Now that we are a few weeks into the semester, I have a little time to reflect on how my course has changed. I have tweaked the Introduction to Physical Anthropology course in a few ways to further make the experience for students more comprehensive and ultimately more memorable. Two… Read more“Fall Teaching Changes, part 1”
Tag: teaching
Why We Need Zoos
I have seen a distressing anti-zoo sentiment linger in social media so I wanted to make a few points about why zoos are absolutely necessary in modern society. To be clear, I am arguing against the stance that all zoos are unethical. I am not defending the for-profit freak show… Read more“Why We Need Zoos”
Putting Together eFossils’ Life-Size Skeleton Printouts
While the classroom has an extensive collection of replica fossils, there was nothing that conveyed a sense of the full stature of our ancestors. I found some cool life-sized printouts at the eFossils site for Lucy, Nariokotome Boy, modern human skeletons. While the layouts are fantastic, the graphics have been… Read more“Putting Together eFossils’ Life-Size Skeleton Printouts”
Skeletal Voltron: An Activity to Teach Introductory Human Osteology
Possibly, Skeletal Voltron was the highlight of my summer class. I had thought of it back when I first heard that I could be teaching physical anthropology back in January, though it did not come to pass until the summer session. Dreaming up a new class activity. Codename: Skeletal Voltron —… Read more“Skeletal Voltron: An Activity to Teach Introductory Human Osteology”
How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation
When I was making Powerpoint presentations for the summer class, I had to put them together in a hurry. For illustrations, I pulled from the Internet, but I did not like many of the ones that I had to use. Since I have a few weeks before the next class… Read more“How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation”
How I Spent My Summer Session
My summer physical anthropology course has ended, so my summer vacation has officially started. I get a few weeks of relatively less work to think about how prior classes turned out and start improving on the next semester’s version. Here are a few quick notes and lessons based on my… Read more“How I Spent My Summer Session”
Summer Nights
I have passed the halfway point of my physical anthropology class, so it is a good time to check in with an update of my experiences! First, hi class! I inadvertently blasted my site’s address on the projector screen when I was demoing Anthropomotron for my forensic anthropology lecture. This… Read more“Summer Nights”
Cultural Anthropology Week 15: The Final Countdown
The last lecture wraps the course material back around from globalization and applied anthropology back to the fundamentals of anthropological research. Like a good conclusion, the last lecture should not have any startling new materials, so I created it out of past slides. I took the most eye-catching and discussion-generating… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 15: The Final Countdown”
NPR: Will Your Job Be Done By a Machine?
Seems like I’m safe, even though they automated getting a picture of me.
Cultural Anthropology Week 14: Field Trip!
Ever since a student joked that we should go to the San Diego Museum of Man as a class, Week 14 was going to be special. In addition to the trip, the day also marks the end of the poster project that was started after spring break. The plan was… Read more“Cultural Anthropology Week 14: Field Trip!”