MaryamPages

From Computational Cell Biology

You could put what you want to run by me here.

From http://performanceofalifetime.com/improvisation.html

What is improv and why use it.

Improvisation is performing without a script — you make everything up on the spot, in real time. Onstage, improvisation produces imaginative, funny, connected performances.

The great news for business is that the discipline and practices of stage improvisation are directly transferable to everyday life and work. Our conversations, relationships, teams, and work projects are all (potentially) creative, collaborative improvisational activities.

People and organizations need ways to get outside the box, to take risks, to make new choices and discover new possibilities. Improvisation-based training provides concrete skill development and a catalyst for new ways of thinking and behaving. Improvisation lets you — makes you — throw away your script as you listen, focus, and attend creatively to everything and everyone in your environment. And that leads to new performances, new possibilities, and change.t:

From your grant:

The training and education approaches for undergraduate and graduate programs that integrate computer science, applied mathematics and biological disciplines, i.e computational biology, are still fluid. This provides a rich opportunity for creative processes to contribute to the overall development of the computational biology curriculum and the possibility of including creative practices within the curriculum as a pedagogical approach.

Learning and creativity are social (Vygotsky, 1978; Holzman, 2009), creativity can be fostered, and the understanding and practice of research as an improvisational performance creates the context in which scientists are able to continuously transform how they see and do science.

It is possible to go through one’s research life as if one is playing out a script in an already written play, rather than engaged in the task of continuously using the materials available to collectively create with other people. There is a tendency to relate to environments as if they were fixed or pre-determined, and to see people as being in, rather than creating the environment. Similarly, scientists, students and faculty are often constrained in scripted roles in academe. The use of improvisation in domain specific contexts can free the participants (actors) from the social-emotional constraints of the educational and research setting of “having to be right” and “look smart” so that they are able to “play with” the ideas that are presented. By playing games in improv workshops, the participants are able to focus and at the same time develop the ability to look at their topics, their concepts, their data in new, rather than pre-scripted, ways.

The most valuable learning occurs when people are engaged creatively - in activities that allow them to use their imaginations intellectually, socially, artistically and culturally (Egan, 2005; Eisner, 1998, 2005; Holzman, 2009).

Improvisational Theater Exercises and Games

A warm up exercise that builds group awareness involves everyone walking without speaking around the room. At any time a person can choose to stop. Once a person stops, the whole group stops. The group moves again when the first person who stopped begins to move again. The initial movements of the group are slow and jerky. Over time the group develops rhythm and awareness. A common tension is that early in the exercise, people explore controlling or tricking the group with quick stop and start moves. As the group continues to focus on moving together this tension often disappears. Exercises of speaking in gibberish have participants literally create meaning in the absence of meaning laden words. When participants pair off and tell a joke in gibberish to one another, they experience the humor of the joke and creating meaning. Multiple variations exist and are made for flexing the actors/scientists muscles in supporting a fellow actor/scientists, creating meaning and being spontaneous.

Participants' Responses

Participants have stated feeling refreshed, not knowing they were stressed, being able to talk although they were terrified of speaking.