Highlights of Student Multimodal Participatory Publishing
Through my participation in ASSETT’s Innovation Incubator as a member of the Collective to Advance Multimodal Participatory Publishing (CAMPP) group, I have been exploring multimodal publishing collaborations with undergraduate students. A recent collaboration was with a visiting geology student from Middlebury College, Emmet Norris.
In the fall semester 2019, Emme served as an intern for Inside the Greenhouse, helping with preparations for the Drawdown Learn Conference Oct. 18-20, 2019, at the Omega Institute. His open curiosity, clear communication skills, and follow-through made him an exemplary partner in this work. He served as an enthusiastic thought-partner in conceiving how to present the materials for our open educational resource entitled Drawdown, Act Up! for creatively engaging students in communicating drawdown climate solutions. Emmet worked with CU’s Center for Science and Technology Policy Research Outreach and Engagement Director, Ami Nacu-Schmidt, and me in designing the grab-and-go curriculum so that it is visually appealing and easy to follow.
CU graduate students deliver a plenary performance on the final night of the Drawdown Learn conference in October 2019. (Photo: Patrick Chandler)
Emmet attended the Drawdown conference with me and a team of CU graduate students (from Education, Theatre, and Environmental Studies) who are associated with Inside the Greenhouse. In addition to our planned workshop, we arranged for a plenary performance on the final night of the conference (see first photograph). We also engaged in several spectacle performances that popped up at various locations throughout the conference. Emmet was a willing participant as a blue butterfly symbolizing transformation, much like the transformation humanity is being asked to undertake in order to reverse global warming (see second photograph). He brought delight to all of his interactions, his facilitation during the workshop, his many performances, and to our shared conversations processing all that we were experiencing at the conference.
Emmet Norris (right) performs as a blue butterfly representing the theme of "transformation." (Photo: Isabel Cousins)
Emmet’s upcoming graduate research focuses on the transport and fate of chemicals on the earth’s surface using isotopic and chemical methods. He researches carcinogenic chemical behavior in groundwater from industrial sources, the deposition of dust from global arid regions in high alpine soil systems, and organic aerosol production from agricultural burning. He is primarily interested in how modern climate change and human activity impact biogeochemical cycles and thus human health. He plans to continue studying aerosols, specifically investigating modern atmospheric dust systems, and how they are affected by, and affect, human society. He is applying for graduate programs to continue his studies this coming fall.
