Learning Communities at Wofford College
"Seeing the Big Picture: Linking the Sciences and the Humanities"
NSF funded initiative (DUE grant 0126788)
| Learning Communities at Wofford College "Seeing the Big Picture: Linking the Sciences and the Humanities" NSF funded initiative (DUE grant 0126788) |
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On January 29, 2002, NSF awarded Wofford College a CCLI/A&I grant of $199,952 to develop and implement freshman learning communities. In these learning communities (LCs), a science and humanities professor partner to fully integrate their courses around a common theme. The first LC, "The Nature and Culture of Water," led by John Lane (English) and myself along with our preceptors, was the pilot for the funded program and has been offered almost every year since. For more additional information, follow the links above, visit the NSF fastlane web system at DUE grant 0126788, or download a book chapter on our program.
Examples of other LCs include "The Nature and Culture of Water" (faculty members in biology and English), "Cosmology and the Ultimate Questions" (physics and philosophy), "Scientific and Literary Perspectives on Madness: Reality’s Dark Dream" (psychology and English), and "The Mammal in the Mirror," (biology and philosophy), "The Impact of Breakthroughs in Science and Medicine" ( biology and philosophy)," "Thinking Like a Mountain: Conserving our Natural Heritage" (biology and sociology), "Did You See That?!? The Senses, the Mind and Our Perception of Reality" (psychology and history), and The Science in Science Fiction (physics and English).
The program objectives are to 1) dispel the discipline-specific compartmentalization of knowledge and help students integrate information across disciplines, 2) acknowledge and further develop the creativity and teaching skills of gifted upperclassmen by including them as teaching partners (preceptors), 3) inspire the freshmen to be active learners and the instructors to provide a more interactive learning environment, 4) emphasize the importance of Wofford's General Education program, 5) help first-year students focus their academic priorities, and 6) integrate student and faculty use of technology throughout the program.
Faculty development workshops were particularly helpful in the early years of our program and comments about the workshops are are strong testimonials to their impact.
We also hosted an open house "Learning Communities and Other Cool Stuff" on November 21, 2003, one of 14 such events throughout the southern states sponsored by the National Learning Communities Project. Follow the links for a casual report of the day (intended to provide helpful information for other Open House organizers) and the uncensored feedback from attendees.
Questions about Wofford's LC program should be sent to Ellen Goldey (Biology) at goldeyes@wofford.edu, or Steve Zides (Physics) at zidessb@wofford.edu.