Goals
- Research topics important to the course’s overall learning goals.
- Develop a creative way to teach the rest of the class about the topic.
- Practice best behaviors for group project work. (Life is a group project, so let’s try to make it less painful!)
- Take over one whole class session at the end of the term and provide us with a fun and fulfilling way to learn about a topic that might otherwise be boring.
- Don’t be boring!
Overview
- There will be four groups.
- The groups will choose from four broad topics. Each group will have a separate topic.
- Groups have the freedom to approach their topics in any way they wish, but will need to think about the following:
- Allow time for research. You need to become knowledgeable about your topic before you can figure out the most effective way to present it, and you need to become even more knowledgeable to be able to teach it.
- If you need to secure permission to use a facility or resources of some sort, plan that early.
- Don’t be boring! You’ve sat through plenty of projects in your life that were boring. Don’t do that to us!
- Each group will write a project summary once they have decided on what they plan to do, then will have class time to work on their project.
- Each group will choose one day at the end of the term to take over class and teach us what they have learned in an INTERACTIVE way. This can take any form. The single goal is not to be boring!
- You may not use a slide deck (PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc.) for this project. Be creative! Think outside the slides!
- After taking over class, each group will complete a project reflection/evaluation.
Topics
Habits of Mind
Research PSU’s “Habits of Mind”. Create a project that will educate us about the HoM and give us the opportunity to practice and/or reflect on them.
Academic Disciplines & Interdisciplinarity
Research the history and concept of academic disciplines and the concept of interdisciplinarity. (Note: interdisciplinarity is a concept. It does not mean “Interdisciplinary Studies at PSU”. Your research should be applicable to all majors and, in fact, not limited to college.) Create a project that will educate us about disciplines and interdisciplinarity and help us use those concepts in informed and creative ways.
Knowledge Commons
What the heck is “the knowledge commons”?! What does it have to do with us? Dig into these questions and create a project to educate us about the knowledge commons and what we might be able to do with it.
Why Are School & Education the Way They Are … And How Might They Be Different?
How did schools become what they are? How could we change them to make them more effective and useful? For this project, choose a particular type of school (e.g., elementary, high school, college; public or private, small or large — you define it in whatever way makes sense for your research) and then dig into how such schools came to be. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Then create a project to inform us about this history and to show us how schooling might be different — and better!
Group Roles
You are welcome to organize your group in whatever way makes sense to you, but be intentional and deliberate about it.
Here are some suggestions for roles you might want to assign:
- Project Manager. It can be very helpful to have one person who is in charge of making sure the whole group is progressing. That frees everybody else to work on their part without worrying too much about the whole. A project manager is less a boss than a facilitator, a connector.
- Secretary. Someone to take notes. This is an especially good role for someone who tends to be quiet. Keeping track of schedules, meetings, and notes is a great way to participate in an essential way without feeling like you have to talk a lot.
- Moderator. Some groups find it helpful to have someone who is not the project manager oversee group discussions. This person’s job is to keep everybody on track during discussions, to make sure essential information is shared, and to pose questions for everyone to discuss. This person could also become the lead presenter during the class takeover time. Entirely optional, but it’s useful for some groups.
You can choose whatever roles you want, but you will have a better experience if everyone knows what is expected of them and you have someone designated to keep track of important things, keep everyone on task, and help with organization.
Researching Your Topic
Before you can make any progress with your project, you must research your topic.
1. Start with the course textbooks. They are full of good stuff! At least 1 person in your group should have read each of the chapters relevant to your topic in the textbooks. (Which chapters are those? Look and see!)
2. Use the resources available to us in Lamson. We’re literally sitting in a library! Use it! Talk with folks at the research desk upstairs. Walk through the books in the area(s) of your topic. Search library databases. You have a huge wealth of material here at your disposal!
3. Talk to subject area experts. Seek out faculty with knowledge and talk to students in areas that connect to your topic. You will be amazed at what people know! Want to know, for instance, about the Habits of Mind? Talk to teachers of those courses! Talk to librarians! Talk to your peers! (Hint: Everybody in the CoLab is pretty familiar with all of these topics…)
4. Share notes with each other. You don’t all have to learn the same stuff, and it is most efficient for you to first teach each other about aspects of your topic. Assign each other roles. Follow your personal interests. Then share with each other and you will have a better idea of how to go forward.
5. It’s okay to return to research after you have started your topic. Researching is not a linear process! Do some research, work on the project, then do more research to fill in the areas that feel thin.