My Dissertation In the Making

Post Committee Meeting

2008-11-18T09:29:00.001-08:00

Going home for the summer for data collection.

Today: Not very excited about going home.

Multivariate Stats...

2008-10-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

...is going to kill my GPA!

At least I got invited to the Golden Key International Honours Society. But still - STATS is going to kill my GPA! It's kept me housed in and studying and SICK - and I haven't been able to get back to all my old and useful readings for my EDCI and Dissertation papers!

And to think that my committee is meeting in less than a month!

*fuming*

A!

2008-08-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

Yay! got my grades back! so very happy!

I really need to deserve them now. I still haven't gotten through all my readings.

All the same, I'm learning a lot.

Whew.

Now, to keep on disentangling "science literacy".

Just got a new dissertation idea!

2008-07-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

What makes scientists want to communicate their findings? Why don't they want to talk to the media? What do they expect of the media? What training do scientists need?

I want to help our local scientists one day. I want them to communicate well and stand up for themselves. Maybe I could do a comparative study for these questions? Scientists in the States vs. Scientists in the Philippines?

Tie it in with some sociology of science? Cultural studies?

Nuninuninu...

And now, the dust is starting to settle

2008-07-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

this weekend is going to be my bid for sleeping. and then, it's work again on Monday. But this weekend - well, we are so going to rest! And be brainless!

I mapped my take on science comm through what I saw in the Science Communication journal. If this map were in Middle-Earth, we would be in the Shire, Gondor, Mordor, and Lorien, all smooshed together. But yes, the map has passed the scrutiny of Dr. Tucker, and we're going to build on it by reading articles. Hah! Next week is scholarly week!

Thinking caps on! Fill them coffee mugs!

Now, sleep.

I forgot to do this...

2008-07-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Inez Ponce de Leon, and I'm a PhD student in the department of Youth Development and Agricultural Education at Purdue University. My undergrad and masters degrees are in molecular biology and biotechnology, but I've left that behind to be a science communicator. Today, I am exactly that: mixed up.

Welcome to my blog, where I post all my insanity. For other affairs that involve other things in life besides trying to make it through, you can go to my main website at http://illustria.thefreebizhost.com. I'm a novelist, and a Renaissance lady, in general, so feel free, to er, buy my books?

Hahahahaha!

Ehem.

The theories so far...

2008-07-15T15:19:00.001-07:00

after days of going through all these nutty theories and papers, I think I have a few theories and frameworks to go on.

1. Actor-network theory
2. Constructivism
3. Social construction
4. Rhetorical analysis (which is really more a technique)

Oh boy - this doesn't look good. I so need a coffee IV drip!

All right, WHAT? WHO?

2008-07-10T13:37:00.003-07:00

What is the trope of prosthetics?

What are Bruno Latour's Seven Rules of Method?

Who is Anselm Strauss and what is his theory?

--

more updates: what is system theory?

Anchoring

2008-07-10T12:59:00.002-07:00

As everything is threatening to explode and go in one million different directions, Dr. Tucker has mercifully created an anchor. I shall search for predominant theories and frameworks - lenses, as it were. I shall search for 2-4 lenses through which science comm may be viewed. I shall then compare these perspectives to each other.

And then we shall have data.

And then I can sleep.

*burps on coffee*

The Public Understanding of Science

2008-07-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

I've recorded the titles, authors' names, authors' disciplines, frameworks, and theories used in PUS from 1999 to 2008. So far, I've found that:

1) everyone likes public engagement, but people are still debating on its merits
2) most of the authors are from comm and sociology
3) default mode of structural functionalism (thank you, Dr. Tucker!) predominates
4) lots of people do a lot of media report counting to come up with research results
5) understanding a debate and its vocabulary (its rhetoric and its discourse) is essential to understanding how people in it should understand each other (or how they didn't understand each other to begin with)
6) There are predominant themes too:
a) consensus conferences
b) global warming
c) biotechnology
d) cloning
e) gender specific attitudes to science
f) how the public learns science
g) who likes science, and who doesn't

Now, for some Science, Technology, and Human Values!

*slurps more coffee*

This is How we Do It

2008-07-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my dissertation in the making blog, where I log everything that I do for my dissertation - and where I make sure that I record everything so that I don't miss out on my other duties. My aim is to use the month of July 2008 to:

1) go through articles in science comm. journals
2) record information on:
a) the frameworks they employ
b) the theories they use
c) the origins of these theories/the disciplines from which these theories originated
3) print out the nice ones and give copies to Dr. Tucker.

So far, I'm doing Public Understanding of Science, from 1999 to the present. And it's - crazy. Very crazy.