This project is a bold experiment in a new learn by doing at Cal Poly. In Winter quarter 2012, we will take 100 freshmen of all different majors through a two to three-quarter sequence where students will work on teams with faculty and community partners on community-based projects aimed at creating more socially equitable and environmentally sustainable goods and services in the San Luis Obispo area. This learning experience is being designed by an interdisciplinary faculty team. Recruitment for students begins in Fall 2011. (Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, EEC#1025265)
facilitator: Professor Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Equity in Higher Education Project
Latino and Latina populations make up 35% of California's demographic, yet Cal Poly has fewer than 10% Hispanic students. This project is a partnership between Cal Poly, Allan Hancock College, Bakersfield College, and University of Southern California's Center for Urban Education to holistically address the systemic inequities seen in higher education for underrepresented groups in the processes of access, retention and success.
facilitator: Professor Roberta Herter, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
China-US Project
China and the US together make up 21% of the planet's population, yet emit half of the world's greenhouse gases. Their intertwined economic partnership holds the fate of the planet's environmental and social well-being. This project is a partnership to discover alternatives to the industrial era ways of living. We have parallel communities in which we have initiated collaborations between citizens, government agents, businesses, and non-profit organizations to jointly design and test ways of meeting needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their needs.
facilitator: Assistant Professor Shanrou Ning Zhang, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Capacity-building for Change ProjectChange in human systems is challenging often because we don't have ways of constructively working with conflict when it arises. These on-going workshops, hosted by Cal Poly's Center for Teaching and Learning, are designed to explore change models; to test our understanding of change through experiments grounded in our own lives.
facilitator: Roger Burton, San Luis Obispo, CA
Education Research
Higher education institutions are in a deep reflection on whether they are effectively preparing young people for the dynamic complexity of today's world. We are also pursuing many research questions inside this larger question. The education research consists of on-going experiments, documentation of that experience, data collection and analysis at the California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo). It also includes a network of research thought partners at other institutions. (Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, EEC#1025265)
lead:Associate Professor Lizabeth Schlemer, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Developing Emergent-view Learning Materials
Understanding the current science of global climate change and its impacts is challenged because the the information is scattered not only across several physical science disciplines, but across the social sciences. This project, a partnership between professors at Cal Poly, Yale University and the University of South Florida, brings together the research basis so that undergraduate faculty and students can see the need to holistically consider the interconnectedness of social, environmental and economic systems. (Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, DUE#0717428)
facilitator: Professor Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Community Projects
When we consider the future, we are convinced that thriving together requires fundamentally new ways of working together, across traditional boundaries--education, government, business, citizen, non-profit sectors. We also realize that the quality of our relationships defines the quality of what we can do together. Community Projects is an on-going effort to strengthen the social fabric and identify projects to collaborative undertake. (Funded in part by California State University's Call to Service Initiative)
facilitator: Dr. Joy Harkins, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
