This exercise lends itself to a variety of different cultural experiences making it easier to apply to study abroad or domestic study away. Having students show what they are familiar with creates a commonality and a feeling of connection which can help students be more open to discussing the unfamiliar. By showing what they are unfamiliar with students can create another type of connection that allows them to speak with and learn from another student who may have familiarity with the unfamiliar concept. Both cards can open up an opportunity to be curious about each person's frame of familiarity for a range of concepts/topics.

In the case of the political communication course we run to Washington, D.C. the political "culture" of each student is greatly influenced by a wide range of experiences. When testing out this tool, students were instructed to select something that was relevant or familiar to them and connected with their personal, and political culture and then select something that was unfamiliar that they would be curious to learn more about. They were reminded that the discussions should remain nonpartisan in nature to allow for genuine conversation and questioning to occur.

I created the "familiar" and "unfamiliar" cards with images that are somewhat but not overtly political which allowed students to select something familiar that is connected to their political-culture and something that was unfamiliar to them that they were genuinely curious to learn more about. Students walked around the room to find someone to talk with about their cards, but we found that paired conversations quickly began melding into 2 larger groups. This might have worked better by timing the paired conversations and allowing students to move from one person to the next.

During the group debrief/reflection, students shared how they became more curious to learn about the unfamiliar concepts and wanted to keep talking with and learning from the students who were more familiar with the topic/concept. In general, students felt the card selection was good because while it was not overtly political, there was enough relevance to establish a meaningful connection to their political culture. They also shared that knowing the conversations were nonpartisan made it easier for them to share, ask questions, and remain open to learning. They liked the interaction with their peers but would have preferred to have more conversation structure - perhaps assigning pairs or giving a specific time limit, and then rotating to a new partner. 

The adaptability of this resource is what I found to be most interesting and could see integrating this into a larger plan that includes pre/post-self-assessments and learning reflections.