Lisa Phillips: Using Mapping the Environment with Sensory Perception at Illinois State University

Relationship of InTeGrate Materials to my Course

The module was implemented the 13th through 15th weeks (the last three weeks) of the semester. The module scaffolded from readings and activities on sensory perception and historical constructions of a sensory hierarchy in which vision and hearing receive the most direct attention in Western traditions. Students engaged a variety of materials that disrupted that hierarchy to consider how one might navigate an environment using devalued senses (smell, touch, proprioception, and taste). They used class time to evaluate different types of data collection and analysis, collaborated on data collection protocols, field investigation methods, and completed mapping activities.

Students began the module after 12 weeks of instruction in multimodal composition. Students were familiar with the definition and theories informing multimodal composing practices, rhetorical analysis of multimedia texts, podcasting, digital citation methods, public service announcements, video analysis, implications of social media in multimodal composing, and project management. Students had experience composing using Final Cut Pro, Popcorn Maker (video remix), Audacity, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Google Earth and other software programs available in the Mac lab.

Throughout the course, students evaluated perceptions of environmental/climate change and social and environmental injustices for historically marginalized populations (human and non-human). For example, Week 12, prior to introducing the InTeGrate module, students read Adam Alter's "Weather and Warmth" chapter in Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave (2013) and chapters on smell and taste in Mark Smith's Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History (2008). During weeks 7 and 8, students analyzed a video of cocoa growers' production methods and considered colonial power structures that effect the distribution and production of different crops globally. Students also analyzed a video of a Canadian restaurant named "Signs." The restaurant only employs deaf servers. The video helps students interrogate normative ideas about "hearing." The goal of the video analyses was to scaffold students' understanding of the sociocultural forces that shape how we communicate across sensory modes to the scientific, environmental rhetoric of data collection, mapping, and analysis of systemic environmental problems facing life on Earth.

Throughout the module I made changes or presented material in a way suited to my students and their learning environment. For example, in some instances, I needed to change the rhetorical stance from a "geoscientific perspective" to include humanities research on qualitative data and the value of "story" or audio-visual narrative to convince an audience to care about a topic in a larger context (e.g. communication systems thinking).

Student groups presented their mapping projects and results to the general public in "English Studies Goes Public," a community-focused alternative to a traditional final.

Assessments

Students completed formative and summative assessments during the three-week module in accordance with each unit. The formative assessments included an informal sensory log and a field data collection protocol. Students were very engaged with the sensory log. The field data collection protocol was initially confusing to them, but once they were able to see different groups' approach to the protocol it enabled them to revise their protocols, making data collection more effective. Summative assessments included written reflections and, in my course context, a public presentation. Students exceeded my expectations on both. Their reflections on using their sense of smell or hearing to better understand their environments routinely referred back to social justice issues. Pointedly, they examined class-based issues in their uptake of where some types of businesses were located. Students did an exemplary job of presenting their mapping activities to the public in the conference setting. Having the added pressure of public performance enhanced students' understanding the importance (and ethical implications) of environmental communication.

Assessments description:

• one-page paper reflecting on the sensory log and introduction to data Summative Assessment #1: Sensory Log Reflection & Rubric (Microsoft Word 46kB May16 16)
• two-page paper describing their initial impression of the case, changes resulting from the synthesis of additional data and discussion with others, and the impact of different forms of data considered in the overall analysis Summative Assessment #2: Case Study Reflection & Rubric (Microsoft Word 54kB May16 16)
• short paper describing justification for data selection and map design Summative Assessment #3: Sensory Mapping Reflection & Rubric (Microsoft Word 174kB May16 16)
• individually developed maps Summative Assessment #4: Sensory Map & Rubrics (Microsoft Word 49kB May16 16)

The sensory log and attendant activities were designed to have students analyze each other's work and evaluate patterns and areas of synthesis before establishing their data collection protocols.

The reflection paper was a summative assessment with threefold intent: 1) identify nuanced distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection methods; 2) assess depth of reporting sensory observation (ie. something smells "bad" vs something smells "like a dead animal that had been lying in the sun for several days"; and 3) develop reflexivity in a collaborative learning setting. Summative Assessment #1: Sensory Log Reflection & Rubric (Microsoft Word 46kB May16 16)

The data collection protocol and field collection plan were designed to help students understand how qualitative data collection informs quantitative methods of collection. I used the rubrics for both the initial protocol and for the field planning to help guide my instruction, as the materials were new to me as well. This is corroborated by my students' initial confusion of the purpose of the data collection protocol.

Assessment Rubric for Protocols (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 53kB Feb12 16)

Sample field plan & field plan assessment rubric (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 67kB Jun16 15)

The Case Study summative assessment was intended to evaluate student understanding of different types of data and the implications of their use in different environmental settings. Each student submitted a short (1–2 page) paper describing the student's initial impression of the case, changes resulting from the synthesis of additional data and discussion with others, and the impact of different forms of data considered in the overall analysis.

Building on the above assessments, students created a map of the site they investigated. They presented the map and their interpretation of the environmental setting to the public in a department-wide conference.

Outcomes

In envisioning and helping develop this module, I wanted students to understand how different modes of sensing affect how we communicate complex data and ideas to an audience. Multimodal composing practices affect how an audience will perceive environmental contamination and degradation via climate change. Helping students understand how scents and sounds travel in their lived experiences enables them to evaluate representations of data with a questioning stance. For the most part, this module worked well because students conducted field research and created multimodal representations of that data for the general public. This created "stickier" learning for the students, and they were able to transfer their knowledge to the public, both meaningful to civic engagement and active citizenship.