Interview exercise

The powerpoint is short for tomorrow and there are a few slides that easily collapse into my discussion of readings, so I've more or less planned a couple of different things. I'm going to be briefly talking about science vs. pseudoscience (one of my students offered chimeras as a topic ...oi). They were assigned to read the article I posted about global climate change (and why people in the U.S. still don't get it) and I'm going to show them the Bob Jones University bit I posted the other day to reinforce the issue of credible sources and some of the kinds of logical fallacies we will get into when we talk about persuasion. Then I have a short "interview" exercise that might help them think about their interviews. I may model some ice breaking strategies if there's time, but they will have a half page paper with the following text on it:

(Take notes on your answer so you can directly quote your interview subject)

"Madison is the largest of the UW campuses. UW staff expect student to have difficulties adjusting to their life here. (_______________Transition based on interviewee's answers <--goes under the line) ____________(Interviewee name) from _____________(answer question 1) says she/he ____________________________(Answer question 2). The UW tries to provide opportunities to meet people (Transition ______________) ____________(Interviewee)____________________________(Answer Question 3).

On a slide I will have Q.1 Are you from Madison? Q.2 Are you glad you picked this campus? Q.3 Have you made friends here? All of these are, of course, yes/no answers. They'll be asked to interview their neighbor, then fill in the answers. Depending on the time, I will have them ask the second set of questions on the next slide, or I'll just ask them to think about how it would change their answers. Q.1 Where are you from (home town?). Q.2 Why did you pick this campus to attend? Q.3 What kinds of things have you done to meet people?

The goals of the exercise is to get them to think about how they craft their interview questions to avoid yes/no answers, and how you break the ice.