We had a fantastic time Farm Frolics at the Dickinson College Farm this weekend. Our MC Assistants, Greg, Edwin and Devlynn taught students how to make tiny, vibrating robots out of toothbrushes, paper flash lights, created a solar powered spin art machine using snap circuits, old CDs and colored sharpies. Thanks for getting us out of the basement and letting us play under the lovely sun on the farm. Our staff and creations are showcased well in this video!
And on Sunday Sai and Bedurdin showed off our VHS foosball table at student activities night.
Another semester is coming to a close so what better time to showcase all of the fantastic student projects that were created this fall. Here are examples from just some of the fun classes we were able to work with.
Sustainability
“The Evolution of a Cheeseburger” is Professor Scott Boback’s FYSM where students research where our food comes from and how food production and our eating habits have changed through the industrialized production of food. Students chose a topic to research and created a podcast that includes interviews with experts on the subject.
One student chose “How to Grow a Personal Garden”. Have a listen below!
Jenn Halpin and Matt Steiman’s course “The Pleasure, Politics and Production of Food” allows students to learn, in-depth, everything that goes into being a 21st century farmer. Jenn and Matt should know, as they run the Dickinson College Organic Farm. Students researched different topics related to farming and food production.
Professor Karl Qualls’ FYS Utopias, Dystopias and ‘Engineering Progress’ looked into different aspects of society and devices we use to ‘fix’ what is wrong in our communities. His class incorporated multiple technology based projects including blogging and creating podcasts and videos.
Their podcast project looked into different areas of Dickinson/Carlisle that could be improved. It is intended to be a persuasive piece which incorporates the student’s own opinion.
This one looks into a “Student’s Connection to Education”.
Their final project was to create a video that was a “persuasive project that connects to a class theme or seeks to illustrate and solve a current social, political, economic, or cultural problem”.
The following example is an in-depth look at the Indian city of Chandagar.
After graduating from Dickinson last spring, Anna moved to Toulouse, France to work at the Dickinson in France Center and teach English at Lycée Ozenne, a French high school. On her blog, Anna discusses French lifestyle and culture, complementing her experiences and observations with delicious culinary adventures.
Curious about Russian culture or just how other people live? Check out Maria Rubin’s artistic investigation of Russian rooms and lifestyles. Documented on her blog, Maria interviews a variety of people living in Moscow, photographing them and their living space, to create a unique portrait of Russian life and culture. Russian Roomsis still a work in progress but Maria provides this brief description: (translated from Russian)
“This mini research project exploits our natural curiosity about the man and his personal space. We see the room and try to intuitively guess: who lives in it? We tried to imagine the inhabitants – the owner of the space, mentally draw a portrait of him, and then compare with the actual expected. On one hand, it was important to take a picture of a person beyond the interior of the room to emphasize his personality, but on the other it would update the link between man and the place he spends much of his time.”
Read creative posts by students in Professor David Ball’s “Experimental Fictions” course. Students are given assignments to write poems and short stories while giving them writing constraints that ensure that the piece is anything from your standard research paper. Examples include only using 100 random scrabble tiles to write or writing by using only one vowel throughout entire post.
Education
Professor Liz Lewis assigns her students to create presentations for her Educational Psychology using Prezi. They then descend upon the Media Center and give poster presentations to the classmates and others just passing through. Here is a gallery of images from this years showcase.
“The Evolution of a Cheeseburger” is Professor Scott Boback’s FYSM where students research where our food comes from and how food production and our eating habits have changed through the industrialized production of food. Students chose a topic to research and created a podcast that includes interviews with experts on the subject.
