Transformative Teaching

Abstract

Community engaged teaching connects meaningful community experiences to enhance student’s academics, personal growth and civic identity. Through productive collaborations and partnerships, community engaged teaching transforms the classroom into laboratory for the cocreation of knowledge. Our partnerships provide a space for us to address real problems faced in our community. In most creative fields, we engage in a multidisciplinary approach which is easily transferable to a variety of partnerships. In this presentation, I will present three community engaged case studies. Audience members will join me on the journey of two student engaged capstone projects. One project focuses on solving the problem of engaging younger viewers for our local museum through the use augmented reality. A second project attempts to help a local and growing organization focused on homeless youth get more clicks through website design and a social media campaign. The final project is a grant funded multidisciplinary faculty led project exploring climate change through the lens of theater, art and dance in the Adirondack Park with our community partner the Adirondack Council.