START WALKING NOW
BRING P1 FOLDER*, AND PAPER TO TAKE NOTES OR SMALL COMPUTER, + CAMERA TO TAKE PICTURES
Bring a camera, and a laptop or notebook, to the Texas Natural Science Center (A.k.a. Texas Memorial Museum). I will be sitting at that entrance (west side) waiting for y'all. It is TMM in this map:
FDH J. Frank Dobie House SHD Simkins Hall Dormitory CS4 Chilling Station No. 4 JON Jesse H. Jones Hall (Law) SJG San Jacinto Garage TMM Texas Memorial Museum
SCAVENGER HUNT: Take pictures and notes to enable you to post a blog about the museum for the NSC BLOG and earn up to thirty points. Instructions are below.
You can prepare for this visit by checking out my photos at http://www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/images/tmm/
TODAY'S GOALS:
IMMEDIATE PRACTICAL GOAL: [1C] how to read and follow directions
GOALS FOR WRITING BLOGS:
[2E1] get a taste of what it is like to be a professional writer aiming at perfection and adopting the necessary time management, rewriting, and proofreading to become a great writer.
[2E2] get a taste of writing as a work of art. We practice informal writing as way to overcome writer’s block and as a foundation for becoming good writers. Our formal writing is writing as art, and thus the best writing you can possibly do. Think of your project as, say, a statue: you want it to have as few flaws as possible, to be as “perfect” as possible.
[2E3]. experience writing as discovery learning, especially as one connects parts of the essay, usually while rewriting. Our mottos:
[2E3a]. Only connect! . . .Live in fragments no longer.”
[2E3b]. “, ‘Hammer your thoughts into unity’.
[2E4] practice writing energized by positive rather than negative motivations, by love of your work of art rather than fear of deadlines, by creativity rather than going through the motions, by curiosity rather than compulsion.
[4] EXPLORE U.T. GOALS
[4A] Signature Course goal: to acquaint students with some of the gems of the university that make it unique (its “signature”)
[4B] Related goal: To capture a sense of the university as a place, esp. the campus as an alma mater, a second home: its museums.
TODAY'S TOPICS: SEMIOTICS, reading the world as text
TODAY'S ACTIVITIES: This is another example of exploring the campus and finding another “gem” of the university, as they call them, in this case the Natural Science Museum and another version of experiential learning, in this case an example of semiotics, reading objects the way we would read a book.
INSTRUCTIONS
This is another opportunity to exercise your sympathetic imagination. Assume you’re your spirit/power/totem animal (the one you chose for your short essay) now gifted with superhuman intelligence, critical thinking, and the ability to express yourself in words. Read this building and grounds as if it were a book.
You must answer all three of the following questions in your Blog.
1. OUTSIDE THE MUSEUM: What can you learn about the relationship between homo sapiens and other animals from the location and architecture of the Natural Science Museum, the statues in the front of the museum (on Trinity St.), and the dinosaur items on the north side of the Museum?
2. INSIDE THE MUSEUM: Inside the museum you must focus on one animal on the first and third floors that no one else has chosen, as far as you know, and one item on the fourth floor that no one else has chosen, as far as you know. Begin by identifying it by name and location and describe it as specifically and explicitly as possible. Also take a picture of it if you can. Then write about it according to the following directions.
2a. If you were your power animal, how would you feel about the remains of this animal on the first floor, the stuffed version of it in one of the dioramas on the third floor, and the various theories and research projects about you and other animals represented on the fourth floor?
2b.If you were your power animal, what would you think about the remains of this animal on the first floor, the stuffed version of it in one of the dioramas on the third floor, and the various theories and research projects about you and other animals represented on the fourth floor? For example, what would you learn about the species homo sapiens? For example, what would you conclude about the future of the relationship between animals and homo sapiens and why?
3. Go back to the west entrance alcove between 3:05 and 3:15 so that I can check off your name and be sure you stayed the whole time.
4. When you have turned your notes into a little multimedia essay, post it on the NSC blog. DEADLINE: 2-23 AT MIDNIGHT.
