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science and popular culture
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current assignment(s)
7.
prelinger archive assignment
8.
yesterday's world of tomorrow
9.
final project instructions
past assignment(s)
1. introductory
essay
2.
scientists' images
3. hollow
earth reflection question
4. grayson
reflection question
5.
victorian science and
childhood assignment
6.
atomic age assignment
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yesterday’s world of tomorrow r eflection questionDue Wednesday April 29th, at the beginning of class [ this is a change from the syllabus ] In this assignment you will focus primarily on Where’s My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived, to think about how the past imagined technological change for the future – the future that happens to be the present that we live in today. You can also bring in any other class materials that had this same kind of "look to the future" aspect to them, such as the video we saw on the 1939 New York World’s Fair, videos from the Prelinger Project, or the information about Oklahoma’s Semi-Centennial Celebration from 1957 (with the "Arrows to Atoms" theme). This essay is your last writing assignment/practice session in regard to analyzing events and ideas using one of the readings as your jumping off point before you put together your final paper. This assignment should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread (3-4 pp. in length, approx. 750-1100 words). It is graded s/u and is worth 5% of the course grade. Choose one of the following options to answer: 1. From the three categories below, choose three examples from Where’s My Jetpack? to discuss. You can pick all three of your examples from one category, or mix them up as you wish.
2. Oddly enough, for all the future inventions that were envisioned in the not so distant past, the personal computer and what we came to know as the world wide web received hardly any of the kind of speculation that, say, household robots did. What do you think accounts for this deficit in visionary thinking about the future? Using two or three examples from Where’s My Jetpack? discuss what the differences were in the kinds of speculative inventions that received so much buzz (with so little payoff) and these real "inventions of the future" that were scarcely imagined previously but pervade our lives today. 3. If most of the speculative inventions of the recent past detailed in Where’s My Jetpack? had been realized, would you prefer to be living in that present-day future than the present-day present we currently experience? Discuss this both from a practical every-day viewpoint of doing stuff in the world, and from the viewpoint of how social and personal relations would likely have been transformed as well. Provide examples from Where’s My Jetpack? to develop your discussion. |
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prelinger archive assignment Due on Wednesday, April 22nd, at the beginning of class In Mad, Bad, and Dangerous? you will be reading about films and the atomic age – and for this assignment you’ll be selecting two videos from the 1940s to mid 1960s to screen yourself as further background, and as an opportunity to form your own opinions on how science and scientists were portrayed in this era. For this exercise, we’ll use the videos in the Prelinger Archives, which are "ephemeral films" that cover a wide array of topics. You should already be a bit familiar with the archive from viewing "Duck and Cover" (1951) in week 12. Your essay should be 3-4 pages in length (approx. 750-1100 words – typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, proofread). It is worth 10% of the grade. Start with the orientation page, which is at http://www.archive.org/details/prelingerIf you scroll down to the middle of the page, you will see a link for browsing by subject/keywords. (If you need it, the url for this page is http://www.archive.org/browse.php?field=/metadata/subject&mediatype=movies&collection=prelinger ( Alternatively, you can also click on a tag cloud at: http://www.archive.org/browse.php?field=/metadata/subject&collection=prelinger&view=cloud ) Look through the keywords, and choose any topic that seems related to science or technology. When you click on a video, it will take you to a page with information and user reviews in the center panel, and various ways to access the video on the left. (Note that there will be information on how many minutes the video is, and there are also thumbnails of different frames from the video.) If you are viewing the video on a computer that has software that allows you to stream video (with Quicktime installed, for example) it is likely that all you have to do is to click the link and the video will be launched for you to view. There are also options to download the video to your hard drive, so you can watch it without having to be online if you prefer. From the site’s Help Files: How do I download files?: To download the files on a PC, right click the link to the file, and select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" (or something similar depending on which browser you're using). On the Macintosh, hold the button down while the mouse is over the link, and when the menu comes up, select "Save Target As".
Once you find two videos you like, spend some time with them, and answer the following questions (if you find you want to concentrate on one of the videos that is fine, just explain why you are doing so): 1. What’s the name of your videos, what was the purpose behind their being made, and why did you choose them? 2. Describe some of the ways in which your videos portray information about science or technology, both in visual terms and in regard to any narration or text that is included. 3. What do you think the goals of the videos are (what kinds of responses or feelings or actions might those who produced it have hoped to elicit in the audience)? 4. What kinds of cultural meanings or messages about science or technology are embedded within your videos, do you think? How persuasive do you think those messages may have been in their time period, and why do you think so? |
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atomic age assignment Due Monday, April 13th at the beginning of class In this assignment we will be returning to the text by Christopher Frayling, Mad, Bad and Dangerous?, specifically pp. 82-108 of chapter 3, chapters 4-6, and the conclusion. We will also be watching two videos in class – one on the 1939 World’s Fair in New York , "The World of Tomorrow," and one from Walt Disney, "Our Friend the Atom." We will also all view "Duck and Cover" from the Prelinger Archive ( http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951). In this essay you will be selecting examples to discuss that help to describe issues relating to science and popular culture during the cold war period, as a basis for analyzing what themes, values, and concerns were most prominent.Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread (4-5 pp. in length, approx. 1000-1500 words). Choose one of the questions below to answer. This assignment is worth 15% of the course grade. Choose one of the questions below to answer. 1) Over the course of the twentieth century, but especially in the aftermath of World War II, science increasingly comes to be seen as possessing great power, unprecedented in strength and scope. Drawing on the materials above, discuss the nature of the responses to this growing power that circulated within popular culture through the mass media. To what extent are these responses similar to or different than ideas about science within popular culture today as seen in the mass media? What kind of film or other media artifact would be a good example of this similarity or difference, and why? 2) As films become an ever-more integral part of popular culture in the twentieth century, stories in which scientists are the protagonists are seen by a large and diverse audience. Which category or categories of images seem to be the most prevalent? What accounts for this? In what ways do some of the categories of images contradict each other? To what extent are these images ones that "make sense" as part of cold war culture and are no longer current – or if still current, what do you think accounts for their longevity? 3) In exploring the stories that make up the circulation of ideas about science and scientists within popular culture during these mid-twentieth century decades, what themes are displayed about the kind(s) of relationship(s) that exists between the scientific community (as represented by individual scientific figures or in terms of how "science" is represented as a collective enterprise) and the larger public? Do different categories of films suggest different answers to this question, or are there underlying forms of logic that occur across categories? Are the terms of this relationship similar to or different than the kind(s) of relationship(s) that exist today?
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victorian science and
childhood assignment Due Wednesday, April 1st at the beginning of class Note: [this is a change from the syllabus] One of the last themes we will be looking relates to the intersection of science and childhood, particularly experiences with science that take place outside of school, as free choice experiences. We’ll focus in on two time periods: the mid-19th century and the mid-20th century. I’ll be giving you some background information in lectures on Victorian science and childhood, but this is an area where the information is scattered, analyses are few and far between, and many of the materials haven’t been looked at in generations. In this assignment, we’ll try together to make sense of this period, both to understand better how popular science emerged during the nineteenth century so widely that it included children, and as a foundational contrast for our own later time period, to help mark what changes in kind have taken place. In this assignment you will be working with a bit of the material I am assembling for a website on victorian science and childhood, taking a look at it online and writing up your responses – specifically, some background on what were called "philosophical toys" (optical amusements that were also part of scientific study) and some books on science for children. What you’ll do is take a look at the information on the toys and choose a chapter(s) to read from the books (which pages and whether it is one book or two or three is up to you). For this assignment you will be focusing on the provided weblinks that will take you to the materials you will be working with, but you may draw on any of the class materials if you wish to do so. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread (about 3 pp. in length, approx. 750-900 words; if you want to go a bit longer to 4 pages you may but don’t feel pressured to do so). This assignment is graded s/u and is worth 5% of the course grade. Drawing on the materials you looked at, discuss one or more of the following questions: What are some of the chief values about studying the natural world being promoted in these nineteenth century toys and books? In what ways do you think children would have considered themselves to be part of scientific life in the 19th century? What aspects did you find surprising, or most interesting? What further questions does looking at these toys and books raise for you? In what ways would experiencing these toys and books be the same or different from toys and books today?weblinks: Optical/Philosophical Toys: Explanation of persistence of
vision and list of optical toys: Philosophical toys: The Phenakistoscope: Phenakistoscope (2): Thaumatropes: Zoetropes:
http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/ymboa/ymboa.html 2. Peter Parley's Tales about
the Sun, Moon and Stars (1850) by Samuel Goodrich (pen name Peter Parley)
-- use arrows at the top to flip: http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi943.htm http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2144.htm The Fairyland of Science -- mp3 audio files of the chapters [scroll down page]: http://librivox.org/the-fairyland-of-science-by-arabella-buckley/ The
Fairyland of Science -- flipbook (arrows at
top right turn the pages): |
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grayson reflection question In this assignment you will be reading about a brief episode that long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox experienced about three decades before when she was a teen-ager: an encounter with gray whales, as recounted in her book, grayson. Using this episode as a focal point, we will be doing three things: 1) thinking about the human-nature connection in the 20th century; 2) thinking about human-animal connections in the 20th century; and thinking about the ocean as a site for representing ideas about science, the wild, and wonder. For this assignment you will be focusing on grayson, but may draw on any of the class materials if you wish to do so. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread (3-4 pp. in length, approx. 750-1100 words). Choose one of the questions below to answer. This assignment is worth 10% of the course grade. Choose one set to answer: (the options were written to fit with each other, but if you would like to rematch them you may. Alternatively, if you wish to write your own questions – along these lines – you are welcome to run them by me for approval.) __________________________________________________ 1. Leaving the terrestrial sphere for the aquatic realm changes the dynamics of the relationship of humans to the natural world. Discuss the ways in which grayson depicts this shift. 1A. What experiences have you had with the ocean, either in person, or in representations in movies or television, for example? What impressions did these experiences leave with you about the ocean as requiring a different mindset about the natural world on our part than the one we typically work with that is derived from our primary experiences as land creatures? ____________________________________________________ 2. This story is one in which humans and animals are presented as being capable of establishing bonds with each other, despite vast differences in each. What makes these connections possible, as depicted in grayson? 2B. What experiences have you had with animals, either in person, or in representations in movies or books, for example, that suggest the same kind of possibilities as grayson – or their unlikeliness? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. grayson’s setting is a wild place – a wild place that is a transitional space [the shore] that is connected to human society, to be sure, but one in which the creatures and environment is wild. Discuss the ways in which Cox relates to this wild site, and her successes or failures in doing so. 3B. What experiences have you had with wilderness, either in person, or in representations in books and movies, for example? Do you believe that they had any effect on your own sense of self? Why or why not?
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hollow earth reflection question Due Monday, March 2nd at the beginning of class I n this assignment you will be taking a look at how an idea like the mystery of what the earth’s interior looks like circulated inside of the world of scientific experts and out within the broader public. For this assignment you will be drawing on the chapters assigned for The Hollow Earth by David Standish (chapters 1-4 and 6 and 8; chapters 5 and 7 are optional – you may draw on them if you wish but I will not have expected that you have read them.) You may also use any other handouts or class material for this section, or the petri dish blog entry (this is optional reading as well).Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread (3-4 pp. in length, approx. 750-1100 words). Choose one of the questions below to answer. This assignment is worth 10% of the course grade. Choose one of the questions below to answer. 1) Describe key aspects of scientific theories about the earth’s interior, and discuss the ways in which this kind of scientific speculation was similar to or different than the scientific enterprise of the present day. In what ways did scientific ideas intersect with popular interest in the idea of what the inside of the planet is like? In your essay, choose one image from the book as part of your discussion. 2) Describe key examples of how scientific theories about the earth’s interior became part of the subject matter for science fiction (discuss both early and late examples), and how science fiction writers further imagined these worlds. In what ways do the fantastic ideas of the science fiction authors and filmmakers reflect popular attitudes about what it means to live in a scientific world? In your essay, choose one image from the book as part of your discussion. 3) Discuss the ways in which scientific meanings and social meanings about the idea of the earth’s interior suggest some of the similarities and differences that have existed in the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries between the world of professional science and the world of popular culture. If you were to speculate on the scientific and social meanings of outer space in the present day would you see these same kind of patterns? In your essay, choose one image from the book as part of your discussion.
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In this assignment you will be taking a look at a broad array of images
about scientists and selecting some key aspects to discuss. Your essay
should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread (4-5 pp. in
length, approx. 1000-1500 words). This assignment is worth 15% of the course
grade. For this assignment you will be drawing on all of the reading assigned
through week three, and our lectures and discussions and film up through
week 4. That doesn’t mean you have to discuss everything – but any of the
items that have been included in the first part of the course can be used by
you (this includes the petri dish blog and links included in the entries if
you are checking that out as part of your optional reading). You will be
required to use the assigned portions of Mad, Bad, and Dangerous and
the detective writing you chose to look at (either Poe or A.C. Doyle). One key source for ideas that circulate in science and
popular culture are images of scientists themselves. Within western culture
there is a repertoire of what have become fairly consistent (and sometimes
contradictory!) portrayals that help to form ideas in the everyday world
about what science is by the kinds of characteristics and values are
attributed to the people who do science. In your essay, please discuss the
following questions, either separately or as an integrated whole. You will
need to refer to Mad, Bad, and Dangerous in your discussion as well
as either Poe or Doyle – and then use whichever other items help you best to
illustrate and flesh out your key points. The following questions ask for some foundational
information as a base to build from, and then provide some counter-intuitive
analytical prompts for discussion. 1) What are some of the positive ways in which
scientists have been portrayed historically and up to the present day?
In what ways may these portrayals have been problematic for the
scientific community as a whole, and perhaps individually? 2) What are some of the negative ways in which
scientists have been portrayed historically and up to the present day?
In what ways do these portrayals perhaps provide useful information
regarding public attitudes about science that the scientific community
should heed? 3) How large a role do you think that the circulation
of images of scientists plays in the creation and maintenance of
attitudes toward and ideas about science and scientific life in the
larger public sphere?
due wednesday, february 18th at the
beginning of class [note: this is a change from the syllabus]
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introductory essay due on tuesday, february 2, at the beginning of class I n this essay I’d like you to begin thinking and writing about some of the dimensions that make up science and popular culture. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, spell-checked, and proofread, (3-4 pp. in length, approx. 750-1100 words). Your answers to the following questions should be roughly one page each. This assignment is worth 5% of the course grade and is graded s/u [satisfactory/unsatisfactory].
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