Brooks Groves

Brooks Groves

πŸ“š Learning

Self-directed curricula across science, history, music, and culture. Not credentials β€” comprehension. Built for the kind of person who wants to understand something properly, not just know its name.

Ologies = what I build. Learning = what I study. Different things, cross-linked.

Curricula
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Physics
Quantum Physics
From the photoelectric effect to the multiverse. 15 lessons across 4 phases β€” the actual science, not the pop-science version.
15 lessons~12–16 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’ πŸŒ‹
Volcanology
Volcanology & Eruption Science
Shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes, calderas, lahars, pyroclastic flows, Kilauea, the Cascades, supervolcanoes. 16 lessons built before Hawaii 2026.
16 lessons~15 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’ 🌡
Ecology
Desert & Montane Ecosystems
The ecology of extremes β€” American West deserts, the Great Basin, Sierra Nevada, the Namib, and the Kalahari. Kangaroo rats, bristlecone pines, cheatgrass, and the Colorado River reckoning.
14 lessons~12 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’ 🌊
Earth Science
Ecogeomorphology
How organisms reshape the land β€” Darwin's earthworms, beaver dams, Pacific salmon, large woody debris, PNW slope stability, dam removal, and Puget Sound estuary science.
12 lessons~10 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’ 🎸
Music History
Grunge
Seattle, 1984–1994. Sub Pop, Green River, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains. The most geographically specific musical revolution since the Delta blues β€” and you were in the room for some of it.
14 lessons~12 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’ 🎡
Music History
Reggae
Ska to rocksteady to roots to dancehall to reggaeton. One small island, sixty years, and the most globally distributed rhythm tradition on Earth. Rastafari, dub, Lee Perry, Marley, Tosh, Bad Bunny.
14 lessons~12 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’ 🌍
Music History
Afropop
A continent of music β€” Mali kora, Nigerian Afrobeat, Ethiopian jazz, South African township, Congolese rumba, Tuareg desert guitar, and contemporary Afrobeats. In the Afropop Worldwide tradition.
14 lessons~12 hrs4 phases
Start curriculum β†’
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Cosmology
Cosmology & the Early Universe
The Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, and the large-scale structure of spacetime. How we know what we know.
Building
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Archaeology
Ancestral Puebloans
Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, the great houses, the road network, the archaeoastronomy. The people who built it into the stone.
Building
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Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
Glaciers, sea ice, permafrost, ice sheets. The frozen layer of Earth and what happens when it melts.
Building
About This Section

How These Curricula Work

Each curriculum is a self-contained study path β€” lessons that expand with core concepts, vocabulary, and what I call the Cocktail Party Line: the one precise thing you can say at a dinner party that signals you actually understand the subject, not just the surface.

The goal is genuine comprehension. Not "I read a pop-science book about it" β€” more like "I could explain it to a physicist without embarrassing myself." That bar is higher than it sounds.

Ologies ↔ Learning

The Ologies section is where I build things β€” dashboards, pipelines, instruments. The Learning section is where I study the underlying science. They're related but different.

PELE tracks KΔ«lauea eruptions. The Volcanology curriculum explains why volcanoes work the way they do. SOLSTICE tracks the Casa Rinconada alignment. The Ancestral Puebloans curriculum explains who built it and why. The projects and the study inform each other.