Jenn Rossmann & Hannah Stewart-Gambino Cornerstone Multidisciplinary Design: A first semester collaboration

Not just! The Lafayette College Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) is premised on the belief that solving complex challenges necessitates innovative solutions with contributions from both engineering and the liberal arts. The purpose of the GCSP at Lafayette College is to encourage undergraduates to acquire the disciplinary expertise, breadth of knowledge, and the social, ethical, technical, and environmental awareness to successfully address the challenges. Sarah Nussbaum ’13, Madeleine O’Neill ’13, and Jessica Rothstein ’13 worked with the Community Coalition for Haiti to design and implement a water filtration system

Lafayette’s GC Scholars: Project jr/sr summer Not just! The Lafayette College Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) is premised on the belief that solving complex challenges necessitates innovative solutions with contributions from both engineering and the liberal arts. The purpose of the GCSP at Lafayette College is to encourage undergraduates to acquire the disciplinary expertise, breadth of knowledge, and the social, ethical, technical, and environmental awareness to successfully address the challenges. Lafayette’s GC Scholars: Project jr/sr summer multidisciplinary team Entrepreneurship Global dimension Service learning

First Year Seminar 16 students x 2 sections

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES First Year Seminar STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES Demonstrate critical thinking strategies related to interpretation and evaluation of texts in the context of course materials. Identify and consider one’s assumptions, thereby building informed perspectives. Engage in writing as an act of intellectual and critical inquiry 20 pages process writing Writing Associate Acquire an introductory understanding of research skills necessary for academic writing Identify and articulate the need for information relevant to a specific purpose or goal. Select the most appropriate investigative methods for different information needs and develop and employ effective search strategies to locate useful information. Evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into personal knowledge bases and value systems. Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access, and use information ethically, wisely, and legally. Reference Librarian Begin to develop strategies for participating in discourse communities beyond the classroom

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES First Year Seminar STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES Demonstrate critical thinking strategies related to interpretation and evaluation of texts in the context of course materials. Identify and consider one’s assumptions, thereby building informed perspectives. Engage in writing as an act of intellectual and critical inquiry 20 pages process writing Acquire an introductory understanding of research skills necessary for academic writing Identify and articulate the need for information relevant to a specific purpose or goal. Select the most appropriate investigative methods for different information needs and develop and employ effective search strategies to locate useful information. Evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into personal knowledge bases and value systems. Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access, and use information ethically, wisely, and legally. Begin to develop strategies for participating in discourse communities beyond the classroom Appreciate the multidimensional nature of the sociotechnical problem of world hunger Develop strategies for effective collaboration with problem solving teams Understand and apply engineering design thinking

First Year Seminar

An engineering solution might target some aspects of the problem…

While a political scientist might focus on other aspects …

No one discipline can fully encompass all aspects of the problem, nor all means by which it might be addressed.

A multidimensional problem requires multidimensional approaches. Jenn Stroud Rossmann Section 1 Mechanical Engineering Design Process Hannah Stewart-Gambino Section 2 International Affairs and Government & Law Policy, Gender

Can “unbridled optimism” + “demoralized realism” combine => “optimistic realism” of a Lafayette student?

Joint cornerstone project: R&D in specific context Shared outcomes: Tolerance for ambiguity, complexity Felt need for interdisciplinary collaboration Confidence in own expertise & perspective Appreciation for others’

Lessons Learned Full box! Confidence: empowering the difference, through: Curiosity Bonding and Identity- building of distinct sections Communication & Consistency Completion

Lessons Learned Full box! Confidence: empowering the difference, through: Curiosity Bonding and Identity- building of distinct sections Communication & Consistency Completion

Lessons Learned Full box! Confidence: empowering the difference, through: Curiosity Bonding and Identity- building of distinct sections Communication & Consistency Completion

...I would like to beg you…, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved … and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet

JENN ROSSMANN rossmanj@lafayette JENN ROSSMANN rossmanj@lafayette.edu HANNAH STEWART-GAMBINO stewarth@lafayette.edu