Working together to solve Grand Challenges

 
Today represents the first step fro me and those of you who have signed up for the 10bn pilot project. Some of you will be also registered on FCP201 and will be familiar with this "style" of teaching and learning. For those who are not, I hope this short  introduction will help you get the most out of the experience.



At University, depending on your chosen undergraduate degree, your academic contact time will be distributed between lectures, tutorials, seminars, workshops, analysis sessions, structured laboratory classes and as level 3/4 students, some form of individual or small group project work. Some of you may also select modules in which the teaching method is a combination of academic "facilitation" and team work. This may take the form of brainstorming sessions, team management of individuals and tasks (followed by independent contributions), practice presentations and group therapy! The aim of this method of "teaching" is to encourage you to explore your course through a different lens: drawing strands of knowledge together in order to solve a problem or produce an idea. Examples of such situations can be seen in the space-centric cinema in films such as Apollo 13 and The Martian; where a crisis situation requires practical solutions that stretch knowledge and the application of knowledge to the limits of individuals and small teams. 

The journey through such courses is often bumpy! A module delivered by lectures will be dependent on the knowledge, experience and organisation of the academic or academics responsible. If you turn up and you are comfortable with the intellectual challenge, you will get through the module and perform predictably  in the examination (or piece of coursework). It's a bonus if you like the academic's lecturing style, but first and foremost you want to feel informed, challenged and hopefully engaged by the topic. As soon as a module relinquishes control from the academic lead, then the experience becomes less predictable for all. So why do it this way. The answer is very simple. Because that's how it is in the so called "real world"!

The second point that is important for dealing with this real world, is that there are some problems that are of such great significance (often referred to these days as Grand Challenges) for which solutions must be found. But who will find them? The likelihood is that you will, and it is our responsibility to at least raise awareness and then to invite you to develop some ideas that might help. It may be possible that your ideas turn into solutions immediately, but more likely the course will stimulate thought and action that will materialise downstream.

With these thoughts in mind, let's see how the session goes today!