Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno

Posted 21 Jul 2013 / 0

I have been preparing for next semester’s Evolution of Sex course by looking for new media that might help my students. I just spent a few enjoyable hours checking out Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno series, produced by the Sundance Channel. I have been aware of Rossellini’s rather interesting foray into the world of animal sex and reproduction for awhile Read More

A Major Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Biodiversity Loss, Ecology, Film, Television, & Video, Marine Ecosystems, MSCI-362, The Evolution of Sex, Parasitism, Predation

Working on a VUE concept map of the fieldTest simulation

Posted 22 Jun 2013 / 0

Jennifer Verdolin, Dylan Moore, and I created the fieldTest simulator several years ago. This individual-based simulation allows virtual animals with the potential to form social groups that defend territories to interact on landscapes containing different patterns and abundances of resources, and is part of my larger research into group territorial behavior. We presented our results at the 2009 Read More

A Major Post, Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Concept Mapping, Department of Mathematics & Science, Ecological Modeling, Group Territorial Behavior, Individual-based Models, Information Design, Spatially Explicit Modeling

“The Sustainable Use of Fisheries” now a part of the EcoEd Digital Library

Posted 21 Jun 2013 / 0

I am proud to report that The Sustainable Use of Fisheries, one of the teaching tools that I have developed, is available on the EcoEd Digital Library. Provided as an educational outreach project of the Ecological Society of America, EcoEd provides teachers with a variety of different lesson materials for planning lectures, laboratories, and other classroom activities. Read More

A Major Post, Ecological Society of America, Pratt Institute, Teaching Tools, The Sustainable Use of Fisheries

Rhett Bradbury’s Master’s Thesis explores how gaming can foster political leadership

Posted 01 May 2013 / 0

Rhett Bradbury has been a crucial member of Envirolutions over the past two years. Our only graduate student member, Rhett started coming to club meetings during his first semester at Pratt. Rhett’s skills as a graphic designer have had a profound effect on how Envirolutions has communicated with the rest of the campus: his posters, logos, and other visual Read More

A Major Post, Mentoring, Political Science

Up-Goer Five text editor challenges you to make accessible explanations

Posted 31 Jan 2013 / 0

Scientific American blogs “Science in Ten-Hundred Words: The “Up-Goer 5″ Challenge” THE UP-GOER FIVE TEXT EDITOR Oh, and by the way the title of this post would not pass the up-goer five test! Thanks to one of my Pratt students, Tony Wylen, for showing me this site.

A Minor Post, Pratt Institute, Public Outreach, Teaching, Web

As the nature of university-level teaching changes, should we re-assess the credit hour?

Posted 26 Jan 2013 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Curious Birth and Harmful Legacy of the Credit Hour” The Chronicle of Higher Education “In Defense of the Credit Hour“

A Minor Post, Articles, Higher Education

Roberts Publishing releases an iPad version of their majors Evolution textbook

Posted 12 Jan 2013 / 0

iTunes “Evolution: Making Sense of Life” I don’t own an iPad so I won’t be playing with this anytime soon, but I am very curious about the impact of this first-of-its-kind majors Evolution textbook for tablet. I am not sure if this is the new big thing or the last dying try of the old-model Read More

A Minor Post, Educational Software and Apps, Evolution, Evolution Education, Teaching Tools

Mishele Lesser’s Genoscapes explores the meaning of human genetics

Posted 15 Dec 2012 / 0

Mishele Lesser, a student who I mentored, just presented her final thesis project Genoscapes. Mishele and I spent a lively semester talking about the meaning of human genetics, a discussion that ranged from very mechanical questions about how genetics work to more philosophical questions about how to interpret genetic data and the potential identity it can Read More

A Major Post, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Genetics, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Human Uniqueness, Mentoring, Pratt Institute, Science in Art & Design

G. Kim Blank on making writing work better by eliminating the term paper

Posted 26 Nov 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Let’s Kill the Term Paper” I have been experimenting for several years with various forms of “Reading Response Questions” that challenge students to either summarize or pull the most important ideas out of what they read. I agree wholeheartedly with Professor Blank that this is a far more valuable means Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Assessment Methods, Student Writing, Teaching

Does American faith in genetic determinism limit the achievement of our students?

Posted 12 Nov 2012 / 0

National Public Radio Shots “Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning” This piece went in a direction that I just did not expect. There is so much focus on the role of rote learning versus problem solving in comparing “Eastern and Western” approaches to education, but I have never heard a clear Read More

A Minor Post, Belief, Cultural Evolution, Development, Fluidity of Knowledge, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Human Nature, Memetic Fitness, Philosophy, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Teaching