b'faculty perspective MICHELE WICK, LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGYOUTSIDE IT WAS NEAR ZERO DEGREES AS MY the museum collection and the Plastic Entanglements psychology students studied Maggie Pucketts Futureexhibition on view that semester. Each week, students Under Climate Tyranny in the warmth of the Cunning- were directed to a new work of art on display in the ham Study Center. This inverted multimedia world mapteaching gallery or another SCMA location. During is a portrait of how Earth might appear if surface tem- occasional class visits to the museum, Charlene also led peratures rose 4 degrees celsius. As the students circledus through intensive analyses of single pieces.the 5-by-10-foot collage of handmade paper infusedAlthough anecdotal, written responses from with materials like marine plastic, dried anchovies andmy students revealed that the museum curriculum beach sand, Charlene Shang Miller, SCMAs educatorstimulated introspection, understanding and analysis. for academic programs, encouraged them to shareConsider two examples: what they noticed.After viewing Future Under Climate TyrannySome highlighted the crimson contours thaton the second day of class, one student reflected:traced the coastlines of most of the continents. TheseI have seen a lot of temperature and sea students intuited, correctly, that this land was underlevel maps for climate change but I think that she water. Others searched for their homes and were bereftdid hers in such a unique and different way that it to find that familiar lush landscapes had become desert.forced me to pay attention and have more of an One student scanned the map for the green regionsemotional reaction than I often do to such maps. 22 where she could live. When she realized that the hab- Really, to some extent I have become disinterested itable parts of Earth had shrunk, she wondered aboutin these maps, so seeing it in such a different how humanity would share such limited space withoutformat broke me of that cycle.resorting to violence. Who would be free to move?Meeting Dianna Cohen, whose work wasThis was the second day of my class Thefeatured in Plastic Entanglements, was a highlight ofHuman Side of Climate Change. Over the semesterthe semester for us all. One student found Cohens these students probed a range of psychological theorystory particularly moving: It made me think of the and research that applied to the complexities of climatearticle the class read about the effectiveness of story-change and justice. However, teaching climate changetelling in climate change communication. I felt slightly is tricky. Beneath the veneer of critical thinking aboutsad after this talk because plastic is so harmful to the methods and data lie strong feelings about how theenvironment and people, but I was also very motivated effects of rampant carbon would alter my studentsbecause she gave a few simple solutions.personal lives. To enhance their learning, I wanted toOn the last day of class we returned to the harness the pedagogical power of these emotions.Cunningham Study Center to view Future Under Climate Psychologist Ellen Winner, who directs theTyranny again. After three months focused on the biolog-Arts and Mind Lab at Boston College, notes thatical, social and cognitive intricacies shaping humanitys feeling deeply about a work of art mobilizes a part ofrole in climate change, the mood in the room wasthe brain associated with introspection. Viewing art,somber. At that moment, I was thankful that the art it seems, could bridge emotion and learning. Excitedallowed my students to express their fears because this by this prospect, I contacted Charlene. Guided by mycued me to ask them to articulate their hopes as well.syllabus, she deftly organized a provocative series ofWe need hope to keep going in the face of calamity. climate-connected paintings, prints and sculptures fromHow perfect, then, to end the semester inside SCMA. faculty perspective : Michele Wick'