InterPlay with Ruth Schowalter

written by Ruth Schowalter, certified InterPlay leader     (reposted from InterPlay Atlanta, March 2016) “Everyone spread out and find a space in the room. Now, find another space in the room that you want to travel to. Put one foot in front of the other and take your time getting to that spot. Once you arrive at your destination, you may decide to go to somewhere else in the room.” I delivered these seemingly mysterious directions to a group of university students and professors who attended the collaborative workshop that my scientist husband, Tony Martin , and I gave at the  1st annual Southeastern Evolutionary Perspectives Society   (SEEPS) meeting, which was held at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, during Valentine’s weekend 2016. Titled “Improv-ing Your Teaching and Learning of Evolution,” we teased together evolutionary concepts with improvisational forms from  InterPlay so that scientists and scientists-in-training might experience “embodying” nuggets o

InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body. TRACKING ALLIGATOR ON THE GEORGIA COAST.  A nice surprise greeted my husband, Tony, and me along the beach in the back dune area on Sapleo island--juvenile alligator tracks! What was this little guy doing out by himself wandering near the shore? That's me looking at the tracks. I'm in the photo for scale!  (photo by  Tony Martin ) Written by Ruth Schowalter-- Reposted from November 2014 At sunrise, juvenile alligator tracks lead us nearly half a mile behind the dunes before they suddenly halt at the shrub line leading into the maritime forest. The winds are rising and dusting our trails that followed behind this top predator of the Georgia barrier island. My husband,  Tony Martin , and I stopped to wonder out loud, "What had brought this three-year old alligator out of its freshwater pond for a walk about along the coast?" and "Where was it going next?" CLOSE UP OF THE ALLIGAT

InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body.  SCIENTIFIC FACTS ARE REAL. Do you need support responding to "opinions" about scientific facts like climate change, pollution, and endangered species? Science is more than a feeling! Let's play around with making effective and respectful replies! InterPlay joins the Atlanta Science Festival on March 23, 2018. Ruth Schowalter, certified InterPlay leader, is offering a unique and fun way to communicate scientific facts in collaboration with two Atlanta scientists. "Communicating the Facts--More than a Feeling is 2-hour improvisational workshop, which gives participants (teens and adults) a chance to engage their kinesthetic imaginations and affirm just how successfully they can communicate scientific facts, while also providing the means for addressing false or misleading information. The main goal is to help participants develop proactive skills for communicating environme ntal scie

Written by Ruth Schowalter, M.S. Applied Linguistics & ESL,  Certified InterPlay Leader ( Reposted from February 2017 Atlanta InterPlay) What does a 90-minute InterPlay science communication “sample” workshop with professors look like? Journey with me to Georgia Tech, an urban campus located in Midtown Atlanta to find out! First of all, the February afternoon right before the 3:00 PM start of the workshop was overcast, with the gray skies releasing tiny shards of cold rain. Fortunately for me, I escaped the unfriendly weather by taking a bright yellow trolley to the Marcus Nanotechnology Building, where the Director of Science Communications, Maureen Rouhi, was administering the final touches to name badges, refreshments, and room arrangements. Tables were removed and chairs lined up around the room’s edges, leaving space for improvisational movement. One-by-one professors arrived as if in a Harry Potter movie, being teleported from their busy labs and offices thro

2017 InterPlay at the Atlanta Science Festival Ruth Schowalter Welcome to InterPlay with Ruth Schowalter! I am an artist, educator, and certified InterPlay leader.  I use the improvisational system of InterPlay in these various ways: To facilitate North American English fluency  Using the principles and tools of InterPlay, I invite Internationals (nonnative speakers of English) living here in the United States, to "embody" English. After all, to learn a language is to learn a culture. By offering students the opportunity to "play" and engage their "whole" selves while learning, I create opportunities for them to discover new things about themselves and the choices available to them when communicating in English or their own language. PANAMANIAN TEACHERS-IN-TRAINING.  In 2017, I taught InterPlay classes to visiting college students from Panama at the Georgia Tech Language Institute. Although these participants are training to b