Bright College now accepting course proposals

The John Dee Bright College at Drake University invites full-time faculty on continuing appointment and faculty emeriti to submit course proposals for its Spring 2022, 12-credit integrated seminar on Global and Natural Systems. Responses by Monday, April 12, will receive full consideration.

This seminar will serve as the second of four integrated seminars in the Bright College curriculum and will be taught by a multi-disciplinary team of two or three faculty (depending on cohort size, faculty expertise, and course design) as their primary teaching and service assignment during the Spring. Proposals are welcome from individuals as well as from teams already formed. Please see the catalogue description below for details about the general course outcomes and framework.

Standard compensation is $4,000 in addition to the faculty member’s base salary and reassignment from teaching in their home departments; however, there is considerable flexibility in the exact configuration of an individuals’ assignment. Craig Owens, dean of the College, will work with department chairs, program directors, and fellow deans to facilitate the appointment of faculty whose course is selected for inclusion in the 21-22 curriculum.

Preliminary submissions should include a brief course description and a representative list of learning activities that support course goals. Courses should be based on collaborative, high-impact, active and experiential learning and on problem/challenge-based approaches to problem-solving and learning by doing. Please bear in mind that Bright College does not employ a lecture model of instruction or an examination approach to student learning assessment.

Proposals and queries can be sent to craig.owens@drake.edu by Monday, April 12.

Catalogue Description

JBC 055: Integrated Seminar in Global Natural and Social Systems

12 credit hours (2-3 instructors)

Fall 2022

Outcomes

  • Global and Cultural Understanding
  • Scientific Literacy (including lab/fieldwork)
  • Historical Foundations

In this seminar, students will gain competence as systems thinkers as they investigate and map the interrelationship among globally interconnected systems of social organization, power, and the distribution of goods, on the one hand, and such scientifically inflected systems as the natural environment, public health, and healthcare, on the other. Students will learn about the influence of policy, history, and the physical and biological forces on the dynamics governing—and created by—these systems. Working in collaboration with their peers, participants will engage in direct scientific inquiry and data collection and will map these systems as steps toward designing interventions to improve identified outcomes. Examples of topics this seminar might pursue include (but are not limited to): global response to pandemics; global water policy and health; eco-tourism; globalism and the green economy; the politics and economics of healthcare in the global south; national health care in a global environment.

— Craig Owens