by Kate Cammack, CfT Co-Director
What a wonderful, invigorating, and inspiring week at the CfT!
On Monday, Evan Joslin (Chemistry) taught us how to calculate the half-life of a radioactive material, using M&Ms. We got to eat the decayed/safe M&Ms, so participant motivation and investment was high.
Then, Leslie Todd (Art History) taught us how to look for political and social clues in Baroque paintings, such as Still Life with “Moor,” Peaches and a Lemon (below), and how she’s “flipped” her classroom so that students can create meaningful & artistic analyses together during class time.
On Tuesday, Lhakpa Sherpa (Economics) taught us how comparative advantage depends on the opportunity cost, i.e., what you give up in order to produce something of value. He joked that there were opportunity costs to coming to the CfT event that day, but they were worth it — we agree!
Then, Lily Thompson (Geology/EES) showed us how to calculate the epicenter of an earthquake using data from three seismographs. It was in San Francisco! Here she is, checking the VC’s work 👍
On Wednesday, Chris Van de Ven (Geology/GIS) asked each of us to draw a map of Sewanee, to illustrate how maps always contain an individual’s perspective and an awareness of an audience. For instance, outdoorswoman Emily’s map contained lots of trails. Deon impressed us all by including a compass on his map.
Lisa Burner (Spanish/EAH) spoke to us almost exclusively in Spanish throughout her slice! We practiced complementos directos, or shorter ways of referencing an object. “Quieres los dulces?” “Los quiero, professora!” Here she is, rewarding an eager attendee with candy.
On Thursday, Chris McDonough (Classics) got us all deeply invested in the Greek word kunopidos / κυνώπα.* The roots of the word are “dog” and “circle/round”, so it has been translated as “dog-faced” until the most recent, and perhaps controversial, translation by Emily Wilson. Spirited debate ensued about translation, interpretation, and meaning. (*sorry, Chris — I tried!).
Then, Andrea Mansker (History) presented a brief history of man-midwives and we interpreted this image from 1793. Of note, the bottom shelf of vials/tinctures reads “This shelf for my own use” 🤨
On Friday, we enjoyed another lively round of slideshow karaoke, where volunteers “presented” slides that they’d never seen before, on themes such as “My stump-speech for the department chairship” and “How to make assessment fun”. Guess who made our very playful and absurd slide decks:
Here is Maria, explaining why she should receive IRB approval for a new project:
And here is Matthew, describing his ambitious plans for his proposed 2-year sabbatical:
And here are Lily & Pepe, making a compelling pitch for a new, team-taught course:
And here are Katy & Kate presenting reasons that prospective students should join the Psychology Department. It included a “Lil Buddies” mentoring initiative and lessons in duck-walking, which was demonstrated by one of the presenters – can you guess who?
Thank you all for a delightful, engaging, and celebratory week, and special thanks to our “slice” presenters for sharing some of your teaching worlds with us. There is such heart and meaning in the teaching that happens on our campus, and Lauryl and I are moved by the thoughtful, creative, playful, and responsive teaching embodied in our community.
We’re grateful for the opportunity to continue learning and growing together, as educators.
