A Prac­tic­al Guide to Fix­ing the World: A crash course in trans­form­at­ive prob­lem solv­ing

Course content

This course will center an active case lab component. What will happen is that each class meeting will be divided. One third of our time at the start of class will involve a discussion of a reading and a debrief on the success or failure of our last case lab. The remaining two-thirds of time at the end of class will be devoted to devising and presenting a solution to a given problem.

If you think in terms of each case that students will encounter, the flow of each node of the course looks like this:

1. A given case is presented to students in a laboratory. They receive a dilemma and some amount of supporting material. In a small group they set about solving the problem. At the close of the laboratory, two groups of students present their solution and the class discusses.

1. Students go home and read the case that they just attempted to solve. Students then write a reflection memo on the success and limitations of their attempted solution.

1. Students come to the next class session and start with a discussion of the last case, their solution, and their reflection memo on their solution.

1. Students proceed to the next case.

Solution presentations from the case lab (in the form of ppt presentations or presentation notes) as well as reflection memos completed in between class, make up much of the exam portfolio.

Students will be divided into small problem-solving groups to distribute solution presentation work. Groups will be assigned to a given problem to ensure that someone is always available to present a solution and is always writing a discussion memo and preparing for class.