My Research Notebook

Project summary:

With this project, I would like to expose the unfair teachings of fundamentalist ideologies to kids throughout their schooling. These fundamentalist ideologies prevent them from learning core math and sciences without the students having much of a choice. This will be displayed primarily through Orthodox Jewish schools as that is what I have more exposure to but applies across multiple religions. I feel that this needs to be done because with many religions having such strong values of education, it is unfair that kids in those religions are censored from science when they could in fact become major contributors to the field.

Statement of Positionality:

I believe that due to the strong values of education rooted in many religions, students should be exposed to the sciences and then choose for themselves whether they wish to pursue fundamentalist teachings or that of the sciences. One major experience that informs this perspective is seeing my Orthodox Jewish Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. My Aunt and Uncle forced my cousins to go to a Yeshiva school where they barely touched a high school level of math and science. They were raised in fundamentalist teaching and whereas school should have been a place for them to expand their knowledge and make their own choices, it only narrowed their viewpoint. Not only are they lost of free-thinkers and contributors to the scientific and mathematical field, but often time they are far worse off after high school as they leave with no usable education outside of religious purposes.

Background:

One key source of background needed is a comparison of literacy rates, math proficiency, and science proficiency, between religious schools and normal high schools. Perhaps finding studies done on how they live after high school given no usable education is also good background. I believe that historically, looking at the fact that about a third of all Nobel prize winners in the sciences have been Jews even with their small population shows how education is important to that religion yet being wiped away in these schools.

Target Audience:

Given that Orthodox parents will not watch the movie and they will never let their kids see the movie, it does not make much sense to make them the target audience. For that reason, the target audience has to be non-ultra-religious parents. These people tend to consume lots from social media and also by word of mouth. However, I believe they still watch movies especially when they are not intended to be super artsy indie films. Hopefully, that group can watch this film, spread it, and push to get fundamentalist teachings banned in these schools. If not that, at least I hope to push them to let their kids enjoy the sciences and become free-thinkers, not to push them into their ideologies.

Primary Research Experience:

I am not sure that I will really speak with my Aunt and Uncle on this topic but my Mom knows a lot about the schools my cousins attended so I will definitely be speaking to her. I will also be searching up those schools, going on their specific websites to try and find their curriculum/course layout.

You must define a general audience.

What will you Produce?

I would like to produce a full film outline of a modern take on the Scopes Monkey Trial if it were to happen in a Yeshiva school. I will need to research more on a specific grade, what the current curriculum is and how it changes, and how a school would really react if a sub came in and taught evolution.

For Whom?

For students of religious schools and parents of those students to understand that there is a balance between religion and education, but it is not through censoring all actual science.

I also feel like it could be just for the general public because if they really see what the problem is through this film, maybe legislation or at least a social movement can take place.

For What Purpose?

The purpose is to demonstrate that these schools are harmful to the students and lower the free-thinking ability of kids. To show the necessary balance of religious freedom and scientific literacy.

Evidence:

Statistical data on scientific literacy, English literacy, etc. on religious schools (preferably yeshiva schools) vs regular schools. Would be interesting to then compare it to science specific high schools like the Bronx School of science. Will try and find instances of when this has actually happened in the past and what the schools reactions were. Even more important might be what the parent’s reactions were. I also need to find some primary literature on on the Scopes trial. I know that there were cartoons drawn of Scopes and it would be interesting to have those recreated for the film in some form but with the actor instead.

Music in film –> genre of film music –> original scores in film –> John Williams music in film –> John William’s use of music to build suspense in film –> John William’s use of tempo and volume to build suspense in film –> John Williams specific use of tempo and volume to build suspense in Jaws –> John Williams specific use of tempo and volume to build suspense in Jaws compared to the effects of Steven Spielberg’s camera work

After number 6 it seems to get way to specific

Form

Pay attention to forms, name them, and play with them. One way to do this is through multimodality.

All forms in the Juul ad:

Different warm colors, looks cool, friendly, crisp cut shapes, writing saying “smoking evolved” making it seems like this is a whole new thing and is good for you, spatially the Juul takes up the entire screen, and fine print at the bottom that is probably a warning, the person looks very young and confident because of the way she is standing, an invisible equals sign between JUUL and the picture of the device.

Mostly advertised to teens. Could be to guys based on “Sex sells”.

HW: Is sexy an emotion?

Fact: something that is objectively true, can be proven through various methods.

Synonyms: Truth, reality, actuality

Antonyms: Subjective, fiction, lie

Narrative: A subjective or fabricated interpretation of events

Synonym: Story, tale, chronicle

Antonym: concealment, censorship

Form: Anything that is a something and a not something else

Multimodality: Linguistic, Aural, Spatial, Visual, Gestural (ways that people make meaning)

Consensus Reality: shared experience

***Ethan: I like the examples that the text gave. Dreams and images/ unexpected… The linguistic text changed the way I thought of the image.

I find myself to be a pretty good oral communicator so the main challenge I will discuss is the written mode. The best examples of this and how I worked through my challenges would be working on college essays with my English teachers and advisors to help make them cleaner. Also working with peers who are better writers helped improve my skills and I hope to do the same in this class. Visually, since the prompt doesn’t ask to talk a lot about myself, I will prop up personal objects that display my interests, like my guitar, saxophone, Quentin Tarantino book, etc. It will also be important to make sure I look into the camera and not at the screen to be making eye contact. I may also attempt to use my desk lamp as a spotlight either on myself to emphasize that the objects are background or on the most important object.

Start a podcast with an intro written by ChatGPT. Use it as a fakeout and transition into the uses, ethics, and benefits. Changing the meritocracy of society. Playing both sides, what are the benefits, and do they outweigh the costs? Ways to moderate it like AI-driven writing checkers.

Welcome to Sites @ Georgia Tech. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!