Posted: October 27th, 2022

1-2 Activity: Lens Exploration

1-2 Activity: Lens Exploration

Submit your short paper as a 1-page document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. OverviewIn this activity, you will select an issue or event in wellness and explore it through the four general education interdisciplinary lenses. By viewing the issue/event through these lenses, you will gain insight into how the interconnected nature of wellness affects society. The four general education interdisciplinary lenses are history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social science.History is the study of the past and its connection to the present. It encompasses content, memories, and events situated in time.Humanities is the study of cultures’ creative expression and contemplates metaphor, experience, and meaning.Natural and applied sciences study the material world grounded in the scientific method.Social sciences study human relationships and social structures grounded in demographic and statistic measurements.AttachedFull instructions. The study of the past and its relationship to the present is known as history. It includes content, memories, and events that occur over time. Humanities is the study of creative expression in cultures, including metaphor, experience, and meaning. Natural and applied sciences investigate the material world using the scientific method.

Overview
In this activity, you will select an issue or event in wellness and explore it through the four general education interdisciplinary lenses. By viewing the issue/event through these lenses, you will gain insight into how the interconnected nature of wellness affects society. The four general education interdisciplinary lenses are history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social science.

History is the study of the past and its connection to the present. It encompasses content, memories, and events situated in time.
Humanities is the study of cultures’ creative expression and contemplates metaphor, experience, and meaning.

Natural and applied sciences study the material world grounded in the scientific method.
Social sciences study human relationships and social structures grounded in demographic and statistic measurements.

When we look at an event in our lives, we often jump between different frameworks to make sense of it. For instance, if we attend a music concert we might move from an artistic lens (How did they create the musical score?) to a technical lens (How does all the lighting work?) to a financial lens (How much money do the performers earn?). Similarly, looking through the general education interdisciplinary lenses can help us see things from other perspectives by giving us a conscious way to analyze them, helping to broaden our perspective.

This assignment prepares you to choose a topic and lens for your project by first applying all four lenses. Before completing this activity, review the Project Guidelines and Rubric to know exactly what you will be working on. You may still change your choice of topic until the next module.

Directions
For this activity, you will write a short paper on a wellness topic of your choice. It could be a topic related to wellness that you have personally experienced or that you are interested in knowing more about. After selecting your topic, do some preliminary research to make sure you can address the required elements of your project.

In your paper, you must apply each lens to your topic by using its language and perspectives. You are not required to answer each item below the rubric criteria but may use them to better understand the criteria and guide your thinking and writing.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

Describe your existing knowledge about your topic in wellness.
You might describe your personal experience with the topic, what you learned in school, or what your assumptions are about the topic. Ask, what do I know (or think I know)?

Apply the history lens to your topic.
Using the language of history as it is defined in your resources and academic journals, how would you write about your topic? What events and dates have occurred that are important to your topic? Has the significance of the topic diminished or shifted with time? Who are the authors of the historical record(s) related to your topic?

Apply the humanities lens to your topic.
Using the language of the humanities as it is defined in your resources, and as it is used in humanities-focused journals, how would you write about your topic? What meaning does your topic have within cultures? How do people express themselves with regards to your topic? What are people’s lived experiences with your topic?

Apply the natural and applied sciences lens to your topic.
Using the language of the natural and applied sciences as it is defined in your resources, and as it is used in natural and applied sciences–focused journals, how would you write about your topic? How might the scientific method be used to examine some aspect of your topic? How might your topic relate to the physical or material world? Are there any challenges to viewing your topic objectively?

Apply the social science lens to your topic.
Using the language of the social sciences as it is defined in your resources, and as it is used in social science–focused journals, how would you write about your topic? Who is affected by your topic? How might your topic affect interpersonal relationships? What social structures and systems relate to your topic?

Below, are a few examples of topics students in previous terms have used for their projects:

Obesity
Climate change and environmental wellness
GMOs
Substance Abuse
The stigmatization of mental illness
Homelessness