Scholarship & Research
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Item Hospital nurses' use of humor(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 1988) Johansen, Sheila MarieItem Untitled(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1983) Tapola, Bruce Charles; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Richard HelzerIt's not the rational or logical workings of the intellect but rather the illogical, irrational workings of the heart (soul), which are the catalysts of my pictures. By in some way giving the ambiguities of the emotional self visual substance, either through metaphor or the invention of personal symbols, I am attempting to make those ambiguities tangible. The intent is that once tangible they become easier to understand. Many of my paintings are born of anxiety. I wonder (WORRY) about my future constantly. What my paintings are about is the end result of the emotions they are born of. Where a more logically based approach to art making yields the results of a pre-planned effect or is illustrational of an idea or theme, my approach yields the evidence of the questioning process. At any one time I hold a multitude of contradictory feelings and viewpoints. By including a visual conglomerate of information which is both central and peripheral to a particular experience I can more fully understand and represent my interpretation of that event as a multifaceted 'thing'. I feel that it is the inclusion of contradictions and the absence of 'answers' which gives my work an unsettling quality. Humor or satire plays a role in the making of each piece and in the approach to subject matter. Their 'homemade' quality serves as something of a nose thumbing towards the notion of high art. The inclusion of 'dumb' imagery is a counterpoint to the heaviness of the territory explored. Truth, regardless of how it is defined by different artists, is one of the most desirable qualities of a work. Bruce Nauman's piece 'True Artist,' reads, 'The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.' I believe in this as an artistic ideal. Though this revealing must be the intent of the artist I believe these truths are revealed by accident. If I have anything 'important' or truthful to say with my work I believe it must begin with an examination of my self. My pictures are the evidence of this examination.Item Effective use of humor in a secondary science classroom(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2011) Kellerby, Darren K.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Students and administrators have often commented positively about my ability to bring humor into the classroom, but I had never made a direct correlation between this humor and student achievement. The purpose of this study was to try and make that connection by using humorous warm-up activities, assignments, and lectures during two astronomy lessons. Initial results showed improvements in student participation and recall, but overtime the humor was less effective.Item Humor in science and nature films : just because you can doesn't mean that you should(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2008) Gerner, Lyn Elaine; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Dennis Aig.In this thesis, I assert that humor is not generally appropriate for and applicable to science and natural history ("SNH") films. Considering perspectives and research on humor from fields spanning comedy writing, documentary film theory, evolutionary psychology, pedagogy, behavioral studies, etc., I'll attempt to synthesize some conclusions about treatments, forms and topics that can accommodate humor. I begin by briefly providing some supporting evidence for the assertion that humor has played a minor role in SNH films. I argue that SNH filmmakers have used humor rarely because of specialized aspects of science that naturally result in the routine incompatibility of science with humor. In so doing, I'll refer to definitions, classifications, and rules of humor from an experienced comedy writer and scholar. I'll relate these principles of comedy to findings of researchers of humor in evolutionary psychology, which are relevant to my subsequent analysis of humor in existing SNH films. I then refer to key pedagogical studies, some of which support humor in the context of learning, but the most relevant of which find negative effects of humor on adult learning. I also briefly examine an adult behavioral study from the field of "mood-management" that illuminates gender-specific preferences for different kinds of humor. Continuing to draw on the various research fields' contributions, I analyze examples of some humorous SNH films. I then provide a detailed breakdown of my attempts at humor in my original thesis film treatment, Attack of the Killer Lionfish, and explain why those attempts ultimately failed. Finally, I synthesize some of the conditions under which documentarists might be able to successfully integrate humor, without harming their overall communication goals for the SNH film.