Dickinson College
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Dickinson offers semester-long, sustainability-focused, immersive Mosaics. Their objective is to encourage students to think reflexively about the diverse world in which they live as they engage in collaborative work with local, transnational, and international communities. Mosaics provide opportunities for students to meaningfully apply what they are learning in the classroom, both theoretically and methodologically, to the world beyond – and to bring their experiences in the world back into the classroom. Dickinson Mosaics challenge students to ask significant and relevant questions of the people and communities with which they are working; to actively listen to what others say about their lives and realities; to reflect on their own lives, worlds, and perspectives; to design research that addresses the needs and interests of their partner communities; and finally to present what they have discovered in thoughtful, effective, and ethical ways to multiple audiences.

In Fall 2014, Dickinson's Global Climate Change Mosaic offered students the opportunity to explore multiple dimensions of climate change as part of an interdisciplinary research team that will attend the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Lima, Peru.

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/cop20/

In spring 2014, the Eco-E Path Mosaic engaged a group of students in a semester of study of social innovation, sustainability, and entrepreneurship in 3 connected courses. Other recent sustainability-focused Mosaics include the Integrated Watershed Semester, Sustainable Agricultural Systems in Venezuela and the United States, the Global Climate Change Africa Semester, the Natural History Mosaic, and the Geology and Sociology of Disasters.

Each summer, Dickinson offers a number of study abroad summer immersion programs, which often include one or more sustainability focused programs. Recent sustainability focused summer programs have gone to Cameroon, Tanzania, China, France, Germany, Israel, and Italy.

The American and Global Mosaics are intensive, interdisciplinary, sustainability-focused, semester-long research programs designed around ethnographic fieldwork and immersion in domestic and global communities. Their objective is to encourage students to think reflexively about the diverse world in which they live as they engage in collaborative work with local, transnational, and international communities. The Mosaics provide opportunities for students to meaningfully apply what they are learning in the classroom, both theoretically and methodologically, to the world beyond – and to bring their experiences in the world back into the classroom.

The Mosaics challenge students to ask significant and relevant questions of the people and communities with which they are working; to actively listen to what others say about their lives and realities; to reflect on their own lives, worlds, and perspectives; to design research that addresses the needs and interests of their partner communities; and finally to present what they have discovered in thoughtful, effective, and ethical ways to multiple audiences. Students learn not only how to design and conduct research but also how to produce their findings and analyses in various forms: written research papers and reports, conference presentations, video documentaries, audio podcasts, and multi-media websites.

Example: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/cop20/

The design of a specific Mosaic program is driven by pedagogical and research concerns and faculty interest and availability. A number of different models have emerged, including a full semester of coursework taken by students with 2-3 faculty from different disciplines, cluster courses, and a one credit course that integrates a winter term or a spring break research trip.