News2014October
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston31 October 2014
Student Matters
Applications for spring 2015 admission are due November 1, 2014. Please review the application requirements (http://www.umb.edu/admissions/grad/apply) and contact cct@umb.edu with questions.
Registration will open in early November for spring 2015 courses. Current students may register through WISER, and non-degree students may use the course registration web site:
http://caps-courses.umb.edu/courses/spring/cr/gr/crcrth/
Hybrid (note class numbers following each course; distance students should register for those labeled as online)
CRCRTH 615 Holistic and Transformative Teaching (Wednesdays 4:00-6:45pm / face-to-face:#7315 / online:#7314)
CRCRTH 652L Children and Science (emphasis on Conceptual Change and Learning) (Mondays 4:00-6:45pm / face-to-face:#7218 / online:#6783)
CRCRTH 653L Epidemiological Thinking and Population Health (Tuesdays 4:00-6:45pm / face-to-face:#7219 / online:#6784)
CRCRTH 688 Reflective Practice (first Monday of each month 6:30-9:00pm / face-to-face:#7220 / online:#6785)
CRCRTH 693 Action Research for Educational, Professional, and Personal Change (Wednesdays, 7:00-9:45pm / face-to-face:#7221 / online:#6786)
CRCRTH 694 Synthesis of Theory and Practice Seminar (Tuesdays, 7:00-9:45pm / face-to-face:#7222 / online:#6787)
Fully Online:
CRCRTH 602 Creative Thinking (#6780)
CRCRTH 616 Dialogue Processes (#6781)
Face-to-face:
WGS 597 Gender, Race & the Complexities of Science and Technology (inter-campus course, co-taught by Peter Taylor, meets at MIT, Thurs 4-7pm, place TBA (#13501); application form )
CCT Community
NewSSC (the New England Workshop on Science and Social Change) is planning its May 2015 workshop in Woods Hole, Mass so it can draw in prospective, current, and past CCT students. Participants will come together over 5 days to create spaces, interactions, and support in formulating plans to extend our own projects of inquiry and engagement. What would help NewSSC at this point is to hear from prospective CCT participants which five-day periods in the second half of May would work for you and, for CCT students, what travel subsidy would be needed for you to attend. Please complete the form: http://sicw.wikispaces.com/newssc15CCT
UMass named one of 100 best universities in the world: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/
CCT Events
Prospective students: please visit CCT at the Graduate Studies Showcase 2014: Wednesday, November 12, 4:00-7:30 p.m. in the UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom. Meet with representatives of CCT and learn more about the program, courses, and how the graduate study of critical and creative thinking can meet your needs. Registration is open: http://www.umb.edu/admissions/visit/graduate_studies_showcase/admissions_graduate_showcase
Register now for upcoming Collaborative Exploration (CE) for November 2014: How Gender Shapes Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking, and Vice Versa
Free, online Collaboration Exploration (CE), open to all, in which participants investigate critical and creative thinking in more specific contexts. A CE involves four 1-hour online meetings in Google+ Hangout spaced one week apart, with time in between the online meetings for independent investigation of the topic according to individual interest. The day and time of the online meetings will be determined based on availability of those who register early. For more information, see http://cct.wikispaces.com/CENov14, and register here: http://bit.ly/CEApply
Alum and CCT associates Notes
CCT alum Sheryl Savage ('07) has started a new position in Senior Management at the BVNA and is looking forward to working to bringing the level of service to the community to new heights. Sheryl notes, “my CCT training assists me in every step of the way . I am proposing new ways of doing business that will benefit all.”
Alums and CCT associates are invited to submit items to be included in our email newsletter by using this link. These may be announcements of events, personal news and/or updates on your work and projects, job opportunities and calls for participation, and any other items that you'd like to share with the wider CCT community.
Events
Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies: The Gender, Health, and Marginalization Series (free and open to the public):
Anita: Speaking Truth to Power
A Film Screening of the Anita (2013) with Panel Discussion featuring Dr. Evelynn Hammonds (Professor of African and American Studies at Harvard University, Former Dean of Harvard College) and Leena Akhtar (Doctoral Candidate, History of Science, Harvard University)
Wednesday November 5, 7 pm
MIT Campus, Building 4 Room 370
Sponsored by the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies at MIT. For more information: http://web.mit.edu/gcws
Public Discussion on “Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life”
Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 3:00-4:30pm, UMass Boston Healey Library, Lower Level, Room 019 (P2)
UMass Boston has recently become a member of Imagining America, making it part of a national consortium of universities committed to advancing public scholarship and engaged creative practice in higher education, with particular focus on public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design. The discussion will focus on how the university can make use of this opportunity.
UMass Boston’s Second Annual Book and Performance Art & Music Party
Thursday, December 4, 2014, 3:00-5:00pm, UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom B
Public Conversations Project Workshop: Facilitating with Purpose & Poise Even When Things Get Hot
November 11-12, 2014, 46 Kondazian St., Watertown, MA 02472
Whether you are a civic or religious leader, trainer, committee chair, manager, or facilitator of any kind, leading a meeting requires the ability to effectively handle difficult moments. This two day workshop provides the tools and training to improve your ability to navigate challenges as a leader of constructive conversation.
For more details and registration information: http://www.publicconversations.org/workshops/purpose-and-poise
UMass Boston McCormack School’s Upcoming Events:
November 7, 9:00am-6:15pm; at the JFK Library:
The Unfinished Agenda: New England Women's Policy Conference (Co-hosted by the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy); see http://scholarworks.umb.edu/newomenspolicyconf/
November 18, 3:30-5:30pm; UMass Boston Science Center, 2nd Floor, Room 063:
Swimming Upstream: Families Need to Manage Growing Economic Risks with Increasingly Inadequate Tools; see http://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/swimming_upstream_families_need_to_manage_growing_economic_risks_with_incre
Opportunities
Call for proposals: Quality Matters Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference “With Liberty and Quality for All”
Proposals accepted through December 10.
Conference: March 23-24, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Your conference presentation can offer educators and administrators in your region valuable insight into how you’ve been implementing QM, the successes and challenges you’ve encountered and how you’ve integrated QM into your institution’s processes.
Your presentation can help guide the future of education. Besides having the chance to influence the QM Community, the benefits of presenting at the conference include:
Receive lowest available pricing
Gain visibility for your work, ideas and/or methods that incorporate QM Standards
Gain credibility for grant-funding
To submit a proposal:
Choose your track. Options include Designing to Meet QM Standards, Case Experiences, Models of QM Implementation, QM-focused Research and Building Competencies for Online Education.
Choose a presentation format
Assemble your proposal information: title, learning objectives, brief description, and full description.
Submit your proposal
For full details and proposal submission: https://ww2.eventrebels.com/er/CFP/OnlineSubmissionEMailLogin.jsp?CFPID=435&Submit=Reset&Token=9N9WYEX5XBUD9SQ3PXZ3BSYSP2
Call for Papers for Trans-Scripts, the interdisciplinary journal in the Humanities and Social Sciences at UC
Irvine. Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2015.
The theme of the fifth volume of Trans-Scripts is "Race/Gender Revisited." We welcome a wide range of submissions from a variety of disciplines. Founded in 2010, Trans-Scripts is a student-run and edited interdisciplinary journal, and the editorial collective of graduate students come from diverse academic fields, including English, History, Culture & Theory, Psychology and Social Behavior, Anthropology, Philosophy, Women's Studies, and African-American Studies. Faculty advisors represent an even more varied range of disciplines. All submissions will be reviewed by both students and faculty to ensure the highest quality of work. Though primarily a forum for student work, faculty are welcome to contribute as well. We also publish editorials by renowned experts on each theme covered.
For more information: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/collective/hctr/trans-scripts/
Foundation for Critical Thinking’s Second International Fellows Academy on Critical Thinking
“Designing Instruction So That Students Learn to Think Things Through”
December 1-5, 2014, University of California, Berkeley
The Second International Fellows Academy will be led by Dr. Gerald Nosich, an international authority on critical thinking, and the author of Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum. His book will serve as the core text in our upcoming academy focused on Designing Instruction So That Students Learn to Think Things Through
For more information: http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/2nd-international-fellows-academy/1200
Call for proposals: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Program
Two-page proposals sought on these topics no later than November 22, 2014:
Surveillance Tools, Diagnostics and an Artificial Diet to Support New Approaches to Vector Control; New Approaches for Addressing Outdoor/Residual Malaria Transmission; New Ways to Reduce Pneumonia Fatalities through Timely, Effective Treatment of Children; Enable Universal Acceptance of Mobile Money Payments to Create an Economic Ecosystem that Will Help Lift the Poorest Out of Poverty; Explore New Ways to Measure Brain Development and Gestational Age; New Ways of Working Together: Integrating Community-Based Interventions
Funding: $100,000 per award
For more information: http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/explorations/Pages/introduction.aspx
Call for proposals: NSF - National Science Foundation, Catalyzing New International Collaborations
Funding: $2,000,000
Estimated Number of Awards: 30 to 40 per year
Deadline: January 22, 2015
For more information: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf13605
Resources
New book: Educating Angels: Teaching for the Pursuit of Happiness
From author Anthony M. Armstrong:
“I champion the cause of treating students as ends in themselves by dedicating their education to their own deepest aspiration rather than using them for the purposes of the state. Happiness is the deepest and most universal human aspiration. Empowering students' pursuit of happiness should be the primary purpose of education.”
For more information:
http://educatingangels.co/ and http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Happiness-Education-%7C-Anthony-A;search%3Ahappiness%20education
UMass Boston 50: http://www.umb.edu/50
New web site in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of UMass Boston, where you can learn about University of Massachusetts Boston history, view and read personal postings from alumni, faculty, and staff; and contribute your own experiences. In addition, the web site includes photos, an interactive timeline of significant moments in our history, and information about the 50th-anniversary events. The site will change over time to include more events and milestones.
Food for Thought
(additional web links and posts can also be found on CCT's Diigo pages. General critical and creative thinking focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/ccreflect; Science in a Changing World focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/sicwumb)
From the blog Probe-Reflect-Change: Indirect paths to critical thinking | Slow and Move mode in a graduate program for personal and professional development II | Move mode: Some exemplars | SloMoCoCo
The Medium is the Message at 50 (podcast)
When Violins Meet Leaf Analysis
Storytelling in Workplace Training
The Earth has half as many animals as it did in 1970
How Social Innovation Labs Contribute to Transformative Change
Out with the air: Bridgestone shows off tires you never have to inflate
10 Mind-Boggling Paradoxes
Fracking company teams up with Susan G. Komen, introduces pink drill bits “for the cure”
Front End of Innovation USA | FEI 2013
Meet the game developer who codes entirely with his feet
Scientists sneak Bob Dylan lyrics into articles as part of long-running bet
Why DNA Is One of Humanity's Greatest Inventions
We Are All Confident Idiots
Artists Over 50: The Rise of Second Half Creativity
A 'big idea' to help the birth process (video)
4 Wearables That Give You Superpowers
Ruminate Magazine: Chewing on Life, Faith, and Art
Do Chimps Have Culture?
Common Mythconceptions - World's Most Contagious Falsehoods (from informationisbeautiful.net)
Pop-Up NYC Studio Explores Intersection of Music, Art and Technology
How Moms Change Brains
Three Irish Kids are Changing How We View Scientific Breakthroughs
How Cosmetic Companies Get Away With Pseudoscience
Why Doctors Need Stories
Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?
Coursera upcoming course: Critical Thinking in Global Challenges
Why Experts Reject Creativity
Ideo Helps Develop New Designed-Minded Journalism Degree
Lone Geniuses Are Overrated
The Krause Innovation Studio Hints at the Future of Education
22 maps and charts that will surprise you
Stop Using Neuroscience to Scare Parents
That Arts Degree Is Paying Off
A Blood Clot in the Brain, and an Artist Is Born
School Design Studio: 33 Educational Design Principles for Schools and Community Learning Centers
How Do We Know if Gifted Education Works?
Former Apple CEO John Sculley: We Need To Embrace Failure As A Way To Learn
Discovering the Art of Mathematics (DAoM)
Mayor Walsh Forms Neighborhood Innovation District Committee
HumorRun, Walter, Run!(video)