To Grasp a Concept

It makes sense that the word grasp means understanding a concept since you are “getting a hold of an idea” just as you would grasp something tangible to hold. Grasp is good for when you’re talking about comprehending the scale of something, or the full picture of a multi-faceted problem or idea. You might know that there is going to be a heat wave, but you may not grasp the idea of its relationship to global warming. (from vocabulary.com)

To start the Colloquium series of the semester, we focus first on the topic of “how to disseminate knowledge so that the interested party understands what one like to get across” and on “watching a talk, what can I learn from it in terms of getting a concept across.”

We will view three TED talks. The first one, (5:55 minutes) presented by Will Stephen, will focus on the showmanship one can engage in. The second talk, (16:36) with Jack Horner, will focus on how one starts on familiar grounds and builds up to the intended message. The third one, (18:21) with Jill Bolte Taylor, will add a strong emotional connection to get the message across.

The colloquium will be presented by Rudi Strickler. We will meet for a virtual Coffee&Cookie meeting where we chit-chat as usual at 3:45 to 4:00, and the presentation will start at 4:00 PM.

Click here to join the meeting, via Microsoft Teams.