Integrative and Experiential Learning Series: Helping Students Make Connections
Based on experiences with simulations in an International Relations classroom, Veronica Kitchen discussed how to find or plan simulations, and how to integrate them into your courses. Her student, Istvan Szepesi, discussed how the student experience is changed by the inclusion of games and simulations.
Learning circles or sharing circles are a foundational approach to Indigenous pedagogy-in-action, since they provide a model of educational activity that encourages classroom dialogue, respect, and the co-creation of learning content.
Bryan Grimwood shared activities he incorporated into his Rec 230 Outdoor Recreation Resources Management class of 100 students to help his students get to know each other and interact with each other about substantive matters. Michelle and Zack, former students of Bryan’s, shared how participating in these activities shaped their learning.
This webinar showcases integrative teaching and learning strategies that can be readily incorporated into courses and is filled with examples and tips from across the Faculty of Arts, many of which were generously shared by Waterloo Arts instructors using these activities in their courses.
Francis Poulin has developed what he calls “Experiential Learning through Model Simulations” or ELMS. These are experiments "in silica" that students do in a tutorial where they are able to visualize solutions to problems such as the vibrations in a string and drum (of various shapes) and surface waves near the beach (with a bumpy bottom).
During this session, Arts Teaching Fellow and Philosophy instructor Shannon Dea described her recent use of "à la carte" assessment in a lower division Philosophy/Women's Studies class. Dea had set aside 45% of the course grade for the students to design for themselves.
Dr. Kelly Anthony discussed her involvement with the Community Service Learning group and how she has been able to make a Community Service learning opportunity available as an option to students in her course.
This session explored ‘"non-essential" activities: activities that occur outside the classroom and are not considered essential components of a university education, yet are truly vital to learning critical skills of life.
The presenters explained how an experiential learning component can engage and motivate students in a Qualitative Methods course. Students learned how to foster sustainable ‘green’ communities by taking the lessons learned in the classroom and applying them in the Region of Waterloo.
Jill Tomasson Goodwin worked with on-campus ‘community’ partner, (rather than off-campus one), to design a project where all students in her DAC 300 course, working in teams, researched and addressed the community partner’s real-world problem.
In this session, we covered the history of the Living Lab program at Waterloo, heard from students and instructors that have participated in Living Lab projects, and perused some of the sustainability projects looking for matching courses.
The student presenters discussed connections they have made between the academic and non-academic environments, how they have made those connections, and what instructors can do in the classroom to help students effectively integrate their learning.
Students in the BKI program are expected to engage meaningfully in an area of concentration that may lie within a discipline anywhere on campus. During their final year, students complete an undergraduate research project.
Exciting and challenging for both the professor and the student, the case-based method immerses students in a first-person scenario that is usually fraught with conflicting and incomplete information but that nonetheless requires a solution be found.
Troy Glover described how collaborating with a community partner provided students in his Rec 220: Program Management and Evaluation course the opportunity to apply course theory and content to designing, delivering, and evaluating an actual program.
During this session, Jason Thistlethwaite discussed his use of the Northern Gateway Pipeline negotiation simulation. Participants had the opportunity to consider how they might integrate simulations into their courses to provide an engaging, active learning experience for their own students.
Steve Lambert and David Effa focused on how to use case studies in class, including a demonstration of case-based teaching using an actual case study.
Greta designed the History 347 “Witches, Wives and Whores” course, which's activities that require students to take an active role in their learning, build on their critical thinking and research skills and engage deeply with course content in a way that is personally meaningful to them.