360° Learning Without Limits
For nearly 15 years, Bryn Mawr's 360° program has challenged students and faculty to take an expansive look at big questions.
INTERDISCIPLINARY.
EXPERIENTIAL.
COLLABORATIVE.
TRANSFORMATIVE.
这些都是你可以用来描述布林莫尔雄心勃勃的360°计划的几个词, which brings together faculty and students from different disciplines and majors to participate in a “cluster” of courses all focused on a single theme, issue, or research question.
问问老师和学生关于这个项目的情况，你会听到很多赞美之词.
“The 360 Program has the potential to be the greatest intellectual experience that a student will have at Bryn Mawr and probably in their lives,政治学副教授Joel Schlosser说, 谁教过抵抗艺术这门课, Science, Power, and Truth, and Energy Afterlives. (This semester, he’s working with Professor of French and Francophone Studies Rudy Le Menthéour and Associate Professor of Anthropology Casey R. Barrier to teach Origins of Freedom.)
“360度是让学生走向世界的一种非凡方式, and to build community,” says Adalia X. 罗德里格斯24岁，他是尼加拉瓜的一部分:地点和名称在2023年秋季. 由地质学副教授Pedro Marenco和Brook Lillehaugen授课, 特里科语言学系的语言学副教授, the cluster explored “the ongoing interconnectedness between landscape and language” and featured field study in Nicaragua, 这里有19座活火山，山脉将不同的语言群分隔开来. “有时候很难弥合STEM和人文学科之间的差距,” says Rodriguez, a geology major, “but this was a really cool collaboration, and I enjoyed every single second of it.”
Kimiye Maeshiro ’23 speaks passionately about her senior-year experience in the cluster Paradigms of Revival, 深入探讨了殖民主义对黑人的攫取和商品化, 由助理教授兼舞蹈总监莱拉·艾莎·琼斯教授, 教育学助理教授Chanelle Wilson, 以及艺术史副教授和博物馆研究主任Monique Renee Scott.
“能够不仅仅从专业的角度来学习, 还有不同的领域和知识模式, was really powerful,” says Maeshiro, now a Bryn Mawr admissions counselor. 同样令她难忘的是去西非佛得角的实地考察. 她说:“这是一次非常直观的学习经历。. “I think higher education sometimes forgets that the things we study are ultimately connected to what it means to be human and to live in this world. And I think the 360s do a really good job at having that human connection be the focal point.”
Nearly 15 years ago, Bryn Mawr had been looking at how to engage in interdisciplinary learning in new and thoughtful ways when Professor of Sociology David Karen heard about Dickinson College’s Mosaic Program, 哪些课程让学生设计自己的课程群. “He thought, ‘Well, that’s cool, but it’s a lot of work for the students,’”360项目协调员萨拉·西奥博尔德说.
凯伦和当时的教务长金·卡西迪分享了这个想法, 他组建了一个教师指导委员会，为布林莫尔设计了一个不同的模式, which would rely on faculty members collaborating to design suites of related classes and activities.
The first cluster offered by the fledgling program (called Kaleidoscope in its early days) debuted in Fall 2010 and spanned a full year with five courses on the topic of Changing Education, inspired by Bryn Mawr’s 125th anniversary.
“[Initially] we thought it would be easier for students if they just handed over their whole semester,” says Theobald. “We learned that was wrong, 因为学生们经常需要上其他的课程, 无论是专业要求还是大学要求.”
Now, most 360 clusters typically consist of three, or occasionally two, classes in a single semester. Students must apply to the program and then enroll in all courses in their chosen cluster and participate in all of its activities. They also must be available for domestic and international field study trips that are a hallmark of the 360 Program and typically taken during fall or spring breaks—with all travel expenses paid by the College.
Participants in 360 also share what they’ve learned with the Bryn Mawr community and beyond. 这可以采取各种形式，如展览、表演或演讲. In addition, each cluster has a designated student, hired by the program, 谁在社交媒体上分享小组活动的更新. (Learn about recent clusters at instagram.com/bmc360program.)
对于学生来说，整个学期专注于一个主题可能是一种启示. “我喜欢有机会和同样的人上三节课, 以及教授们在内容上的合作,” says Nisha Marino ’24, 谁参加了2023年秋季的《推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜》. “[The 360] was kind of what I was looking for in a liberal arts college—not just the ability to take classes in different departments but also to apply what I’m learning in one discipline to other disciplines. 这就是我喜欢思考事物的方式，把所有不同的学科联系起来.”
Energy Afterlives, which delved into the question, “What comes in the wake of energy extraction?,” was taught by Schlosser alongside Associate Professor of Geology Selby Hearth and Assistant Professor of Russian José Vergara. 行程包括前往宾夕法尼亚州中部的一个采矿小镇以及阿拉斯加.
The 360 Program has been embraced by faculty, who have created more than 50 different course clusters since 2010—many of them sparked by the casual intellectual conversations over lunch or coffee that Bryn Mawr’s intimate scale fosters. “360项目是教师们测试一些新研究领域的绝佳机会, or a topic for a course that might not necessarily fit into their typical department curriculum,” says Theobald, 谁注意到，为360度全景设计的课程也可以作为独立课程来教授. “这很令人兴奋，这也是对教师时间和项目资源的有效利用.”
尽管与其他教授一起设计课程可能会有挑战, the effort is well worth it, says Carol Hager, a professor of environmental studies and political science who teaches in the cluster Climate Change: Science and Politics, offered four times so far. “Ideally, you need to be really collaborative, 但这也是它的乐趣所在——因为我们想要学到一些东西, too.”
This semester, 海格在欧洲的边缘地区教书, which looks at those left out of mainstream narratives; it will include a packed trip to Berlin, where students will meet with artists, activists, and organizations advocating for refugees, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community. 她的合作者是德国副教授秦娜·沈和Anita Kurimay, 历史副教授，性别与性研究主任.
海格说:“我们喜欢打破自己领域的界限，进行跨界思考。. “It’s not always easy to find a common language, but it’s good, 努力工作，我喜欢为学生做榜样.”
Hager也很欣赏360项目对体验式学习和旅行的关注.她说:“你不仅仅是在给他们提供体验. “You’re putting them in places where they can get inspired, where they can really catch fire. It’s wonderful to see that—when a student finds something in the world that really moves them. 我认为这是作为一名教师最好的经历.”
For Professor of Psychology Marc Schulz, another benefit of the 360 Program is that it can be a way “to put students and faculty on more of a level playing field.” Schulz, 谁在空间，身份和沉思传统小组中教过课, 他说，当教授们坐在一个班级里旁听其他班级时，这种情况就会发生. “我认为学生们喜欢看老师问他们可能会问的问题.”
360的体验式学习组成部分, 比如正念小组，这是沉思传统的一个组成部分, along with a 10-day trip to Japan, also put faculty and students side by side, says Schulz. Groups have had to deal with typhoons, changes in itinerary, lost passports, even cell phones dropped into toilets. 舒尔茨曾经帮助一个恐高的学生爬过一堵墙. “I had to help her climb that ladder, literally. 我一直在帮助学生做这个比喻. 但我从来没有在课外做过这种事.”
他说，这些经历会建立起深厚的纽带. “The connections I’ve made with the faculty I have taught with have been really important to me, and I think it’s true for students. 有一群人经历了360度的转变，但仍然是亲密的朋友. 他们聚在一起聚会，给教员写信.”
Joel Schlosser也认为360度旅行是一种建立联系的方式, 但他最看重的是这个项目的核心教育使命. “One of the things that liberal arts colleges do better than any other kind of institution is learning and collaborating across disciplinary boundaries, and you don’t need a trip to do that. 你需要有献身精神并被鼓励去做这件事的教员, and students who have space in their schedules.
他补充道:“我们确实需要更多这样的思维方式。. “We need people who aren’t just putting their stakes down in the territory they’re experts on, but are willing to learn from one another, and listen to one another.”