| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 81.96 |
| Liaison | Lindsey Lyons |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2024 |
Dickinson College
AC-5: Immersive Experience
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 2.00 |
Lindsey
Lyons Assistant Director Center for Sustainability Education |
Does the institution offer at least one immersive, sustainability-focused educational study program that is one week or more in length?:
A brief description of the sustainability-focused immersive program(s) offered by the institution:
Dickinson offers semester-long, sustainability-focused, immersive Mosaics. These intensive, interdisciplinary research programs are 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. 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.
In spring 2023, Dickinson hosted the sustainability-focused Energy Pasts and Futures: Sustainability and the Energy Transition in Germany mosaic. Students took two Mosaic classes on campus: one on the history and culture of Germans’ relationships to the environment and another on the concept of environmental justice. A third, an independent study class, helped the students develop and conduct their original research related to the German energy transition.
Over spring break, the class took a two-week group trip to energy-related sites in Germany. As they interacted with German students and experts in environmental law and renewable energy, the students also had an opportunity to survey Germans on the ongoing energy transition to support their research projects. Once back on campus, the students analyzed their findings and delivered a joint presentation about what they’d learned to the Dickinson community.
Some other recent/upcoming sustainability-focused Dickinson Mosaics include:
Green Cuisine: An Exploration of French Culture, Food Systems and Economics - Spring 2025
Teaching the Transatlantic Slave Trade - Fall 2024
Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation: Fashion through the lens of history, culture, gender, and race - Spring 2024
Rwanda Mosaic: After Genocide and Apartheid, Spring 2019
Cuba Mini Mosaic: The African Diaspora, May 2018
Climate Change and Human Security in Nepal, Fall 2017
Website URL where information about the institution’s immersive education programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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. More information can be found here:
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. More information can be found here:
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