Improving Online Communication Through Analysis of Observation and Interpretatio
Improving Online Communication Through Analysis of Observation and Interpretation in A Geology Class (2024)
Anna Spaulding
If I have a discussion board (DB) in my courses I use guidelines similar to the ones provided in this module taken from http://www.difficultdialogues.org/Links to an external site.. I am always impressed by how rarely I run into student’s behaving badly online even when we are talking about divisive subjects such as evolution. Specifically for the Geology course I use the following exercise as part of our first lab to start thinking about the process of science and how humans (and bias) are a part of the process. I adapted this from an OER resource (https://oercommons.s3.amazonaws.com/media/courseware/relatedresource/file/Introduction_Lab_636zHD1.pdfLinks to an external site.). One part that I cut from the original assignment was an exercise to make observations and deduce if a cartoon was depicting a murder or a suicide. I know many people are into detective shows and that this was probably seen as a “hook” to get students interested but I thought it might be too triggering for our first week working together. I’m curious how other people feel about that.
-Excerpts from the two relevant sections of the lab are below (full lab is attached). The first asks students to make observations and then “interpret” what they have observed. At the end of the lab I ask how their own personal biases influenced the interoperations that they came up with. The second section has them look at Venmo receipts and put together a timeline and again “interpret” what happened. It is a little silly since there would not be Venmo statements – we all had a chuckle about how this was set up but then they really got invested in deciding what most likely happened. When the groups shared their views with the class I was able to tie this to how different research groups might come together to discuss findings at a conference and have to defend their positions. It worked really well. I will be tweaking it a bit so that it isn’t about Venmo receipts, but the general process was an excellent exercise for communication and bias in science.
Part 2: Observations and interpretations/evaluations:
- Write your observations of what you see in the picture. Use each observation to start explaining what could be happening in the photo.
| Observation: what do you see | Interpretation: what is going on? Why? |
| The person on the right is wearing a leather jacket. | The person rides a motorbike. |
- Based on your observations and interpretation, what do you propose is going on in the picture?
- Make a minimum of three observations for each image. Use your observations to write a short explanation/interpretation of how the feature was formed.
Image 1 Image 2
| Observations: | Interpretation:
How was the feature formed? |
|
| Image 1 | ||
| Image 2 |
Part II. Venmo activity – Simulating the endeavor of science.
- Using the information on the statements, determine the circu