Lectures#

What is covered, week by week, and which topics each lecture draws on.

Twelve lectures, one per week, each an hour long and taught by a tutor specialising in that topic. Each lecture links out to the Lab and assessments that draw on it. Every citation a lecture draws on is collected on the references page.

Some weeks land on a single number — Lally et al. (2010)‘s 66 days to form a habit, in Week 1. Others land on a full case study — Jordan’s Week’s six stated intentions and zero actual times, in Week 4.

Every lecture runs the same five slots, in order:

• Introduction — the hook, and what’s in and out of scope this week
• Definitions — the handful of terms the week actually needs
• Body — the research, the “why,” and a concrete “how” for every concept taught
• In-lecture activity — something done in the room, not just heard
• Conclusion — what’s now known, and what the week’s Lab does with it

Twelve weeks, five slots each — the subject changes, the shape doesn’t.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014) found active-learning formats measurably outperform straight lecturing on exam performance across STEM courses — the reason this course treats the lecture as one half of a pair, not a self-contained hour: it sets up the research, the definitions, and the “how”; the Lab that same week is where it actually gets used.