360°无限制学习

跨学科.
经验.
协作.
变革.

These are a few of the words you could use to describe 布林莫尔’s ambitious 360° Program, 它将来自不同学科和专业的教师和学生聚集在一起，参加一个“集群”课程，所有课程都集中在一个主题上, 问题, 或者研究问题.

Ask faculty and students about the program, and you’ll hear plenty of superlatives.

“360项目有可能成为学生在布林莫尔大学乃至一生中最伟大的智力体验,” says Associate Professor of Political 科学 Joel Schlosser, who has taught in the course clusters Arts of Resistance, 科学, 权力, 和真理, 和来世的能量. (这学期, 他正在与法语和法语国家研究教授鲁迪·勒·门萨默和人类学副教授凯西·R. 教授《推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜》的障碍.)

“The 360s are a phenomenal way to get students out there in the world, 建立社区,阿达利娅·X说. Rodriguez ’24, who was part of Nicaragua: Places and Names during Fall 2023. Taught by Associate Professor of Geology Pedro Marenco and Brook Lillehaugen, an associate professor of linguistics in the TriCo linguistics department, 该小组探讨了“景观与语言之间持续的相互联系”，并在尼加拉瓜进行了实地研究, home to 19 active volcanoes and a mountain range that divides language groups. “It’s sometimes hard to bridge the gap between STEM and the humanities,罗德里格斯说。, 地质学专业, “但这是一次非常酷的合作, 我享受其中的每一秒.”

23岁的Kimiye Maeshiro热情地讲述了她在复兴集群范式中的大四经历, a deep dive into the ways colonialism has captured and commodified Blackness, taught by Assistant Professor and Director of Dance Lela Aisha Jones, Assistant Professor of Education Chanelle Wilson, and Associate Professor of History of Art and Museum Studies Director Monique Renee Scott.

“Being able to study something not just with the perspective of my major, but also different fields and modes of knowledge, 非常强大,Maeshiro说, 现在是布林莫尔大学的招生顾问. Also unforgettable for her was the field trip to 佛得角 in West Africa. “That was a very tactile learning experience,” she says. “我认为高等教育有时会忘记，我们学习的东西最终与人类和生活在这个世界上的意义有关. 我认为360在将人际关系作为焦点方面做得很好.” 

将近15年前, 当社会学教授大卫·卡伦听说迪金森学院的马赛克项目时，布林·莫尔一直在研究如何以新的、深思熟虑的方式参与跨学科学习, which had students design their own course clusters. ”他想, “好吧, 那很酷, 但是这对学生来说有很多工作要做,’” says 360 Program Coordinator Sarah Theobald ’12.

Karen shared the idea with then-Provost Kim Cassidy, who put together a faculty steering committee that devised a different model for 布林莫尔, 哪一种会依赖于教员合作设计相关的课程和活动.

这个刚刚起步的项目(早期被称为万花筒)于2010年秋季推出了第一个集群，历时一年，以“改变教育”为主题开设了五门课程, 灵感来自布林·莫尔的125周年纪念.

“(最初)我们认为，如果学生们把整个学期的课程交出来，会更容易一些,西奥博尔德说. “我们认识到这是错误的, because there are often other courses students need to be taking, whether for a major or a College-wide requirement.”

现在，大多数360组通常在一个学期中由三个或偶尔两个课程组成. 学生必须申请该项目，然后在他们选择的集群中注册所有课程，并参加所有活动. 他们还必须可以参加国内和国际实地考察旅行，这是360计划的标志，通常在秋季或春假期间进行，所有旅行费用由学院支付.

360的参与者还与布林莫尔社区和其他地方分享他们所学到的东西. This can take various forms, such as exhibits, performances, or presentations. 除了, 每个集群都有一个指定的学生, 被项目聘用, who shares updates on the group’s activities on social media. (了解最近的集群 instagram.com/bmc360program.)

For students, focusing on a single topic throughout a semester can be a revelation. “I liked having the opportunity to take three classes with all the same people, and with professors collaborating on the content,24岁的Nisha Marino说, who participated in Fall 2023’s Energy Afterlives. “(360度)是我在文理学院寻找的东西——不仅能在不同的院系上课，还能把我在一个学科学到的东西应用到其他学科. That’s how I like to think about things, [with] all of the different disciplines connected.”

《推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜》，它深入探讨了一个问题，“能源开采之后会发生什么??,由Schlosser和地质学副教授Selby Hearth以及俄罗斯大学助理教授sasser Vergara共同授课. It included trips to a Central Pennsylvania mining town as well as Alaska.

360项目受到了教师们的欢迎, 自2010年以来，他们已经创建了50多个不同的课程群，其中许多是由布林莫尔的亲密规模培养的午餐或咖啡时随意的智力对话引发的. “The 360 Program is a great chance for faculty to test out some new area of research, 或者是一个不一定适合他们典型院系课程的课程主题,西奥博尔德说, who observes that courses built for a 360 may also go on to be taught as standalones. “That’s exciting and it’s also a productive use of faculty time and program resources.”

Although designing a course with other professors can have its challenges, 这些努力是值得的, 卡罗尔·海格说, 环境研究和政治学教授，在“气候变化:科学与政治”课程中授课, 到目前为止已经提供了四次. “理想情况下, 你需要真正的合作, but that’s also the fun of it—because we want to learn something, 太.”

这学期, Hager is teaching in the Europe from the Margins cluster, which looks at those left out of mainstream narratives; it will include a packed trip to 柏林, 学生将在哪里与艺术家见面, 积极分子, 以及为难民争取权益的组织, 移民, 以及LGBTQ群体. Her collaborators are Associate Professor of German Qinna Shen and Anita Kurimay, associate professor of history and director of Gender and Sexuality Studies.

“We like to break the boundaries of our own fields and to think across them,” Hager says. “找到一种共同语言并不总是那么容易, 但这很好, hard work and I like modeling that for the students.”

Hager also appreciates the 360 Program’s focus on experiential learning and travel.“You’re not just feeding them the experience,” she says. “你把他们放在可以激发他们灵感的地方，在那里他们可以真正着火. 当一个学生在这个世界上找到真正打动他们的东西时，看到这一点是很美妙的. I think that’s just about the best experience you can have as a teacher.”

心理学教授马克·舒尔茨, 360项目的另一个好处是，它可以“让学生和教师处于更公平的竞争环境”.”舒尔茨, who has taught in the Space and Identity and Contemplative Traditions clusters, says this can happen when professors sit in on the other classes in a cluster. “I think students enjoy watching faculty ask questions that they might ask.” 

The experiential learning components of the 360s, such as the mindfulness group that is an element of Contemplative Traditions, 以及为期10天的日本之旅, 还要让老师和学生并肩工作, 舒尔茨说. 团体不得不应对台风, 行程变更, 丢了护照, 就连手机也掉进了厕所里. Schulz once found himself helping a student with a fear of heights scale a wall. “我不得不帮她爬梯子，真的. I help students do that all the time metaphorically. But I’ve never had to do it, physically, outside of class.”

Those kinds of experiences create deep bonds, he says. “我和我教过的老师建立的联系对我来说真的很重要, 我认为对学生来说也是如此. There are cohorts who have gone through a 360 and remained close friends. They come together for reunions and write letters to faculty members.”

Joel Schlosser agrees that the 360 trips can be about bonding and connection, but it’s the program’s core educational mission he values most. “文理学院比任何其他类型的机构做得更好的一件事是跨学科的学习和合作, 你不需要旅行就能做到. You need faculty who are dedicated and encouraged to do it, 还有那些在课程表上有空余时间的学生.

“It’s really that kind of thinking that we need more of in the world,” he adds. “我们需要的人不只是把赌注押在自己擅长的领域, 但我们愿意互相学习, 互相倾听.”