This learning communities Ped Day session attracted more than 30 participants.  Lead presenters included Carl Saucier-Bouffard and Geoff Pearce, who spoke about their joint efforts to extend learning beyound the classroom.  They were joined by Anne Goodsell Love (Wagner College, NY) and Steve Henle (Concordia), who shared their experiences and insights regarding curricular learning communities at Wagner College and experiential learning at Concordia.

The discussion portion of the session invited faculty to group together under the headings of 12 different wicked problems, and brainstorm interdisciplinary approaches that would situate their particular problems as a course theme:

• The European migration crisis: Global forces, local impact?
• In our eagerness to discover life on Mars, are we about to doom life on Mars?
• Royalmount Quinze-40: What the people want, or urban planning catastrophe?
• To vaccinate or not? Separating myths and realities.
• Do Dawson students need “trigger” warnings before they read great literature?
• Attack on the niqab: National election strategy, local fallout
• Homelessness in Montreal: Inevitable or avoidable?
• First Nations and Canada: Can the wrongs be made right?
• Urban agriculture and local food solutions: Will Montreal do a Detroit?
• To eat meat, or not to eat meat? Considerations scientific and ethical
• The Apple success story: Master of technological innovation – or of marketing manipulation?
• Youth in violent sports: Building character, risking concussion.

Animated conversations followed, and the session ended with Rob Cassidy issuing an invitation to participants to attend or stay informed of learning community meetings through the fall.  The aim of these meetings will be to develop a Dawson-wide framework that will permit interdisciplinary, team-taught courses in both General Education and programs.