Episode 45 – Dr. Scholthof discusses reading, writing, and the disease triangle in her W course
July 2008
Episode 45 – Dr. Scholthof discusses reading, writing, and the disease triangle in her W course
Howdy, I’m Gabriel and welcome to “Write Away,” the faculty podcast of the Texas A&M University Writing Center, bringing you news, tips, and ideas for making your students better, more innovative writers.
Today we’re talking to Professor Karen-Beth Scholthof, in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology here at Texas A&M University. Dr. Scholthof received her undergraduate degree in botany with a minor in philosophy at Montana State University. She earned her master’s at the University of Nebraska and her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky, both degrees being plant pathology with an emphasis on plant virology. She’s been at Texas A&M since 1994 and runs a research lab on the molecular biology of plant viruses. Dr. Scholthof teaches in the Bioenvironmental Sciences Undergraduate Program. Her W course is called Pathogens, the Environment and Society.
Dr. Scholthof — I developed the course about 10 years ago and since that time through the University Writing Center I’ve developed it is a formal writing course. But my primary interest was in using current events and both scientific literature and fiction to explore historic and current events related to pathogens, the environment and society. So there’s a lot of interaction between animal health, plant health, and human health that comes into the course, including a lot of material on food safety. The disease triangle is a concept used by plant pathologists to understand the role of the environment and pathogens on whether or not a host succumbs to disease. I also talk fairly extensively about the historic aspects of influenza and the more contemporary concerns of avian influenza or bird flu, the transit of diseases such as smallpox, and again the more recent interest especially after 9/11 concerning the potential for smallpox to be used as a bio-weapon.
Gabe — Dr. Scholthof shares an example of integrating current events, history and literature into her science course.
Dr. Scholthof — One useful book is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He provides a general outline of the impact of germs on society and also some of the implications of agriculture. The idea behind the disease triangle for my course is to explore how agriculture has influenced society. The potato which has its origins in Central and South America, its transit to Europe and how it became a food for the poor, and in time, became the primary source of food for the Irish. And when a plant disease, blight-like disease, or Phytophthora infestans, infected the potatoes, the primary food source for the poor in Ireland was gone and approximately two million people died or emigrated from Ireland following this. So I find this a very useful event to use for my course because I can talk about the origin of crops in the Americas, I can talk about global trade and travel. I can talk about how precarious life can be: that if you are living and dependent on a single source of food and essentially have no free income, your entire society, family, way of life can collapse and you may be forced to emigrate. One of the best books I found to talk about this is Andrea Barrett’s long short story Ship Fever. She talks about three characters who come to America and the effect on Nora, the main character, through time as she experiences immigration in Canada.
Gabe — The range of possible topics in Dr. Scholthof’s class, is matched by the variety of writing assignments she gives.
Dr. Scholthof — Every time I’ve taught the course I change it. I change the reading material, I change the writing assignments. I change the methods of discourse, whether the students do power points, do oral presentations, do short writing assignments, do long writing assignments. My current emphasis has been to have in-class writing assignments where I’ll provide students with a prompt generally related to disease outbreak and ask them to provide a thesis relating to the outbreak and defend their point of view. I want them to be able think creatively and also to explore some of their ideas. The other assignment I’ve used off and on over the last ten years is notebook writing where I’ll provide a prompt at the beginning of class where they can come in and write for three or four minutes. The prompt may be a question, it may be a cartoon from The New Yorker. It may be a single word.
Gabe — I asked Dr. Scholthof to share some of her observations about students and W courses at Texas A&M.
Dr. Scholthof — The students are now realizing that they have to take one or two W courses to graduate so it’s an assignment, but they don’t necessarily see that there’s any value in it. Or they’re terrified. And they consider it a burden that they have to write instead of studying material that will be useful for them for their degree, their technical degree, or to apply to graduate or professional school. I really feel that at Texas A&M, which is historically technical, being an agricultural and mechanical college, that there has not been emphasis on liberal arts which I define as being able to graduate with an ability to read and write and have an appreciation for art and literature. So my job is to convince them that reading and writing are fun. I think I go from the beginning of the semester where they’re either afraid or feel like they’re wasting their time to the end of the semester where the comments reflect the fact that they have had for the most part a fun time and have found out that they like to read or that not all reading is boring. I am one of the greatest fans of the writing center. I really enjoy coming over here and I’m constantly encouraging the students to come over here. My advice for new writing instructors is you should clear your calendar for the entire semester. It takes an enormous amount of time to come up with the assignments, to read and to edit the material and to develop the lectures that go with the course work. I would really encourage new faculty to explore teaching a writing course and I think the primary reason why I continue to do it is due to the resources that have been developed at the writing center and the encouragement especially that has come from the director of the center.
Gabe — Thank you for joining us. “Write Away” is a production of the Writing Center at Texas A&M University. This podcast promotes the mission of the Writing Center by highlighting effective writing instruction. For resources to improve communication and writing ability, please visit our website at writingcenter.tamu.edu.
We’d like to thank Dr. Scholthof for her time today, and for her dedication to writing instruction at Texas A&M. I’m your host Gabriel, please join us next time. Have a great day, write away.
