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Liberal Arts & Natural Sciences: What’s Your Problem?! – Interdisciplinary Problem Solving – Session 3 With Dr Ilija Rašović From University of Birmingham
10th October 2022 @ 15:45 - 16:45
THIS SERIES IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE PART IN THE SPRING TERM
This is the final session in a great 3 part event for KS4 and KS5 student groups and individuals which applies the style of university education practised by the prestigious Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences (LANS) programme at the University at Birmingham.
Talent and potential are so often hidden in plain sight and yet don’t get coaxed out—we look to empower all students in realising their academic potential and gaining the skills and confidence to positively affect their world.
The sessions, working with the same students across the three weeks (please register only if you are able to commit to the three sessions), aim to achieve this by giving students ownership of their own complex research questions, and providing the framework within which they can attack these questions with academic rigour and intellectual honesty.
What will happen during these sessions?
These sessions offer a hyper-condensed version of University of Birmingham’s first-year core courses, where students work in small groups to tackle a complex problem that is affecting them in some way. The starting point is the question: what is the most important issue affecting your community? As individuals, we all inhabit multiple and varied communities—some overlapping, others totally disparate—so the multitude of answers that fall out from here are always a fascinating starting point.
From here, we provide students with prompts and the academic foundations for exploring, analysing and perhaps even beginning to solve these complex problems.
Ultimately, students present their findings to their peers, teachers and us. Discussions are not limited to any one academic subject.
Indeed, this is the whole point of an education in the Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences: no one area of expertise is sufficient to tackle the most complex questions we face. We provide the bedrock of skills that enables the most curious thinkers and sharpest minds to cross these disciplinary boundaries, both themselves and by working with others.
By the end of these three sessions, students will be able to:
- Analyse and break down a complex problem that affects their communities;
- Analyse both quantitative and qualitative data, citing sources appropriately;
- Balance insights on a problem from diverse disciplinary traditions;
- Communicate their analyses and next steps to appropriate audiences;
- Reflect on the role they took when working as part of a team.