Mix it up in 2012
It’s the first week of the year, first week of the term… A time of reflection and projection. A time to mix things up and try new things. How do you plan to enrich, expand, and innovate in 2012? How about through interdisciplinary engagement?
As fans of the Terry project, you’re likely already familiar with the benefits and possibilities of interdisciplinarity. The Terry project is committed to promoting interdisciplinary dialogue through its TEDx student conference, ASIC 200, the Global Speaker Series, and through the Terry blog. Did you know that Terry also promotes interdisciplinarity in classrooms across UBC? Yep! UBC Mix is designed to partner instructors, students, and courses together to create innovative and enriching learning activities.
I’m the UBC Mix Student Coordinator. I help to connect interested instructors and brainstorm ideas with them for interdisciplinary activities, assignments, and events. Here are some examples of past student Mixes and Mixes in the works:
- Data mash-ups: Statisticians and biologists working together with statistical models and fresh data to produce a common report
- Guest speakers: Economists and applied scientists in engineering engaging in discussion after listening to a guest speaker who is homeless and living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
- Ethical debate/discussions: Ethics students pairing up with genetics students to discuss the ethical implications of genetics research and application
- Joint lecture/reading series: Students from a range of disciplines – forestry, anthropology, engineering, economics – meeting up to listen to speakers from the UBC Reads Sustainability initiative and engage with their ideas
Can you think of other examples you’ve experienced? If you could create interdisciplinary learning opportunities in your classrooms, what would they look like? (Parisian salon? Competitive debate? Project-based learning? Service learning?)
Who would you like to interact with and learn more about on campus? How would you Mix up your education?
Email me at ubc-mix@interchange.ubc.ca or leave a comment! Let’s see what we can come up with by Mixing things up!
