Tag: Fall 2016

The turning point and the importance of context

A few weeks in class, Prof. Natov shared an anecdote from her childhood. “I was ten years old and I realized my cousins were seven years old,” she said. “And I thought to myself, ‘they’re getting so old! And I was only ten!” This anecdote set up the classroom discussion about turning points. For Prof. Natov, viewing her cousins in a different light due to their age sets up “before” and “after” moments in her anecdote, the “before” implying that she had seen her cousins as much younger and the “after” in the realization that she, too, was getting older, and maybe even realizing that she was saying something that adults had to said to her at one point! Everyone in the class named three turning points in their life, and then Prof. Natov asked us two important questions: why were some moments turning points? Which moments did you want to know more about?

Ultimately her questions pointed to a larger lesson: the importance of creating context for your audience through the use of specific examples and details. These details and examples create a richer experience for your audience and, when a turning point occurs, creates the impact of such a moment. 

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Aggregating links for Science Forward eportfolio sites

One of my favorite posts to add to Science Forward eportfolio sites is the “link round-up” post that aggregates links to science news and other related content from around the web into a single post. As an ITF, my job isn’t really to “create content” though I do think it’s important that we engage with the same issues alongside the students so that they know their ITFs are paying attention to the course and not just some “tech person.” This type of post is fun to create and easily tailored to the themes or issues discussed in a specific class. Here are some of the posts that I’ve created for Science Forward sites:

how does science & scientific thinking intersect with other disciplines?

A post with links categorized around the headings “Art and Science,” “Science & other industries and disciplines,” and “Critical Thinking, Intelligence, and the Nature of Knowledge.” Originally published 9/26/16.

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science and science fiction

Links to articles about science news, science and entertainment, and satirical articles. Originally published 9/13/16.

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scientific knowledge and the general public

A post published on the first class of Science Forward for the Fall 2016 semester created as supplement to the course topics.

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communicating scientific research to the general public

A lengthier post that poses questions to students using two articles at The Atlantic’s website. Originally published 10/30/15.

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Most importantly, this type of post aligns with Science Forward’s emphasis on scientific literacy, including the ability to evaluate and understand scientific information even when the information is presented by the news:

[aesop_video align=”center” src=”youtube” id=”9Ol1c7FSl-Q” caption=”‘Science Senses’ from the Science Forward video series” disable_for_mobile=”on” loop=”on” autoplay=”off” controls=”on” viewstart=”on” viewend=”on”]

As the video demonstrates, “science” might be a catch-all word for the processes of collecting data, testing data to the point that it can be considered knowledge, and then critically evaluate that information. Moreover, the link round-up post, by presenting them with a few mainstream science news articles, lets students test their science senses and begin to understand how and where distance is created between scientists and the general public, or between science and science journalism.

Link round-up: how does science & scientific thinking intersect with other disciplines?

This post aggregates links around some of the ideas and issues that have been discussed in class the past few weeks as well as some articles the intersections between science and other disciplines.

Art and Science

Art21 "Ecology" episode with a view of Mark Dion's installation titled Neukom Vivarium
Art21 “Ecology” episode with a view of Mark Dion’s installation Neukom Vivarium (2006)

Science & other industries and disciplines

Critical Thinking, Intelligence, and the Nature of Knowledge

 

Part II: Writing About Dance – Developing Your Skills of Observation

Note: Before proceeding, it’s strongly suggested that students read the posts “Memory Makes the Best Artist” and “Part I: Writing About Dance – General Guidelines.” 

This activity combines several short exercises: two that were introduced in the previous post “Memory Makes the Best Artist” called “Notice and Focus” and “10 on 1,” and a parts of a new exercise called “The Method,” all of which were adapted from the book Writing Analytically (5th ed.) by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen. These activities develop the tools of observation and analysis that are critical to analyzing works of art. With practice, students benefit by expanding the tools (strategies) in their tool box (range of skills) that will help them in any course, subject, or discipline.

Keep reading for instructions and the relevant pages from Writing Analytically. 

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Part I: Writing About Dance – Some General Guidelines

This post aims to give students a starting point for writing about dance and other forms of art by offering guidelines and practical tips to help students when beginning a project or when finding themselves “stuck.” Accompanying the guidelines are excerpts of writings by dance critics and historians to help students “see” the guidelines in action and therefore better understand the benefits of the information in the post. Most importantly, with practice, students will become comfortable enough to modify the guidelines, tips, and activities to use when writing regardless of the assignment, subject, or discipline.

  1. Be a generous and objective observer in addition to being a good audience member.
  2. Describe what you see using specific examples so that your reader understands what you saw.
  3. Explain cause and effect to your reader.

Keep reading for more information about these guidelines as well as practical examples and tips to help you in the course. Part II contains a specific activity to help you practice putting these guidelines into action.

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science & science fiction

Science in the news

Science in entertainment

Science satire

Video Playlist: Choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009)

[videogallery id=”playlist_pina”]

Video Playlist: Choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009)

Useful Links

Prof. Natov: “Memory makes the best artist.”

During our last class, Prof. Natov asked the class to freewrite in response to a quote and/or her prompt, a time when you were disturbed at work. After people shared their work, she asked “what details from other people’s stories do you remember?” The details that people remembered ranged from descriptions (cold metal contraption) to colors (red/yellow) and even direct quotes – all from quickly-written stories told to the class. Prof. Natov’s statement from that afternoon, “Memory makes the best artist,” draws attention to the impact made by including specific details. To your audience, these specific details allow them to “see” what you saw or “hear” what someone said to you a long time ago – some details add texture, literally (fuzzy, soft, hard, sharp) and metaphorically in that the story takes on new layers as the audience shifts from their own perspective to yours.

(Similarly, the Brooklyn-based comedian John Hodgeman says “Specificity is the soul of narrative” in pretty much every episode of his podcast “Judge John Hodgman.” His podcast consists of two people presenting their side of a mutual conflict – about everyday things like furniture choices, whether or not to buy riding lawn mowers, etc. – to John Hodgman and he issues a ruling about what they can do to solve their conflict. As the guests tell their side of the story, they are very vague and he always interrupts to say fondly but sternly “SPECIFICITY IS THE SOUL OF NARRATIVE” so he can better understand them. It is VERY FUNNY so click here to listen: Judge John Hodgman)

Because we’ll be writing a lot this semester about ourselves and our responses to works of art viewed this semester, I thought that I’d share two activities from the book Writing Analytically by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen (5th edition, 2009), which are called Notice and Focus and 10 on 1. The activities are easy to do (and remember) and hopefully they will help you with your work in the class.

Read the rest of this post for some brief descriptions of the activities as well as an embedded PDF of the relevant pages in Writing Analytically.

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Link round-up: scientific knowledge & the general public

Some links to articles that relate to the topics covered in the first day of class:

Slate in particular has several pieces related to scientific literacy and the problems facing both the general public and scientists:

 

Images Used for the Site & Scientific Literacy

Below are some excerpts from the descriptions of the original pictures that, depending on the eportfolio theme, show up as the site header and logo. I picked these images for their relatively simple compositions that wouldn’t compete with any text. For example, each work has a repeating single geometric shape (square, circle) and limited color palette, which creates the appearance of negative space when text is placed on it and therefore won’t be too busy for most screens.

When looking for pictures to use, I checked two places, Bing Homepage Gallery and NASA. Every day, each site showcases a high-res photograph of nature, science and tech, or architecture, and often makes the work available for download. I also like the descriptions used for the images – each site or space is very specific location, graphic, or with the case of NASA, taken with unusual equipment – meaning that most of the photos require some kind of explanation.

While these might simply be understood as a caption or description of what the pictures depict, it might be useful to think about these descriptions as an example of science journalism. What kind of scientific literacy is required for someone to understand these descriptions? Are these good examples of writing for a general audience? What could be improved? Read on to see the full-sized images and their descriptions!

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