Since 2017, I have been developing public philosophy events. At UW, I was a co-Director of the public philosophy organization, Madison Public Philosophy (MPP). Below are brief descriptions of some of our projects and accomplishments.
Darwin Day
Developed a station for early adolescents to explore evolution by natural selection, explanation in evolution, and adaptations through various games and activities.
Kindergarten Class
Co-developed lesson plans for Kindergarteners on ethics, philosophy of science, metaphysics, logic, and philosophy of language as well as lessons on skills for doing philosophy like listening to others, thinking about abstract ideas, and building ideas in a community setting.
Children’s Museum
Co-developed an “Experimenting with Philosophers” series of events for children between the ages of 4 through 13 (as well as the adults with them). At each event, several stations with interactive components encourage children to think about a particular philosophical topic.
Facilitator Training
Conducted weekly training meetings, where undergraduate and graduate students interested in public philosophy would practice facilitation skills using the Community of Inquiry framework.
HEX-U Project
Co-directed a HEX-U (Humanities Exchange Undergraduate) project for two undergraduates to develop an annotated bibliography and 11 lesson plans for an online philosophy course designed for Kindergartners.
Public Inquiries
Developed philosophically rich activities and experiences that would prompt community members to identify ideas/concepts they wanted to discuss further, assisted community members in generating a philosophical question based on the idea, and facilitated an inquiry focused on answering one question.
Below are three lesson plans I developed that would be suitable for ages 5-8. If you try them out with your kids, please let me know how they go!
Katie Deaven 