News2014June
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston17 June 2014
Student Matters
Current students should register for summer and fall courses as soon as possible.
Registration still open for the following summer courses for current students and non-degree students: http://caps-courses.umb.edu/courses/summer/cr/gr/crcrth/
- Summer Institute: 3 weeks from July 14-August 1:
- CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking; M-Th 4:00-7:00pm; Theme: Design for Complexities of Life;
- CRCRTH 612 Seminar in Creativity; M-Th 7:00-10:00pm; Theme: Creative Thinking at Work (two sections: #2074 for face-to-face students, #2061 for distance students)
- CRCRTH 618 Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Organizational Change; Fr and Sa. 9:00am-4:15pm; (two sections: #2075 for face-to-face students, #1559 for distance students)
- Summer 2014 Online courses (6 weeks):July 14 - August 2:
- CRCRTH 611: Seminar in Critical Thinking; Theme: Critical Thinking in Business (class #1556)
- CRCRTH 619: Biomedical Ethics (class #1558)
Graduate Assistantship opportunity: New and current CCT students-both face-to-face and online-who are interested and able to work as a 1/4 time (4.5 hours/week) graduate assistant should submit a resume to cct@umb.edu as soon as possible.
Congratulations to Arthur Roberts, M.A. for May/June degree, with capstone project on "RESEARCH: AN EVOLUTIONARY METHODOLOGY FOR A COMPLEX PROCESS".
CCT student Syed Faheem Abbas offered words of reflection at this year's commencement ceremony for the College of Advancing and Professional Studies, sharing words about his experience as a CCT student. A link to the recording can be viewed on this page:
http://www.cct.umb.edu/Testimonials.html
Congratulations to newly admitted CCT students: Daniel Albert, David Choi, Carlos Daza, Nimet Sinem Makir Oztan
CCT Community
Congratulations to Professor Carol Smith on her retirement from UMass Boston.
Jeremy Szteiter was selected as winner of this year's Innovation in Online Teaching Award, bestowed by the University Conference on Teaching, Learning and Technology. He was honored at the University Conference awards ceremony on May 15.
CCT Events
Design for Living Complexities
CCT's first MOOC -- Please help us spread the word:http://bit.ly/cctdesignExplore critical thinking about design in a range of areas of life and its complexitiesStarting July 14 for 3-4 weeksChoose your level of participation: Three options
- Graduate Course, Register & pay, for credit. 4-7pm M-Th, July 14-31, face2face or from a distance by google+ hangout, http://caps-courses.umb.edu/courses/summer/cr/gr/crcrth/
- Collaborative Exploration. Open & free. Register via http://bit.ly/CEApply
- MOOC Open & free. Simply join the public google+ community,https://plus.google.com/communities/109522080021106870004
Alum and CCT associates Notes
CCT graduate Teryl Cartwright ('13) is the recipient of this spring's Delores Gallo Award. Teryl will be using the award to support her trip to London in August to lead a session at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographic Society. The session will be a workshop on "Spaces of learning: education and scholarship across cultural contexts". The Delores Gallo Award involves the submission of an original short video that shows how one has extended the CCT experience beyond the program; see Teryl's award-winning contribution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKuMBtVvAMM
(All graduates are invited to send submissions for the fall award until November 1 -- see http://www.cct.umb.edu/VideoCompetition.html)
Michelle Kennedy ('06) is now working with the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology as a database administrator.
Catherine Weber ('99) is showing her artwork as part of "Community of Artists" at the Danforth Art Museum in Framingham, MA through August 3rd. For more information, see: http://www.danforthart.org/juriedexhibitions2014.html. Catherine's other recent projects include "Tree Memories" and "Encaustic Then and Now" (art exhibitions) and a talk on "A Symphony From Thin Air: Five Artists Discuss the Creative Process".
Marnie Jain ('10) is showing her artwork at the Uforge Gallery in Jamaica Plain, MA through June 29th. For more information, see http://www.uforgegallery.com/
Events
UMass Boston Birthday Block Party
Wednesday, June 18th, 4:00-7:00pm at UMass Boston, outside on the Track field.
In continuing the celebration of UMass Boston's 50th birthday, alumni, current students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to join UMass Boston for a block party with BBQ, Softball, Live Music, giveaways and more.
Opportunities
UMass Boston is looking to fill a teaching position for fall semester course Math 114Q, Quantitative Reasoning. This course is specifically designed to show students the relevance of mathematics to their lives. It assumes a low level of mathematics background and confidence. The aims of the course are improve students' capacities to: pose problems that involve quantitative relationships in real-world data by means of numerical, symbolic, and visual representations; solve problems, deducing consequences, formulating alternatives, and making predictions; apply appropriate technologies; and communicate and critique quantitative arguments orally and in writing. Twelve sections of MA 114Q are offered each semester, on both a TuTh and MWF schedule. To inquire, please respond to Mark Pawlak, Director of Academic Support, at Mark.Pawlak@umb.edu
The Tremont School (Weston, MA) is currently seeking lead teachers in 7-9th grade math and science. This school "is a new, independent, co-educational day school in metrowest Boston for grades 5 - 12, specifically designed to offer a lively, project-based curriculum for a deliberately diverse group of students." For more information about applying: http://www.tremontschool.org/careers.php
Call for Entries: Apply for an Ideas that Matter grant with your project to change the community and the world
http://www.na.sappi.com/ideasthatmatterNA/entries.html
SAGE Open invites you to submit your manuscript for possible future publication
http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal202037/manuscriptSubmission
SAGE Open is an open access publication from SAGE. It publishes peer-reviewed, original research and review articles in an interactive, open access format. Articles may span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities. SAGE Open seeks to be the world's premier open access outlet for academic research. As such, it evaluates the scientific and research methods of each article for validity and accepts articles solely on the basis of the research. This approach allows readers greater access and gives them the power to determine the significance of each article through SAGE Open's interactive comments feature and article-level usage metrics. Likewise, by not restricting papers to a narrow discipline, SAGE Open facilitates the discovery of the connections between papers, whether within or between disciplines
Resources
Gaining Ground: DVD release of the documentary that "shows the potential for change and the possibility for betterment through community activism."
Over the course of two years during the Great Recession, we watch a new generation of leaders at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston working to prevent foreclosures and bring jobs and opportunities to one of the city's most diverse and economically challenged neighborhoods.
For more information about the film and to see the trailer, see http://gaininggroundmovie.com/
Sharing Lesson Plans and Ideas within the teacher community: http://www.sharemylesson.com/
OECD Better Life Index: compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/
Food for Thought
(additional web links and posts can also be found on CCT's Diigo page: https://groups.diigo.com/group/ccreflect)
Heard from a speech at this year's graduation ceremony at Harvard's Kennedy School: that we are the first generation affected by climate change, and the last that can do something about it...
To Watch:
On Time: The History and Future of Everything
A disease-detecting 50-cent microscope that folds like origami
Young Salsa Dancers Amaze All: from theIsraeli Salsa Congress & Holy Land Salsa Tour 2014
Good Grief: a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss
The Way Kids See It: Project Sunlight US
"This Is a Generic Brand Video": a generic brand video
This Psychological Trick May Actually Improve Your Relationship
How to Adjust Your Creativity Lens: Changing the resolution around a problem will change your creative output
Summer camp: Bringing creativity, critical thinking, empathy to classroom
To Read:
The Case for Reparations
Recipes and Reflective Learning:“What Would Prevent You From Saying It That Way?”
How to Overcome the Fear of ‘Putting Yourself Out There’
5 Ways The Brain Stymies Scientists And 5 New Tools To Crack It
11 animals who are too curious for their own good
Carbon Visuals: What the EPA reduction plan looks like
What China Loses by Forgetting
Sprout - A Pencil that Grows
Celebrating “Small Batch” Social Enterprise
"1945-1998" BY Isao Hashimoto: Multimedia artwork representing the number of nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe.
Chinese kid draws on dad's passport, gets them stuck in South Korea
10 Painful Rejection Letters To Famous People Proving You Should NEVER Give Up Your Dreams
An Antidote to the Age of Anxiety: Alan Watts on Happiness and How to Live with Presence
Can one personality trait determine your future?
The Reverse Food Truck: Taking in food donations to help those who are hungry
Pastello: Draw Act - enabling children to fully engage with the artistic process in exciting and innovative ways
Find Your Passion With These 8 Thought-Provoking Questions
Ditch the 10,000 hour rule! Why Malcolm Gladwell’s famous advice falls short
Open Systems and Glass Ceilings: The Disappearing Woman and Life on the Internet
Inspired By One Girl, Two Designing Women Set Out To Make Toys More Inclusive For All Kids
Promising solution to plastic pollution: Harvard's Wyss Institute creates bioplastic made from shrimp shells
271 Years Before Pantone, an Artist Mixed and Described Every Color Imaginable in an 800-Page Book
11 Famous Entrepreneurs Share How They Overcame Their Biggest Failure
When You Walk Into a Zoo, Are You Helping Animals or Hurting Them?
The 9 Most Influential Works of Scientific Racism, Ranked
The Genes Made Us Do It: The new pseudoscience of racial difference
The Drinkable Book's Pages Purify Water
11 Things Famous Artists And Cultural Figures Can Teach You About Creativity
How to Save Our Schools: The Arts and Music are No Fairytale
Why One Startup Will Never "Change the World"
Your Future Healthy Home Will Have Plants Inside Its Walls
Optimism for Me, Pessimism for We
The Silicon Valley Creative Class Takes Over
How Are Students’ Roles Changing in the New Economy of Information?
12 Things You Should Never, Ever Say to Teachers
HumorSolar Panels Drain the Sun’s Energy, Experts Say
Tips For Getting Those Student Loans Off Your Back