Applying STS Theories and Perspectives

For the final project in my STS class this semester, students were asked to make this class count towards their broader scientific and technical training by applying knowledge from the class to their major fields of study.

In addition to writing a paper that asked them to apply THREE different perspectives or theories that we studied this semester to a problem or issue from their major, they were asked to create a presentation that used a “digital humanities” tool of their choice to convey their argument, main ideas, and evidence to the class in a clear, concise way. These tools could be graphing tools, timeline software, etc.–anything that made it possible to convey the main points of the paper in a novel, compact way so that people could quickly and easily understand the goals and argument of the longer project.

Posted below, in the comments, are links to those presentations.

Due dates: Presentation needs to be posted in comments by May 1 at 6pm. The paper is due on May 2 in class (printout), as is the oral presentation. Remember, the presentation must be no longer than 10 minutes so that everyone has a chance to speak and ask questions.

12 comments

  1. Aaron

    My final project topic is “Pesticide Technology and the Impact on Society”.

    I have used the tool “FreeMind” to create a mind map that gives an overview of the project, which I will demonstrate in class Thursday. The program exports the mind map data to a Java applet that can be opened by typical web browsers. Considering there are some security concerns with Java, if it will not open, you may have to mess around with your Java security settings or try different browsers.

    Viewing the map:
    – Follow the link: http://mypages.iit.edu/~afryzek1/Fryzek_HUM380_Final.html
    – The topic is centered with numbered branches as subtopics
    – In numerical order, explore each subtopic by clicking on it to expand (collapsed content is identified by a white dot after the text)
    – When done reviewing the topic, click again to collapse.
    Tips: The left mouse button can be used to pan around, and “control + rolling mouse wheel” can be used to zoom in and out.

    Enjoy…

  2. Mei Lau

    My topic is Myriad Case Analysis and I chose to use Cmap as my digital humanities tool to create a concept map thatillustrate my understanding on the subject.

    The following links are directly connected to the pdf and jpeg image file of concept map that I posted onto google doc.

    PDF file
    https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zZU-l6lsvlRUlNU3RkTHpVVGc/edit?usp=sharing

    JPEG file (for those that can’t view pdf)
    https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8zZU-l6lsvlenhaWFVqZ0NvWUU/edit?usp=sharing

  3. kbledsoe

    Digital Humanities Project: Website
    Website: http://hydraulicfracturingblog.webs.com/

    Hydraulic fracturing is increasingly becoming a problem in society and the chemical engineering field. The website created above shows what hydraulic fracturing is and brings up main points of government and social influence. Also what engineers have done to change this process.

  4. Pooja Agarwal

    Topic: Genetically Modified Foods are a great solution to battling malnutrition and acute micronutrient deficiencies in developing nations, despite the criticism it faces in industrialized countries due to its monopolization of the food production industry.

    Argument: Due to differences between the large farming corporations of the United States and the small, independent farmers of developing countries, presence of genetically modified foods in the latter setting would overcome nutrition deficiencies, strengthen food security, and bolster the productivity of independent farmers, rather than submerging them in the competitive market for food production prominent in the U.S.

    Presentation: http://prezi.com/1e45e4syujhe/hum-380-sts-genetically-modified-foods-and-malnutrition/?kw=view-1e45e4syujhe&rc=ref-39972471

  5. Dwayne Charp

    Here is the link to my project. It involved some javascript, which needs to be displayed in a web browser. Right now I am trying I free web host to display it, but the link is not working now. http://hum380dcharp.zymichost.com

    When it does work it will display an interactive info-graphic. Basically its a connected graph that will display information about each node when clicked.

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