REFLECTIVE WALKING:

Ask students to pose, in writing, a difficult question related to the assigned reading or the course more broadly, especially one that they have struggled with (or are currently wrestling with). Then they should take a 20-60 minute walk, undistracted by a podcast or other content. After returning from the walk, they should try to respond to the question in writing as best they can. Finally, they should write a brief reflection on how the process of formulating the question and mulling on it during their walk affected their response to it.

• Activity may take place: individually, outdoors
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

PERSONAL NARRATIVE:

Ask students to identify one personal experience that relates to the course. The experience can be a personal anecdote or a wider-ranging reflection on a concept from the course that they found especially compelling for a personal reason. Ask students to share this experience or concept and why it is meaningful to them, using one of an array of formats and media. These may include a written essay, short fiction, poetry, illustration, comics, film, music recording, podcast, etc. In addition to the personal narrative, the students should write a brief reflection about the assignment: what was it like to connect the course content to their own lives so personally? What medium(s) did they use for the personal narrative, and how did it affect their process? The students’ work may be shared with other classmates via the class website, learning management system (Google Classroom or similar), over email, or in print, but students should be alerted to this before they submit the assignment, and have the ability to opt- out of such wide sharing. Such sharing can serve as the jumping-off point for online discussion threads, synchronous conversation in person or virtually, and other written responses.

• Activity may take place: individually
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

DESIGN A MEAL:

Ask students to design a meal related to the course, researching the origin, history, and cultural context of every ingredient and its presentation. The students should describe their choices in writing -- including justifying the layout, the choice of table settings, and seating chart where appropriate, and provide an image to represent this meal (this may be drawn, collaged, photographed, found online, or otherwise creatively represented). If possible, the student should be encouraged to prepare and host the meal (or at least a dish!) for members of their in-person community wherever they are. In addition to providing their menu description, ask them to reflect on the process in writing: What was it like to translate course material into a meal? What was difficult or unexpected in doing the research? How did they make difficult decisions (e.g. who should sit next to each other)? What informed their decisions in creating the image? This assignment may be posted directly to the class website, learning management system (Google Classroom or similar), or shared in other ways as the jumping-off point for discussion online or in person.

• Activity may take place: individually or in pairs / small groups
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

VISUALIZE A CONCEPT:

Ask students to visualize content of their choice from the course (e.g. theoretical concepts, networks of people and information, settings in literary texts, datasets, etc.). Encourage students to consider an array of visualization techniques and tools such as diagrams, graphs, timelines, maps, and more, possibly producing different drafts using different techniques before settling on a choice. They may opt to do this digitally or by hand, or in some combination. Finally, the students should write a brief reflection about the assignment: How did visualization change or affect their understanding of the concept? What visualization tool(s) or medium(s) did they use and how did it affect their process? The instructor may choose to share these visualizations via the class website, learning management system (Google Classroom or similar), over email, or in other ways, possibly as the jumping-off point for online discussion threads, synchronous conversation in person or virtually, and other written responses.

• Activity may take place: individually or in pairs / small groups
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

PERSUASIVE WRITING:

Ask students to distill the ideas in this course into a three-page letter, written to a member of your family or close community that you think would most resist its ideas and frameworks. Try to be as clear and concise as possible, while also persuasively presenting evidence and and arguments in a way that you think would most win this person over. Students can feel free to use a pseudonym for the addressee, and there should be no expectation that this letter will be sent or shared in real life (though that’s up to the student!). Then the students should write a brief reflection about the assignment: without having to identify specifically who the recipient of the letter is, explain what this person’s objections to the course content or framing might be, and where they come from. What strategies does your letter use to try to overcome these objections? How did writing this letter make you feel? What did you learn about the course content and/or its relevance in the world from doing this assignment?

• Activity may take place: individually
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

YOUR COURSE IN THE NEWS:

Ask students to select an article from this week’s news stories that relates to some element of the course such as a recent reading, a theoretical concept, or a statistical / visualization / media method they are learning. They should explain the content of the article and how it relates to the course in writing (for instance, discussing how a theme from the reading appears in current discourse, or how the method they are learning is being deployed in the article). What is the news source, and how might this influence the way that the course content appears in this particular article? Then the students should write a brief reflection about the assignment: what was it like to find course material reflected in current events? Were you satisfied with the way that the article treated it? Why or why not? This assignment may be posted directly to the class website, learning management system (Google Classroom or similar), or shared in other ways as the jumping-off point for discussion online or in person.

• Activity may take place: individually
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

RESEARCH THROUGH COLLAGE:

Pose a focused question related to your course’s content, and then ask students to collage their answer! Encourage students to use their creativity in how they develop and arrange the collage, and in how they select their materials. These may come from magazines and other printed paper, but also from other bits and pieces of everyday life (food wrappers, cloth, organic material, e-waste, and more) and/or collaged digital sources. Students will need to photograph their physical collages (from multiple perspectives, if three-dimensional) if they are submitting them digitally. *Students can create sound collages as well, just by using the voice memo app on their phone, if they have a smartphone*! Then the students should write a brief reflection about the assignment that explains their collage and process: how are you trying to answer this question visually? What materials did you select for this assignment, and why? What was your experience of making the collage? Did it affect the way you think about the question, or of the course more broadly? This assignment may be posted directly to the class website, learning management system (Google Classroom or similar), or shared in other ways as the jumping-off point for discussion online or in person.

• Activity may take place: individually
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

CURATE/ATTEND A MEDIA FESTIVAL:

Ask students to curate a film festival, music playlist, art show, tasting menu, or other media collection related to the course or some specific element of the course. The instructor should set the number of items that students may include ahead of time, and students should ideally choose items that are available free online or via easily accessible streaming services. Their curated media list should be submitted with a written explanation for the choice of each item, its placement in the festival, its resonances with other selected items, and the overall festival’s relationship to the course. This may take the form of an essay or blog post, or be imagined as a festival program, liner notes, exhibition catalog, etc., with live links to the media items if submitted digitally. Students should also write a separate reflection on the assignment: what was it like to select these items? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you overcome them? Did thinking about course questions through this medium affect the way you think about the course material? If so, how? This assignment may be posted directly to the class website, learning management system (Google Classroom or similar), or shared in other ways as the jumping-off point for discussion online or in person, or as the precursor to Part 2 (below).
In the optional part 2, Attend a media festival, classmates may pick another student’s curated media festival (or, for a shorter assignment, one item in that festival) and write a reflection about the encounter or experience, making reference to not only the particular item(s) but also the festival’s overarching theme and perspective on the course content.

Students can also share their own or a classmate’s media festival (and/or individual items) with their home communities, explained in the context of the course, and write about that experience and the feedback they received from people outside the course. This assignment can also provide shared material for the Salon / Science Café or Book / journal / film club assignments.

• Activity may take place: individually or in pairs / small groups in person or via phone call, videochat, messaging app, email
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post

NAMING AND MAPPING:

Have your students select a seemingly familiar area outdoors to explore. Based upon course topics, select something for the students to “map.” Some ideas include: pathways of telecommunication lines; species of plants or animals; sound; locations for waste and recycling; architectural relationships. Create a map visualization in response to this exploration using any kind of materials (digital or analog) you have available. Depending upon topic, some questions to consider: How do we “map” other objects, systems, and species? What does this tell us about our relationships with them? What values do you bring to your map? What are the power structures that have influenced and shaped your information? Write a brief reflection that explains the map visualization and process.

• Activity may take place individually or in pairs / small groups in person or via phone call, videochat, messaging app
• Submit assignment: in person, email, learning management system / online post