News2014February
CCT News
21 February 2014See also previous news and alum news and exchanges. Please use this form for all inquiries, notice of events, contact updates, career updates, web/wiki glitches, suggestions, resources for us to put in news/calendar, request to be emailed when there's a new monthly news compilation, or request to be removed from such mailings.
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Contents: Student matters, CCT community, CCT events, alums, other events, opportunities, resources, food for thought, humor
Student Matters
The CCT program announces its Summer 2014 Institute in Creative Thinking at Work (summer registration opens on April 7)The Summer Institute is a three-week (July 14 - August 2, 2014) immersion experience in Critical and Creative Thinking, involving hybrid courses (face-to-face courses with participation at a distance possible). You may attend any combination of the courses. For more information, contact cct@umb.edu or see http://www.cct.umb.edu/summer.html
CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking (two sections: #2073 for face-to-face students, #2060 for distance students)
- Theme: Design for Complexities of Life
- Class Meetings: M-Th, 4:00-7:00pm for 3 weeks
- Theme: Creative Thinking at Work
- Class Meetings: M-Th, 7:00-10:00pm for 3 weeks
- Class Meetings: Fr and Sa, 9:00am-4:15pm for 3 weeks
Summer 2014 Online courses (6 weeks):
May 27 - July 9:
CRCRTH 612: Seminar in Creativity; Theme: Inside the Creative Process: Exploring Blocks and Finding Creative Ground (class #1557)
CRCRTH 627: Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education (class #1489)
July 14 - August 21:
CRCRTH 611: Seminar in Critical Thinking; Theme: Critical Thinking in Business (class #1556)
CRCRTH 619: Biomedical Ethics (class #1558)
CCT Community
Upcoming Collaborative Exploration (CE):
March 2014: Comparing policy and practices around new genetic technologies
This free, online Collaboration Explorations (CE) will be offered in March and focuses on the theme above. See the full description for more details and background on Collaborative Explorations. Weekly online meetings will be held on a schedule to be determined. Please register (http://bit.ly/CEApply) to confirm your interest and indicate your availability, which will be considered in setting the final schedule.
CCT Events
Critical and Creative Thinking Open House: Our Lives and Other Worlds: Reflections from Graduates of the CCT Program
Monday, March 3, 6:30-9:00pm EST, UMass Boston, Campus Center, Room 2550B (University Dining Club conference room); participation at a distance possibly by Google+ Hangout for those who RSVP to cct@umb.edu.
During this on-campus open house event, CCT alumni will share their experiences of bringing critical and creative thinking beyond the formal program of study into workplaces and lives. Join us to meet current and prospective students, faculty, and others across the CCT community. All are welcome. Refreshments will be provided.
Email cct@umb.edu for more information, or see http://www.cct.umb.edu/CCTNetwork3Mar14.html
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Abby Yanow, recent CCT adjunct instructor and President of the Boston Facilitators Roundtable, has accepted a position as Director of Leadership Development for the Non-ProfitRoundtable of Greater Washington in Washington, DC, involving the development of leaders and programs for the 350 non-profit member organizations and 40 corporate members, and to increase the impact of the non-profit sector. Congratulations Abby!
Barbara Huscher Cohen (alum, '03) writes,
"Retired as the Health Education Director of Boston Public Schools- after I got condoms into to the schools and wrote new Health Education Framework- that are skills based- had both things stamped by the school committee and said, "I'm done." Now travel the world teaching about Sex Ed- had an incredible experience in The Gambia and am on the guest lecture circuit of local universities- loving it!"
Jeremy Poehnert (alum, '12) has started working at the Answer Center at a local community college (like UMass Boston's One Stop comprehensive help service for students). He notes, "I'm taking two courses for fun - one in Early Childhood (I might want to work with preschoolers at some point in the future), and a Creative Writing course, both of which I'm really enjoying."
Events
If You Build It: Film Screening and Producer Q&A on the new documentary film
7:00pm on Saturday, March 1 and 1:40pm on Sunday, March 2
Screenings at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, MA
Q&A Session with Producer Neal Bear (E.R., Law & Order SVU) following both screenings
Film synopsis: From the director of WORDPLAY and I.O.U.S.A. comes a captivating look at a radically innovative approach to education. IF YOU BUILD IT follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what's possible.
Trailer: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/ifyoubuildit/
Kendall Square Cinema: http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Index.htm
UMass Boston Community-Engaged Partnerships Symposium: Teaching, Research, Service
April 2, 2014, 9:00am-4:00pm(events throughout the day)
UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom
This day-long event features workshops and a lunchtime poster showcase designed to advance community-engaged activities and celebrate the university’s achievements. Faculty, staff, and community partners are invited to attend.
For full schedule: http://www.umb.edu/ocp/partnerships_symposium
Jonathan Kozol: Celebrating the College of Education and Human Development, and Poster Session
April 28, 2014
1:00: Poster session highlighting faculty and student projects focused on making positive impact in our communities
4:00: Jonathan Kozol keynote address, followed by book signing
UMass Boston, Campus Center Ballroom
In coordination with UMass Boston's 50th anniversary, National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol will speak about his extensive work supporting communities, children, and schools. Following the address, there will be a book signing for his most recent book, Fire in the Ashes.
For more information: http://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/jonathan_kozol_celebrating_cehd
UMass Boston Memories Roadshow
Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2014, 10:00am-3:00pm each day
UMass Boston, Campus Center First Floor Terrace
The Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide digital history project that documents people, places, and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. It is an initiative of University Archives and Special Collections in UMass Boston's Joseph P. Healey Library and co-sponsored by the Patricia C. Flaherty '81 Endowment Fund at UMass Boston.
All in the UMass Boston community are invited to contribute materials such as photographs and stories to be shared through the exhibit.
For more information: http://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/umass_boston_mass_memories_road_show
UMass Boston 8th Annual University Conference on Teaching & Learning
Theme: Teaching both What and How for Deep Learning at Every Level
May 15, 2014, 8:00am-4:00pm (conference events), 5:00-6:00pm (post-conference social gathering)
Location: UMass Boston Healey Library, various locations for sessions
For additional details: http://www.umb.edu/cit/conferences
Call for Proposals for conference sessions: http://www.umb.edu/cit/conferences/cit_proposals
Opportunities
Please use http://bit.ly/CCT2014 to suggest people -- including yourself -- who we should contact if/when the University authorizes a position along the following lines:
- Critical & Creative Thinking (CCT) graduate program and Science in a Changing World track, UMass Boston
- half-time, 12-month, non-tenure track Lecturer,
- to begin summer or fall 2014,
- courses span psychology, conceptual development in math and science, as well as teaching research and writing for mid-career professionals around reflective practice and CCT in general,...
Call for Course Proposals: Teach in Tufts University Experimental College
Help enrich the intellectual experience of undergraduate students by designing and teaching elective courses in interdisciplinary subjects involving contemporary ideas. Proposals are being sought for courses to be offered in fall 2014. Approved proposals will allow you to become a Visiting Lecturer for the semester and receive a stipend.
Proposal deadline: March 10, 2014. For more information and proposal application: http://www.excollege.tufts.edu/
Call for Proposals for the 34th International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform (to be held July 28-31, 2014 in Berkeley, CA)
Deadline: April 1, 2014
We are seeking proposals to present a concurrent session at our upcoming annual summer conference. All concurrent sessions should be based on sound research and substantive theory. These sessions will be held on Wednesday, July 30 and are one hour in length. All proposals will be evaluated by the fellows of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and selected scholars from the field. We especially invite sessions that focus on applying critical thinking to instruction (in any subject, discipline, profession, or specialization), or to important issues requiring critical thinking in any domain of human life. We invite sessions from faculty, administrators, scholars, professionals, and teachers at all levels. We invite sessions from professionals in government and from any sector of society. We are looking for sessions that explore the relationships between critical thinking and reasoning within academic subjects and disciplines. We hope to receive sessions that deal with overcoming the barriers to critical thinking development. We welcome sessions focused on the cultivation of the intellect, and the cultivation and assessment of intellectual constructs in any field of study. We also invite sessions focused on the relationship between critical thinking and the cultivation of the public citizen.
Call for Applications: The Elaine Werby Internship Awards at the Center for Social Policy
For Summer 2014 or the Fall Term 2014
Application Deadline: Friday, March 14, 2014
Selection Announcement: April 14, 2014
For the application form and questions about the application, contact: Werby.Internship@umb.edu.
Purpose: The Werby Internship will provide financial assistance to an advanced undergraduate or graduate student from any academic discipline at UMass Boston who wishes to gain professional experience in the area of research and evaluation related to eradication of poverty, especially in Massachusetts, New England, and the United States. The internship will engage a student with a directed work assignment within a Center for Social Policy (CSP) project. For more information about CSP, go to: http://www.umb.edu/csp/. For information on recent CSP projects, go to: http://www.umb.edu/csp/research.
Award: A $2,500 award will be presented to the selected student to help defray educational and living expenses while working as a Werby Intern. One half of the award will be distributed to the student at the beginning of the term and the remaining half distributed at the conclusion of the internship. The intern will be invited to take part in CSP special events and team meetings. Academic credit will be available according to established University policies and in coordination with the student’s department. (Funds for the internship will be available from a designated Revolving Fund made up of gifts from individual, corporate and foundation donors.)
Resources
Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking Student Handbook: http://www.cct.umb.edu/CCTHandbook.html
Social media communities for the Critical and Creative Thinking program: regular track and Science in a Changing World track
Food for Thought
To Watch:
"Who is Dependent on Welfare?", a project of GlobalPOV, U.Cal Berkeley
Amazing interactive showing the scale of everything in the universe
The Mind-Blowing Mathematics of Sunflowers
To Read:Learning to Think Outside the Box: Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline
Diversity & Democracy's current issue on "New Technologies: Implications for Higher Education's Democratic Mission"
The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath
Science Explains Your Boring, Repetitive Musical Taste
Eloy Morales' Self-"Portraits"
Belgium: Lawmakers vote for children's 'right to die' euthanasia law
Women in Music: Trailblazing Female Singers, Songwriters and Musicians
Photographer Erik Johansson's Photo Manipulations
Secrets of the Brain: New technologies are shedding light on biology’s greatest unsolved mystery: how the brain really works
4,000 Rubik’s Cubes and a dream helped make this giant mosaic
To be creative, it helps to cheat
‘Human Library’ Loans Out Interesting People Who Would Tell You Stories
How to Design a Co-working Space Aimed at Collaboration and Creativity
In the brain, timing is everything: Study reveals how the brain links memories of events that occur one after the other
Why We love Sad Music, And Other Musical Mysteries Explained (By Brain Science)
Can Science Save Modern Art?: More importantly, should it? The Growing Debate Over Conserving Art that's Meant to Decay
5 Ways The Macintosh Changed Creativity Forever
Project I'm not a look-alike!: Photos of look-alike strangers
The Quantum Mechanics of Fate: How Time Travel Might Explain Some of Science's Biggest Puzzles
Nancy Carlsson-Paige: How to raise a grounded, creative child
Key insights from recent research on the “Science of a Meaningful Life”
Humor
Abbott's Village Bakery - Free Range Bread Farm
If those online meetings happened in real life
