A Mock Cultural interaction between a Hmong immigrant family and American Doctor

A Mock Cultural interaction between a Hmong immigrant family and American Doctor

Lisa Pope Fischer

Social Science

ANTH 2000: Medical Anthropology

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This is a teaching exercise, or module, that will lead up to a mock interaction between a Hmong patient and American doctor. Essential to Anthropology is the ability to be sensitive to cultural differences. In terms of understandings of illness, one culture may have a different interpretation of, and different treatment for particular illnesses. I designed this exercise by drawing on issues and concerns presented in Ann Fadiman’s work with Hmong immigrants (1997, 2000). The objective of this module is to teach students skills of perception and interpretation. The module begins with reviewing some basic anthropological concepts and key terms. The duration of the exercise requires preliminary preparation such as assigning the readings to the students. The in class activity should allow time to discuss and review the material. This exercise would be suitable for smaller class sizes no larger than 40 but perhaps could be modified for a lecture demonstration or online learning if students handed in written descriptions.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The General Education Outcomes that the assignment aims to achieve are: Intercultural knowledge and Competence.
This lesson addresses: Cultural self-awareness, knowledge of cultural worldviews, empathy, shared forms of communication, curiosity, and openness .The objective of this module is to briefly outline the anthropological concepts of “cultural relativism,” “worldview” and “emic/etic” as tools for understanding that different cultures may interpret illness differently. This is important in terms of making diagnoses as well as treating patients in a culturally sensitive manner. Cultural relativism is an approach in anthropology that tries to maintain a neutral non-judgmental stance, showing both “empathy” for cultural differences, as well as “openness” to see cultures that are different from our own without bias. This exercise looks at beliefs regarding health and illness from Hmong culture teaching “openness” to other perceptions of health. A young girl is misdiagnosed due to cultural misinterpretation causing dire consequences, so the aim is that students can imagine their perspective, to learn “empathy.” “Worldview” is a concept central to anthropology, looking at how individuals perceive their world and their place in it, which can be different in different cultures. Emic and Etic are common concepts in anthropology that try to show differences in perception, “cultural self-awareness,” the emic being the perspective of the people we study, and etic being the outsider’s perspective, the perspective of the anthropologist who analyzes the culture. This assignment in particular looks at an example where communication between cultures lead to a horrible outcome for one little girl, and the aim is to try to understand and create “shared forms of communication” to avoid such a tragedy again. As a mock patient and doctor interaction, the students learn “curiosity” and “critical thinking” as, they articulate responses based on two different cultural worldviews related to health and healing showing ability to see things from multiple cultural perspectives. In terms of High Impact Educational Practices (HIEP), this exercise uses collaborative learning. Diversity and global learning, and community based learning. It will become part of my Open Lab site for ANTH 2000: Medical Anthropology, and Blackboard.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

The in class activity should allow time to present the concepts and themes, and have students perform the mock patient and healthcare practitioner scenario, followed by discussion of the issues raised in the reading and presentation. One standard hour –fifteen-minute class period would suffice but allowing a class period to view the film might expand the topic. This exercise would be suitable for smaller class sizes no larger than 40 but perhaps could be modified for a lecture demonstration if students handed in written responses to the discussion questions.

Film Suggestion:
“Split Horn: Journey of a Hmong Shaman” (2001, 56 minutes)

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

The module begins with reviewing some basic anthropological concepts and key terms. The Fadiman book The Spirit Catches You, wonderfully exemplifies issues of cultural difference and perceptions of illness, but she also has a short article that focuses on epilepsy that can also be used to illustrate cultural difference. A full-length film documents the story of a Hmong shaman, (Split Horn), but you can also use short video clips to illustrate the point of cultural difference. The duration of the exercise requires preliminary preparation such as assigning the readings to the students and handouts for the mock patient/healthcare practitioner interaction.

Fadiman, Ann. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1997.

Fadiman, Ann. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down": Epilepsy and the Hmong. Epilepsy & Behavior: E&B [Epilepsy Behav] 2000 Feb; Vol. 1 (1), pp. S3-S8.

Activity: Cultural Perceptions
I.Review the Anthropological concepts either using PowerPoint or in handouts. This exercise gets students to think about how we might be quick to judge other cultures (ethnocentrism), yet also understand how others might perceive us.

KEY TERMS/ CONCEPTS:
Cultural Relativism: Anthropologists attempt to be neutral non-judgmental observers that take into account the culture’s practices relative to their own cultural understandings.

Ethnocentrism: People might judge a culture’s practices in a negative manner simply because they might be different from their own. Anthropologists try not to be “ethnocentric” or “Western centric” as it is important to understand why a culture might perceive or do something rather than judge it in a prejudice manner.

Emic/Etic: Anthropologists use the concept “emic” to explain the perspective of the people one studies. How do the people perceive their culture? How do they interpret the world in which they live? In contrast, the anthropologist must also retain the “etic” perspective, the view of the scientific observer. The etic perspective allows the anthropologist to step back and analyze the culture using the various theories in which to interpret a culture’s practices (i.e. Cultural Marxism/social conflict theory, Functionalism, Practice theory, Reflexive Anthropology/writing culture, etc.)

Worldview: Refers to how a person views their world and their place within it. Whereas some people may define themselves and behave according to a religious worldview, an atheist can also have a worldview. Different cultures may have different types of worldviews that affect perceptions of time and space, feelings about moral behavior, how they think about and how they seem themselves within their society.

Culture Bound illnesses: These are illness that might be found within particular societies.

Mind/Body dualism: Western medicine tends to separate understandings of how illness in the body might be separated from the mind whereas many cultures see the two as closely related.

II. Give illustrative examples to spur discussion about ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Encourage students to look at cultures in a culturally relative way by reminding them that people outside our own culture may view American practices as unusual as well.

1. Female brutality or beauty? Female circumcision is a practice in which elders cut off a young woman’s clitoris to prepare her for womanhood. Some refer to this as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This practice evokes much debate about brutality and mutilation of women, yet studies indicate that women from these societies may perceive this practice as a means to obtain purity and femininity (Gruenbaum 2006). Ask students in what ways do American women brutalize their bodies in the pursuit of femininity or beauty? To shock them you might show an image of the Cat lady who has had too many plastic surgeries, or a hyper thin anorexic looking fashion model. (See suggested short video clips from youtube below – following the bibliography)

2.Food delicacy or garbage? Students often cringe when they hear that in some cultures grub worms or monkey brains might be considered a delicacy, however, there are foods that Americans eat that other cultures might find repulsive. How, for example are grub worms similar to shrimp? For people outside the United States, peanut butter might look like mud or feces. People might perceive fine cheese as smelly rotten dairy. In the south, or even at the Coney Island Nathans, one can buy fried frog legs. Americans often perceive French food as elite fine food, yet they make “escargot” from common snails, and they perceive horsemeat as a healthy specialty.

III. Discuss how the above examples illustrate an understanding of “ethnocentrism,” but also connect to the idea of “emic” and “etic” as a matter of different cultural perceptions. Expand their understanding of emic /etic by connecting to an example of interpretations of cultural illness.

In Freed’s (1999) work, “Taraka’s Ghost”, a young bride in a strange new village experiences spirit possession, but is this a form of anxiety attack or depression? Would anti-depressants work if she truly believed she needed a shaman to remove the spirit? Several anthropologists have looked at the culture bound illness “Susto” prevalent among Mexican and other Hispanic communities in which they believe a person who has a sudden fright or trauma may develop loss of energy, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and depression. Whereas from a Western medical perspective “susto” might be explained as a psychosocial illness in which the person becomes antisocial and uses the excuse of illness to withdraw, “susto” also has underlying physical symptoms that may be covering up serious illnesses such as diabetes (Poss & Jezewszi 2002) or tuberculosis (Rubel and Moore 2001), or hypoglycemia (Bolton 1981).

IV. Instigate discussion of the suggested Fadimon reading with a mock patient and doctor interaction exercise. You can have student volunteers improvise a discussion between an ill person and a healthcare practitioner or have the students all do the exercise in pairs. The exercise creates a scenario between a Hmong immigrant family with a sick daughter and a Western medical practitioner. Discussion should follow the exercise.

HANDOUT FOR STUDENTS:
Each student will improvise or act out a “scene” that depicts a Hmong patient with a healthcare practitioner. We will discuss the reading in light of themes that result from this mock patient/doctor exercise.

PERSON ONE: You are a Hmong immigrant whose baby daughter is sick. Based on what you read in Fadiman’s article or book, how might a Hmong patient describe and present their illness.

Consider the following:
The immigrants understanding of the illness or self-diagnosis: The spirit catches you and you fall down. Her older sister slammed the door so loudly that her spirit was scared out of her and she fell down. Illness may have many causes but can be due to a loss of the soul to a malevolent spirit. It might be a sign that she will grow up to be a high status Shaman who can go into a trance and see the spirits and in this regard this illness (epilepsy) is highly distinguished and should not be cured as it may lead to prestige later in life.

Cultural perception of illness and health:
• Will not take pills if the colors are inauspicious.
• Will refuse surgery, anesthesia, autopsies, blood tests, and spinal taps.
•May wear a white “spirit string” on wrist that can’t be cut off while they are ill as their soul might endlessly wander.
• Hmong traditional medicine may include herbs, amulets, and animal sacrifices.

PERSON TWO: you are a health care professional and you are trying to understand or interpret what the person is saying to develop a diagnosis. Based on what you read in Fadiman’s article or book, how might a Western Doctor describe and interpret the illness.

Consider the following:
Western Medicines cultural understanding of illness:
• Customs and traditions – desensitized empathy.
• Cultural taboos- perception that only Western medicine can cure and to look at “alternative” practices would be inappropriate. There may be legal rules or “taboos” in treating patients, especially children.
• Hierarchies—tend to be “rational” and controlling.
•Have their own language that an ordinary patient might not understand.

What type of questions does a typical healthcare practitioner ask?
• What is your name, your date of birth
• What brought you in today? What is your illness?
• What kind of symptoms are you experiencing?
• What is your medical history? Do you have prior ailments, surgeries, and/or allergies?
• What medications do you take?
• Is there a family history of illness? Does heart disease or diabetes run in your family?
• Can your occupation play a role in your illness?
•Review of systems: do you have headaches, vision troubles, trouble swallowing, nausea, etc.

How might a Western doctor interpret the Hmong explanation about a malevolent spirit causing the illness?
Symptoms /diagnosis from Doctor’s perspective: At first the doctors did not understand the parents and thought Lia had bronchitis or pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics. After the third time taking Lia to the hospital they saw she was suffering from a sudden attack of seizures or convulsions.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AFTER MOCK PATIENT/DOCTOR INTERACTION:

1. How might differences in language affect diagnosis and treatment? Why is it important to have access to skilled interpreters? What might be the challenges of having an interpreter?

2. How might cultural differences affect diagnosis and treatment? How might it be helpful to practice both allopathic and folk medicine? What are the challenges?

3. How did the patient interpret the doctor? What did they think about the doctor and his/her treatment of them?

4. How did the doctor interpret the patient? What did the doctor think about the patient? (I.e. “noncompliance” – patient’s refusal to disregard instructions)

5. What is the “culture of medicine”? How do Western doctors perceive health, illness, diagnosis and treatment?

6. How is Western medicine linked to legal practices (i.e. Child protective services/child endangerment, Brain dead = death) and how might this conflict with the patient’s perspective?

7. Why is the patient’s view of their illness important even if it is culturally different from the Western Medical perspective?

8. How might there be inequality between doctor and patient? How might a patient’s perception of doctor’s as authority figures impact their interaction with the doctor?

9. Why is it important, as Fadiman suggests, for health care practitioners to “develop certain habits of listening, empathy, and flexibility” (2000: 6).

10. Why does Fadiman suggest doctors to ask : What do you think caused this illness? What do you call this illness? What are you most afraid of?

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Assessment for Intercultural Knowledge and Competence:
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO): Cultural Self Awareness, Cultural Worldview, Empathy, Verbal and Non-verbal communication, Curiosity/critical thinking, Openness.

(SLO) Knowledge: Cultural Self Awareness.
Intercultural Experience.
“The experience of an interaction with an individual or groups of people whose culture is different from your own. Intercultural/cultural differences: The differences in rules, behaviors, communication and biases, based on cultural values that are different from one's own culture(AAC&U).”

Assessment of Cultural Self Awareness:
Emic and Etic are common concepts in anthropology that try to show differences in perception, “cultural self-awareness,” the emic being the perspective of the people we study, and etic being the outsider’s perspective, the perspective of the anthropologist who analyzes the culture. The exercise tries to get students to understand Hmong cultural beliefs from their perspective (emic) but also be able to analyze and interpret them from an etic perspective (The anthropologist or doctor)

(SLO) Knowledge: Knowledge of cultural worldview frameworks.
“Worldview is the cognitive and affective lens through which people construe their experiences and make sense of the world around them(AAC&U).”

Assessment of cultural worldview frameworks.
“Worldview” is a concept central to anthropology, looking at how individuals perceive their world and their place in it, which can be different in different cultures. This exercise looks at the worldview from American culture in contrast to Hmong culture.

(SLO) Skills: Empathy.
"Empathy is the imaginary participation in another person’s experience, including emotional and intellectual dimensions, by imagining his or her perspective (not by assuming the person’s position). (Bennett 1998)"

Assessment of Empathy.
Cultural relativism is an approach in anthropology that tries to maintain a neutral non-judgmental stance, showing “empathy” for cultural differences. This exercises looks at beliefs regarding health and illness from Hmong culture. A young girl is misdiagnosed due to cultural misinterpretation causing dire consequences, so the aim is that students can imagine their perspective.

(SLO) Skills: Verbal and nonverbal communication.
Articulates cultural understanding of verbal & nonverbal forms of communication and show ability to create shared understandings.

Assessment of Verbal and nonverbal communication.
This assignment in particular looks at an example where communication between cultures lead to a horrible outcome for one little girl, and the aim is to try to understand and create “shared forms of communication” to avoid such a tragedy again.

(SLO) Attitudes: Curiosity/critical thinking.
Able to question and articulate responses showing ability to see things from multiple cultural perspectives.

Assessment of Curiosity/critical thinking
As a mock patient and doctor interaction, the students learn “curiosity” and “critical thinking” as, they articulate responses based on two different cultural worldviews related to health and healing showing ability to see things from multiple cultural perspectives.

(SLO) Attitudes: Openness.
Suspends Judgment in valuing their interaction with culturally different others.
“Postpones assessment or evaluation (positive or negative) of interactions with people culturally different from one self. Disconnecting from the process of automatic judgment and taking time to reflect on possibly multiple meanings” (AAC&U).”.

Assessment of Openness.
Cultural relativism is an approach in anthropology that tries to maintain a neutral non-judgmental stance, showing “openness” to see cultures that are different from our own without bias. This exercises looks at beliefs regarding health and illness from Hmong culture.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. "Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric." 2009. https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/intercultural-knowledge.

Bennett, J. 1998. Transition shock: Putting culture shock in perspective. In Basic concepts of intercultural communication, ed. M. Bennett, 215-224. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

I have not been able to run the ANTH 2000 “Medical Anthropology” class yet for lack of enrollment, but I hope to try to offer it in the Spring 2021. I am not sure how I could adapt this lesson for online learning if that should continue, but perhaps have students write response papers.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Materials needed
1) Anthropology key terms
2) Readings:
Book: Fadiman, Ann. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1997.
OR
Article: Fadiman, Ann. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down": Epilepsy and the Hmong. Epilepsy & Behavior: E&B [Epilepsy Behav] 2000 Feb; Vol. 1 (1), pp. S3-S8.
(Available thru City Tech library article database EBSCO)
3) Xerox of mock patient/healthcare practitioner scenario (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/popefischeranth2000medicalanthro/files/2020/06/Intercultural-Knowledge-and-Competence-for-ANTH-2000-Medical-Anthro-.pdf)
4) Optional: Video “Split Horn: Journey of a Hmong Shaman”. Or you might show a short video clip from youtube that shows a Hmong Shaman doing a ritual cure (See suggestions below after bibliography of references and suggested reading).

Other Resources
Possible links:
•Pdf course notes
•Powerpoint slides
•List of online resources
• Google images are a good way to find pictures AND Youtube.com has a number of short video clips.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READING:
Arntfield, Shannon L., Kristen Slesar, Jennifer Dickson, Rita Charon “Narrative medicine as a means of training medical students toward residency competencies” Patient Education and Counseling. Volume 91, Issue 3, June 2013, Pages 280–286

Bolton, Ralph (1981) “Susto, Hostility, and Hypoglycemia” Ethnology , Vol. 20, No. 4 (Oct., 1981), pp. 261-276.

Fadiman, Ann. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1997.

Fadiman, Ann. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down": Epilepsy and the Hmong. Epilepsy & Behavior: E&B [Epilepsy Behav] 2000 Feb; Vol. 1 (1), pp. S3-S8.

Freed, Stanley A. and Ruth Freed (1999) “Taraka’s Ghost,” Natural History, October 1999, pp. 84-91.

Gruenbaum, Ellen. “Sexuality Issues In the Movement to Abolish Female Genital Cutting in Sudan.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol. 20, Number 1, (2006) pp. 121-138

Hahn, Robert A. and Marcia Inhorn (eds.) (2010) Anthropology and Public Health, Second Edition: Bridging Differences in Culture and Society.Oxford University Press.

Kleinman A, Eisenberg L, Good B. Culture, illness, and care: clinical lessons from anthropologic and cross-cultural research. Ann Intern Med 1978;88:251–8

Oubre, Alondra. Shamanic trance and the placebo effect: The case for a study in psychobiological anthropology. PSI Research, Vol 5(1-2), Mar-Jun, 1986. pp. 116-144.

Poss, Jane and Mary Ann Jezewski (2002) “The Role and Meaning of Susto in Mexican Americans' Explanatory Model of Type 2 Diabetes” Medical Anthropology Quarterly , New Series, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 360-377

Rubel, Arthur J. and Carmella C. Moore (2001)”The Contribution of Medical Anthropology to a Comparative Study of Culture: Susto and Tuberculosis” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 15, No. 4, Special Issue: The Contributions of Medical Anthropology to Anthropology and Beyond (Dec., 2001), pp. 440-454

Thompson, Jennifer Jo Ritenbaugh, Cheryl Nichter, Mark. Reconsidering the placebo response from a broad anthropological perspective. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, Vol 33(1), Mar, 2009. pp. 112-152.

Suggested photograph images or videolinks:
Film Suggestion:
Split Horn: Journey of a Hmong Shaman

The spiritual healing of Hmong Shamanism (7:28)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymJnUHxqRpE

ASA Documentary: Second Generation Hmong Shaman (33:39)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrSZBsGn-4M

Anorexic Models: The curse of fashion modeling (2:47)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK-Lhy-HqCs

Extreme Plastic Surgery (8:42)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R149OXxsGg

The link on Open lab includes the handout I would give students:

Click to access Intercultural-Knowledge-and-Competence-for-ANTH-2000-Medical-Anthro-.pdf

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Click to access Intercultural-Knowledge-and-Competence-for-ANTH-2000-Medical-Anthro-.pdf

French for food etiquette assignment

French for food etiquette assignment

Khalid Lachheb

Humanities Department

French for food and culture

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Eating and drinking is a crucial part of French culture and social life. There are rules and codes to be aware of.

Students will work in groups and will participate in role play exercises. They will write read and order from menu to order food and drinks, bread, cheese and wine by using the appropriate French vocabulary.

In order to fulfill cultural interaction learning outcomes students will be exposed to a wide range of authentic material. They will watch and analyze two/three videos shown in class or as assigned homework.

This activity will try to benefit from the Placed-Based Learning approach as applied to many other disciplines.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

After studying the culture dimension of French food, students will be aware regarding the fundamental relationship between language and culture.
Students learn:
a. to "construct" their knowledge from experience they bring to the
learning situation inside the classroom.

b. to derive meaning from experience, as well as gather information
from observation.
c. to use awareness of cultural differences to bridge cultural and linguistic
barriers.

Students will use the appropriate French terminology in this context.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This assignment is an introduction to the course program. Students should know general French food etiquette before engaging in serious learning contexts.
This work will be assigned during the 3-4 first weeks of the program.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

This is a low stake activity.
Will coordinate with hospitality department to identify the appropriate French restaurant as place-based learning for this activity.
Will plan to achieve the “field trip” during the class time.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I will be using AACU’s rubric called “Intercultural Knowledge and Competence”.

This activity will help students:
To communicate across cultural and linguistic barriers, and to
demonstrate expanded cultural and global awareness and sensitivity.

And will includes High-Impact Educational Practices:
1. Collaborative Assignments and Projects.
2. Diversity/Global Learning
3. place–Based Learning

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This is new activity will be assigned during the Spring 2021.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Structure for Architects – Student Video Lessons

Structure for Architects – Student Video Lessons

Ramsey Dabby

Architectural Technology Dept / City Tech

Structures 1

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Activity Description
The overriding mission of the college experience is to help City Tech students succeed in the classroom and beyond, by imparting an enthusiasm for lifelong learning. This enthusiasm can be dampened for City Tech’s multicultural population by the cultural obstacles many students face. The concept for this proposal is to enhance the student experience for a course titled “Structures” in the Architectural Technology Department, by stimulating an enthusiasm for this particular area of their studies. The idea encompasses a visual and intuitive approach within the classroom, combined with place-based learning outside the classroom. Aside from conveying technical knowledge, the intent is to create student awareness of cultural barriers that will help them navigate the complexities of today’s world.

Barriers
In a multicultural setting such as NYC in general and City Tech in particular, cultural divides abound. They can be obvious like nationality and religion, or more subtle like age and personality. They can also occur within the profession between its white collar “architectural” and blue color “construction” sides. Caught up in day-to-day problems, we (both students and instructors) tend to overlook these divides that create tensions and stresses in relationships.

Background
Structures is a branch of architectural study dealing with the engineering side of how buildings stand up. Architectural students, as conceptual thinkers, tend to be intimidated by the technical aspects of engineering and tend to “turn off” to their engineering courses. Added to this inherent aversion are the cultural barriers many City Tech students face such as language, family responsibilities, and deficient social support systems. For many, this also includes having to learn a new system of engineering units used in the US – the imperial system in place of their more familiar metric system. In short, the challenge is to address and overcome these cultural obstacles and create an enthusiasm for a course that holds the potential for dread in many architectural students.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Goals
The goal is to engage students and create enthusiasm for a course in Structures that will serve to further their undergraduate technical knowledge and professional lives upon graduation. This will be done through strategies for both classroom and place-based learning.

Classroom Learning
Conventional structural textbooks tend to be wordy and lacking an intuitive approach to the subject matter. These textbooks present a challenge to City Tech’s multicultural architectural students. Course material will be communicated across cultural and linguistic barriers by conveying structural principles in a visual, intuitive manner through discussion, dialog, and physical “props”, rather than formal “lectures”.

A key component of classroom sessions will be a series of short, five-minute student videos highlighting the essentials of structural principles. Students will be teamed to prepare these videos in discussion format, among themselves and their instructor, supported by physical props. The precedence for these videos is an experimental one I had prepared, without rehearsal and just for fun, to which students enthusiastically responded, overwhelmingly endorsing the concept and asking for more like it.

Place-Based Learning
The classroom experience will be complemented by visits to architectural offices and construction sites, where students will not only will see the professions in action, but also observe the general cultural distinctions and personalities of the two sides of the profession. A goal of these visits to create an awareness that technical knowledge does not work in a vacuum, and that an understanding the interrelationships of personalities, influenced by culture, is an essential part of a successful professional experience.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

The strategy is intended to be used throughout the semester. Classroom time will be approximately 10 minutes per session. Two place-based learning field trips will be conducted for a total of approximately 8 hours per semester.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

See above.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Assessment will be conducted by student essays reflecting on questions such as “why do I like this?” and “what is it that helps me learn?”

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Lead discussion on ways to learn without cultural coding; record outcomes of discussions.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

The experimental video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4d3eDq_7pw

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Project of Gearbox

Project of Gearbox

Zhou Zhang

Mechanical Engineering Tech.

Machine Design

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students in the class are required to work on their projects of gearboxes which are supposed to use in different applications in practice. The project includes four parts: (1) proposal. Students will find out their favorite topic and discuss their project plan with respect to the problems existed in current products, the advantages of their design, the implementation of the plan and future applications. (2) modeling and simulation. The gearbox should be simulated firstly in order to get rid of the possible bugs related to manufacturing. (3) Mid-term report. The students are required to submit a midterm report in order to guarantee that they are working in the correct direction. (4) The project presentation and the final project report.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Through this design, the students will have the knowledge of the concept of product design and manufacturing, familiarize themselves with the design procedures, learn how to respect the multicultural traditions, learn how to work in a team, learn how to prepare for their professional career, and study how to integrate the fundamental theories into practice.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This activity is semester based. So, the students will be required to submit their proposal at the 3rd week. Then, the need to finish their modeling and simulation task at the 8th week. At the 9th week, the first project report is required. At the 12th week, they should prepare all the parts used in the project and be ready to assemble. At the 15th week, the presentation and gala are hosted.
This project is supposed to work in class, and the students are not necessary to take extra out-of-class time. The students will be given 1 hour per week to work on their projects.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

For the project, there are some things to prepare. During the proceeding of the project, fundamental knowledge is given. Following that, the students need to do a survey and find out their favorite project. The project report template is distributed in order to facilitate them to work on the report. In addition, the students are provided tooling machines and 3D printers to manufacturing all the necessary parts.

The project is, in fact, an in-class project. So, it is a low-stakes activity.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I used a rubric to evaluate the project. This work is also one part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative regarding teamwork this year.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This is a semester-based activity. As a critical course in my department, this course will be repeated.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

The project in machine design is very important. The students will have the knowledge of the concept of product design and manufacturing, familiarize themselves with the design procedures, learn how to respect the multicultural traditions, learn how to work in a team, learn how to prepare for their professional career, and study how to integrate the fundamental theories into practice.
As a critic course, the project, in fact, enriches the contents of the course, makes the students prepared and improves the students' skills with respect to CAD, manufacturing, mechanics, structure, industrial design and simulation.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Research Project: Making Connections Between Texts

Research Project: Making Connections Between Texts

Amy Sawford

English Department / City Tech

ENG1121 – English Composition II

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This activity is a research project that asks students to make connections between texts. Students will work on a “long-term” end-of-semester project that requires six components. Students will submit a research proposal of intended work (based on the following prompt), participate in library instruction, submit an annotated bibliography, participate in two peer review workshops, complete a 5-to-6-page essay assignment, and finish their experience with a short in-class writing reflection. All these components will focus around this prompt: students will choose any one story, poem, or play on the syllabus (their choice) and two scholarly journal articles that they’ll find through research from the school’s library database. The purpose of this assignment will ask students to think about and investigate how one text shapes, or impacts their reading, of another text. Students will take this skill further and deepen this by bringing in outside research of their own. For this essay I’d like students to locate two scholarly journal articles that will serve as the “lens” through which they analyze your chosen work of literature. Students will explain how the articles shape their interpretation of the work of literature. For example, how do the articles help to understand the issues that the literature raises? Or, do the articles show that these issues are more complex than the literature would lead us to believe? Or, do the articles challenge the argument made in the piece of literature? Or, do the articles support that argument? The Targeted Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) that this project will engage with are: Knowledge (engage in inquiry-based learning), Skills (communication and inquiry), Integration (gathers, interpret, and evaluate literature and sources), and Values, Ethics, and Relationships (personal development and ethics).

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Students must show that they understand how literature connects to research, or vice versa, but particularly how literature and research can be used as a “lens.” Furthermore, students will integrate the reading, analysis, and discussion of literature into the writing process. Students will demonstrate how research can shape their interpretation of the work of literature. Overall, students will:
•Produce a well-defined thesis on a literary topic pertinent to the course and develop it into an effective and well-organized essay.
•Demonstrate in writing the standards of grammar and style in a discipline-specific context.
•Integrate the reading, analysis, and discussion of literature into writing processes. (Employ active reading strategies to interpret and evaluate complicated texts.)
•Complete research that distinguishes among a variety of resources based on a standard criterion.
•Produce a research paper that demonstrates competency in ethical thinking and information literacy.
•Overall, for this assignment specifically, students will demonstrate skills in college-level writing, reading, and critical thinking and investigate the ethical dimensions or cultural issues through thoughtful writing (considering and implementing Aristotle’s Mode of Argument).

In addition, the Targeted Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) are:
•Knowledge (engage in inquiry-based learning)
•Skills (communication and inquiry)
•Integration (gathers, interpret, and evaluate literature and sources)
•Values, Ethics, and Relationships (personal development and ethics)

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This project is intended for English Composition II and is to be assigned toward the end of the semester (but early enough for students to be able to plan the work ahead). Students will have worked on a series of scaffolding assignments to develop this project (researching scholarly articles and providing an annotated bibliography, for example). Students will be asked to take a previously selected reading from the semester and consider how research can be used as a “lens” to their chosen work. By the end of this project, students will have completed at least 7-8 pages of college-level writing using MLA format between the various assignments with targeted due dates (for example, research proposal, annotated bibliography, peer workshop, library instruction reflection writing). Students will work together to discuss their research plan and two peer workshops (two rough drafts of progress). Students will do research and library instruction, visiting the library at least twice during this project. Students will engage with topics concerning local and global issues. Ideally, the timeframe for this assignment would be at least six weeks before the end of the semester. There should be dedicated class time for this project, as well as at least 3 hours a week outside of the class for research, drafting, and revising.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Students must use the library and its databases to conduct research. By the end, this activity will be considered high-stakes, especially since it takes multiple smaller projects to complete and takes time to complete. I think this assignment is appropriately weighted to be at least 25%-30% of the student’s final grade. This assignment includes six components to complete:

1. Research Proposal
2. Library Instruction
3. Annotated Bibliography
4. Peer Review
5. Essay Assignment
6. Reflection

Research Proposal (Working Thesis): Students should select a research topic that impacts their understanding of humanity in some way. For example, if a student decides to further investigate Aylmer and Georgiana’s decision about ethics and beauty in Nathanial Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” and bring that back to research about plastic surgery (or even the impact of social media filters or body image, for example), then potentially students could connect literature devices to everyday life, culture, tradition, and beliefs. Furthermore, setting is just as important. For example, students could investigate place and how humans are manipulated by spaces (think Edward Soja and his argument regarding lonely spaces in big cities), so another idea could allow students to consider how setting determines empathy. For example, the idea of mental illness in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper.”

Library Instruction: Part of this assignment requires students to visit the CityTech Library (and hopefully inspire a trip their local public library). Students will respond to an assignment in which students will be asked to:
•Tour the CityTech Library (and participate in Library Instruction presented by a librarian if they have not done so already)
•Register/activate their library card (if they have not done so already)
•Check out a book (preferably one related to their intended research)
•Logon to a computer on campus and print out a scholarly article (preferably one related to their intended research)
•Take a selfie in the library (this could be used later to upload this project in an eportfolio)
•Reflect on their experience in the library (sounds, smells, space, feelings)

Annotated Bibliography: Students must show that they understand how literature connects to research, or vice versa, but particularly how literature and research and be used as a “lens.” Furthermore, students will integrate the reading, analysis, and discussion of literature into writing processes. (Employ active reading strategies to interpret and evaluate complicated texts.) Complete research that distinguishes among a variety of resources based on a standard criterion.

Peer Review: Students will collaborate and work with their peers and discuss their ideas and research as well as review their drafts and provide feedback. There will be a preliminary peer review and a more detailed peer review.

Essay Assignment: The purpose of this assignment asks students to think about how one text shapes their reading of another text. This essay assignment will continue to investigate how one reading impacts another. Students will take this skill further and deepen this by bringing in outside research of their own. For this essay I’d like students to locate two scholarly journal articles that will serve as the “lens” through which they analyze their chosen work of literature. Explain how the articles shape their interpretation of the work of literature. For example, do the articles help students understand the issues that the literature raises? Or, do they show that these issues are more complex than the literature would lead us to believe? Or, do they challenge the argument made in the piece of literature? Or, do they support that argument?

Students will choose:
•Any ONE story, poem, or play on the syllabus (your choice)
•TWO scholarly journal articles that you’ll find through research

Final draft:
•5 full pages (not including the Works Cited page), double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font. Students must also hand in all component activities, including rough draft, peer review sheets, and copies of scholarly sources along with the final draft.

Overall, this project is meant for students to develop ‘Intercultural Knowledge and Competence’ by evaluating research and a text and considering:
•Cultural Self-Awareness (how students relate themes in literature to their own values and beliefs as well as to characters and their development)
•Empathy (Students must consider Aristotle’s Mode of Argument)
•Verbal and Nonverbal Communication (rhetoric)
•Curiosity (questioning literature for research and how literature impacts how we view current issues)
•Openness (comparing their own culture and beliefs and approaching critical thinking and analytical writing working with an open mind)

Targeted Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):
•Knowledge (engage in inquiry-based learning)
•Skills (communication and inquiry)
•Integration (gathers, interpret, and evaluate literature and sources)
•Values, Ethics, and Relationships (personal development and ethics)

Targeted High-Impact Education Practices (HIEPs):
•Writing-Intensive Courses (7+ pages of written work over time)
•Collaborative Assignments and Projects (peer workshop and collaborative reflections)
•Undergraduate Research (search for scholarly articles)
•Place-Based Learning (library instruction and interaction)

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

In addition to using the VALUE rubric, as discussed above, I will also use my own rubric for each assignment. Students will have these rubrics up front to use a checklist to organize and keep track of their work as they move along. For the essay itself, I will assess the final essay’s introduction, organization of ideas, support, style, formatting, citation, etc.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Although I am refining an existing research project, this particular activity has not been assigned yet.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Cultural Background and Thermal Comfort

Cultural Background and Thermal Comfort

Jihun Kim

Architectural Technology

Site Planning & Environmental Systems

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Reflecting on students cultural background on the thermal environment, microclimate data will be collected and analyzed to find the common range of comfort zone. The process includes the following. 1) Write a short essay on personal thermal environment in the childhood [temperature, humidity, solar exposure, clothing level], 2) Collect microclimate data as individual and illustrate the characteristics of the environment and the clothing types, 3) Visualize the collected data on psychrometric chart and assess for thermal comfort and satisfaction , 4) Analyze the result for the differences and similarities with other students and with ASHRAE standard, while reflecting on the essay on personal history on thermal environment.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The goal of the assignment is to provide an understanding of how a cultural background would influence thermal comfort of an individual while enhancing student’s capacity 1) to analyze and
2) visualize numerical data, 3) to communicate effectively, and 4) to work collaboratively.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

The activity can be deployed in the first class or any class early in a semester. After a relevant background is introduced as a lecture format, students as individual spend 1 hour to measure microclimate data and 1 hour to analyze during the class. Each student writes a short essay outside the class for 1 hour and adds microclimate measurement for 1 hour. Visualizing the data on a psychrometric chart would take 1 hour. Totaling 5 hours in and out of the class, students present their outcome as individuals in the following week.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Handheld device to measure microclimate are required. ASHRAE standards for thermal comfort shall be prepared. Critical writing is associated with the analysis of numerical data.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

A rubric shall be developed for the assessment. The criteria shall include Data Literacy (GenEd), Intercultural Knowledge (GenEd), Intercultural Knowledge and Competence (Gen), and Climate Analysis (Subject Matter from NAAB Accreditation).

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab