The Science Education article in the Spring 2014 issue of the HHMI bulletin interviews several faculty in biology, physics, and chemistry about their motivations for flipping the classroom, the strategies they used, and the results the have seen. Among them is Bryn Mawr College's Elizabeth McCormack, who discusses her her experiences flipping a sophomore electromagnetics class, including initial resistance from students and what she has learned from that resistance. (Click here for slides from McCormack's 2013 Blended Learning Conference presentation on this experience.)

Learning impacts described in the article seem consistent with those reported by faculty who discussed their own experiments with flipping the classroom at the 2014 Blended Learning Conference -- high-performing students continue to do well, and middle- to lower-performing students show improvement. One quasi-experimental study that compared students in a section of introductory physics course that introduced students to content through pre-class reading assignments to free up class time for active-learning activities to a section taught in a traditional format, found that the form scored significantly higher on a standard test of their knowledge of quantum mechanics.     

MediaThread, a project created by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning through the Digital Bridges Initiative is a service that allows you to blend your thoughts with multimedia sources and share them with others. MediaThread supports video, images, metadata, and many content websites listed below. Most compatible with Firefox, MediaThread is currently being used by Columbia, MIT, Wellesley, Dartmouth, The American University in Cairo, and many other institutions of higher education.

Who can do what with MediaThread? Through MediaThread...

Prison Program Turns Inmates into Intellectuals (NYTimes, May 30, 2014)

Here is a little slide show of the Bundt Cakes that Ava took over the few days they were on display--some of them with us and a few other people interacting with the pieces; some with the bundt cakes alone. Enjoy them all....

Digital Humanities Initiative: American Prison Writing Archive-->
a place where incarcerated people can bear witness to the conditions in which they live, to what is working and what is not inside American prisons, and where they can contribute to public debate about the American prison crisis.

...also open to contributions by correctional officers, prison staff, and prison administrators, thus creating a true meeting place and venue for comparative expression by and study of all of those who live and work inside American prisons.

I’ve finally gotten around to the last of the tasks I’d set myself during the ENVS Faculty Workshop in May—reading a couple of social psychology books that Benjamin Le recommended to me re: changing people’s attitudes. Neither one taught me too much, but here (for the record) is a brief summary of each--

Haddock, Geoffrey and Gregory Maio, Eds, Contemporary Perspectives on the Psychology of Attitudes. Psychology Press, 2004: (pretty useless, from my p.o.v) collection of essays by different authors, concluding with Haddock and Maio’s overview of the research: that there are “three witches” in this brew—attitude content, structure, and function--that need to be better integrated.

I just wanted you all to know that I was hit by a wall of overwhelming gratitude when I read your (Sara and Sasha's) reflections. Though I certainly, (and after reading yours, thought it was maybe to a fault) put lots of emphasis on the "self" part of this reflection, I want you both to know that it was absolutely because of you -- the brilliant, inspiring, motivational lights that shine from you in everything you do -- that I felt brave enough to let myself love our work this semester. As Sara said, we are so different, and yet I feel like this year I've developed a new part of myself, and part that can only be translated and nurtured and understood by you two. Your friendship and your beautful minds are essential to me now, and always. Thank you for being all you are to me. I hope I can be the same for you. 

Welcoming Our Asian Students (Anne Dalke)
Session IV @ the 2014 Tri-Co Environmental Studies Workshop