IAP Independent Activities Period
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IAP 2012 Activities by Sponsor

Writing and Humanistic Studies

Active Learning Techniques for Teaching Communication
Mary Caulfield
Wed Feb 1, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

Active learning techniques help students learn nuanced concepts by providing opportunities for in-class problem solving and discussion. This workshop will present some background on the pedagogy of active learning, and it will offer practical tips for designing classroom exercises for teaching writing and speaking. The emphasis will be on helping students to bridge the gap between communicating their technical expertise and understanding the needs of multiple audiences.

All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Teaching and Learning Lab

Book Giveaway
Alan Lightman
Sat Jan 14, 10am-02:00pm, MIT Coop

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event

Professor Alan Lightman, author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams, will be giving away, FREE, 100 signed copies of his new novel, Mr g, in an event cosponsored by Pantheon Books and the MIT Coop. The books will be available at 10:00 am on Saturday morning, January 14, in the MIT Coop at Kendall Square, on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE BASIS. To receive a book, you must be an MIT undergraduate, you must present your MIT ID card, and you must show up in person. You cannot take books for other people. Signs in the Coop will lead you to the event table. The official publication date of Mr g is January 24, so you will be getting the book ten days before anyone else in the country.

Mr g is the story of creation, as told by God. Mr g (God) is the narrator of the book. Mr g has a bickering aunt and uncle who are constantly giving Him advice as he creates first time and space, then matter and energy, and finally intelligent beings with various moral and ethical dilemmas. There is physics, chemistry, and biology in the book, as well as playful explorations of philosophical, theological and moral questions.
Contact: Alan Lightman, 14E-303, x3-2308

Book Giveaway! New Book "Mr. g" by Alan Lightman
Alan Lightman
Sat Jan 14, 10am-01:00pm, MIT Coop-Kendall

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 100 participants.
Single session event

Professor Alan Lightman, author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams, will be giving away, FREE, 100 signed copies of his new novel, Mr g, in an event cosponsored by Pantheon Books and the MIT Coop. The books will be available at 10:00 am on Saturday morning, January 14, in the MIT Coop at Kendall Square, on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE BASIS. To receive a book, you must be an MIT undergraduate, you must present your MIT ID card, and you must show up in person. You cannot take books for other people. Signs in the Coop will lead you to the event table. The official publication date of Mr g is January 24, so you will be getting the book ten days before anyone else in the country.

Mr g is the story of creation, as told by God. Mr g (God) is the narrator of the book. Mr g has a bickering aunt and uncle who are constantly giving Him advice as he creates first time and space, then matter and energy, and finally intelligent beings with various moral and ethical dilemmas. There is physics, chemistry, and biology in the book, as well as playful explorations of philosophical, theological and moral questions.
Web: http://www.facebook.com/AlanLightman
Contact: Shinika Spencer, 14e303, (617) 253-9469, shinika@mit.edu

Crafting Knowledge and Acknowledging Others: Writing, Research, and Academic Integrity
Suzanne Lane
Wed Jan 25, 03-05:00pm, 4-159, Pizza will be served

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 20 participants.

This introductory workshop will address how to respond to written sources critically to develop new ideas, how to manage information drawn from a literature search, and how to document sources correctly.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, (617) 253-0650, acaval@mit.edu

Designing Writing Assignments
Dr. Les Perelman, Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
Mon Jan 30, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

Often poorly-designed writing assignments produce poorly-written or vague and unfocused papers, whereas well-designed assignments can help students develop a deeper understanding of both the material they're writing about, and how scholars think about that material. This workshop will focus on the principles of designing assignments that will help students achieve the cognitive and communicative goals you set for them while avoiding confusion and temptations to plagiarize.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu

Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief
Steve Chan, Charles Atencio, Anna Miao
Mon Jan 30, Wed Feb 1, Fri Feb 3, 04pm-08:00am, MIT and Boston Museu

Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 23-Jan-2012
Limited to 15 participants.
Single session event
Prereq: Instructor permission required

Today’s global challenges are complex and can be best understood with an interconnected perspective— one that combines science, technology, and society (STS). Such perspicacity captures the synergy among the 5Ds (Diplomacy, Defense, Development, Disaster Relief, and Data) underlying these global issues. This course will explore the 5Ds through the lens of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). First, it will present a framework that incorporates the 5Ds, via a triple helix approach that is enabled and enhanced through the use of a collaborative distributed leadership process. Second, it will highlight some cutting-edge academic, governmental, and industry research that might present some novel solutions to these global challenges. Third, it will articulate the challenges of extreme scale herculean societal tasks. Finally, a capstone to the course will be a viewing of the film “Rescue” at the Museum of Science Mugar Omni Theater. This IMAX film is an exemplar of STS and the triple-helix uniting the 5Ds to provide HADR in the wake of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Contact: Steve Chan, E38-456, (617) 324-4005, s_chan@mit.edu

Join the Conversation: Composing Original Ideas from Research
Suzanne Lane
Tue Jan 24, 01-03:00pm, 4-159, Pizza will be served

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 20 participants.
Single session event

This introductory workshop will address how to respond to written sources critically to develop new ideas, how to manage information drawn from a literature search, and how to document sources correctly.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, (617) 253-0650, acaval@mit.edu

Response and Revision: Helping Students Develop their Ideas in Writing
Suzanne Lane
Tue Jan 31, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

What kind of feedback will help students understand how to revise their essay, report, or article, to hone and extend their thinking, or to write more effectively in their next assignment? This workshop will draw on research on the writing process and revision to help faculty and TAs understand the range of responding practices, from rubrics to peer review to individual conferences, and when each is effective. By considering feedback in relation to other forms of instruction, participants will learn to provide the kinds of comments and strategies that will help students understand how to improve both their essays and their abilities as writers.

All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Teaching and Learning Lab

Science Writing for Scientists
Seth Mnookin, Thomas Levenson
Tue Jan 10, Thu Jan 12, 01-04:00pm, 4-153

Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 09-Jan-2012
Limited to 30 participants.
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: Paragraph describing why the student wishes to participate

This class will lead its participants through the journey from facts into story as they learn how to communicate science in ways a broad public audience will engage and remember.
This class introduces participants to the key steps involved in presenting complicated ideas in an accurate and memorable fashion. In the first session we will cover what elements make excellent science writing for the public: structure, metaphor as a tool, translation of complexity, accuracy while simplifying, and the art of triage – telling your audience what it needs to know to grasp your material, but not everything that you know.
Students will discuss a series of research findings and background materials, and transform them into a short popular piece. Those pieces will be workshopped until the participants grasp the idea of story, as opposed to report, down to the bone.
The class will be led by the New York Times bestselling science writer Seth Mnookin, and by Peabody and National Academies award-winning writer and film maker Thomas Levenson, head of 21W.
Web: http://sciwrite.mit.edu/events/science-writing-for-scientists
Contact: Shannon Larkin, 14N-108, x2-5036, slarkin@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE)

Teaching Students to Write from Research
Dr. Andrea Volpe
Thu Feb 2, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

Wondering about the best way to teach students to do scholarly research in the age of Wikipedia? This workshop will examine some of the common road blocks that the Google generation encounters when they are faced with writing assignments based on their own research. We'll consider creative ways to draw on students' digital strengths, while also helping students gain a rhetorical understanding of the purpose for using sources. To help students become better academic writers with this research, we'll discuss ways of sequencing research instruction with writing assignments.

All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Teaching and Learning Lab

Why We Cite: Writing, Originality, and the Use of Sources
Suzanne Lane
Fri Jan 27, 02-04:00pm, 4-145, Pizza will be served

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 20 participants.
Single session event

This introductory workshop will address how to respond to written sources critically to develop new idea, how to manage information drawn from a literature search, and how to document sources correctly.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, (617) 253-0650, acaval@mit.edu

Writing in College: Knowledge and Acknowledgement
Suzanne Lane
Thu Jan 26, 04-06:00pm, 4-145, Pizza will be served

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 20 participants.
Single session event

This introductory workshop will address how to respond to written sources critically to develop new ideas, how to manage information drawn from a literature search, and how to document sources correctly.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, (617) 253-0650, acaval@mit.edu

Writing with Integrity: Composing Original Ideas in Conversation with Experts
Suzanne Lane
Mon Jan 23, 02-04:00pm, 4-159, Pizza will be served

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Limited to 20 participants.
Single session event

This introductory workshop will address how to respond to written sources critically to develop new ideas, how to manage information drawn from a literature search, and how to document sources correctly.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, (617) 253-0650, acaval@mit.edu


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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Last update: 7 Sept. 2011