Behind Those Trees     

I have chosen Bryn Mawr’s rugby pitch/football field, and the walk to and from, as my scape. Located behind the graduate school and hidden behind towering trees, a lot of people don’t know where the pitch is unless they have a reason to be there. The pitch doesn’t appear on the campus map and you will not find signs directing you to the location. To get there, it’s about a 5 minute walk through a neighborhood that is always so eerily quiet.

 I was in a class last semester where one of my classmates strongly expressed that it was not possible to discuss diversity in science or math classrooms since these classes are really just designed to “present facts.” It seemed that he was implying that some of us were being oversensitive in wanting to discuss this. As several of my classmates and I expressed our disagreement with him, I realized how powerful lived experience is in informing how we talk about these issues. I could only explain how women sometimes feel intimated to contribute in science or math classrooms because I KNOW how this feels.

Testing out using ivisual to teach VPython-based materials through Jupyter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgAGetAkEO0

Needs more testing, and probably more refinement.

-Doug

Ecological thoughts?

"Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working..." see more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/

T, Feb. 3:
9:00 Purple Finch
9:30
10:00 Abby Sarah
10:30
2:00 Celeste
3:45 Marian
4:15 asomeshwar
4:45 Aquamarine Aura
W, Feb. 4
9:00 tajiboye
9:30 Caleb
2:00 Joni
2:30 Nkechi
Th, Feb. 5
3:45 Ariel
4:15 Rosa
4:45 Persistence

"The most common explanation for the problem that beset urban schools is that they have too many lazy students and uncaring parents" (Ayers et al., 141). Coming from public education my whole life, I am strongly against this statement. In my experience, I have seen every student start school (in elementary school), before they are aware of injustices and gang activity, in an eager manner. As the years progress, this is where a student either becomes a "lazy" student or one of those rare public education students that were able to rise above the injustice and make it. Children begin to fall behind in class and stop understanding the material for various reasons-- unknown disability, students home responsibilities, and unprepared teachers.

I had been to the Harriton House Farm twice before, both for the Harriton House Fair that happens every fall. There, with a lot of people milling about, it is easy to forget some of the history of that place. I thought a bit about the slaves that lived on the farm, and how strange it feels to be a black student at a prestigious college walking those grounds. That led me to thinking about Bryn Mawr as a space for people of color. While this year has been full of discussions about that topic, being outside by myself thinking was a nice change of pace.

1. Rank the five locations in order of where you felt happiest

• Morris Woods
• English House I 
• A laboratory in Park Science
• The Campus Center Parking Lot
• The glass staircase in Dalton Hall 

Moll, et al. "Funds of Knowledge for Teaching"

What do you think of the distinction the authors draw at the end of the article between the concepts of culture and funds of knowedge?  

How does the concept of funds of knowledge compare with the concepts of social and cultural capital?

How does the discussion of social networks as "thick" and "multi-stranded" contribute to our examination of role (coming from Dass and Gorman)?

When the teacher is present in the home, the anthropologist is surprised at how readily the parents share owing to their trust in the teacher.  Is this an example of using role in an empowering way?

What do you think of the participatory unit on candy that resulted from the ethnographic research?