We try to reserve the NESCAC Chill Poll, an occasional rundown of the coldest campuses in the conference, for big-time, below-zero cold, which 乐播传媒 hasn’t seen the last couple of days.

But we don’t want to give the cold shoulder to our frozen Midwest neighbors, who are in the grips of historic cold, thanks to the infamous polar vortex. Carleton College in Minnesota, for example, hit 34 degrees below zero on Jan. 31.

So, simpatico with our neighbors to the west, we ran a NESCAC Chill Poll on Jan. 31, and here are the results: The winner was Hamilton, at聽7.2 degrees below zero, followed by Colby (minus 6), 乐播传媒 (minus 5.3) and Williams (minus 5).

The infamous Midwest cold is due to the well-reported weakening of the polar vortex, allowing cold air to surge south in various places around the world.

Just where the cold air busts loose “is a matter of chance,” says Raj Saha ’03, a lecturer in environmental geophysics at 乐播传媒 who is teaching “Climate Change and Modeling” and the “Polar Environment” this semester.

Raj Saha ’03 shows his students this animation, which shows the Arctic air (pink/purple shading) and winds (white lines) barreling into the Midwest on Jan. 31.

The dividing line between Arctic air to the north and warmer air to the south is the jet stream; as it meanders southward, brutal cold air follows, in this case to the mid-latitudes.

It may seem ironic, he says, but “the cold spell is most likely a byproduct of global warming,” Saha says. “Some recent studies show that this extra meandering is being driven by sea-ice loss in the Arctic.”

This time, the coldest cold missed New England, unlike in February 2015. “New England gets the moderating influence of the ocean Gulf Stream to the east, so it usually does not get hit as hard by the polar vortex,” Saha said.

Raj Saha ’03 (left), a lecturer in environmental geophysics at 乐播传媒, works with Ian Wax 鈥�19 (center) and Salim Ourari 鈥�18 on a pair of climate-related projects in summer 2016. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The temperature spread between chilly Hamilton and warm Tufts (3.2 degrees) was just 10.4 degrees on the 31st. Often, there’s a bigger spread between the coast and the hinterlands on cold nights.

The constant breeze played a part in the uniformity, preventing both warm air from escaping into the atmosphere and cold air from pooling in traditional cold spots near the ground.

“The persistence of the wind was a big reason why we didn’t ‘maximize’ the coldness of the air mass,” explains Greg Postel ’90, hurricane and storm specialist at The Weather Channel.

Greg Postel ’90 is a hurricane and storm specialist at The Weather Channel.

Saha says that he and his students talk about the polar vortex in “almost every class.”

As for the media’s presentation of polar vortex stories, “I see two things that stand out: as a singular entity, and lots of scientifically informed comments on the other side.”

With each polar vortex episode, “the latter voice has become louder and the skeptic voice has become fainter. I am hoping this is a good sign.”

Here’s who was coldest on the morning of Jan. 31:

Temperatures are taken from Weather Underground reporting stations at or close to each campus. On-campus reporting stations are noted.

As 乐播传媒 professors lined up for Convocation last week, we asked a few what they鈥檙e excited to teach this fall.

In sum, they told us about some things old, some things new, and some things renewed.

In his second year at 乐播传媒, Assistant Professor of English Jos茅 Villagrana is teaching a new course, 鈥淢ilton and the English Civil War.鈥�

John Milton, of course, is a canonical figure in literature. By looking at Milton鈥檚 writings through the lens of the English Civil War (1642鈥�51), Villagrana’s students can make fresh connections to 鈥渢imely discourses on revolution, armed conflict, and the role of free speech and censorship.鈥�

In his second year at 乐播传媒, Assistant Professor of English Jos茅 Villagrana is teaching a new course, 鈥淢ilton and the English Civil War.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Lecturer in Anthropology Kristen Barnett looks forward to teaching her two sections of 鈥淚ntroduction to Archaeology.鈥澛燬he began teaching the course three years ago and has completely overhauled it.

Now the course focuses more attention on concepts of social justice, ethics, and 鈥渢ensions between Indigenous communities and the archaeological community,鈥� she explains. The course will also delve into questions of how certain colonizing practices are 鈥渆stablished and perpetuated through archaeology.鈥�

A 乐播传媒 faculty member since 1991, Professor of Physics Hong Lin is trying something new this year: teaching one of the department鈥檚 upper-level courses, 鈥淓lectrodynamics.鈥�

鈥淚t will be my first time teaching this course, but I love the topic,鈥� she says. Lin has taught a similar course, 鈥淓lectricity and Magnetism,鈥� which covers the material at a lower level. 鈥淚t will be good to help students see the topic in more depth,鈥� she says.

Lecturer in Anthropology Kristen Barnett has revamped the introductory archaeology course. (Jay Burns/乐播传媒 College)

In one of 39 First-Year Seminars, which are geared toward the college鈥檚 newest students, Professor of Anthropology Elizabeth Eames will teach 鈥淒isney Demystified: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Magic Kingdom.鈥�

Popular culture being what it is, 鈥渨e all have a bit of Disney in us,鈥� Eames says. In other words, 鈥淒isney is a cultural text. And from that text, we can discern America鈥檚 beliefs and values. And we can unearth the cultural politics embedded in Disney productions.鈥�

Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro is teaching 鈥淐ommunity-Based Research Methods.鈥� Offered in a variety of disciplines, methods courses give students a chance to exercise their emerging research skills.

This fall, Nigro says, her 18 students 鈥渁re going to learn with a community partner, the .鈥� The institute is working closely with the Lewiston School Department, which is seeking to infuse .

Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro is teaching a course that will support efforts to introduce restorative justice practices in Lewiston public schools. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

鈥淢y students will look at data already collected from teachers, who are working to be more restorative in their practices,鈥� Nigro says. Restorative justice tries to 鈥渞eplace the old-fashioned punitive disciplinary practices with practices that repair the harm.鈥�

Raj Saha 鈥�03, a lecturer in geology and physics, is eager to teach his First-Year Seminar, 鈥淭he Living Planet,鈥� and hopes his students are ready for a surprise.

Raj Saha 鈥�03, a lecturer in geology and physics, is teaching a First-Year Seminar, 鈥淭he Living Planet.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

In its examination of intricate connections among the Earth鈥檚 living systems, the course sits 鈥渁t the intersection of math, science, environmental studies, and social justice,鈥� he says.

It might surprise these new 乐播传媒 students, he says, 鈥渢hat there is scientific basis for concepts that we often label as moral or ethical, such as the need for diversity, what diversity does in an ecosystem, and how you can translate these qualities to society in general 鈥� what makes us more resilient.鈥�

Su Langdon, a lecturer in psychology, is excited to have more time to teach 鈥淧rinciples of Psychology.鈥�

Drawing from the tenets of problem-based learning, the course uses 鈥渃onsider scenarios,鈥� in which students look at real-life situations from psychological perspectives. For example, how do gymnasts and other athletes accomplish complex motoric tasks? Why do we feel 鈥渁ll gooey inside鈥� when we think about someone we鈥檙e attracted to?

Having taught the course a 鈥済azillion times,鈥� Langdon wanted the flexibility to add a few more scenarios, including ones her students suggested. To do so, 鈥淚 needed to reclaim some time,鈥� she said. 鈥淭o be more creative, I needed about a week.鈥�

Working with the Accessible Education and Student Support office 鈥� to ensure that the changes met the needs of all her students 鈥� Langdon moved the course鈥檚 traditional in-class exams to online exams, outside of class.

And presto: A whole week of new time!

You’ll find pure chaos inside a storage room in Carnegie Science Hall.

Not chaos in the disorderly sense but in the mathematical. Specifically, the room contains a homemade contraption that “demonstrates what chaos is,” says Raj Saha ’03, a faculty member in the geology and physics departments.

Known as a Lorenz water wheel, the apparatus looks like a miniature Ferris wheel. A bicycle rim is attached to a vertical piece of wood. Plastic bottles, sort of like gerbil water bottles, hang around the rim’s perimeter. There’s also a pump, tubing, and a wooden platform, all inside a plastic tub.

This Lorenz water wheel was built by 乐播传媒 students. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

See how it works: A tank at the bottom holds water, and a pump pushes the water through the tubing to the top, where it fills the first bottle. Like a waterwheel, the wheel starts to spin. But here’s the chaotic twist: 鈥淓ach bottle has a leak,鈥� explains Saha, and each bottle leaks at a different rate.

Instead of each bottle filling and emptying like a regular waterwheel, which spins at a predictable rate, the bottles leaking at irregular rates create randomness. The wheel turns one way for a while, then slows down and turns the other way.

“The wheel’s dynamics are chaotic, which means that it鈥檚 very hard to predict which way the wheel is going to be turning at a given time,” Saha says. “Even if we know the exact speed it is rotating at any given time, and at a high degree of accuracy, we will not be able to predict how it will behave at any time in the future. That’s the basic fundamentals of how a chaotic system works.”

For example, chaos is why your weekend weather forecast can change several times before Saturday arrives. “Beyond a window of a few days, the predictive capacity of weather models completely breaks down,” Saha says.

“It was not just a show and tell but also a demo of a device that can generate data.鈥�

Two students in his mathematical modeling class last spring, Josh Rines ’17 and Erik Saberski ’17, created the water wheel for an assignment. While most of their classmates chose a mathematical modeling project with computers, Rines and Saberski wanted to make an physical demonstration of chaos.

鈥淭hey did it all on their own, with zero help from me,鈥� Saha remembers.

The assignment window was brief, and Saha was dubious that the pair could build the wheel. 鈥淏ut they did,鈥� he says. 鈥淣ot only that, they recorded it while it was in action and used that data for modeling, so it was not just a show-and-tell but also a demo of a device that can generate data.鈥� They completed the modeling part as well. 鈥淨uite challenging,鈥� he says.

Saberski’s thesis, in fact, explored ideas to predict “which way the wheel will turn at some future time,” Saha says, and his thesis presented a predictive algorithm that he applied to two chaotic systems: rainfall in India and bitcoin price fluctuations.

Students often learn about the concept as a mathematical construct, Saha says, but rarely 鈥渉ow it works in real life.鈥� He plans to use the wheel with future classes as a real-world demonstration of chaos. That鈥檚 why he鈥檚 keeping it close by.