Final Cultural Artifact: Across the semester, you created three (3) different types of vampire narratives: an academic analysis, a news press release, and a visual representation. Following peer review and instructor feedback, it is now time to choose which one (1) of these creations will become your Final Cultural Artifact. On Tuesday, December 17, you will then present your Cultural Artifact to the class.
(From your Final Cultural Artifact assignment prompt)
SLO 2: Students use multiple types of communication (written, visual, oral, etc.) to craft arguments that make and support claims successfully for multiple audiences and contexts.
SLO 3: Students are able to draft, revise, and edit work with feedback from others.
Credits for the sample press release: Anna created this sample press release for library session 3. The main source for this release was a Minnesota Public Radio News story by Dan Kraker: Researchers capture video of possible wolf-dog hybrid in northern Minnesota. This sample press release includes passages from the original news story verbatim. For the sake of the library session activity, we are pretending this was all original work by the fictional student.
Parameters for the sample press release assignment: Parameters for this sample project are similar to your EAS /RUS 253 news press release assignment, except it focuses on werewolves rather than vampires, and it's not situated on the Gustavus campus.
Volunteer(s): Read the sample student press release, below.
Activity Part 1. Peer Review (Think - Pair - Share):
Activity Part 2. Proposal (Pair - Share)
Sample Press Release Assignment
Fictional Student: Dani Maki
Duluth
September 22, 2024
Researchers capture video of possible wolf hybrid or mutation in northern Minnesota; others say it is a werewolf
Image credit: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Researchers with the Voyageurs Wolf Monitoring Project have captured footage of what some are saying is a werewolf-life creature roaming the forests of northern Minnesota.
The animal was spotted on Feb. 29 and again on March 3, traveling with two wolves. In a Facebook post about the footage, the researchers with the University of Minnesota project say in their 10 years of work studying the wolves in and near Voyageurs National Park, they’ve never seen a wolf that looks like this.
The video shows a line of three animals trotting through the woods. The first and third are thin wolves with light grey and tan fur — typical of mature adult wolves in the area. The middle animal is larger and bushier, with black and brown coloring and a rounder face. Some say the animal appears to be walking on its hind legs for an extended period of time.
“It stands out like a sore thumb,” the scientists wrote. Project lead Rowena Garcia told Northern News, “There’s just really no wild wolf in our area that we've seen that's ever looked even remotely similar to that.”
“Everything kind of put together, this animal just looks really unique,” said Garcia. “And so it’s either a hybrid of some sort, or some wolf that has some very interesting physiological mutations or characteristics that are very unique relative to other wolves in northern Minnesota.”
Garcia said this discovery isn’t indicative of any larger pattern or behavior or population change that might be documented as part of the project. “It’s just a one-off, interesting observation,” she said.
In an area known for werewolf sightings, some say the footage reveals much more. Werewolf enthusiasts have been reporting sightings in the area since the 1970s. Merlin Johannson is the leader of the Full Moon Collective, a group that visits the park every year looking for signs of werewolves. Said Johannson, “this new footage provides evidence of what we’ve been saying for years: there are werewolves in northern Minnesota.”
Researcher Garcia countered that, “while we appreciate the perspective of the Full Moon Collective, there is simply no evidence that this animal is a werewolf.” She wrote that the video segment in which the wolf appears to be walking on its hind legs is inconclusive and the footage is grainy. If anything, she said, what some identify as a werewolf walking could be a wolf on its hind legs for a couple of seconds, or even shadows, a tree, or a bear.
Johannson of the Full Moon Collective told Northern News, “we have asked the Voyageurs Wolf Monitoring Project for full access to footage from trail cameras from the past 12 months so we can review it for additional possible evidence of a werewolf or werewolves.” At the time of writing, the group's request to the Wolf Project is still pending.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
