News2014March
CCT News
27 March 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
Registration for summer 2014 opens on April 1. Please see below for the CCT summer course schedule. Students may register through WISER, and non-degree students can find course and registration details here:http://caps-courses.umb.edu/courses/summer/cr/gr/crcrth/
Summer academic calendar:
http://www.umb.edu/academics/caps/credit/summer/calendar
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
We seek her here, we seek him there! The Scarlet Pimpernel Challenge
Help CCT identify candidates for the position of Lecture in Critical and Creative Thinking. See http://bit.ly/ScarletP for details on how you can receive a valuable book voucher by through your referrals.
CCT graduates are invited to apply for the Delores Gallo Fund for spring 2014, with a stipend of $300 to the one receiving the award. Please see the full description for more details, which involves the creation of a brief, original video related to your CCT experience and ongoing work. Submission deadline: April 30, 2014.
http://www.cct.umb.edu/VideoCompetition
Upcoming Collaborative Exploration (CE):
April 2014: Preparing people to be informed participants in political debates about science, technology, and social change
This free, online Collaboration Exploration (CE) will be offered in April 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 faculty and graduates are facilitating multi-week online small group discussions on "learning creative learning" as part of the Learning Creative Learning online course/MOOC currently being offered online. Anyone interested is encouraged to check out the upcoming events at https://plus.google.com/communities/106132864609383396284/events and by further exploring the rationale and schedule for the course at http://learn.media.mit.edu/.
CCT Events
Critical and Creative Thinking Open House: Conceptual change--an ongoing challenge to critical and creative thinkers--and to their teachers: A dialogue on the occasion of Professor Carol Smith's imminent retirement
Monday, April 7, 6:30-9:00pm EDT, UMass Boston, Campus Center, Room 2540; participation at a distance possible by Google+ Hangout for those who RSVP to cct@umb.edu. Open to all; refreshments will be provided.
Please join us for reflections and dialogue in recognition of Carol Smith's contributions to the CCT program and her work around conceptual change. Professor Smith's teaching for CCT has included courses in Advanced Cognitive Psychology, Children and Science, the Synthesis seminar, and others, and program graduates and all others in the wider university community are invited to join and participate in discussion.
Email cct@umb.edu for more information, or see http://www.cct.umb.edu/CCTNetwork7Apr14.html
(Next open house: Monday, May 5, 2014)
Upcoming Collaborative Exploration (CE): see above under CCT Community
Alum and CCT associates Notes
CCT graduates are invited to apply for the Delores Gallo Fund for spring 2014, with a stipend of $300 to the one receiving the award. Please see the full description for more details, which involves the creation of a brief, original video related to your CCT experience and ongoing work. Submission deadline: April 30, 2014.
http://www.cct.umb.edu/VideoCompetition.html
Basye Hendrix, CCT graduate ('99) and current Conflict Resolution student is seeking participants to help complete anonymous online surveys in support of her research around speaking and listening behaviors as they related to conflict resolution. Instructions for completing the surveys can be found here and here.
Kevin Johnson, CCT graduate ('06) and Director of Berklee College of Music's Office for Diversity and Inclusion writes, "a project I've been working on for the past three years that has really taken off here at Berklee College of Music and we've opened it up to faculty in the Pro Arts Consortium. Its called Training Transformational Teachers (TTT) and it blends the latest research from the fields of neuroscience, cognitive science, and universal design learning to give faculty participants strategies for how to help their students understand more content and concepts more deeply."
The website is http://berkleefacultydevelopment.com/ttt
CCT definitely gave me the confidence and skills to help put this project together. Thank you."
Events
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
Also see the university's open archives: http://openarchives.umb.edu/
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
CCT graduates: please see items under Alums and CCT Associates Notes section above.
Please use http://bit.ly/CCT2014 to suggest people -- including yourself -- who we should contact now that the University has authorized 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,...
We seek her here, we seek him there! The Scarlet Pimpernel Challenge
Help CCT identify candidates for the position of Lecture in Critical and Creative Thinking. See http://bit.ly/ScarletP for details on how you can receive a valuable book voucher by through your referrals.
Resources
The World Alliance for Arts Education has worked with two UNESCO Chairs (Arts and Learning; Arts and Culture in Education) and one UNESCO Observatory (Arts in Education) to compile an International Arts Education Week booklet to help arts educators plan activities for the International Arts Education Week (May 19-25, 2014) in their schools and communities, especially around advocacy and addressing policy. See the booklet here:
http://insea.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/WAAE%20Advocacy_UNESCO%20INTL%20ARTS%20ED%20WEEK.pdf
"The State of American Well-being": A report from the Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index
Food for Thought
To Watch:
Moss-powered electricity
Reaction Call to Action: Innovation Around How the World Responds to Disaster
Five-Minute Film Festival: Learning and the Brain
Unbelievable Bus Shelter
A 50-cent microscope that folds like origami
Crochet Artists Takes on the L Train
How to Create a Popup Museum
A Red Thumb Reminder (and Distracted Driving)
To Read:How Does The Brain Recognize Familiar Music?
These Inflatable Homeless Shelters Harness Air Vent Exhaust
8 Brilliant Scientific Screw-ups
Mentoring Minds Celebrates Creative and Critical Thinking in Schools with Online Contest
'Think FSU' program aims to improve critical thinking in curriculums
Two-year-olds box clever by showing creative thinking in test
The Science of Failure: Why Highly Successful People Crave Mistakes
The Fascinating Neuroscience Of Color
The Cardboard Standing Desk: Stand Up for Creativity
The Design Thinking Blog
Creativity in the Membrane, Creativity in the Brain
How The Cost Of College Went From Affordable To Sky-High
The Path to Peak Water
(On the DSM-5, as a) Book of Lamentations: A new dystopian novel in the classic mode takes the form of a dictionary of madness
Scientists Debunk The Myth That 10,000 Hours Of Practice Makes You An Expert
Eartha Kitt: On Love and Compromise
Scientists to Americans: We're Not Divided on Climate Change
Professor Andrei Linde: Physicist Learns That His Life’s Work Has Changed Science Forever. His Reaction Is Priceless
Inheriting Stress
17+ must-reads on illegal wildlife trade
Which fossil fuel companies are most responsible for climate change? (interactive)
The Future of Books Looks a Lot Like Netflix
Mind-blowing Images from the World of Science
The Empathy Library: On Reading to inspire empathy, and a related study
The past year’s top 10 scientific insights about living a meaningful life
The New Barbie: Meet the Doll with an Average Woman’s Proportions
Sleeveface Portraits
The Dark Psychology of Being a Good Comedian
Humor
The Onion Report: Ocean Levels Could Rise a Foot Or More...
Patently Silly: An archive of silly (but very real) patents
One thorough system for docking kids' allowance