Jeanie BukowskiInstitute of International Studies

Private university located in Peoria, IL

4,500 undergraduate and 900 graduate students

More than 350 full-time faculty members

Full-time faculty with doctorate or terminal degrees: 85%

Middle 50% ACT score: 23-28

Middle 50% SAT score: 1000-1250

Created in 1958 at the suggestion of then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

Self-contained program of international studies in LAS devoted exclusively to undergraduate education.

Major designed to offer a broad perspective on the discipline while preparing students either for direct entry into government, business or professional service, or for graduate study in international relations, international trade or a related field. Recently established a minor.

Emphasizes foreign language training and strong theoretical and analytical orientation with equal emphasis on normative and empirical approaches.

Approximately 85 percent of IS majors study abroad. Serves as a ‘service’ department, in the General Education

program and new Bradley Core Curriculum (BCC).

Interdepartmental major sponsored jointly by the departments of biology, chemistry, and physics.

The objectives of the program are to provide the student with the necessary background for a professional career in the area of environmental science or entrance into a graduate program.

A student must choose one of three concentrations: environmental science-biology, environmental science-chemistry, or environmental science-physics.

Outside the classroom, environmental science majors have a wealth of co-curricular and cooperative learning experiences from which to choose, including:◦ undergraduate research◦ an industrial cooperative education assignment◦ assisting in the laboratory

Launched in Fall 2016 Requires a total of 36 credit hours, comprised of

courses taken across eight Areas of Inquiry plus additional Core Practices (Writing Intensive; Integrative Learning)

Areas of Inquiry: ◦ Communication (CM)◦ Fine Arts (FA)◦ Global Perspectives (GP)◦ Humanities (HU)◦ Knowledge and Reasoning in the Natural Sciences (NS)

and Social and Behavioral Sciences (SB)◦ Multidisciplinary Integration (MI)◦ Quantitative Reasoning (QR)

Bradley graduates will understand the value of integrating knowledge, skills and approaches to inquiry across disciplinary boundaries. The Bradley Core Curriculum exposes students to different disciplinary perspectives and ways of knowing, but students must also see the connections between the existing bodies of human knowledge and schools of thought and be able to integrate them. The practical demands of employment and research in a dynamic, diverse, specializing and globalizing world point to the importance of experience with multidisciplinary problem-solving and teamwork. More importantly, complex problems in modern society require the integration of knowledge and techniques from multiple disciplines.

Curricular Elements:◦ MI1 Connect knowledge, standards and perspectives

from two or more disparate fields of study to explore broad themes or complex problems.

◦ MI2 Adapt and apply skills, abilities, theories or methodologies gained from two or more disparate fields of study to create a deeper understanding of a complex topic or solve complex problems.

◦ MI3 Acquire and use a shared vocabulary that allows communication across disciplinary boundaries.

◦ MI4 Articulate how integrating two or more disparate fields of study enables novel insights or deeper understanding of complex problems.

Problem-based Cross-listed (International Studies;

Environmental Science) Team-taught (Biology and International

Studies or Political Science faculty) Embedded (Spring Break or Summer 1) place-

based component: Study Abroad experience in Costa Rica

End-of-course simulated negotiation of a UNFCCC treaty

How are curricular elements addressed?

How is student learning assessed?

MI1: Connectknowledge, standards and perspectives from two or more disparate fields of study to explore broad themes or complex problems.

The complex problem of global climate change will be explored by connecting knowledge and perspectives from the natural and social sciences, concentrating particularly on the links between atmospheric and terrestrial sciences and international studies/political science.

Through a variety of tools students will be guided to describe and explain global climate change, and its causes and impacts, as a complex science and political/social problem. Students will connect the approaches and perspectives of the various disciplines in assignments throughout the course such as quizzes, exams, and data analysis. The end-of-course simulation exercise, described under MI4, will enable students to synthesizemethods and explanations in preparing for and participating in this simulated international negotiation.

How are curricular elements addressed?

MI2: Adapt and applyskills, abilities, theories, or methodologies gained from two or more disparate fields of study to create a deeper understanding of a complex topic or solve complex problems.

--Focus on the global heat budget, covering basic atmospheric and terrestrial science (e.g. biology, geology, chemistry, physics) necessary to understand the problem of climate change. --Address impacts of climate change on human systems.--Explore adaptation and mitigation options and the integration of the body of existing scientific knowledge into political processes necessary to address the impacts of climate change.--Use the social sciences (especially international studies and political science) to evaluate the potential for public policy solutions as well as the political, economic, and cultural barriers to (or motivations for) achieving these solutions.

How are curricular elements addressed?

MI3: Acquire and use a shared vocabulary that allows communication across disciplinary boundaries

We focus on the concepts, principles, and vocabulary that transcend disciplinary boundaries in the natural and social sciences, while also consciously contrasting the disparate “language of science” and “language of politics” and address these differences as impediments to the utilization of scientific knowledge to develop effective policy solutions. This will be facilitated by one of our major texts, Dessler and Parsons, The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change, which provides an explicit framework within which to compare and contrast the “languages,” the disconnect that can exist between them, and the consequences of this disconnect.

How are curricular elements addressed?

MI4: Articulate how integrating two or more disparate fields of study enables novel insights or deeper understanding of complex problems.

It is impossible to address the problem of climate change through public policy without an adequate understanding of the natural and human processes leading to this problem. It is also impossible to comprehend the difficulties of achieving meaningful public policy solutions without adequate knowledge of policy processes at multiple levels of analysis from the local to the global. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to articulate and analyze the problem from this integrated perspective and therefore be better equipped as citizens—and prospective scientists and policymakers—to evaluate potential solutions, particularly various proposals for adaptation and mitigation.

Is this an effective (team-taught; cross-listed; problem- and place-based) model of multi-disciplinary integration? What makes it more or less effective than other models?

What are the advantages/synergies of this model? What are the main challenges/difficulties of this

model? What alternative models have you used at your

institutions, especially in the context of general education/core curriculum?