5630 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. James Liszka
  2. https://james.liszka.wixsite.com/homepage
  3. Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. SUNY
  1. R. Bruce Mattingly
  2. Dean
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SUNY Cortland
  1. Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs
  2. Professor
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SUNY

Collaborative Research: the Common Problem Pedagogy Project

NSF Awards: 1712227, 1712215, 1712225, 1712203

2019 (see original presentation & discussion)

Undergraduate

The Common Problem Project (CP2) is a collaboration of five State University of New York campuses. It is funded by the National Science Foundation, the State University of New York, and the Teagle Foundation. CP2 pairs instructors in the STEM sciences with other disciplines to have their students work together in cross-disciplinary teams to solve local, regional or national problems, and in collaboration with community partners. The pedagogy is problem-based, self-directed learning. Team-work is emphasized, with the aim of students learning the vocabulary of another discipline. The project has the added benefit of collegial work between STEM instructors, and instructors in the humanities, social sciences and the professions. The project has been ongoing for 2 years, and has several successes, including a "Good Neighbor" project at SUNY Oswego, promoting local business; a "Sustainability in the Schools," project, involving elementary, secondary and college students at SUNY Oneonta; a "Sustainability and Film students, where environmental science and film students produce films on local environmental and social issues at SUNY Plattsburgh; a project among SUNY Plattsburgh, SUNY Queensbury, and Roosevelt University in Chicago on stigma in the opiod crisis. There are many other successful classes. The Common Problem Project synthesizes a number of high impact practices, as recognized by AACU. Importantly, it gets faculty and students from the STEM disciplines to interact with other faculty and students outside of those disciplines. The cross-disciplinary approach allows for a multi-dimensional approach to solving a problem, and appreciation of the methodologies and conceptual frameworks of other disciplines.

This video has had approximately 526 visits by 475 visitors from 159 unique locations. It has been played 271 times as of 05/2023.
Click to See Activity Worldwide
Map reflects activity with this presentation from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase: Innovations in STEM Education website, as well as the STEM For All Multiplex website.
Based on periodically updated Google Analytics data. This is intended to show usage trends but may not capture all activity from every visitor.
show more
Discussion from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase (52 posts)
  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 12, 2019 | 05:19 p.m.

    Welcome to our video website.  The Co-Presenters are  Dr. James Liszka, SUNY Plattsburgh, Dean Bruce Mattingly, SUNY Cortland and Dr. Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs, SUNY Oneonta.

    Thank you for taking the time to watch our video. Our collaborators would be very interested in your feedback, especially in regard to the following questions:

     

    1. How do you see this as a good way to promote cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary work among students and faculty?
    2. Do you think the common problem pedagogy helps promote problem-solving skills in students?
    3. How do you think this pedagogy might be better implemented in the future?
    4. How do you see using this pedagogy in your own institution? What level of interest do you think you would have on your campus? Would you be able to readily identify other campuses as partners?
     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Danielle Watt
    Mike Ryan
  • Icon for: Laura Guertin

    Laura Guertin

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 13, 2019 | 09:28 a.m.

    This is an exciting project and I appreciate all of the examples you shared in the video of what is being done across New York state. I know that engaging across disciplines and with the community takes more time and logistical coordination for faculty, which should be applauded. I think it can be challenging to have our students see the relevance of what they are learning outside of our classroom walls and how this learning applies to our lives, and The Common Problem Project does just this.

    Are these projects course-based? (I apologize that wasn't clear for me from the video) Are they only semester-long projects? Since community problems and challenges don't fit nicely into a semester calendar, how do you get the students engaged and keep them engaged until the project is completed? Do you have students continue to work on additional projects after the semester is complete? What sort of feedback do you get from students in future semesters, when they look back and reflect on the experience of participating (not the immediate feedback, but reflection some time in the future)? Thanks for any additional information you may have.

     

     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
    Kate Meredith
  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 10:16 a.m.

    Thank you for viewing our video Laura!  The projects are course based and many of them only run a semester long, but they could carry over to another semester in sequential courses.  When I ran the project in my courses I introduced the problem right from the start of the semester and we had check ins throughout the semester building to the final presentations. Others prefer to do it as a stand alone module that is embedded in the course and builds off the content.  In my case,  I also had students continue on after the semester in independent studies for those that were really engaged and wanted to continue their work. 

    I also interviewed students post project a semester later to get their take away. You can see that video at 

    https://cloud.swivl.com/v/0ac96c743ad7d276604e37f05ea18aff

    Students found the projects to be very valuable not only as a way to build on their content knowledge and take theory into practice, but also for the soft skills they refined along the way. 

     
    3
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
    Danielle Watt
    Mike Ryan
  • Icon for: Danielle Watt

    Danielle Watt

    Facilitator
    Director of Education, Outreach, Diversity
    May 13, 2019 | 03:40 p.m.

    Thank you for sharing your project! To follow up on Laura's question on the projects being course based, you mention students may continue the project in sequential courses, which I really like as it helps with continuity and building relationships with community partners, but is there an opportunity for new students to continue working on existing projects or do they start new projects?

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 13, 2019 | 03:50 p.m.

    Hi Danielle,

     Thanks for viewing our video. Some faculty partners will offer the same courses with the same problems. For example, we have three faculty, two in psychology and one in public relations that are working on stigma associated with opioid addiction, and are now doing a second iteration.  Faculty who tend to retain the same partners, tend to do the same problems. Usually if it's a new partnership, it involves a new problem, even if one or both of the faculty have worked with other partners in the past. I think it's a function of constancy in the partnership. I hope I've answered your question. The other co-presenters may have something to add from their campus experiences.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Danielle Watt
  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 14, 2019 | 01:18 a.m.

    Danielle, to follow up on James' response, I would say that new students tend to start new projects, even if they are working with the same community partners. This methodology draws heavily from problem-based learning, and under ideal circumstances, students are first given a very broad and ill-defined problem, and are then asked to identify something more structured and specific that they would like to try to address. That works best if we give the students the freedom to choose what to work on, rather than plugging them into an existing and ongoing project.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Danielle Watt
  • Icon for: John Fraser

    John Fraser

    Researcher
    May 13, 2019 | 11:05 a.m.

    I love the model for integrated social issue problem solving. This is definitely a complex challenge. I'm actually more interested in the public benefits that flow from this type of engaged work. So often, one and done student projects are difficult for people experiencing the challenges you're describing.  When working with people without housing stability, the last thing they want is to be someone's science project, so how do you manage that community engagement process in a way that's ethically responsible and respectful?  

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 13, 2019 | 12:19 p.m.

    Hi Kenia,

    Thanks for viewing our video. As a philosopher, I'm particularly interested in getting humanities faculty to work with scientists. I think both benefit and helps to achieve some understanding among the disciplines. We had one course, mentioned in the video, where environmental science students worked with film students. The goal was to develop short films on environmental and social issues in the community. At first, the science students had difficulty seeing how this would apply to their sustainability class, but they eventually got the importance of how to tell a story about an issue, how that connects with others, how to create empathy--as you say. So I think it worked very well in that case. The film students, on the other hand, got to learn about environmental science and sustainability.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Kenia Wiedemann
  • Icon for: Kenia Wiedemann

    Kenia Wiedemann

    Researcher
    May 13, 2019 | 11:18 a.m.

    That's a very nice approach! STEM and Humanities scientists don't collaborate enough! Encouraging this kind of collaboration in early stages in life (mostly before students enter higher education) is a great way to help them see the problem through different lenses. At the end of the day, I think empathy is what moves good science. Have you seen some sort of action from students' side, such as reaching local/regional policymakers for example, after their work was done?

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 14, 2019 | 01:27 a.m.

    Kenia, to add to James' response, we've had a couple of instances here in Cortland where our students were able to present their results to local policymakers. One of the first projects we ran in fall 2016 had students looking at ways to encourage and promote a variety of initiatives in our local community around the general theme of sustainability. Their ideas ran the gamut from proposing new walking/biking trails to promoting greater use of locally-sourced foods. At the end of the semester, students had the opportunity to present their proposals to our mayor. 

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Kenia Wiedemann
  • Icon for: Kenia Wiedemann

    Kenia Wiedemann

    Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 01:17 p.m.

    That. Is.What. This. Is. All. About! :)

     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs
    R. Bruce Mattingly
  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 20, 2019 | 10:50 a.m.

    #bestcommentever

    Thanks!

  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 20, 2019 | 02:49 p.m.

    I concur with Best Comment Ever! I'm just too old-school to know how to use hashtags!

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 11:19 a.m.

    Thanks for your question John.  We too are concerned about the quality of the interaction with a community partner as we want it to be mutually beneficial.  Of course, some partnerships have more growth than others but it is important to establish the groundwork before the students engage with the partner.  We want these partnerships to align with SUNY "Approved Applied Learning" criteria (see below) as much as possible as well, which also gets to the community benefit.

    Establishing guidelines prior to the project/problem is key. As is checking in throughout the process with the teams and with the community partner.  Another element to keep in mind to manage the communication with the partner so that they do not become overwhelmed with student requests.  At Oneonta, community partner communication was managed through team leads.  This limited the number of emails and phone calls they received.  Faculty mentors met periodically not only with the teams, but also with the team leads to manage any issues that came up. We are also clear from the start that the students may not have workable solutions to the problem or that only components of the solution are realistic.  They are students after all and ill structured problems are often much bigger than a semester can solve.  

    SUNY has defined approved applied learning activities as meeting five criteria:

    1. The Activity is Structured, Intentional and Authentic – All parties must be clear from the outset why this specific experience was chosen as the approach to the learning, and intentional about defining the knowledge that should result from it. The activity needs to be a structured experience with a formal process, which includes a course syllabus or learning contract between parties (students, faculty, and other supervisors as appropriate) and/or defined assessable learning outcomes. Roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined. Faculty and site supervisors (as appropriate) are expected to take the lead in ensuring the quality of both the learning experience and the work produced. The applied learning activity should have hands-on and/or real world context and should be designed in concert with those who will be affected by or use it, or in response to a real situation.
    2. The Activity Requires Preparation, Orientation and Training - Participants and mentors must ensure that students enter the experience with sufficient background and foundational education, as well as a plan to support a successful outcome. The training and plan should include learning expectations and be referred to (and potentially updated) on an ongoing basis by all parties.
    3. The Activity Must Include Monitoring and Continuous Improvement - Applied learning activities are dynamic. Therefore all facilitators in the activity share responsibility for ensuring that the experience, as it is in process, continues to provide a rich learning environment and is meeting learning outcomes.  Activities include a defined and flexible method for feedback related to learning outcomes and quality performance for all parties.
    4. The Activity Requires Structured Reflection and Acknowledgment - There must be a structured opportunity for students to self-assess, analyze, and examine constructs/skills/insights from their experience and to evaluate the outcomes. Reflection should demonstrate the relevance of the experience to student learning, including the student’s articulation of how the experience draws on and improves this learning and meets defined objectives. Post-experience learning should include a formal debriefing. All facilitators and students engaged in the experience should be included in the recognition of progress and accomplishment.
    5. The Activity Must be Assessed and Evaluated - Outcomes and processes should be systematically documented with regard to initial intentions and quality outcomes. Students must receive appropriate and timely feedback from all facilitators.
     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
    Kate Meredith
  • Icon for: John Fraser

    John Fraser

    Researcher
    May 13, 2019 | 11:33 a.m.

    Great that you are starting fro a position of strength. I'd recommend considering adding some information about culturally responsive evaluation to your model, both training for students, and also thinking about authentic value for the community groups they engage with.

     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Danielle Watt
    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs
  • Icon for: Kate Meredith

    Kate Meredith

    Informal Educator
    May 14, 2019 | 08:36 a.m.

    GLAS Education is launching a new community-based multidisciplinary team to address light pollution in the Geneva Lake area (southern WI).  I find your project interesting and the depth of your responses to people who post very informative.  Thank you for taking the time to do so.  I am most interested in hearing about how successful you are retaining student engagement over time and how you manage getting new volunteers up to speed on existing projects. Our project LENSS is here

     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs
  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 12:52 p.m.

    We entice new faculty through development stipends to rework a course and include problem based learning.  The participants engage in a one day workshop and then they have a mentor to assist them through the process the first time.  New mentors are selected from the previous cohort of faculty and the mentor is also paid a small stipend. The students are brought in through the course and most are motivated by the applied learning aspect of the pedagogy.  Those that stay on and work beyond the semester requirement do so out of a love for the work. 

     

  • Icon for: Kathryn Kozak

    Kathryn Kozak

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 14, 2019 | 10:14 a.m.

    I like the idea of this. I am curious if you have considered the scalability of using it at a two-year college?

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Kenia Wiedemann
  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 14, 2019 | 10:29 a.m.

    Hi Kathryn,

    Thanks for your question. Two of our faculty members here at Cortland were looking to bring in a third collaborator on their project from our local community college. The project in question was mentioned in our video, focusing on eco-tourism in the Adirondacks. That partnership didn't work out because of scheduling issues with the community college instructor, but we see no reason why such a partnership wouldn't work in general. A project completely based at a community college would absolutely make sense to us. 

     

     
    2
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Kathryn Kozak
    Kenia Wiedemann
  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 14, 2019 | 10:16 a.m.

    Hi Kate,

    Thanks for your interest in our project. Instructors who have tried Common Problem Pedagogy have reported that positive student engagement is one of the best aspects of this experience. Students are truly motivated to work on problems that matter to someone in the community, and they also value the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in other classes.

    You second question is very important. We have worked with our campus faculty development centers to provide workshops for faculty who want to learn about the methodology. Sometimes this is face to face, and at other times it has been in the form of a webinar that can serve faculty on multiple campuses. Another strategy that we employ is to ask experienced faculty to serve as mentors for new instructors trying this approach for the first time.

    Thanks for your questions! I'm looking forward to checking out project LENSS later today.

     

  • Icon for: Saira Mortier

    Saira Mortier

    Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 03:20 p.m.

    It's fantastic to see the issue of lack of multi-disciplinary collaboration being addressed! I am curious, what avenues do you use to disseminate content and create communities? Do you have a curriculum you've developed that instructors use? If so, is this freely available? Do you use technology at all to connect the communities that are formed as a result of this project?

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 04:55 p.m.

    We used technology to link the different campus participants the first could years as we did an online training/orientation for everyone at once.  After it grew each campus took on training on their own.  We didn't have any set curriculum that we developed to deliver this training, but we did have a short guidebook that we crafted together that included pre and post rubrics and some basic direction for faculty to begin the process.  

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Zoran Popovic
  • Icon for: Helen Boylan

    Helen Boylan

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 14, 2019 | 04:03 p.m.

    Thanks, Bruce, for the questions on our program and the tip to check out yours.  It is great to see what a scaled-up version of what we do in our Environmental Project Management Academy looks like!  (For the other co-presenters, please check out our video if you get a chance.)

    Our program features an embedded leadship seminar where students hone their leadership and soft skills.  They are able to apply these skills as they work in small teams on the community-based project.  Modeling the business world, we use 360' feedback throughout the project work so that the students can give and receive feedback and ultimately improve performance based on the feedback.

    How do you assess team effectiveness and function?  We use a variety of feedback tools, but we have found that CATME is a great way for students to provide peer evaluations in a controlled and validated way.

    In reading the disccusion thread, I was really intrigued by the "Approved Applied Learning" criteria.  If we do scale up our model, criteria like this will certainly be useful.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 14, 2019 | 10:11 p.m.

    Helen, the main focus our our assessment has been on students' problem-solving skills through a pre-test/post-test approach. Those assessments might give us some indirect insight into how well their teams functioned, because we do ask the students about the impact of multiple and diverse perspectives on their problem solving. Another indirect measure would be surveys and/or interviews that we conduct with community partners to measure their level of satisfaction with the program.

  • Icon for: Phillip Eaglin, PhD

    Phillip Eaglin, PhD

    Facilitator
    Founder and CEO
    May 14, 2019 | 05:17 p.m.

    Great to see the STEM disciplines working together to benefit students!  And the focus on solving problems in the students communities helps to connect their experiences, cultures, and knowledge.  Question: How are the problems selected?  Is there a problem solving process?  Do the team members self-select roles in their teams?

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 05:45 p.m.

    Thank you for the great questions Phillip!  The problems are selected in partnership between the community partner and the faculty.  Sometimes it takes some reworking of the initial problem with the community partner just to make it manageable and/or fit the complexity of the ill structured framework.  

    In my class partnerships the students are placed into teams based on their availability.  I have them start the semester with a Doodle poll to sort that out.  Once they are in their teams they sort out their roles on their own as part of learning how to collaborate and solve the problem. I don't give them a set process, but we talk about the process together throughout the semester and I give them guidance when they hit roadblocks. 

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Phillip Eaglin, PhD
  • Icon for: Marcelo Worsley

    Marcelo Worsley

    Facilitator
    Assistant Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 05:19 p.m.

    I'm a firm proponent of inter-disciplinary and cross disciplinary learning experiences. How do you go about bringing different faculty members together? I saw that they can receive a stipend to rework an old class, but is this done in collaboration with someone from a different field?

    Also, have you considered having students drive the common problems, in terms of identifying what they are?

    Finally, have you noticed any challenges or special opportunities when working with upper or lower level classes within given disciplines?

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 05:41 p.m.

    Hi Marcelo - thanks for watching our video!

    At Oneonta, I am a faculty developer, so I spend a lot of time matchmaking for projects like this.  I start off with just an informational session each semester just to see who is interested and quite often the partnerships are formed there.  It is a challenge because faculty tend to work so much just in their own silo. Sometimes they come with a partner faculty, but most of the time I help them find a partner.  

    Having students drive the problem and community partner is a good idea, but at Oneonta we have not done that yet just because it is hard to cram everything into one semester.  To find a partner, establish a problem, and sort out partner commitments to the problem would take a lot more time out.  

    One challenge we found right away is the level of commitment from students at different years.  We had a partnership between a lower division and upper division class and students were more serious about their involvement at the upper level.  Another concern we found in the pilot is that the different classes that are partnered need to make sure the task is weighted the same amount to establish the same level of commitment. 

  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 14, 2019 | 10:31 p.m.

    Marcelo,

    At Cortland, our approach to pairing up faculty is similar to Oneonta's. We've also had similar experiences with respect to your question about upper vs. lower division courses. We have had some instances in which the faculty organize their courses around a very broad and general topic (i.e. sustainability) but their students have had some flexibility in identifying the specific problems that they want to address. 

  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 16, 2019 | 02:07 p.m.

    Hi Marcelo,

    Thanks for your question. We just had an information session at  SUNY Plattsburgh that was quite successful. We drew in about 20 faculty (our full time faculty numbers about 200).  After showing them our video and going through some of the detail of expectations, we went around the room, with each faculty talking about what sorts of problems they might be interested in. I was surprised at how much conversation this little effort generated. Several faculty stayed afterwards to talk some more. I think faculty are hungry for this kind of interdisciplinary work.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
  • Icon for: A Daniel Johnson

    A Daniel Johnson

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 16, 2019 | 05:16 p.m.

    Really great idea for getting STEM students to start thinking about knowledge transfer.

    Do you see much faculty/administrative resistance to breaking out of their knowledge silos and work across disciplines? If so, how have you lowered that barrier?

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 16, 2019 | 05:37 p.m.

    I do a lot of one on one conversations.  Faculty are often interested but hesitate bc either they have no contacts outside of their content to partner in.  We also provide an incentive with a small stipend and support through a mentor and a workshop to help faculty refine their proposals.  I have not encountered any resistance from the administration on my campus.  They want to see more partnerships and growth across the different schools on campus.  One of the biggest verbal complaints I get from faculty when I approach them is that they feel like they don't have time to commit to the project.  They feel stretched thin already.  I heard this so much the last couple of years that we spent our Professional Learning Community this year reading Slow Professor. 

    I think it is really important as well that we had a STEAM approach.  Including the arts and humanities is key.  They have felt left out of the conversation the last few years as STEM was pushed more and more starting even in k-12 schools.  This was a great way to recognize the contributions that all fields can bring to the discussion and to find value in the work that we all do.

  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 16, 2019 | 07:36 p.m.

    Hi Daniel,

    We don't  have any administrative  resistance. I was Provost when this project  started,  and fully support it. Bruce Mattingly  is Dean. We also have support of all partner administrators. R1s might see more resistance, I suspect.

  • Icon for: Joanna Werner-Fraczek

    Joanna Werner-Fraczek

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 18, 2019 | 04:32 p.m.

    I love the project.  Thank you for sharing your multidisciplinary approaches. In the discussion above the criteria for learning activities are well defined.  Do you have tools of assessment and evaluation processes that you could share?

    Thank you.

  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 18, 2019 | 06:37 p.m.

    Joanna, thanks for your comments! We have a pre-test/post-test instrument with an associated rubric that focuses on students' approaches to problem solving. This is being used consistently on all four of our campuses. We don't seem to be able to upload documents here, but I would be glad to email you what we have. It's not clear to me if email addresses for presenters are available on this site, but you can reach me at bruce.mattingly@cortland.edu

    There are other outcomes that would be interesting to assess, and there are rubrics already available from AAC&U. We wanted to keep the data collection for this project manageable, so we have not required the use of these other rubrics by our participating faculty.

     

     

     

  • Icon for: Joanna Werner-Fraczek

    Joanna Werner-Fraczek

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 19, 2019 | 05:35 p.m.

    Thank you very much Bruce.  I just sent you an email so we can communicate there about the assessment methods.

    Thank you very much for your support.

  • Icon for: Mia Dubosarsky

    Mia Dubosarsky

    Researcher
    May 19, 2019 | 10:04 p.m.

    James, thank you for visiting the Seeds of STEM video. We hope to provide the little ones with the problem solving skills, so when they come to you - they are already prepared to tackle real-world problems. 

    I love your work, and the focus on problems from the community. 
    My University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), emphasizes problem solving throughout the undergraduate studies. in addition to several humanities-STEM integrated courses, all WPI undergrads are required to complete two 9-credit projects during the junior year (outside of their major) and senior year (major focused project). In addition students have an opportunity to engage in the Great Problems Seminar during their freshman year. 

    Similar to your project, the students credits the WPI projects with providing them with the collaboration and problem-solving skills required on the job. I am sure that your students have provided similar feedback.  More info, here: 
    https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/interactive-qualifying-project
    https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/major-qualifying-project
    https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program

    All the best with your project!

     

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
  • Icon for: Brian Drayton

    Brian Drayton

    Researcher
    May 20, 2019 | 08:14 a.m.

    Really interesting, and I have learned a lot from the discussion following the video. I am curious — there have been various comments about the challenges that faculty encounter — finding or envisioning appropriate topics, finding or cultivating partners outside their own "silo," etc — but I am curious about what kinds of changes have you seen in the way faculty work with students — what I think of as the core of pedagogy.  I assume that the mentorship during the year addresses that quite a lot? 

    Thanks!

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 20, 2019 | 08:32 a.m.

    Thanks for the comment Brian.  What I see changing most is how faculty view their own pedagogy.  They seem to be more likely to embrace other project based work once they have successfully completed a round of this with support.  The additional chances may be smaller modules and exposures, but they seem to be more frequent.  At Oneonta, the mentoring that the peer faculty provides does help with that.  They see other models of how it was included effectively and the wide range which opens up possibility for them.  

  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 20, 2019 | 08:31 a.m.

    Hi Mia,

    Thanks for the information about WPI  I like the idea of the Great Problems Seminar. 

  • Icon for: Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs

    Co-Presenter
    Professor
    May 20, 2019 | 08:45 a.m.

    Jake - Oneonta is actually sending a group this year to attend the WPI/AACU PBL Institute in June.  I'll be able to tell you more when we get back.  We are looking forward to it and sending a team of five people with a central goal of trying to figure out how on our campus to capture how many and with what diversity faculty each semester are including applied learning in their classrooms.  We had other goals as well about widening the role of PBL on campus.  Let's chat when I get back and I can share what I learned. 

  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 20, 2019 | 08:37 a.m.

    Hi Brian,

    Thanks for your interest in the Common Problem. I think one thing that's changed about faculty-student work relation with this pedagogy has to do with giving students greater autonomy in the classroom. We actually try to break faculty's habit of providing too much guidance, or helping students with solutions to the problems. We try to emphasize that the instructors should focus on metacognitive guidance--asking students to be more reflective about solving problems or how they overcame obstacles to reach a good solution.  of course, that's not always successful, but that's part of our aim. 

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
  • Icon for: Sue Jacobs

    Sue Jacobs

    Researcher
    May 20, 2019 | 09:45 a.m.

    Enjoyed learning about your project through the video and more through this discussion. Thank you,

     

  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 20, 2019 | 01:55 p.m.

    Sue, thank you for your interest in our work, and for taking the time to comment!

  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 20, 2019 | 01:40 p.m.

    Hi Sue,

    thanks for your nice comments. If there's any other information you need, just let us know.

  • Icon for: Sue Jacobs

    Sue Jacobs

    Researcher
    May 20, 2019 | 02:17 p.m.

    Thanks James, 

    Do you do anything with the students or faculty to increase individuals' (from diverse disciplinary studies and backgrounds) awareness of the values and/or cultural viewpoints they bring to the problems they are working on? If so, how?

     

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    R. Bruce Mattingly
  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 20, 2019 | 02:36 p.m.

    Jake and Kjersti may also want to comment, but I'll jump in here. You raise a very important question, because it gets at the very heart of what we are trying to accomplish. We are very explicit with the faculty in our goals: when they form the interdisciplinary teams of students, we want each student to see himself/herself as the expert in the discipline from which they come. We also want them to listen to one another, and to appreciate the value in looking at problems from different points of view and through different disciplinary lenses. In reflecting on your question, I believe that we have emphasized disciplinary diversity. However, we have not been as explicit about cultural diversity, and that is certainly an area where we could enhance the project. Thank you for this great question!

     

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
  • Icon for: Ivetta Abramyan

    Ivetta Abramyan

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 20, 2019 | 02:53 p.m.

    This is a wonderful way to showcase collaboration across multiple disciplines. Also, your video looks very professional. I love the combination of photos, video interviews and aerial shots. Keep up the great work! 

  • Icon for: R. Bruce Mattingly

    R. Bruce Mattingly

    Co-Presenter
    Dean
    May 20, 2019 | 03:09 p.m.

    Ivetta, thank you for your comments. Our lead presenter, James (Jake) Liszka, had the video produced by the local PBS affiliate near his campus (SUNY Plattsburgh):  https://mountainlake.org/ Jake might want to add some comments about his experience in working with them.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 20, 2019 | 02:55 p.m.

    Hi Sue,

    Thanks for your great question. I think both faculty and students are hungry for working across disciplines, so it seems all we have to is to provide them the opportunity. We just had an information session here at SUNY Plattsburgh on the project and faculty from a variety of disciplines were present. After we went around the table (for about 20 people) and had each faculty talk about their interests, it generated quite a conversation among different faculty. I just graded my reflection papers for a joint class I did with an environmental scientist (I'm a philosopher), and the papers reflected the same sort of thing. Most of the students saw the benefit of having a variety of disciplines represented on their teams, and could draw on the variety of expertise.  I think also, depending on the issue, particularly if it has to do with social problems, students quickly become sensitive to cultural perspectives on these issues. This was shown in one of our classes where environmental studies and films students collaborated to make films about problems such as homelessness and poverty in the region.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sue Jacobs
  • Icon for: James Liszka

    James Liszka

    Lead Presenter
    Senior Scholar, Institute for Ethics in Public LIfe, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
    May 20, 2019 | 03:14 p.m.

    Hi Ivetta,

    Thanks for your nice compliments. It was great working with the local PBS station, and they were happy to do it--and it was inexpensive. I wrote the script and provided most of the still photos, but they came to the campus to shoot the faculty and students and did the voice over narration. They wanted me to do it, but once they heard the result they changed their minds, thankfully :).

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Ivetta Abramyan
  • Icon for: Sue Jacobs

    Sue Jacobs

    Researcher
    May 20, 2019 | 03:45 p.m.

    Thanks, James and Bruce for the additional information. I really like your project.

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.