SoC First Year Seminar: Interdisciplinary Topics in Communication Arts & Sciences (101-0-1)
Topic
Serious Play: From the Sandbox to the Stage
Instructors
Elizabeth Norton
Roxane Heinze-Bradshaw
1949 Campus Drive Office 224
Meeting Info
Shepard Hall Classroom B05: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
"Play" is often directly contrasted with "work," and is often seen as childish, frivolous, and fanciful. However, play is an important context in which children, and adults, learn and communicate, and is a topic of rigorous academic study across disciplines. This seminar brings together two threads of study related to the art and science of play. In the first half of the course, they are traced in parallel. The first thread, the art of play, focuses on the history and development of Viola Spolin's foundational and ubiquitous theatre games, and their surprising grounding in the early academic studies of play by Neva Boyd, NU Faculty from 1927-1941, who was an early proponent of the importance of play and its academic study, and Spolin's mentor. The second thread, the science of play, is a look at the child's ontological development of play skills, informed by Piagetian and modern insights, with a focus on how play drives communication development. In the second half of the course, we bring the two threads together, as students collaboratively engage in and reflect on the art and science of Spolin's games. For example, students learn and play the Mirror game, exploring it within the context of the study of acting and performance, as well as how it depends on the brain's mirror neuron system and how parents of autistic children are taught to match turns with their child's communication.
Registration Requirements
Restricted to SoC first-years assigned to SQ25.
Learning Objectives
Learning Goal: Engage critical thinking skills while exploring the breadth of School of
Communication creative and research endeavors.
Learning Outcome: Students will identify key factors relevant to the course topic,
differentiate between multiple perspectives and interpretations, and explain how at least
two School of Communication disciplines might approach a given topic.
Learning Goal: Experiment with research and communication conventions associated with
School of Communication disciplines.
Learning Outcome: Students will demonstrate their ability to communicate ideas and/or
experiences compellingly by using appropriate research tools, soliciting feedback,
employing disciplinary conventions, and addressing audience expectations.
Learning Goal: Collaborate with peers from different SoC majors to highlight the benefits of
interdisciplinary inquiry.
Learning Outcome: Students will collaborate with peers across different majors to
successfully complete at least one group project and reflect upon the skills employed to
accomplish that task.
Class Attributes
SOC First-Year Seminar