I have chosen to abstract the topic of Healthy Living using two mediums. I have deliberately not stated the abstracted concentration in order to challenge you to think about what it might be.
Firstly, here is a digital photo that represents my abstraction.
Firstly, here is a digital photo that represents my abstraction.
Here is the second medium where I explore the concept of abstraction.
Due to school policy, this video cannot be made public. To access, please click below to view (no login required) and enter password given on MSU Creativity in Teaching and Learning discussion.
Due to school policy, this video cannot be made public. To access, please click below to view (no login required) and enter password given on MSU Creativity in Teaching and Learning discussion.
Abstraction from jen keyte on Vimeo.
Discussion of Abstraction
Abstracting is the skill of breaking down a well-known, existing topic into smaller parts. Potentially those parts may not be recognizable to others, but helps the individual understand the overall topic in greater detail because of the advanced manner the topic has been investigated.
I chose to abstract the topic Healthy Living, into the specific concentration of sweat. In order to do this, I used a digital photo that displays the simplicity of someone who has been sweating (me!) at the end of a workout, regulated by a ticking stopwatch. The second medium I chose to use was video. This aims to explore the topic of sweat as a way for me to show that abstraction doesn’t always make sense, until the final reveal. Once the viewer knows the focus area of sweat, it makes sense and highlights new insight. The video shows six of my students saying words that represent the chemical and physical process behind sweating. They followed a script that aimed to reveal an understanding of sweating in a new, innovative way. I hope that you watched the video before you knew what the concentration was. On a second watch, are you learning new aspects of sweating? Are you interested to know more? This, I propose is part of what abstraction is, and how it can be used to promote interest.
I chose sweat because this is one part of a Healthy Living that people love or hate! Throughout this process, I asked numerous people what they thought were important aspects of a healthy lifestyle, and exercise was always one part that was deemed important, yet was seen as a passion or a burden, little in between. To those who enjoy fitness, sweat is a measure of how well they are doing; a symbol that the body is efficiently working during exercise, within the chemical and physical process. In addition, many see activity as a means to an end, and only take part because of a set goal (weight loss, prevention of injury, summer holiday), or sadly because I tell them to!
This process has helped me understand my topic, as the photo represents my thought process when I used abstraction. Sweat represents a certain level of success within a workout to me, however time is the controlling factor; I must keep going until the timer says stop! Interestingly, while filming the second part of the project, I told my students about abstraction, and we began a rather interesting discussion. I must note, I work in a school with students who are full of intrigue, who learn because they love knowledge. From this, my students stated, “I’ll have to look that up later” and “We try to do that in science to understand in more detail”. I think it is great to have these informed discussions relating to effective learning skills. Furthermore as a result, the students tried their own abstraction of nutrition in Health using mind maps to initiate discussion of less obvious characteristics that otherwise may have been unnoticed.
Abstracting is the skill of breaking down a well-known, existing topic into smaller parts. Potentially those parts may not be recognizable to others, but helps the individual understand the overall topic in greater detail because of the advanced manner the topic has been investigated.
I chose to abstract the topic Healthy Living, into the specific concentration of sweat. In order to do this, I used a digital photo that displays the simplicity of someone who has been sweating (me!) at the end of a workout, regulated by a ticking stopwatch. The second medium I chose to use was video. This aims to explore the topic of sweat as a way for me to show that abstraction doesn’t always make sense, until the final reveal. Once the viewer knows the focus area of sweat, it makes sense and highlights new insight. The video shows six of my students saying words that represent the chemical and physical process behind sweating. They followed a script that aimed to reveal an understanding of sweating in a new, innovative way. I hope that you watched the video before you knew what the concentration was. On a second watch, are you learning new aspects of sweating? Are you interested to know more? This, I propose is part of what abstraction is, and how it can be used to promote interest.
I chose sweat because this is one part of a Healthy Living that people love or hate! Throughout this process, I asked numerous people what they thought were important aspects of a healthy lifestyle, and exercise was always one part that was deemed important, yet was seen as a passion or a burden, little in between. To those who enjoy fitness, sweat is a measure of how well they are doing; a symbol that the body is efficiently working during exercise, within the chemical and physical process. In addition, many see activity as a means to an end, and only take part because of a set goal (weight loss, prevention of injury, summer holiday), or sadly because I tell them to!
This process has helped me understand my topic, as the photo represents my thought process when I used abstraction. Sweat represents a certain level of success within a workout to me, however time is the controlling factor; I must keep going until the timer says stop! Interestingly, while filming the second part of the project, I told my students about abstraction, and we began a rather interesting discussion. I must note, I work in a school with students who are full of intrigue, who learn because they love knowledge. From this, my students stated, “I’ll have to look that up later” and “We try to do that in science to understand in more detail”. I think it is great to have these informed discussions relating to effective learning skills. Furthermore as a result, the students tried their own abstraction of nutrition in Health using mind maps to initiate discussion of less obvious characteristics that otherwise may have been unnoticed.
Image Source:
Created by J. Keyte
Created by J. Keyte