Home / About STRIPES / Participating Modules / Case 4
All disciplines
50 students cap
Authentic group challenge
Society linked
Case 4
Module 12: Science to Society II
This 3rd year minor module is the follow-on of Module 11: Minor 1 Science to Society. The minor can be done as a standalone too, without having done Module 11. It attracts students from all programmes within the university, the cohort is diverse, ranging from chemical engineers to designers and psychology students. The module aims to engage students from multiple disciplines to collaborate and address real-world challenges in diverse fields of Energy, Health, Learning and Robotics that all require an interdisciplinary approach. Multiple external stakeholders offer a variety of challenges that empower students to select their own project according to interest. This open and ill structured approach aims to grant students the independence to make decisions on planning, design and production taking their prototype solution from Module 11, to the stakeholders and society. This is with coaching from tutors and pertinent design and project management skills sessions to facilitate the desired outcomes.
Module 12: Science to Society II underwent one intervention from the specialists within the STRIPES project, from November 2021 to February 2022. The intervention involved added support in the form of 2 1.5 hour interdisciplinary skills workshops. Namely interdisciplinary foundations and perspective taking and application to real examples. These workshops were a continuation along the similar needs identified in module 11, so the intervention was more of a continuation that a brand new start. Surveys were sent to students on the value of the two interdisciplinary workshops.
What we learned
- Students are keen to learn new skills that can be directly applied and add to their measurable competencies. E.g. business models. They seem to be less enthusiastic about vague “interdisciplinary skills” that are more implicit in their benefits that tangibly evident in the outcome.
- Coupled modules would benefit from more shared oversight and continuity checks, to ensure similar standards, expectations and rigor. Students can easily compare twined modules like this, if there are discrepancies, they are highlighted more obviously.
