The Carleton Interdisciplinary Science & Math Initiative
(CISMI)
NEWS: Carleton's Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) $1.5 million grant, was announced on April 22, 2008. Carleton is using part of the $1.5 million grant from HHMI to prepare its students to move beyond traditional approaches to address real-world scientific complexity. Thanks to the generosity of HHMI, CISMI will be able to develop a broad range of activities including student research as well as faculty, curricular, and laboratory development.
NEWS: Carleton Team-Based Learning Workshop with Larry Michaelsen, Jan 30-31, 2009. An important energy barrier to develop a TBL course is the need to re-design assignments and tests in a way that effectively harnesses the power of teams. Working in teams, participants will focus on re-designing their own assignments to make them more effective.
NEWS: The The 2008 Annual Fall Science & Math Poster Session took place on October 24, 3:30-5:30 pm. The Poster Session provides a friendly, relaxed, and fun way for all students to present the research they did during summer, whether at Carleton or at other institutions.
HHMI-VI emphasizes computation and modeling of complex natural phenomenaWHY CISMI?
Interdisciplinary and integrated-systems research has taken on increased importance in science in the past decade as scientists tackle complex and socially important multidisciplinary problems such as disease spread and resistance, cloning technologies, and climate change. The need for multidisciplinary perspectives, along with advances in genomics, recombinant DNA, and the digital revolution, has changed how scientists communicate and collaborate -- laying bare the interdependence of biology, the physical sciences, and mathematics.
THE CISMI MISSION:
To promote and expand the inquiry-based study of complex and integrated systems, drawing on the power of disciplinary perspectives. In a liberal arts context, we aim to broaden student perspectives so they can make sound decisions, as scientists and citizens, about complex real-world problems through development of comparative, synthetic, integrative, and creative thinking.
CISMI was conceived as a long-term initiative by Carleton science and math faculty at a series of retreats in the summer of 2003. CISMI was launched formally in the fall of 2004 with Carleton's 5th Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant. HHMI and CISMI support a broad array of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and collaborative activities between the science and math departments, including:
- Curriculum development of multi- and interdisciplinary learning experiences to help students gain experience with complex, unscripted, real-world problems. The science curriculum begins with a focus on problem solving in disciplinary introductory courses and ends with authentic research experiences and open-ended projects that are both disciplinary and interdisciplinary.
- Faculty learning and collaboration in interdisciplinary areas, including associated pedagogical strategies
- Disciplinary and interdisciplinary student-faculty research in the labs, the field, and with computational tools
- New programs and curricula that broaden access to science for a more diverse group of students, especially early in their years at Carleton
- Collective and strategic planning for a science learning center, a science commons, and space for integrative science tools (computation, modeling, visualization, instrumentation)
Biology Prof. Mark McKone carries out prairie studies in Carleton's Arboretum and McKnight Prairie
CISMI is coordinated by faculty leaders (Fernán Jaramillo and Arjendu Pattanayak for 2007-08) in consultation with staff in the Dean of the College Office. The HHMI/CISMI Advisory Board oversees CISMI, plans for the future, and advises on the HHMI grant. We collaborate with many offices and staff across campus, including the Dean of the College Office, Academic Support Services, the Dean of Students Office, the Office of Intercultural Life, and Corporate and Foundation Relations. Carleton's 5th HHMI grant supports many of its initial projects. Carleton College also contributes generously to CISMI.
Interdisciplinary and integrated-systems research has taken on increased importance in science in the past decade as scientists tackle complex and socially important multidisciplinary problems such as disease spread and resistance, cloning technologies, and climate change. The need for multidisciplinary perspectives, along with advances in genomics, recombinant DNA, and the digital revolution, has changed how scientists communicate and collaborate -- laying bare the interdependence of biology, the physical sciences, and mathematics.
THE CISMI MISSION:
To promote and expand the inquiry-based study of complex and integrated systems, drawing on the power of disciplinary perspectives. In a liberal arts context, we aim to broaden student perspectives so they can make sound decisions, as scientists and citizens, about complex real-world problems through development of comparative, synthetic, integrative, and creative thinking.
