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A Curricular Sandbox

The purpose of the ߣߣÊÓƵ Plan Innovation Lab (MPIL) is to provide support to faculty and departments with re-envisioning new ߣߣÊÓƵ Plan or high-impact courses. It is both a creative space - a kind of sandbox to “play” and experiment with team-designed, team-taught courses - as well as a problem-solving space.

It is a place for course creation or significant pedagogical revision. While the idea emerged organically during the Office of Liberal Education’s implantation planning for ߣߣÊÓƵ Plan 2023, it mirrors ߣߣÊÓƵRISE recommendation.

ߣߣÊÓƵRISE Recommendation #5:

We recommend ߣߣÊÓƵ develop a mechanism for experimentation using a curricular innovation lab. The president should task the provost’s office and the university registrar to develop a process to create an experimental curriculum. We recognize that barriers do exist to such an approach, but we believe ߣߣÊÓƵ can create a solution by making this an organizational priority. ߣߣÊÓƵ should explore the concept of the "sandbox," an experimental model that allows academic units to beta-test versions.

Goals of the Lab

The goals of the MP Innovation Lab include:

• Developing brand new MP courses to solve curricular issues.
• Re-imagining existing MP courses that need revision - where pedagogy or curricular design are the issues.
• Facilitating transdisciplinarity and collaboration across units and divisions by supporting multidisciplinary discourse, team-designed or co-designed courses, co-taught courses, or new models for “team teaching.”
• MPIL bolsters institutional cultural change that is “second-order change” or “deep change.” Prompting faculty, units, and divisions to view the role of the ߣߣÊÓƵ Plan in the overall pedagogical, curricular, and institutional structure, “involves changing underlying belief systems that in turn change behavior and practice.” (Kezar 2018; Martin and Wardle 2022). “If the problem is…that the current focus on efficiency and accountability does not in fact lead to deep learning—then deep change in the values and culture of the system itself must be pursued.” MPIL provides the time, space, and resources to be change agents for deep learning through ߣߣÊÓƵ’s liberal arts education.
• Utilizing research and evidence-based practices and principles to drive course design and pedagogy.

Issues and Concerns

With the revised ߣߣÊÓƵ Plan 2023, we need to ensure that incoming students have courses available to them, including and , the two new areas of the plan. While this is true for all students, we are being strategic in course development to make high-impact courses a priority.

Thus our immediate actions address concerns from high-credit hour degree programs such as CEC, NSG, and teacher education programs. Here, we are focused on providing courses that double-dip Perspectives Area courses with Signature Inquiry so that incoming students may complete requirements both efficiently and with the best possible curricular options.

This involves not only accommodating the programs but re-envisioning the role of ߣߣÊÓƵ Plan courses within the programs that will in turn allow the programs to re-envision their own approaches.

MPIL-Designed Signature Inquiry Courses

Sustainability and Resilience

BIO/GEO 266 Climate Science Communication (PA1C; SI-01)

“Climate change” is a heavily debated topic in the news and media today. Many myths and truths are circulated regarding climate change, making it difficult to decipher if the concerns are justified. Through this course, students explore and analyze the scientific data surrounding climate change and its effects on human health, the environment, and the economy. You will also learn to synthesize and communicate this knowledge to a variety of audiences.

BUS 217 Sustainable Business Solutions (PA4C; SI-01)

This course is for students who want to be stewards of our current resources, protect the world for future generations, and serve the greater good. Through active participation in simulations, debates, and activities students are encouraged to examine environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues facing businesses in the world today.

BUS/GEO The Business of Climate Change (PA1A, PA4C; SI-01, SI-03)

This course provides a quantitative introduction to the ways in which climate and climate change influence businesses, organizations, and NGOs. Students examine and model cascading impacts of weather and climate change through business operations and evaluate how responses and decisions can be made strategically for both institutions and climate sustainability. Students engage in case studies, experiential learning, and a semester-long group project on an industry of students’ interest to develop perspectives on the local impacts of global climate change and the role of sustainability and resilience in organizations’ operations..

GEO/IES 222: Sustainable Systems & Society (PA2A, PA4C; SI-01)

In this course you will explore sustainability from multiple perspectives and at global and local scales. You will examine the social and ecological contexts of sustainability: spanning environment, economy, and social equity. You will learn to use multiple methods to understand impacts and motivations of stakeholder groups and the role of place in pressing sustainability challenges.

GEO/GER/RUS 11X - Sustainable Cities - Fall ‘24 Cohort.

Power, Justice, and Social Change

POL/BUS 266 Advocacy and Policy for Health (PA4B; SI-02, SI-05)

Who controls how laws are made that affect your physical and mental health? What influence do money, business, and lobbyists have? What power do we have as citizens? In this course you will choose a topic of public interest such as access to healthcare, epidemics, mental health, cancer, changing demographics, environment, gun control, LGBTQ+ rights, or abortion. You will learn how lobbying and influence operate to impact health policy and its disparate effects on dominant and marginalized communities and debate the role of business, advocate to impact policy-making, and critique and respond to policy making by the government.

ENG/PSY/SOC 188 (your) Mental Health: A Community Project? (PA4B; SI-02, SI-05)

In this course, we reconceptualize mental health and mental illness so that it is no longer a “me” problem, but rather a “we” problem. We then work to design interventions that sustain mental health more effectively.

REL/SLM 271 Religion, Sport, and Policy (PA4C; SI-02, SI-03)

Religion and sport are more than personal matters. They are a matter of public policy. Sport and religion are both local and global. They both change lives, affirm moods, and shape our political questions. Students with interests in business, economics, management, leadership, or public policy will consider matters of religious freedom, conscience, and protest to analyze how the intersection of sport and religion are an essential part of international relations, global human rights, and sustainable economic development.

Technology, Information, & Society

CCA/LIN 195 Creativity & Code Thinking (PA1A; SI-03, SI-04)

Conventional programming courses teach coding with an eye towards industry standards, corporate agendas, and professional application. Courses like these necessarily emphasize efficiency and routine, while minimizing idiosyncrasy and expression. This course argues for programming as a tool for creative expression and thoughtful inquiry; as a means for cultivating capacities for critique, imagination, empathy, and justice.

CEC/PHL/REL 264 Ethics in Science & Technology (PA3B; SI-03)

Students acquire a language and set of approaches for identifying, analyzing, and working through ethical quandaries that arise with emergent scientific findings and technological advancements. Students analyze real-world case studies - individual, communal, corporate, and professional - to identify, evaluate, and analyze successes and failures in ethical decision-making.

BUS/GEO The Business of Climate Change (PA1A, PA4C; SI-01, SI-03)

Creativity, Storytelling & Design

CCA 218 Writing for the Arts (PA1C; SI-04)

How do the arts tell stories? How do they shape the world around us? How do we interpret these stories and put them in our own words? In this course you will learn different ways of analyzing the arts, practice interpretation, refine your ideas, and write across genres for various audiences. By engaging in thinking and writing about the arts, you will develop transferable skills that can be applied to any professional goals

CCA/LIN 195 Creativity & Code Thinking (PA1A; SI-03, SI-04)

Global Health and Wellness

ATH/BIO/PSY 258 The Sciences of Mental Health (PA2B, PA4B; SI-05)

Students examine the neurobiological, psychological, and cultural contributors to mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse - as well as the ability of the brain to change in response to positive and negative experiences. Symptoms, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment, and societal responses to mental health disorders will be covered with focus on resilience as students explore the ways their perception and engagement with the world impacts brain function, and vice versa.

THE 224 Acting for Medical Simulation (PA4B; SI-05)

Ever wonder how medical professionals prepare to care for real-world patients while still in school? They use real people trained to act as standardized patients in encounters that simulate different medical scenarios. In this course, students from any major will learn practical skills in improvisation, analyzing/memorizing a medical case, embodying patient symptoms, and giving effective feedback. They will apply their skills to portray a patient in a simulation with health care students, e.g. in nursing, speech pathology or the physician’s associate program.

BUS/POL 248 Advocacy and Policy for Health (PA4B; SI-02, SI-05)

ENG/PSY/SOC 188 (your) Mental Health: A Community Project? (PA4B; SI-02, SI-05)