For my final project I decided to add digital components to a proposed undergraduate course. The seminar, proposed for seniors, includes a “Science Salon” component, for which students would meet to discuss an issue of scientific and feminist importance. I’ve added three digital components to the course, which would allow students to move conversation beyond the classroom:
I. Science Salon Facilitation (20%)
Twice per month the class will convene for a Science Salon led by two students. Each pair of students will be assigned a primary scientific research article drawn from a neuroscience, genetics, evolution, or psychology journal and present the research to the class. You will provide your classmates with a handout of key concepts from the article including a summary of the: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion/future directions/applications of the findings. Feel free to make an appointment with me if you have any trouble understanding the article.
You should make use of the White Board and/or Power Point for the presentation. Come prepared with 8-10 questions in order to guide class discussion. Your questions should draw on your own ideas but also encourage your classmates to consider how the week’s feminist science studies reading(s) relate to the article.
II. Salon Live-Tweeting (5%)
Each student will be responsible for live-Tweeting one Science Salon event, posting comments and summarizing the salon as it unfolds on our private classroom Twitter account. After each salon, you will use‘ Storify,’ a digital platform, to collect your tweets and transform them into a curated narrative of your Tweets, which will be posted on our class blog. The live-Tweeting will serve a form of note-taking for the class and ‘Storifying’ as a form public scholarship that gives blog readers a sense of key arguments, questions, and ideas that come out of our meeting.
III. Digital Salon (25%)
Once salon facilitations are assigned, you will sign up to serve as an online respondent to the Salons in the form of four public blog posts. Blog posts should give a very brief summary of the salon and the main ideas generated and discussed. Your response may extend part of the conversation held in the salon or respond to a particular thought or idea in the salon or week’s readings. Blog posts should be roughly 500 words (not to exceed 750) and will be submitted to me before you post to our blog. Once you have received feedback you are invited and encouraged to revise your response before posting publicly.