In Module 1, couples will delve into the concept of conflict.  Through an engaging video and interactive activities, couples will develop an understanding of conflict as a natural part of human relationships. This module sets the foundation for the course.Module 2 is dedicated to the communication skills for effective conflict resolution. Couples will discover the power of active listening. Through practical exercises and role-playing, individuals will have the opportunity to apply this skill in real-life scenarios.As we progress to Module 3, couples will explore a de-escalation technique that is essential for preventing conflicts from intensifying into emotionally charged situations. The time-out strategy will be discussed in detail, emphasizing its role in creating a space for both partners to cool off and gain perspective. 

Your success as an academic will depend heavily on your ability to communicate to fellow researchers in your discipline, to colleagues in your department and university, to undergraduate and graduate students, and perhaps even to the public at large. Communicating well in an academic setting depends not only on following the basic rules that govern all good communication (for example, tailoring the message to meet the needs of a specific audience), but also on adhering to the particular norms of academic genres.
The purpose of this course, then, is threefold. First, the course will acquaint you with guidelines that will help you create well-crafted academic communication. Second, it will give you the opportunity to practice your communication skills and to receive extensive feedback from your colleagues and from me. You will write and/or revise an article manuscript or conference paper, present a conference paper or job talk, write a manuscript peer review, and engage in various other communication exercises. The article and talk, which are the major assignments of the course, will be based on material from your own doctoral studies. Third, the course will provide an opportunity for you to learn about professional norms for a range of activities that surround the academic enterprise, including, for example, the scholarly publication process and the job search process.

In Module 1, couples will delve into the concept of conflict.  Through an engaging video and interactive activities, couples will develop an understanding of conflict as a natural part of human relationships. This module sets the foundation for the course.Module 2 is dedicated to the communication skills for effective conflict resolution. Couples will discover the power of active listening. Through practical exercises and role-playing, individuals will have the opportunity to apply this skill in real-life scenarios.As we progress to Module 3, couples will explore a de-escalation technique that is essential for preventing conflicts from intensifying into emotionally charged situations. The time-out strategy will be discussed in detail, emphasizing its role in creating a space for both partners to cool off and gain perspective. 

In this unit, students will use the engineering design process and their understanding of how simple machines work to help fairytale characters solve problems. Each lesson focuses on one fairytale and one simple machine.

Remind is a great educational resource for communicating with students and parents in a familiar way, beyond the classroom. This slideshow will take the user through simple steps to create a Remind account and explore the settings and capabilities within the resource.

Drama combines the literary arts of storytelling and poetry with the world of live performance. As a form of ritual as well as entertainment, drama has served to unite communities and challenge social norms, to vitalize and disturb its audiences. In order to understand this rich art form more fully, we will study and discuss a sampling of plays that exemplify different kinds of dramatic structure; class members will also participate in, attend, and review dramatic performances.

Students practice human-centered design by imagining, designing and prototyping a product to improve classroom accessibility for the visually impaired. To begin, they wear low-vision simulation goggles (or blindfolds) and walk with canes to navigate through a classroom in order to experience what it feels like to be visually impaired. Student teams follow the steps of the engineering design process to formulate their ideas, draw them by hand and using free, online Tinkercad software, and then 3D-print (or construct with foam core board and hot glue) a 1:20-scale model of the classroom that includes the product idea and selected furniture items. Teams use a morphological chart and an evaluation matrix to quantitatively compare and evaluate possible design solutions, narrowing their ideas into one final solution to pursue. To conclude, teams make posters that summarize their projects.

Astronaut Randy Bresnik explains the main ways astronauts communicate with people on Earth. Also learn about how satellites work in a hands-on classroom activity.

This lesson will investigate the difference between longitudinal waves and transverse waves, and how they are able to transmit energy from one location to another.

Students are introduced to two real-life problems that can be solved by using the engineering design process. For the first one, they follow along with a slide presentation that describes how a group of students built an organizer to help organize their teacher’s desk. The presentation introduces students to the key steps in the engineering design process. Next, in discussion groups, they read through a scenario in which middle school student Marisol struggles to keep her locker organized. They read the case study together, stopping and discussing at key points to share ideas and consider Marisol’s progress as she moves through the engineering design cycle to design and implement a solution. As an optional hands-on activity extension, students construct their own locker organizer using scrap materials. This introduction to the engineering design process sets up students to be able to conduct their own real-world design projects. A case study handout, group leader discussion sheet and slide presentation are provided.

Unlike film, theater in America does not have a ratings board that censors content. So plays have had more freedom to explore and to transgress normative culture. Yet censorship of the theater has been part of American culture from the beginning, and continues today. How and why does this happen, and who decides whether a play is too dangerous to see or to teach? Are plays dangerous? Sinful? Even demonic? In our seminar, we will study plays that have been censored, either legally or extra-legally (i.e. refused production, closed down during production, denied funding, or taken off school reading lists). We’ll look at laws, both national and local, relating to the “obscene”, as well as unofficial practices, and think about the way censorship operates in American life now. And of course we will study the offending texts, themselves, to find what is really dangerous about them, for ourselves.