Working Group #1 – Foundational & Capstone Courses:
“The Art & Science of”
June 3, 2014 Curriculum Renewal Forum
Team: Peter Stoicheff & Gordon DesBrisay(Co-Leads); Rainer Dick; Mike Horsch; Dean McNeill;
Sheryl Mills; Alison Norlen; Mark Meyers; Wendy Roy; Ulrich Teucher; Andrea WasylowDucasse
Introduction
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A strategic way to introduce first-year students to ways of knowing
across multiple disciplines in the College of Arts and Science
Useful to any student in the College
A signature feature of the College
Aligns with College Learning Goals
Will connect to capstone courses
Principles
How can first-year students intellectually sample the flavour of our college?
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Interdisciplinarity; creativity; simplicity / clarity; sustainability; flexibility
Aboriginal student success and achievement
High-quality learning experience
Collaborative with other colleges and regional colleges
Potentially career-related, potentially grad school-related; contributes to
recruitment and retention goals
Adaptive innovation to PSE environment and demographics
Cross-cultural
Writing intensive
Features
Experiential learning; internships; student portfolios; undergraduate research,
theme-based as well as discipline-based; structured first-year experience that
enables broad sampling; internationalization (diversity / global learning); service
learning; community-based learning; common intellectual experiences
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What higher order thinking can be (ways of knowing)
Instructors are invited not as representatives of their disciplines/ Divisions,
but as a professional and public intellectuals
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Course Contributors
1. Academic Programing Appointment
2. 5-9 instructors from various disciplines in College; credit given to
departments through TABBS
3. TAs and / or grad students
4. First Nations and Metis Elder(s)/ knowledge keepers
Recommendations:
“The Art & Science of”
foundational course
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A 3-cue course for first-year students.
Approx. 9 different disciplinary modules on one theme.
Open call for themes each year.
Departments/programs invited to contribute modules on selected themes.
Instructors chosen / recommended by individual departments.
No added program requirements; fit into distribution requirements as
either general requirement or elective.
Possible topics / themes
Ways of knowing
Light
Chaos
Creativity
AIDS
Play
Civilization
Resources
Conspiracy theories
Life
Proposed Format
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Large classes (200-300 students) with smaller seminars.
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One week for each of the 9 disciplinary modules: two lectures and one seminar.
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Additional classes for introduction, wrap-up, discussion of elements of good
writing, etc.
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Mid-way and near course end, panel of contributors to bring together concepts.
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Flipped classroom key; readings and/or videos assigned ahead of time.
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Also a possibility: Recorded lectures rather than in-person appearances.
Ideas for Assignments
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One short assignment for each module; graded by seminar leaders under
supervision of academic coordinator.
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Environment where students can take risks (e.g. not all assignments count).
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Longer assignment based on student interest in one disciplinary module or
intersections between disciplines.
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Writing Across the Curriculum element.
Proposed timeline
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Proposal for a shell course by fall 2014 to Academic Programs
Committees.
First pilot course(s) in fall 2015.
Benefits
Inspire students about the diversity of possibilities in the College
of Arts and Science. Provide opportunities to:
Experience a wide variety of perspectives in understanding the
world
o Identify differences between disciplines
o Understand that disciplinary boundaries exist to aid in
understanding and exploration
o Build community
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The Art & Science of Beauty
Why Modules on Beauty?
 The theme of Beauty can help weave together connections between our splintered
disciplines and knowledge fields.
 Theologian von Balthasar (1989): Beauty is a fundamental property of being
 Writer Dostoevsky (1869): Beauty saves the world
 Physicist Chandrasekhar (1987): Truth and Beauty
 Mathematician Orrell (2012): Truth or Beauty
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The different modules will consider multiple viewpoints of beauty; the relationship of
what we see, how we are persuaded to perceive beauty in certain ways, and how this
reflects who, where, and what, we are.
Modules on Beauty
Art and Art History on Beauty
How do we see, define, and perceive beauty in our visual world?
Biology and Beauty
How do evolutionary processes select for beautiful designs?
Computer Science and Beauty
What are the computational aspects of beauty?
English Literature and Beauty
How do writers present what is beautiful and what is not?
Modules on Beauty
History and Beauty
How have notions of beauty varied according to time and place?
Indigeneity and Beauty
How do indigenous aspects of beauty relate to specifics of place, mythology, and
spirituality?
Physics and Beauty
What is beauty in the universe – and how do the properties of light convey this beauty?
Psychology and Beauty
What are the social and media influences on perceptions of attractiveness – and are
there evolutionary purposes?
Modules on Beauty
One final note: