STEM Interdisciplinary Exploration

STEM Interdisciplinary Exploration - Water

The Complexities of Water: An Interdisciplinary Exploration is an applied learning experience rooted in the Grand Challenge's call for broader access to clear water, and focused on these central inquiries:
How do we experience and understand water as both powerful and vulnerable?
How do we investigate and represent water in scientific, artistic and cultural ways?
How do we make sense of water inequities? How can we envision innovative, responsive, and sustainable solutions?
During this applied learning experience, learners will actively participate in water workshops offered by UMBC faculty in Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering; Political Science; Emergency and Disaster Health Systems; Visual Arts; Geography and Environmental Systems; Dance; Media and Communication Studies; and Modern Languages and Linguistics (Environmental Humanities). Guest faculty will join us from partner community colleges in English (digital storytelling) and Biology (participatory science), as well as guest community educators from non-profit organizations. Taken together, student participants will develop a deeper understanding of the ways that interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding can address global challenges, as well as broader understandings of the ways that they can engage in both professional and civic capacities.

[As we navigate our ever changing world, it is important for us as lifelong learners to think critically about societal challenges related to sustainability, health, security, and knowledge, and to consider our personal and professional roles. Earners of the STEM Interdisciplinary Exploration microcredential offered by Engineering & Computing Education Program (ECEP) and the Transfer Equity Collaborative, are prospective transfer students who have participated in a three-week intensive summer experiential learning program. As a part of this program, students will engage in projects related to the four areas of the Engineering Grand Challenges, while also engaging in an interdisciplinary set of workshops designed to help them understand the challenges from a cultural, social, artistic, political and environmental perspective.]

View on Canvas Credentials

Earning Criteria

Through active and consistent participation as individuals and/or in teams, student participants will:
- Engage in interdisciplinary analyses of primary and secondary resources.
- Build a water sensor and a model rainwater tank.
- Collect and analyze data.
- Research a nonprofit organization and present its role/mission/impact.
- Design a water-related performance.
- Create a digital story.

Additional Details

Learning Outcomes

- Student participants will develop a deeper understanding of the ways that interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding can address global challenges, as well as a broader understanding of the ways that they can engage in both professional and civic capacities.