We've all learned about the Romans and the Macedonians, and the vast empires they created. But have you stopped think about the Achaemenids, who controlled an empire larger than the world had ever seen? Or the Parthians, who stood toe-to-toe with the Roman Empire for centuries? Many times, these amazing empires and their rulers only make the briefest of appearances in our History books. In this class, we'll learn about these amazing Empires and how they impacted the Ancient World.

This course combines math, history/social studies, and maybe even music to tell the story of the tradition of the birthday celebration. Why do we celebrate them, and how did birthday traditions originate in different cultures? Also, your two instructors have the same birthday! What are the odds? This is a mathematical (probability-related) problem called The Birthday Problem, and we will also show you what it is and why we can predict the likelihood of sharing a birthday with someone in a random group of people.