats of mankind: When a good tool caused its user pain The skeleton in 5 minutes: Whats that knee bone anyway? The History of French Toast If Santa came down the chimney, how did the Easter Bunny get in? Fainting Goats Nomadic Cultures of the World How Tea is made Why Venice was important back in the day Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere A Summary of Greek Tragedies Reasons a chicken might ACTUALLY cross a road The invention of rain boots Folk Dances of Europe The original Olympic sports Biological mechanisms of the Shangri-la diet Human-animal hybrids in mythology Evolutionary psychology of neotany Material concerns in Traveling-wave reactors Garabaldi, the man Works of fiction in which Beetoven is depicted as an alien Stereo recording techniques Arranging for a string quartet Microphone types The invention of the microphone All about the periodic table How to make a perfectly cooked steak How to make alfredo sauce Proof that sqrt(2) is irrational Solfege and sightreading The history of rome Sultans of swing- a history of swing dancing in Byzantine. Caviar or Cadaver- Evolution of Facial Hair- 1380-1690 Me-eow! How communication with your pets can predict your love life. The ethics of plastic surgery for Neanderthals. Flat Earth Society- Proving the Earth isnt round. MIT majors and their course numbers Organic reactions involving alkenes What is the particle in a box model? How to make ice cream at home without a machine Spherification of juices using sodium alginate and calcium chloride The secrets of the Polymerase Chain Reaction The protein purification process How a size-exclusion column works Mass Spectrometry! Popular themes in Romantic period music The infamous Krebs cycle Reaction kinetics equations Intermittent reward and addicition A brief history of Welsh agriculture 1066-the present Writings of Miyamoto Musashi Mint Flavours Most Common Baby Names in 21st Century Types of Clouds Types of Chocolate Lifecycle of the trifid Fantastic Beasts and where to find them Guide to parasites which could live in your eye Commensalism and you How to avoid being seen Guide to successful haggling Economic factors leading to progressivism Musical theory of tuvan throat singing Arabic words which have appeared on Astronotus ocellatus The color beige, a definition and history Evolution of whiskers Treatment and prevention of scurvy through the ages Rise and fall of the Roman Empire Battle weapons through the ages Roman gods Fruits you have never heard of Space missions: satellites, robots, and beacons Female scientists Unsolved math problems Lasers (shark mounted and otherwise) Synesthesia Animals of the deep ocean Nikola Tesla Random number generation The evolution of timekeeping Kwanza attire Astrophysical events observable on earth and their influence on history Evolution of currency 3 Models of how radiation influences morbidity Wuxia films Heuristics and biases in human reasoning