Hello all and welcome to this week's episode of the View of Allegheny Freshmen on WVAF 90.8. Join hosts Kerri and Julianna as they explore the potential problems with alcohol use on college campuses. Some issues tackled in this week's episode include amnesty for underage college students, alcohol free alternatives at Allegheny, and the pros and cons of lowering the drinking age to 18. Some insightful caller questions make this week's segment a must-tune-in event. So, join us as we discuss the importance of Making Safe Choices.

Join Natalie, Liz, and Henry as they discuss student responses to the new food service on campus. Has Parkhurst been successful in achieving it's mission at Allegheny? Listen in as the podcast crew shares positive and negative feedback from student interviews and considers some of the challenges facing Parkhurst in today's economy. Whether you are a vegetarian looking for options, a foodie looking for world fare, or just hoping to find something that reminds you of home, you are sure to have something to say about Mission Accomplished?

Well, it has been several weeks now since I last asked you all to take a moment to reflect on your goals and aspirations. This week's episode of Sunday Morning (from 9.21) provides a somewhat light-hearted opportunity for us to pause and consider makes us tick.

In her interview with Graydon Carter (editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair), Tracy Smith asks him a few of the questions from the Proust Questionnaire, a questionnaire that is used in Carter's own magazine (and by James Lipton of the Actor's Studio). Some of the questions could be quite useful in thinking about the reality of who you are and the ideal of where you would like to be. Take a moment to reflect on some of these questions. While not all of them are serious, they do all require a bit of thought, and that's the point!

When you are done with the questionnaire, take a moment to see how some of the people interviewed by Vanity Fair responded.

2. What is your greatest fear? That I will let people down.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Self-doubt

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Insincerity

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Teaching

25. What is your most marked characteristic? Resiliency

33. What is your greatest regret? Not getting to share this part of my life with gram & papa.

35. What is your motto? Whether or not you believe you can do a thing, you are right.

At Cognitive Group last Friday, we watched the TED Talk of Sir Ken Robinson. In that talk, Robinson raises concerns about whether our educational system is designed in a way that kills creativity. The group discussed several of Robinson's ideas including different ways of learning, how assessment testing figures into the issue, specific experiences that "teach" students to avoid risking mistakes, and the tendency for us to think about our education in terms of "how to get an A" or "how to stand out for grad school." Our conversation ended with a consideration of what we can do as students and educators to return the focus back to the intrinsic value of education...learning for learning's sake. How do we recapture our childhood passion and curiosity?

Silvia (2008) shares some ideas regarding Interest: The curious emotion that might help shed some light on our discussion. Specifically, he would argue that interest plays a major role in how we acquire knowledge. For example, we engage more with material when we are interested and with this increased attention comes the potential for long-term learning. However, Silvia also points out that interest is a tricky emotion to define. He classifies interest as a knowledge emotion which also includes confusion, surprise, and awe (p. 57). What distinguishes interest is its function which is directly related to supporting the learning process. Silvia suggests that, "when interested, students persist longer at learning tasks, spend more time studying, read more deeply, remember more of what they read, and get better grades in their classes" (p. 58).

So how, specifically, does interest occur? Silvia describes what seems like a two-stage process. Initially, students should be given some general background knowledge regarding a topic. This general background then prepares them for the second step in the process in which the opportunity for novel and challenging experiences with the concept are offered. Silvia highlights the importance of the first step by offering an example--if two sets of students are taken on a field trip to a museum, one group with some background knowledge of art history and the other without, the group who has been "prepared" is more likely to engage with the experience and to take more from it (p. 58). In other words, curiosity is ignited by a challenge when the tools to "take on" that challenge are in place. Silvia also suggests that "curiosity is a way of managing arousal" in that we will look for new experiences when we are bored and that as we become more interested in a subject, we will begin to identify its complexities which, in turn, will re-energize our exploratory efforts (p. 59). The implied "feedback mechanism" of interest seems to argue that the main goal for educators should be to initiate student engagement and then to let that process unfold.

Still, I wonder how much of this process varies according to individual differences. I know that I am often confounded by the lack of enthusiasm some people display for topics that I find fascinating. And, I'm sure, this disconnect happens a lot between students just beginning in an area and professors who are passionate about it. How do we create a sense of "group interest"? How can we generate interest in students before they have the background of information necessary to be curious about a field? Is it possible to initiate interest in an unknown area before students become bored or frustrated by the field?

Identifying ways to generate interest in the classroom is not an easy task and researchers seem eager to revisit this challenge. Hmm...how does that work? Feel free to offer your ideas and suggestions!

Paul J. Silvia (2008). Interest—The Curious Emotion Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17 (1), 57-60 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00548.x

On this week's episode of Sunday Morning (9.7), we learned about the town of Trinidad, CO where sex-change surgery was first performed. During our discussion, the idea of "choice" came through...that we could respect the choice people make to undergo the surgery. I wonder about the word choice in this context because it implies that the disruptions in gender identity that occur in transgenders is something that one can choose to address. This leaves open the idea that some people, if they tried hard enough, could "get over" the struggle they are facing. It occurred to me that maybe we don't recognize that these disruptions occur more often than we think and that they occur from a very early age. So, I wanted to share with you a segment that originally aired on 20/20 last year that examines transgender children and the struggles their families face to ensure the health and happiness of their loved ones.

For links to the continuing parts of the segment, continue reading...

Part 5

Pull out your thinking caps, stretch your creativity muscles, and put your heads together because the annual FS101 Blog Awards are on the line!

The coveted Best FS Blog 2008 Award is for the group blog that has it all...deep thoughts, great visuals, connections, debates. This is the blog that would be used in the cover story for our FS101...the blog that has made us all proud! The students on the winning blog will each receive 6 extra credit points for the semester.

Individual Awards...
We will also give out a few awards recognizing significant individual efforts.

The Haven't I Heard That Somewhere? Award is for the student that does the best job linking to other websites, podcasts, articles, or follow-up sources for topics that we've discussed or read about for class. The winner of this award receives 4 extra credit points.

The Let's Talk! Award is for the student that generates the most discussion and debate. This is student who creates the blog entries we love engage. The winner of this award receives 4 extra credit points.

The That's Deep! Award is for the student that presents the most reflective, critical analysis of issues from class in the debriefings and musings. These are the "thinking person's" blog entries (and where the professor loves to browse!). The winner of this award receives 4 extra credit points.

The How Cool Is That? Award is for the student that demonstrates the most creativity, broadly defined. These are the blog entries that are visually interesting, that use humor wisely, and that deal with a wide variety of issues....are these the blog entries of a frustrated artist? The winner of this award receives 4 extra credit points.

So...revise your old entries, work hard on the new ones, and get those creative juices flowing. Judging begins now and will end on Dec. 4th. The award recepients will be announced on the last day of class. Only one individual award per student, and I reserve the right to withhold awards for which the requirements have not been met.

...I think that Google employees are happy because they are given the freedom to work in ways that are most productive and effective for them. As one analyst shared, Google is successful because they understand that if you, "Hire intelligent people, let them actually use their intelligence." Don't get me wrong, free food and amenities would be wonderful, but what would get me to turn in my application would be the opportunity to work without boundaries, to collaborate with my colleagues in environments conducive to innovative thought. I would choose to become a part of the "social engineering perspective" at Google because my passion and creativity would be encouraged in tangible ways.

I wonder whether Google employees are as happy as the piece presents and whether there aren't any skeletons in those sleep pods. BUT, even if life isn't a paradise at Google, they sure have presented some wonderful ideas about how to create that paradise! And, isn't that refreshing?

So, I want to know...how could we apply this "social engineering perspective" to our classroom this semester? Please offer your suggestions through the Comments link below.

Watch CBS Videos Online

For example, Redwood Tree, one of my favorite Morrison songs, tells the story of a boy, his dog, and the relationship the boy develops with his father. The song goes, "Boy and his dog, Went out looking for the rainbow, You know what did they learn, Since that very day. Walking by the river, And running like a blue streak, Through the fields of, streams and meadows, Laughing all the way. Oh redwood tree, Please let us under, When we were young we used to go, Under the redwood tree. And it smells like rain, Maybe even thunder, Won't you keep us from all harm, Wonderful redwood tree. And a boy and his father, Went out, went out, looking for the lost dog,You know what oh haven't they learned, Since they did that together, They did not bring him back, He already had departed, But look at everything, they have learned, Since that, since that very day, Oh redwood tree, Please let us under., When we were young we used to go, Under the redwood tree. And it smells like rain, Maybe even thunder, Won't you keep us from all harm, Wonderful redwood tree."

Everytime I hear this song, I think about my childhood, the hard times and the good times I had with my dad. I think about how I have grown as a person, and where I am today. If that isn't a good example of storytelling, I don't know what is.

Work with the eyetracker is continuing this year and John will be training several more students interested in learning about the equipment. Our first goal is to design a simple visual attention experiment for the year so that we can get more practice tracking, recording data, and analyzing the results. We are interested in any ideas that you have for a study. Please feel free to share your ideas through the Comments link of this entry or to contact any of us in the lab.

Thanks everyone for a cool first meeting...our next meeting will be Friday, September 12th in Carnegie 101. If you'd like to receive information about the meetings, please email Professor Knupsky or visit the Cognitive Group website.

For more information about the iPod study and the presentation this week, continue reading...

Mahalchak, J. & Petroccia, M. (2008). Summer Project: Eye-Tracking. Presentation given at the Cognitive Group, September, Allegheny College. For the PowerPoint slides for this talk, please see Fun with Eyetracking.

Our Blogging Molly's will be holding a Requiem for a Dying Song (my favorite!)...

And perhaps the New Gators are going to figure out how they got here!

An historical review of conventions....

Watch CBS Videos Online

For on-line videos of some of the other stories we saw, continue reading...

Watch CBS Videos Online

Who's more environmentally friendly? A hybrid car owner or a used car dealer?

Watch CBS Videos Online

Throughout the semester, we will try our hand at sharing stories. And, although our formats will change (written, spoken, recorded, blogged, filmed) our goals will remain the same--to look at the world through curious eyes, with a sense of appreciation for the habits, rituals, and stories of the people, places, and events around us.

Today we saw a masterful storyteller, Charles Kuralt, display the curiosity and sincerity that made him so popular on Sunday Morning. However, this passion lives on in other storytellers who are finding new ways to capture the imagination of their audience. Jonathan Harris is one of these modern storytellers. He shares his innovative storytelling techniques in his TED talk...The art of collecting stories. Below, you can view his talk and you can also visit his project at We Feel Fine.

For more information about the event, visit, Art Galleries to Exhibit Artists at Work in “8-Hour Projects”.

However, only you can answer the question of why you are here and what you want to get from this experience. You may think it is way too early to have the answer to these questions, and you would be right....but, it is not to early to start to ask those questions. If you keep waiting for the time when you are ready to answer them, you will quickly find yourself at the end of your four years at Allegheny wondering what is next.

Asking the questions and keeping them in mind will be easier at some points than others, but every once in a while, I'll remind you to stop and reflect. And soon, you will start to have some clues that will lead you in the right direction.

So...here is my first reminder. As part of that reminder, I'd like you to think about what your education is for, what it is worth, and how you want to participate in the process. In his TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson reflects on the importance of creativity in learning. He reminds us that, "Kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go...they're not frightened of being wrong...If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. If you're not prepared to be wrong."

Watch Robinson's talk and think about how you can be creative during your time at Allegheny and whether or not you are prepared to be wrong...

• Why do we stigmatize mistakes?  Have you ever kept yourself out of a classroom conversation because you were afraind of being wrong or not saying something "important" enough?
• How do we define academic ability?  Robinson argues that many, "highly talented, brilliant people think they're not."  Why is that?
• What is academic inflation?  What is the worth of degrees these days?  How can you make yours count?
• "You'll never get a job doing that."  Is this benign advice?  Have you considered this advice when selecting your major?
• Robinson argues that we need to "educate the whole being" and to stop "educating people out of their creative capacities."  How do you think we can do this in our class?  How might you do this across your time at Allegheny?
• Robinson argues intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct.  In the past, how did you define intelligence?  How would you define it now?