{"id":4919,"date":"2012-11-06T21:26:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T03:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/cila\/pages\/facultyconversations\/2009-10\/"},"modified":"2013-02-28T15:08:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T21:08:49","slug":"2009-10","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/cila\/lunchconversations\/2009-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Conversations: 2009-2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall 2009<\/h3>\n

Tracing the FIJI Water Bottle Commodity Chain: Teaching with Geographic Information Systems (GIS)<\/a><\/strong>
\nSeptember 22. Tun Myint, Political Science Department, Carleton College<\/p>\n

Writing Papers Versus Making Movies: How the Short Video Can Facilitate Student Research<\/a><\/strong>
\nSeptember 30. Bill Sonnega, Theatre and Media and Film Studies and Jim Stanoch and Nate Haustein ’10, IIT, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

American Immigration Revisited: Teaching Immigration in the St. Olaf Classroom<\/a><\/strong>
\nOctober 6. Solveig Zempel, Norwegian; Chris Chiappari, Sociology and Anthropology; Eric Fure-Slocum, History and American Conversations; Judy Kutulas, History and American Studies, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Teaching Students to Make Good Arguments: Designing Assessments for Authentic Problems<\/a><\/strong>
\nOctober 13. Dolores Peters, History, St. Olaf College; Mary Savina, Geology, Carleton College<\/p>\n

Thinking About Thinking: Effective Metacognitive Strategies for Teaching and Learning<\/a><\/strong>
\nOctober 20. Diane Angell, Biology; Maria Kelly, Education; Kent McWilliams, Music, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Technology Poster Fair<\/a><\/strong>
\nNovember 3. St. Olaf Faculty and Staff<\/p>\n

Provost’s Sabbatical Luncheon<\/a><\/strong>
\nNovember 10. Rika Ito, Japanese and Asian Studies;Rebecca Judge, Economics, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Online Instruction and the Emergency Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration<\/a><\/strong>
\nNovember 18. David Castro, Music and Colin Wells, English and American Conversations, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Moodle Tips and Tricks<\/a><\/strong>
\nDecember 2. IIT Staff, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Spring 2010<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What Can a Beowulf Cluster Do For You?<\/a><\/strong>
\nFebruary 17. Dick Brown, MSCS- Computer Science; Chris Chapp, Political Science; John Schade, Environmental Studies; Solveig Zempel, Norwegian; Mike Holm ’11, Mary Scaramuzza ’12, and Stephanie Tanner ’10, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

So You Think Your Students Read Before Class?<\/a><\/strong>
\nFebruary 23. Karl Wirth, Geology, Macalester College; Fahima Aziz, Management and Economics, Hamline University<\/p>\n

Effective Strategies for Writing Letters of Recommendation<\/a><\/strong>
\nMarch 3. Wendy Allen, Romance Languages- French; Bruce Dalgaard, Economics and Director of CEL; Bob Entenmann, History and Asian Studies, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Blogging: The Construction of Open Dialogues in Education<\/a><\/strong>
\nMarch 9. Guido Alvarez, Art and Art History; Devyani Chandran, Social Work and Family Studies; Molly Westerman, English, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Learning Through Speaking: The ORC in Action<\/a><\/strong>
\nMarch 17. Jeanne Willcoxon, Theatre; Eric Fure-Slocum, History, American Conversations and CIS; Bill Sonnega, Theatre and Media and Film Studies; Kathy Shea, Biology, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Provost’s Sabbatical Luncheon<\/strong><\/a>
\nMarch 23. Karil Kucera, Art History and Asian Studies; Chuck Huff, Psychology, St. Olaf College<\/p>\n

Teaching non-Majority Students<\/a><\/strong>
\nApril 14. Multicultural Affairs and Community Outreach (MACO)<\/p>\n

Situating Quantitative Literacy in the Context of Argument<\/a><\/strong>
\nApril 20. Nathan Grawe ’96, Economics and Associate Dean of the College, Carleton College<\/p>\n

What’s a Lecture Good For?<\/a><\/strong>
\nApril 27. Gary Muir, Psychology and Neuroscience; Maria Kelly, Education, St. Olaf College <\/span><\/p>\n

Top of page<\/a><\/p>\n

Descriptions<\/h2>\n

<\/a>Tracing the FIJI Water Bottle Commodity Chain: Teaching with Geographic Information Systems (GIS)<\/h3>\n

Tun Myint, Political Science and Environmental Studies, Carleton College<\/p>\n

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are methods used to \u201cto collect, organize, analyze, and present spatial data.\u201d\u00a0 Widely used in the natural sciences, these methods are finding increasing application in other disciplines, such as history, religion, sociology, and economics, for both research and teaching.<\/p>\n

In this presentation, Tun will show how he has used GIS to teach international environmental politics. In this course, he is concerned with \u201chow I could make the livelihoods of my students critically relevant to international environmental politics and policy making processes.\u201d\u00a0 He will illustrate his use of GIS to unpack the commodity chains of the FIJI water bottle, which his students find available for purchase at the Carleton College Bookstore. \u00a0As an article in\u00a0Mother Jones<\/em>\u00a0puts it, \u201cObama sips it. Paris Hilton loves it. Mary J. Blige won\u2019t sing without it. How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool?\u201d\u00a0 More broadly, he argues that \u201ccommodities\u2026are a crucial link between societal changes and environmental changes and, therefore, how the commodity chains influence the dynamic relationship between human and nature is central to understanding the challenges of environmental sustainability.<\/p>\n

For those of you who may be interested, Tun offers a paper, \u201cCommodity Chains and Social Ecological Changes: A Theoretical Inquiry into Human-Environment Interactions<\/a>\u201d \u00a0that provides a more theoretical explanation for why teaching international environmental politics needs to go beyond traditional state-centric explanations.<\/p>\n

Further resources on teaching with GIS:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0GIS Basics and Humanities Research<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0GIS: Best Practices for the Social Sciences<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Teaching with GIS in the Geosciences<\/a><\/p>\n

Top of page<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Writing Papers vs. Making Movies: How the short video can support student research
\n<\/em><\/h3>\n

Bill Sonnega, Theater and Media and Film Studies; Jim Stanoch, IIT; Nate Haustein \u201910<\/p>\n

In a growing number of college classrooms, short videos \u2013 produced by students, informed by research and framed by disciplinary parameters \u2013 are becoming popular and effective assignments. \u00a0With a digital video camera and a laptop, students can translate academic research in ways that supplement the conventional paper or offer meaningful alternatives to it. \u00a0As visual literacy becomes increasingly integral to a liberal education, it is worthwhile to consider how we can facilitate this literacy through research projects that produce short videos.<\/p>\n

Please join us for what promises to be a fascinating session as Bill and Nate talk about their experiences with using video for student research projects and Jim discusses campus resources for using video in your own classrooms.<\/p>\n

Some helpful resources:<\/p>\n