Advanced training for the dance your PhD contest

April 10, 2021 1:50 PM

Professor André K. Isaacs' lab members spend most of their time solving problems in organic chemistry. They also make short dance videos and sometimes make other short films. There's also a recent short text interview.
posted by eotvos (4 comments total)

These are charming, not least the gratuitous NMR, and this looks like a fun lab to work in. Thanks!
posted by janell at 2:05 PM on April 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

My high school had an independent study option and you had to give a presentation at the end of the semester. One of the options listed for things you could do in your presentation was an interpretive dance. People invariably just gave a lecture on what they'd done (if you were lucky, they'd built something and could do a demonstration) because no one ever seemed to do an arts project. My friend and I did make many jokes about how I should do an interpretative dance about conscientious objection. But, at the end of the day, I gave the same boring talk as everyone else. My high school transcript does list 'Conscientious Objection' as a class, though.
posted by hoyland at 7:59 AM on April 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Conscientious Objection sounds like an awesome class!

I teach college science classes. A couple of years ago I gave a non-majors undergrad class the option of either writing a standard 10 page essay, or writing a Galilean-style dialogue. Only one student took me up on the alternative. She was already going to get an A. . . but, it was both heartening that someone tried it and frustrating that so few did. I don't know if they actually enjoy writing essays, or figured it was the safe option, or just were so pressed for time that doing the thing they already knew how to do well was the obvious choice. But, I'd have hoped by that point in the class they'd have known me well enough to realize I wouldn't prefer to read a standard essay. I realize we select for students who are good at writing essays and then train them to be as conservative as possible. But, the essays are always so much less interesting than the informal conversations with the same students that it makes me wonder what we're trying to accomplish.

During remote teaching last year, I made students submit a 2-5 minute educational video instead of an essay. 90% of them just wrote a short essay and read it in front of a camera. I watched them at 2X speed and still struggled to pay attention. But, 10% tried to do something interesting, and two or three really did something cool and unique. I think in the future I'm going to force everyone to do something other than write an essay. I'm not sure forcing an entire class to dance would go over well, or be fair to everyone, but it's tempting. Perhaps a dance or a silent film would work.
posted by eotvos at 10:53 AM on April 11, 2021

I follow him on TikTok and love his content. Thanks for sharing this!
posted by notjustthefish at 4:26 PM on April 11, 2021