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Skepticism in the Classroom Curriculum Materials

phyz

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phyz
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Jan 20, 2004
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I've been creating, using, and modifying lessons in skepticism and critical thinking.

Various lessons include presentations, video clips, worksheets, and weblinks. They can all be found here:

http://homepage.mac.com/phyzman/skepticism/

Current lessons include
- Wiseman's Three-color Mind Control
- Dead Psychic's Sketch
- Football Clairvoyant
- Angel at the State Fair
- Columbia Explosion Photos
- Chicago's Most Haunted

I created these resources because I wanted to use resources like these in the classroom. If there are more such resources out there, please let me know. My high school science students gobble these up and have less patience for woo than I do.

In the meantime, please send feedback on the page and the lessons contained therein.

Dean
 
I don't have an Apple Mac, I don't run Quicktime (not downloading it just for this) and half your .docs and .pdfs don't open (.Mac says it can't find the files).

Other than that, the two I could read were fine.
 
D-Oh!

Extreme apologies, wollery and tkingdoll!!!

I will fix those bad links tonight. Thanks for scoping them out for me. Anyway, QuickTime is free, and it's the only way I know to make the presos interactive for end-users who don't have Keynote. Or MS Office, for that matter.

If there's a better format, please clue me it. In the meantime, note to self: if I bundle these things onto a CD for colleagues, I'll include the free QuickTime installer.

Thanks and sorry,
Dean
(almost ready for prime time; wishing he could chew gum and walk at the same time)
 
Everything works except...

It appears that all the links on the page work except for the text documents (worksheets) for Wiseman's Mind Control trick and The Dead Psychic's Sketch. Those would be the Word docs and PDF files for those two lessons. I'll fix those by 5pm PT.

As far as I know, everything else is up and running.

Dean
 
All Good (I Hope!)

I fixed the links and documents so that foot bone's connected to the.. leg bone, and so on.

Thanks again to wollery and tkingdoll for suffering through my clumsiness.

The lessons I developed were attempts to bring current events or news items into the classroom as exercises in skepticism.

If readers look through the Psychic Sketch, State Fair Angel, and Chicago's Most Haunted lessons, I hope they could get a sense of how to write their own lessons when the next wacko news item spews forth from the local affiliate news.

Thanks for any feedback you might offer.
 
I'm interested in this - I'm trying to put something similar together myself - either for the library learning centre where I work, or as a community ed. course of some sort. (to counter the refexology / iridology type courses that seem so popular...)

I haven't looked at everything yet, I'll get on to that when I have more time, but i would suggest that if you want a presentation thats a bit more universal - there is a way to create a powerpoint presentation that works without having to have pp installed (I get these in emails all the time.

Alternatively you might want to consider using a more standard and generic type of movie (avi / mpg etc), as a lot of people I know (me included) don't like having to install a special player just for one type of movie...
 
Thanks vIQleS,
Part of the fun of doing a project like this is tangential learning. I will confess that I was completely unaware of how uninstalled QuickTime is out there. But then I never had any reason to care before.

I'll have to look into the pp thing. I'm far from expert in the field of video formats, but I fear neither avi nor mpg will handle the way QT (mov) does.

The presos don't come across as movies, but as, well, presentations. You click to advance just as you would in a regular preso--you're in control throughout. I think of avi and mpg files as play, pause, and stop-capable only. I could be wrong.
 
phyz said:
Thanks vIQleS,
Part of the fun of doing a project like this is tangential learning. I will confess that I was completely unaware of how uninstalled QuickTime is out there. But then I never had any reason to care before.

I'll have to look into the pp thing. I'm far from expert in the field of video formats, but I fear neither avi nor mpg will handle the way QT (mov) does.

The presos don't come across as movies, but as, well, presentations. You click to advance just as you would in a regular preso--you're in control throughout. I think of avi and mpg files as play, pause, and stop-capable only. I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
Powerpoint presentations can be made in open office.
 
They look like useful little activities. I've used similar ones myself in classes, and they can effective starters or plenaries.

Nice work, phyz.

Athon
 
PowerPoint Anyone?

Thanks, athon.

I think I just added PowerPoint-compatible versions of the presos to <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/phyzman/skepticism">the site</a>.

But I'll know for sure when someone out there running Windows can open and play the presentations.

I trust open source Office substitutes can open .pps or .ppt files.

I also added some graphic thumbnails to some of the lessons to spruce the page up a bit. I'll work toward having a graphic thumbnail for each lesson.

All I need now is ideas/sources for more lessons. I suppose I should sift through my TAM2-TAM3 DVD sets. But if you have other ideas, I'd love to hear them.
 
Looks good Dean!
Still thumbing through it.

cbish
chemistry teacher
Nevada Union HS
 
phyz said:
Extreme apologies, wollery and tkingdoll!!!

I will fix those bad links tonight. Thanks for scoping them out for me. Anyway, QuickTime is free, and it's the only way I know to make the presos interactive for end-users who don't have Keynote. Or MS Office, for that matter.

If there's a better format, please clue me it. In the meantime, note to self: if I bundle these things onto a CD for colleagues, I'll include the free QuickTime installer.
Click to expand...

One solution I came up with for distributing 'presentations' was to export them all to html format. This maximizes my portability, as it will work on a website and dvd just as well. Everybody has a browser .Create a ZIP file for downloads, and you don't even need to distribute physical discs.

But not everybody can install Quicktime, Office, Keynote, &c.
 
I'm eager to get the downloads--I can't access them either--I get a message saying Our records show that the account you're attempting to connect to either does not exist or is currently inactive.

They sound fantastic. And I'd be glad to give feedback. Can anyone else help me access them?
 
articulett said:
I'm eager to get the downloads--I can't access them either--I get a message saying Our records show that the account you're attempting to connect to either does not exist or is currently inactive.

They sound fantastic. And I'd be glad to give feedback. Can anyone else help me access them?
Click to expand...

I've got the same error and I've been trying to think on doing something like this for my tutoring work in AmeriCorps.
 
Crickey!

Apple's .Mac service misplaced a CC# digit when they tried to renew my account, so everything went black for a few hours while I was off on vacation.

Nothing like having the web equivalent to having your fly down and a leaking pen in the shirt pocket.

I fixed it as quick as I could. As far as I know, my fly is zipped and the shirt is clean. Just trying to anticipate the source of the next "outage."

Blutoski, I hope to try the HTML thing to see how that works. And thanks for the tip, Beady!
 
phyz said:
Apple's .Mac service misplaced a CC# digit when they tried to renew my account, so everything went black for a few hours while I was off on vacation.

Nothing like having the web equivalent to having your fly down and a leaking pen in the shirt pocket.

I fixed it as quick as I could. As far as I know, my fly is zipped and the shirt is clean. Just trying to anticipate the source of the next "outage."

Blutoski, I hope to try the HTML thing to see how that works. And thanks for the tip, Beady!
Click to expand...

It was worth the wait--and now I've seen your pic. on the pic. thread, and I plan to tease you about your fly having been down--

Are you going to the critical thinking special?
 
Thanks, articulett--no, really.

And that's only going to be funny if my actual fly isn't down when you spot me at TAM. [Writes note to self on that matter. Places note in suitcase.]

I'm signed up for the Thursday workshop on classroom strategies. You? I'm looking forward to that session. And TAM in general. I have found my addiction.

Regarding your signature... if I confess my work sucks, does that mean it's probably pretty good? Just curious.
 
phyz said:
Thanks, articulett--no, really.

And that's only going to be funny if my actual fly isn't down when you spot me at TAM. [Writes note to self on that matter. Places note in suitcase.]

I'm signed up for the Thursday workshop on classroom strategies. You? I'm looking forward to that session. And TAM in general. I have found my addiction.

Regarding your signature... if I confess my work sucks, does that mean it's probably pretty good? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Yes.

Actually, Kellyb posted the article on the skeptoid thread http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2234800#post2234800 , and I realized that it was really descriptive of some people. But such people never apologize or have self effacing humor nor do they contribute much--though they seem to think themselves to be superior to most other skeptics. I think they are pretty well known on the forum--but, as the article noted, they are the least likely to conclude that the article is about them. If they come to TAM, they appear to be in the minority.

I haven't signed up for the workshop thread yet, but I plan to. And as long as you are writing notes to yourself, you might want to make sure your pens aren't leaking as well as making sure your fly is zipped. I can be ruthless. (note to self:--make sure pants are zipped, and no leaking pens nor excess pet fur on person lest pot calls kettle black...)

I've been trying to think of a lesson plan around that article, but I can't think of a way that wouldn't be damaging to fragile self esteem. But I am quite thankful to live in the age of the internet, where stellar lesson plans are readily available (except when sites are down and site owner is on vacation).
 
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