Dear members of the Interdisciplinary Community of Practice at UBC,

this is a message to inform you that we are having to cancel the meeting scheduled for October 30th (Thursday) Topic: Facilitating interdisciplinary exchanges across classrooms Time: 3:00-4:30pm Place: I.K. Barber Learning Center Room 2.22A.

Please stay posted for up-coming details concerning the November (27th) meeting, which may incorporate the topic of this cancelled meeting or could exclusively focus on designing interdisciplinary curriculum.

If you are interested in participating within the presentation team for the November meeting on either of these topics please comment on this blog or get in touch with the co-facilitators at: ctlt.icop@ubc.ca

In kind regards, Conor Douglas (on behalf of the co-facilitator team)

Dear members of UBC’s Interdisciplinary Community of Practice (ICoP),

we are inviting faculty, students, and staff to participate in the next meeting of the ICoP as a presenter on October 30th (Thursday).

we had preliminarily selected the topic of ‘facilitating interdisciplinary exchanges across classrooms’, but we are open to variations or alternatives (see earlier blog post for our proposed program of activities for this academic year).

such a presentation can take any form: discussion of experiences, workshop for making exchanges happen in the future, or anything else you can dream up.

we had thought that the session could explore how teaching and learning can benefit from interdisciplinary exchanges. The hope is that our community can reflect on successful interdisciplinary teaching collaborations, and lay some structural ground work -in the form of information exchange and matchmaking- of how interdisciplinary teaching exchanges across UBC can be facilitated.

please contact us at ctlt.icop@ubc.ca

EVENT DETAILS

October 30th (Thursday)
Topic: Facilitating interdisciplinary exchanges across classrooms
Time: 3:00-4:30pm
Place: I.K. Barber Learning Center Room 2.22A

Details: This session looks to explore how can teaching and learning benefit from interdisciplinary exchanges. The hope is that our community can reflect on successful interdisciplinary teaching collaborations, and lay some structural ground work -in the form of information exchange and matchmaking- of how interdisciplinary teaching exchanges across UBC can be facilitated.

Please join us for the ICoP Cafe to enjoy coffee, cookies, and conversation about how the ICoP can support your interdisciplinary teaching and learning. At the meeting, we will introduce our new ICoP co-facilitators: Adriana Sedeno and Conor Douglas. This event is open to anyone in the UBC teaching and learning community. Please feel free to bring your colleagues who may be interested in the ICoP.

Date: April 29, 2014
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Place: Irving K Barber Learning Centre – Seminar Room 2.22A
Registration: http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca/events/view/3267

The ICoP February meeting took place at the Seminar Room at CTLT on February 12, 2014.

1. Welcomed new faces to the iCoP.

2. The call was put out for a new co-facilitator to work with community members to develop and plan iCoP events. There was a creative conversation around ways to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations in this community of practice. (To get involved as a volunteer ICoP co-facilitator, please send a brief statement of interest and qualifications to current ICoP facilitators, Hanae Tsukada (ctlt.prodev@ubc.ca) and Jacqueline Davis (jad310@mail.harvard.edu).

3. Our guest presenter was Jennifer Xenakis from Pathology & Laboratory Medicine who discussed how inviting an outside lecturer can contribute to the value of a course which in this case was on toxicology.

Jennifer spoke from her breadth of experience as an educator. She began by taking the perspective of today’s students who often ask, “Why should I attend classes when I can learn online?” The added value of the classroom, Jennifer pointed out, is interaction with others and learning to work together. An instructor should not only teach material, but has a moral obligation to create an environment conducive to positive change. To facilitate interactive learning, an instructor needs interdisciplinary tools to help a diverse group of students connect with each other, open their minds, and break down the silos of disciplinarity that can impose limitations on bigger thinking. An instructor can model bigger thinking herself by recognizing that there are things she doesn’t know and bringing in an expert as a guest teacher.

For her course on toxicology, students learned about biological and chemical toxins and their uses in terrorist attacks. Jennifer brought in Dr. Richard Price professor of Political Science at UBC specializing in international conflict, peacekeeping, and security. To help students apply their understanding of biological and chemical weapons, Dr. Price will be preparing and delivering a lecture/interactive session with students March 2015. Using skills previously learned in the course, students work collaboratively in small groups to compile a literature review to critically analyze the biological or chemical weapon designated to their group and prepare and present a 20 minute presentation on the topic while their classmates prepare thoughtful questions for the presentations.

Having guest lecturers come and interact with students adds more value to their physically being in the classroom and can help make their education feel more worthwhile.

~ Thank you, Jennifer!

4. Networking time over coffee, tea, and cookies!

Our first Interdisciplinary Community of Practice meeting for the new term will be on Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 2:30-4:30pm, at the Seminar Room at CTLT. Please come join the meeting to meet new and old community members from across the disciplines. This session will include a brief presentation by Jennifer Xenakis from Pathology & Laboratory Medicine discussing the process involved in adding a new interdisciplinary lecture into a pre-existing toxicology curriculum. Bring your colleagues, your ideas for interdisciplinary activities, and curiosity and enthusiasm for building interdisciplinary into your courses!

Please see the event details and register at: http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca/events/view/3169

We are still looking for new ICoP facilitators. This role will offer you great opportunities for leadership, facilitation, networking, and more. Please check out the Cofacilitator role description, ICoP for details. We will talk about this opportunity at the February meeting. You can ask any questions about the role at the meeting, or please feel free to contact us with interest or questions if you cannot make it to the meeting. Our contact is in the document.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the meeting!

Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Time: 2:30-4:30pm
Place: Fraser River Room, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

Registration: http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca/events/view/3029

We are pleased to announce our second meeting of the term! At this meeting we will have two distinguished guests present on interdisciplinarity at UBC:

• Kevin Mehr, a 4th-year PhD student in Genome Science & Technology, is the president of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Network (iGSN), the vibrant student-governed organization that formed upon the closure of the College for Interdisciplinary Studies http://igsnubc.wordpress.com/.
• Dr. Hillel Goelman is the director of the dynamic Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program (ISGP) in the Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies that has enabled students to design their own degrees and conduct interdisciplinary research at UBC for 40 years http://isgp.ubc.ca/

You are warmly invited to join us for coffee, cookies, and conversation as we expand our understanding of the Interdisciplinary happening right here on campus.