1 of 13

Connecting Classrooms and the Real World: Bringing Everyone In

Victoria Austen, Robert A. Oden, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovation in the Humanities and Classics

Daniela Kohen, Professor of Chemistry

2 of 13

  • Multi-media Digital Humanities initiative.
  • Collaboration across 7 institutions.
  • Produces and hosts free, open-access resources for teaching and learning about real people in the ancient world and the real people who study them.

Peopling the Past: peoplingthepast.com

3 of 13

Multivocality in Classics and Ancient History

The study of ancient history is “institutional and exclusionary; still the stuff of galleries, museums and UNESCO World Heritage sites; of prized images, objects and structures, rather than of living humanity.”

Wengrow “A History of True Civilisation is Not One of Monuments” (2018)

​

Society for Classical Studies Survey:

  • 9% of all undergraduate Classics majors were minorities (based on the study of 2014);
  • only 3.5% of tenured full-time Classics faculty were minorities (based on the study of 2017).

4 of 13

Peopling the Past Content

Three formats:

  • Videos.
  • Blogs.
  • Podcasts.

Multimodal and Multivocal:

  • All media showcases a specialist guest.
  • Content is aimed at a general audience.
  • Supplemented with additional resources (readings, media, websites).
  • Available and accessible content.
  • Constructivist Approach.
  • Learner-centered design focus on scaffolding knowledge and meaning mapping.
  • Focus on cognitive and affective learning Goals.

5 of 13

Video Design

Goal: accessible and inclusive historical inquiry

Constructivist methods – scaffolded deductive structure

  • 3 Questions: topic → methods/data → conclusions
  • Signposts learning outcomes and highlights metacognition

Chunking – digestible pieces of information

  • Enhances learning and retention
  • 7–12 minutes optimal

6 of 13

7 of 13

Podcasts as Pedagogical Tools

8 of 13

CHEM 371 - Chemistry and Society

Science is a human endeavor. Societal context has thus shaped the questions chemists have asked, who benefits from or is harmed by the technological advancements chemists discover, and who has participated in or been excluded from the chemical enterprise. With the goal of encouraging open minded and self-critical thinking about the discipline and its practice, we will work collaboratively to explore a range of case studies, including the origin of chemical nomenclature, disparate environmental impacts, and the design of pharmaceutical clinical trials, in which chemistry intersects with, and sometimes reinforces, structural racism and other inequalities.

​

9 of 13

CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT DEIR

10 of 13

CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT DEIR

…

11 of 13

Class Goals

  • To develop an appreciation for the ways in which chemists’ activities are shaped by societal context and the ways in which these activities have far reaching consequences.
  • To develop an appreciation for diversity equity within the field of chemistry.
  • To create class material for 100&200 level chem classes, informed by past and current events, that demonstrate that chemist actions have consequences, especially as related to race.
  • To productively engage in group work that acknowledges that diversity of opinions is an asset, even when difficult to manage.

​

​

​

​

12 of 13

Class “Products”

13 of 13

Conversations and Connections

​

Green = I want to add

Pink = I want to change topic

Yellow = I have a question

​