Reacting to the Past (RTTP) is an active-learning pedagogy of complex role-playing games. Reacting promotes engagement with big ideas and improves critical, practical, intellectual, and academic skills. Participants in this four-part workshop will experience a shorter RTTP game in its entirety. You will play the assembled scientists of the first international chemistry meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1860. Working with other players, you will grapple with questions like Are atoms real or just a theoretical idea? Can experimentation at the human level accurately measure their infinitesimal properties? And what are the correct relative weights of the elements and formulas of compounds? As students, you will experience the scientific controversies of the era and work with real contemporary data.

The first session will be the required briefing on the game itself, with more details on the historical background. Sessions two and three will represent key moments of the 1860 meeting. The fourth session will feature a debrief and an overview of other scenarios available so that you can put this pedagogy to work in your own classroom. All Temple instructors and staff are welcome!

Facilitators: Jeff Rients, Associate Director, CAT, Benjamin Brock, Assistant Director of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, CAT

This 4-part workshop will meet in person on the following dates:

• Friday, October 24, 3:00-4:00 PM
• Friday, October 31, 3:00-4:00 PM
• Friday, November 7, 3:00-4:00 PM
• Friday, November 14, 3:00-4:00 PM

Registration for the first session serves as registration for the subsequent sessions.