Community/Civic Engagement – Page 3 – L4: Living Lab Learning Library

June 10, 2019

The Spanish Flu

Stephanie Boyle

Social Science/ Arts and Sciences

History 1103

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Three part assignment that includes the HIEPs: Writing Intensive, Place Based learning and Collaborative work. This will be used for History 1103 online which is a zero cost textbook course with an OER.
1- read and complete a written assignment and provide feedback
2-go the Brooklyn Historical Museum and explore the exhibit
3-write response to the experience at the museum on Flipgrid (explore flipgrid at www.flipgrid.com)

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

The General Education Outcomes that the assignment will address are: Intercultural Knowledge and Competence

Demonstrate expanded cultural and global awareness and sensitivity. (part one)
Discern multiple perspectives. (part two)
Use awareness of cultural differences to bridge cultural and linguistic barriers. (part three)

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 will be due at midterm. They will go on a visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society after watching a video on the Spanish flu and then participate in a discuss on flipgrid about the project.

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 instructions for part one are found below:
The Spanish Flu
A world-wide epidemic caused by influenza viruses led to between 50 and 100 million deaths in 1918 and 1919 (as much as 1 of every 18 people). Because neutral Spain was not censoring news it became associated with Spain but its origins are more likely to be the USA or France. It came in three waves (Spring 1918, Autumn 1918, and Winter 1919) and the second wave was unusually deadly. And unlike typical flu pandemics it disproportionately killed young healthy adults. Many researchers have suggested that the conditions of the war significantly aided the spread of the disease. And others have argued that the course of the war (and subsequent peace treaty) was influenced by the pandemic. To help understand questions about the worst disaster in history we have built a computer model of the pandemic.

Brief documentary about the Spanish flu pandemic :

We have also prepared videos of the execution of the Spanish Flu model. There is a lively debate about where the flu started. Below you will find simulators for two of the supposed epicenters of the flu. The first video for both Camp Funston and Etaples are the historic video and are based on the available historical sources that tracked the disease. The second simulator tracks the disease as if there was no war and the last tracks the disease had the war ended in 1920. Since the No War and War ends in 1920 are not historical- what can we learn by comparing them to the Historic videos? What can we learn about disease, war and its movement.

First case Historic No war War ends 1920
Camp Funston 2:01 video 2:02 video 2:20 video
Etaples 2:19 video 2:20 video 2:21 video
Please answer each of the following cluster of questions and use the information that you gathered from the simulators to answer the following questions:

The differences between war and no war are dramatic. What might account for this? Conditions in army camps? Celebrations and troop movements due to the armistice? How could we attempt to answer this?

Army camps during the war were both very crowded and had a heavy flow of troops in and out. How might this affect the epidemic's dynamics?

The no war scenario outcomes are very different depending upon whether the first cases were in Camp Funston, Kansas or Etaples, France. Why would that be?

The computer simulation generates dynamics for counter-factual scenarios based on many factors and assumptions. How good is this? Are there alternative ways of answering such questions?

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?

This is the rubric that students will follow to complete all three parts of the assignment.
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hist1103oer/policies/rubric-for-long-writing-assignments/

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 used for an online class. It will give students a chance to go on a site visit and engage with their fellow colleagues on Flipgrid for a group discussion.

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

June 7, 2019

Walking Tour in Paris

Thalia Pericles

Hospitality Management, SPS

Thomas Ahrens Int’l Work/Study Program

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are placed in groups and given a specific site in Paris, which will become the focal point for their walking tour while in Paris. They will be the tour guides for the rest of the cohort and Professors during the study abroad experience. The focus is the history, tourism, food and culture.

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

After conducting research on the history, food, culture and tourism components of their site, they will be able to conduct an informative walking tour of the area in Paris.

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 given about 1.5-2 months before the program begins so that students have ample time to prepare.

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 high stakes project. Students conduct their research and then are asked to create a visual aid to share with the group during the tour. This can be in the form of a post card, map, brochure etc.

The grading criteria is as follows:
GRADING CRITERIA

Content (History, Culture, Food, Tourism) 30%
Depth of research 20%
Cohesiveness, Flow and Organization 20%
Equal Participation of Group Members 20%
Visual Aid 10%

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

June 4, 2019June 6, 2019

The Peopling of New York City: Neighborhood Explorations

Monica Berger

Library

LIB/ ARCH2205: Learning Places

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

How do we understand a neighborhood in terms of who lives there? Specifically, we will look at the different immigrant and ethnic groups that people a neighborhood. This four-class unit is designed for LIB/ARCH2205, Learning Places, but could be used as a module for other courses. The timing of this module in LIB/ARCH2205 would depend on whether the course focuses entirely on the intercultural theme or if the module infuses or adds intercultural learning as a secondary or tertiary aspect of neighborhood exploration. For the full intercultural focus, I envision this module in weeks 4 and 5 after students have learned about New York City and United States immigrant and ethnic history and as well as ethnic studies as it relates to identity and intersectionality. I hope to bring in faculty with expertise in sociology, anthropology and/or history to either co-teach or guest lecture.

We will focus on the Sunset Park, Brooklyn neighborhood: it has a varied and rich ethnic and immigrant history and sociology and is easy to travel to from campus. Class one is an information literacy-oriented workshop that foregrounds student understanding of the neighborhood preparing them for intercultural and place-based learning and meaningful analysis and reflection. Next, in class two, students observe the neighborhood through the intercultural lens. They will be guided in their observations with a series of prompts. Chiefly using photography and audio recordings, they will record their observations. In class three, the students will work together in teams to create a short (5 minute) presentation. They will be supplied with a PowerPoint template that guides how their incorporate their documentation. In the final class of unit, class four, the teams will share out their presentations. The unit will culminate with an in-class reflection and a related homework reflection. For homework, students will also select a signature artifact from a cultural group in their home neighborhood. In the following class, the class will play a game to deduce the artifact and, in the process, may become more aware of individual presumptions. For courses with a semester-long focus on place-based learning, this unit prepares students to continue the iterative work of synthesizing close observation and research. Students would return to the neighborhood to develop and deepen the observation and research connection, moving towards and into a substantial research question.

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

Class 1: In the Wikipedia exercise, the students will be introduced to domain knowledge about the neighborhood. The structure of the article will help students begin to see how a topic is structured and give them a frame for future research. The exercise will also incorporate many facets of information literacy including documentation, attribution and bibliographic references to published/library resources. Students will learn how to find books and other materials including newspaper articles. There will be a brief activity where they find the call number of location of the books in our library. Time will also be given to reading the Encyclopedia of New York City article on Sunset Park. The class will end with a group think-pair-share activity where students compare and contrast Wikipedia to library resources. Homework will require students to find an article in a local newspaper or magazine related to Sunset Park and write a 75-word blog post on OpenLab summarizing the article. Every article must be unique.

Class 2: The exploration: students will learn how to observe visually and aurally and record key facets of a neighborhood and its people through a series of prompts related to the intercultural knowledge and place-based learning. Students will practice utilizing non-text documentation to capture their observations.

Class 3: Preparing the presentation: Students will practice group work and learn how to incorporate their findings into a template that makes the observation coherent. Students reflect on what they observed about ethnic and immigrant culture(s) in a specific neighborhood. Did they see relationships between the culture of a specific group and the culture of their neighborhood-as-place? They will be guided by the affective aspects of the experience.

Class 4: Sharing the presentation. Students will practice oral presentation skills and reflect in class on the unit’s overall learning goal. They will journal to this prompt: How did this activity help you see relationships between a specific cultural group and place (how ethnic groups situate themselves in a neighborhood)? The homework will generate an explicit learning experience where students relate the unit back to their own neighborhood (and self). The homework incorporates metacognition since the students will be “teaching” (explaining to another person) what they learned in a new context. Homework will also involve selection of an artifact for a game for the next class. This little game will also help students to become more self-aware of their own intercultural knowledge.

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?

Between weeks 4 and 8. Provided this unit will be used in LIB/ARCH2205 which has longer class sessions, the entire class time will be used for all four sessions although the first class could be compressed into a shorter session of about 60-75 minutes. The other three classes will require the full two hours normally scheduled for this class. Time for assignments: Out of class time for class one: about 30 minutes; class four: about 30-60 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?

Class one: no preparation. Tablets are needed for student work. For the two activities the instructions will be given on the worksheet and orally (see activity as attachment). For the homework, the instructions will be on OpenLab. Low stakes.

Class two: Observation prompt instructions will be given onsite to the students as a handout that will also have instructions for the production in class three. All instructions will also be added to the course site on OpenLab. Students need to shoot at least three photos but sketches are also permissible as a substitute. Students should record an audio note about why they shot the photograph and how it addresses the supplied prompts. They will also record at least two signature sounds of the neighborhood. We probably will lead the students all together initially for the first 30-60 minutes and then break them up into teams of three to explore on their own. Whether or not we’ll subdivide the neighborhood into discrete physical units for exploration will be determined.

Students should use their phones to record their observations as much as possible since written note taking is difficult in the field. Students are also reminded to be sensitive to anyone they are photographing or recording and to avoid any situation that might be construed as invasive. The activity is the high-stakes activity for the unit. Homework incorporates parts of the Learning Places site visit template and will be emailed to the instructor to avoid plagiarism. See Class Two details for instructions.

Class three: Instructions will be given in class on the white board. Students will break into teams of three where one student each is responsible for photos, audio, and artifacts. Students will copy their images and recordings to their laptops or tablets to integrate them into the PowerPoint template supplied by the instructors. Homework requires the students to work together to finalize their presentations.

Class four: Student teams will each have five minutes to present. After the presentation, each table of students not presenting will be prompted to ask the team who presented a good question. This will take at least 1 hour. [whether or not to have students use a rubric to grade each other is a big question]. The instructor will then discuss the student homework from the fieldtrip for 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes to discuss the upcoming homework. Next, students will spend 10 minutes on a journal reflection (see class description for details). Remaining class time can be spent in lecture preparing students for the next unit of the course.

Parts of the INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCE VALUE rubric will be used for student work in classes 2-4, particularly the student presentations. Additionally, for the student presentations, elements of the VALUE rubric for INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS and ORAL COMMUNICATION will be selected, modified and simplified. Class one’s homework is too simple to apply the VALUE rubric for information literacy. It will relate to other assignments and products in LIB/ARCH2205.

No, this course is not part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative.

I can only speak to the Wikipedia module I teach to English 1101 and 1121. Students enjoy it but I haven’t yet turned it into an active-learning experience since 50 minutes is very brief. I will move this forward over the summer as I flesh out the teaching material for class one of this unit. The site observation, using a very different theme and template, was challenging for logistical reasons because students often were late and got lost. Students generally enjoy any place-based learning but ideally it needs foregrounding, repetition, and scaffolding to be truly robust.

Teaching outlines and materials for classes one and two are attached.

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

Class One: Wikipedia for Learning Places (70-90 minutes)
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mberger-portfolio/files/2019/06/wikipedia-for-learning-places-for-L4-deposit.pdf

CLASS 2 INTERCULTURAL PLACE-BASED LEARNING investigation / observation https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mberger-portfolio/files/2019/06/CLASS-2-INTERCULTURAL-PLACE.pdf

May 31, 2019

Designing the banks along the Newtown Creek

Marius Constantin

CET

Electromechanical Systems Lab

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Each group of students will design and test their concepts of river banks along the Newtown Creek in Brooklyn.
This activity, which will be concluded as a final project at the end of the semester, is a partnership with Newtown Creek Alliance (NCA), a community-based organization dedicated to restoring, revealing and revitalizing this area in Brooklyn.

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

To increase the student engagement and learning I shall use the high-impact educational practice called “Collaborative Assignments and Projects” to facilitate learning and solving problems in the company of others and to encourage students with different cultural backgrounds and life experiences find a common outcome.
Students will become aware of the high potential this area can offer to the community and in the same time accomplishing the implementation of their engineering skills into a real and meaningful application.
The activity application is finding an engineering solution to prevent further erosion of the creek’s banks.

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 will start on the third week, when a field trip to Newtown Creek is planned to take place. Starting the fourth week, students have to come up with a concept that will culminate with a real and tested design of the river banks in the last week of the 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?

This field trip is considered a low-stakes activity, where students will be introduced to the culture, vision and challenges NCA is facing.
During the first class meeting, among the usual routine, I will introduce to students the activity rollout:
– third week – field trip
– fourth week – defining the river banks structural form and determining the structural materials to be used
– in the following weeks the groups work on analyzing and testing their chosen design concept by computer simulating the forces at work, such as: gravity, river inertial load, torsional and shear stress, elasticity, strength and strain
– last week – final presentation

To assess students’ learning outcome I am going to use AACU’s rubric called “Intercultural Knowledge and Competence” to determine how effective they were in a variety of cultural contexts.
Students will be exposed to diverse cultural rules, differences and biases with the hope that they can exploit and utilize past experiences to make a better sense of the world around them. use
I will assess the students’ work posted on OpenLab throughout the semester to determine the extent they achieved the learning outcomes set for this course.
The types of assessment are:
– reflections; ask students to write reflections for each phase of the development posted on OpenLab
– formative; assess groups’ performances and against each other
– discussions; the groups will ask each other questions related to their design

This activity is planned to be implemented next semester.

http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org

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

May 28, 2019

DeKalb Market Hall: Deconstructing aura embedded in the typographic communication of global cultures.

Patricia Childers

Communication Design

Typographic Design 3 (COMD2427)

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Deconstructing aura embedded in the typographic communication of global cultures provides a platform to discuss messaging in communication.

This low-stakes activity introduces students to multiple diverse cultures through a place-based learning assignment. It integrates Intercultural Knowledge and Competency with High-Impact Educational Practice of Diversity/Global Learning through the deconstruction of graphics incorporated in the cultural representations.

Students visit the DeKalb Market Hall, to explore typography as a narrative tool. The food hall, once the birthplace of the Brooklyn Hip Hop scene, now showcases 40 vendors who reflect the current cultural and ethnic diversity of the Brooklyn. The activity begins in the classroom before our visit through a discussion of cultural representation by commercial venues. At the market, students select one vendor that represents a culture that they are familiar with and one they are not. They photograph and gather material for research and presentation. For homework, students post, via OpenLab, photos of the culture they are familiar with and a brief interpretation.

In a week-long assignment, students interpret the tropes used to convey specific cultures. They present to the class the visual devises and conventions that reveal the graphic narrative that the audience/consumer readily recognizes and understands. Through verbal reflection, students familiar with the cultures presented give context, while students unfamiliar add alternative interpretation.

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

This project is designed to enhance the appreciation of a diverse mix of influences—and interpretations. By engaging in, and reflecting on content in a local environment, students reinforce and internalize insights gained. Through the process of reflecting on the everyday environment, the awareness of lifelong learning is established.

The goal of the assignment is to provide an understanding of the communication of aura, the fluctuating nature of cultural authenticity, and how they are visually communicated. Through place-based learning, students experience typography as a way to confer meaning and establish context.

To increase engagement, students explore “cultural” signifiers in their intended setting. Food, a topic enjoyed by most, is used to entice curiosity. The sharing culture via personal experience lends an aura of authenticity to low-stakes class discussion.

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 is given on the fourth-fifth week of the semester to prepare students for an assignment that requires design from a specific point-of-view. Students analyze and blog for homework. An in-class presentation and discussion takes place the following week. This is a two-week, assignment, approximately four hours of homework and two hours of class time.

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

In this low-stakes assignment, students are given a clear explanation of objectives and expectations. To introduce the assignment, students receive handouts that explain the assignment and introduce questions. The assignment is posted on the class website.

Students record images with a camera/phone and post images and reflections to the class blog. In-class presentations and discussions begin with a review of terminology and a series of prompts. Throughout the discussion, prompts are reintroduced if needed to spur discussion.

In-class presentations include a handout explaining the presentation and discussion and a handout with terminology.

During class, terminology is written on the board, and prompts are reintroduced to spur discussion

Key markers: Attendance and participation
Points are assigned for:
• The reflection blog
• Presentation of photos and marketing material gathered from the location
• Presentation of typographic research.
To access how students meaningfully engage with others we use the Intercultural Knowledge and Competence rubric.
Other value rubric assessment include: Inquiry and Analysis, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Written Communication, Oral Communication, Civic Knowledge and Engagement—Local and Global, Intercultural Knowledge and Competence, Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning, and Integrative Learning.

I have not yet employed this activity in the classroom.

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

https://www.dekalbmarkethall.com

May 20, 2019

Patient Interaction

Lillian Amann

Radiologic Technology and Medical Imaging

RAD 1127 Patient Care and Management

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This is an in-class lab activity which involves patient interaction. Students will create 2 scenarios in groups of 2 or 3 which will be randomly selected. Each member will participate and demonstrate in both scenarios the correct and incorrect way to perform radiographic procedures while interacting with patients of diverse cultural backgrounds, disabilities, language barriers, gender sexualities, mental illnesses, and age groups. Students will need to be creative and simulate real life situations in a clinical setting. After activity students will discuss the scenarios and give feedback. In addition, students are required to volunteer at facility of their choice, which incorporates one the patient types described above. After which, they will be required to write a one page reflection on their experience, with two responses to two student reflections and post on open lab.

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

• Students will learn effective methods of communicating various patient types.
• Students will be able to identify qualities needed to be a compassionate radiologic technologist.
• Students will be able to interact with patients of diverse cultural backgrounds, disabilities, sexual orientations, age groups or illness with the utmost respect and care.

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 portion of this activity will be in the beginning of the semester lecture two during lab hour, whereas the place-based learning must be done by mid-semester with no time restraints.

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 AAC&U Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric will be used to assess the activity.

This activity includes General Education Learning Goals:
1. Skills:
• Communication- communicate in diverse settings and groups, using written (both reading and writing), oral (both speaking and listening), and visual means, and in more than one language.
• Inquiry/Analysis – Derive meaning from experience, as well as gather information from observation. Use creativity to solve problems.

2. Integration:
• Integrate Learning – Resolve difficult issues creatively by employing multiple systems and tools.

3. Values, Ethics, And Relationships:
• Global/Multicultural Orientation – Discern multiple perspectives. Use awareness of cultural differences to bridge cultural and linguistic barriers. Demonstrate proficiency and capacities in dealing with a diverse society. Communicate across cultural and linguistic barriers.

This activity also includes High-Impact Educational Practices:
1. Collaborative Assignments and Projects.
2. Diversity/Global Learning
3. Service Learning/Community–Based Learning

This activity was successful in the Lab. It will definitely be repeated but with the addition of place-based learning to help make the experience more realistic and better prepares the students for the clinical phase of the program. Thankfully the only challenge I experienced was time, which I rectified by my expanding the activity to two lab classes. The students were fully engaged, participated without hesitance and this activity was a great icebreaker.

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

May 25, 2018

Wikipedia

Anne Leonard

Library

LIB/ARCH 2205ID Learning Places

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Guidelines for Wikipedia Assignment: Creating and editing Wikipedia content, including media in Wikimedia Commons, is an essential part of our class and is 15% of your grade. The Wikipedia assignment is evaluated through our course dashboard. You’ll need to create a Wikipedia account and use it every time you complete a training module, make edits to Wikipedia, or contribute media to Wikimedia Commons. Individual and group Wikipedia contributions & edits and Wikimedia Commons contributions are due by <date>.

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

The assignment helps meet several learning outcomes:

Gen Ed LOs: Demonstrate and apply information literacy aptitude by gathering, interpreting, evaluating and applying information discerningly from a variety of sources

Interdisciplinary LOs: Synthesize and transfer knowledge across disciplinary boundaries; Think critically, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively

Course LOs: Develop, document, catalogue, and organize information to make it accessible to the public.

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?

One 2 hour workshop facilitated by a Wikipedia expert* that covers Wikipedia writing, editing, and documenting; part or all of an additional class period to review research strategies, topics and articles to write and edit, the 5 pillars of Wikipedia that guide the process of contributing, writing, and editing.

*Wikiedu.org and the local Wikimedia NYC chapter can help with this

Students should be able to complete the assignment in about 1-2 hours of time outside of class

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 need to have a topic to write about and the ability to do research to document information they write about. The assignment is 15% of the final grade, so a medium-to-low stakes assignment. See assignment guidelines on course OpenLab site for instructions given to students.

Please see the assignment guidelines link for the rubric and self-assessment checklist
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/lib2205idsp18/assignments/

Students were thrilled to write and publish for a wide audience, yet were disappointed when the active community of Wikipedia writers overwrote their contributions. Students were encouraged to make use of the Talk page to discuss their contributions with other Wikipedia editors. The Wikiedu dashboard (dashboard.wikiedu.org) helps the instructor keep track of students' contributions, even if they don't persist in the final article.

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

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/lib2205idsp18/assignments/

May 11, 2018

Ethics in Food Purchasing

Tracy Zimmermann

Hospitality Management

HMGT 1102 Introduction to Food and Beverage

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

A Three Part Assignment on Ethics and Food Purchasing.

PART 1 – The Lexicon of Sustainability Weekly Blog Assignment

Task-
To consider what exactly sustainability and the food system is and how it affects our food purchasing choices. This assignment will bring awareness to the subject of sustainability and it’s terms, concepts and challenges. Short films (3-6 min) from “The Lexicon of Sustainability” will be posted to our class Open Lab Site on a weekly basis.

Expectations
Each week the expectation will be to view the video and post a 4-5 sentence guided reflection / reaction blog post to our class open lab site. Weekly from Week 2 through Week 12

PART 2 – Market Visit (Week 7 or 8 of the semester)

Task –
A site visit to Eataly Gourmet Market. This will create an opportunity for the students to get out and visit a different type of market and to see food and beverage products that they may not have come into contact with.

We will explore the market in small groups, taking part in a photographic scavenger hunt. Our goal will be to see as much of the market as possible and encounter as many different products as possible.

Expectation
– Groups will post their scavenger hunt pictures to the open lab site
– Individuals will reflect on the site visit with a blog post on the open lab. This blog post will be guided by specific reflection questions, including whether they believe Eataly is a place that would support Ethical Food Purchasing decisions.

PART 3 – Final Group Project / Presentation (Week 12 or 13)

Task
Students will be placed into groups and given a food category to work with. (i.e. Meat, Poultry, Dairy, Vegetables, Fruits, Dry Goods, etc…).

Group – will research the food category and the items it includes. Included in the research they will explain the ethical concerns that may be involved in purchasing in this food category.

Individuals
– Will choose a product from your category to focus on and research that product and the specific purchasing factors. (price, size, purchase unit, age, quality level, variety, domestic / imported / local, ethical concerns, etc.)
– Visit at least 3 different markets that carry your item and compare and contrast the products found in each. Comment on where you would make your purchase and why.
– Explain the ethical considerations involved in your purchase decision. Comment on how important the ethical considerations were to your purchase decision. Why is this?

Expectation
– Each group will present their findings to the class, with each individual speaking about their specific product.

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

A scaffolded approach to a full understanding of sustainability and ethics in food purchasing. This will allow the student to travel from concept to practice and include sustainability and ethics in their food purchasing decisions.

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 will begin on the first day of class with an introduction to the Open Lab and Blogging as well as a discussion of what some of the issues in our food system are. After this introduction the majority of this assignment will be done outside of the classroom on the Open Lab.

The Final assignment will be presented in the classroom

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

Part 1 – Videos will be posted, instructions and reflection questions will be given. Low stakes blog post assignments.
Part 2 – Pre-Reading on Eataly will be supplied, directions to site will be supplied with maps, scavenger hunt will be prepared and explained. Low stakes.
Part 3 – Groups and Categories assigned, outline given. High stakes – Final Project

Critical Thinking Value Rubric
Ethical Reasoning Value Rubric
Oral Communication Value Rubric

Has not been introduced yet.

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

April 27, 2018

Political Action Assignment

Sarah Jacobs

English

English Composition 1101

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students will individually research a public policy or planning issue that is being debated at the state, city, or neighborhood level. Each student will post a summary of the different sides of the debate and the different parties involved on OpenLab. The summary will include references and citations to three sources suitable for an academic paper. Each student will then comment on two other posts. Students' comments will either suggest what additional information is needed to make a policy decision or state what policy decision the student thinks is best and why that decision is ethically correct. Students will then be divided into four or five groups, each of which focuses on a policy, based on which posts were most commented on. Within their groups, students will gather questions regarding what additional information is needed for their issue and will assign group members to find out the additional information. Finally, students will individually post their policy recommendations and will take a political action in support of their recommendations. In class, each group will come to an agreement through debating and/or voting concerning which policy decision or decisions the group recommends. Group members will then rate one another's contributions using a rubric.

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

I would like students to grasp the ethical complexities of a current issue and develop language for talking about the ethical difficulties of that issue. I would also like students to gain confidence within their assigned group roles. Researching their topics will also help students evaluate sources. Negotiating with other members of their group on the group's stance will help students hone their ability to communicate with and convince others of their stance.

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 would be done during the latter half of the semester, and it would take up about four or five weeks of class. Completing the assignment sequence would require two hours of work outside of class each 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?

Students would need practice locating and evaluating sources. I would instruct them on the types of sources that would be appropriate, and I would suggest a list of databases and websites that they could use. I would say that the OpenLab posts are low to medium stakes, while the group debate and political action are medium to high stakes.

Students will assess one another's group work using a simple rubric. I will give students individual feedback on their posts, which would translate into a written response that takes the VALUE rubric into account.

How well this activity works will depend on how successful I am at assigning students roles within their groups and in giving them instructions regarding what their group needs to be accomplishing at set times. Also, I will try to choose four or five topics for the groups that I think have the strongest potential for complex ethical exploration.

Assignment: http://www.sarahruthjacobs.com/JacobsPolitical%20Action%20Assignment2.pdf

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

April 26, 2018

Promotional Videos: For/Against Development In Downtown Brooklyn

Josh A. Kapusinski

Communication Design Department

COMD 2320 Introduction to Film/Video Production Design

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Promotional Videos: For/Against Development In Downtown Brooklyn is a place-based learning assignment where students are divided into groups and play the roles of an advertising agency and a local community organization who are tasked to create a video promoting future development or a video trying to stop future development in aim to preserve the history and integrity of downtown Brooklyn.

The assignment: Students are divided into four groups (3-4 students per group). Two of the four groups play the role of an advertising agency who has been hired by a developer selling commercial and residential space in downtown Brooklyn. The developer is paying the agency to create a 30-second video to play on their website, and social platforms promoting why businesses and people should invest in their properties in downtown Brooklyn. Each student group will explore the downtown area during a class period on foot, and take photos with their cell phones to document what they believe will be the contents of an effective video advertisement. Interpretations and approaches may vary between the two groups. One group may choose to take photos that represent a modern style of living which caters toward the middle-to-upper class – such as City Point, Citi Bike stations, or chic high-rise luxury apartments, while the other group may want to focus on capturing derelict and closed-down businesses or “eye-sores” and are reason to tear down and build something new and fancy.

The other two groups are playing the role of a local business and community organization – made up of local business owners and local residents. Their goal is to make a video ad that builds consensus with enough people (city council members, government officials, and local residents) so that new development doesn’t happen. Their video aims to help preserve the integrity of downtown Brooklyn. Each of these two groups is to explore the downtown area during a class period on foot and take photos with their cell phones to document what they believe will be the contents of an effective advertisement. Interpretations may vary between these two groups. One group may choose to take photos of construction sites and “evil” machinery in action smashing the crumbled remains of a once historic structure to play off of the emotional side of a viewer. The other group may capture old historic landmarks or buildings, such as churches – of which has been a controversial topic recently – as some churches throughout the city have been selling off their land/buildings for new development.

Following the place-based component, students are to edit the photos together using video editing software, while also adding music and/or text – "live, work, play all in one place", "save downtown, preserve our history", and so on. This should consume 1-2 additional class periods. Once the videos are completed, each group will present their finished work, and then discuss reasons why they chose certain subject matter, and their approach to framing shots based on ethical reasoning.

Students finally write a brief reflection on OpenLab about their current beliefs regarding this topic; if those beliefs have changed as a result of this assignment; and their overall experience in working towards a goal that may have gone against their own bias or belief system – the topic of new development in any area.

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

I aim to introduce the concept of ethical reasoning to students in context to video production and a future job they may have where they are asked to perform a task, such as to make a video that goes against their bias or belief system. How they should approach this, and navigate through this is good practice for potential opportunities and situations they may encounter in the future. Should they try their best for the sake of the company (i.e. their employer)? Or should they tell their boss that they disagree with the message and objective of the project? Secondly, students gain an awareness for detail in their surroundings – which is important in being a camera operator. Thirdly, students get practice at framing and composing shots, as well as the entire act of telling a story, approaching how to tell that story and the technical execution of the editing that story – video editing. Through their reflections – one at the beginning and one at the end, students also gain insight on themselves which should encourage open-mindedness.

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?

Due to the fact that this assignment is based outside – walking around downtown Brooklyn, it has to be done during months other than those in the winter. Approximately three class periods will be spent on this assignment. The act of just taking photos is ok, but to compile those photos into an order that tells a specific story and has a message makes this assignment much more engaging and worthwhile for students.

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

Prior to the actual place-based component of this assignment, students are introduced (via a mini-lesson) to the concept of ethical reasoning, and are given a clear explanation of expectations, objectives, and purposed outcomes for this assignment. Sample photos that I have taken are shown to help illustrate points. Students are also required to write a brief reflection on OpenLab about their current beliefs regarding the topic, and therefore I will need to ensure that students sign up or have an OpenLab account. Setup of the reflection forms needs to be created as well – learning how to do this has to be taken into account since I do not use OpenLab.

I would assess this assignment based on a value rubric. Points are assigned to each of the two reflection entries; the quantity of photos taken on location – minimum requirement needs to be met; the application of certain editing techniques such as adding motion to still images; the final edited piece; and the final presentation during the screening.

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

Category: Community/Civic Engagement

Designing the banks along the Newtown Creek

DeKalb Market Hall: Deconstructing aura embedded in the typographic communication of global cultures.

Patient Interaction

Wikipedia

Ethics in Food Purchasing

Political Action Assignment

Promotional Videos: For/Against Development In Downtown Brooklyn

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