S. P. A. C. E. 17-18
Fall 2017 - Winter 2018SPACE is a student enrichment initiative that nurtures exploration, discussion, and collaboration beyond the classroom and across the disciplines.
SPACE facilitates individual and group projects, and hosts a web magazine, exhibitions and special live events that are open to the entire Dawson College community of students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees, as well as to guests in the broader community. Through these venues, SPACE offers a forum for discussing and sharing undertakings of any kind, which may include work done in class or for a comprehensive examination, but which may also include independent explorations that deepen and/or broaden understanding. SPACE encourages participants to take their education further, beyond assessment, to continue to make new connections, between information and ideas as well as between individuals and their community. In the process of discussing and sharing their work, SPACE participants also receive guidance, mentorship and feedback from both their peers and faculty.
In 2017/2018, SPACE, through sustained yearlong collaborations and mentorship, will continue to develop student groups where students are given the opportunity to brainstorm, design, and develop independent ideas and projects, either on their own or in collaboration with other students in their own or other disciplines. Specific roles will be created for students within these groups. Interns in the SPACEcorp group will not only create projects but will also act as mentors to fellow students. In 2017/2018 SPACE will also focus on the web magazine, working with a core group of students to solicit targeted material for the website as well as encourage students and faculty to engage with the material and create discussions. In addition, SPACE will initiate a series of workshops, and visits to artist studios, artist-run centres, art foundations, museums and/or galleries wherein students will be exposed to the local art scene and make connections with artists, curators and educators. Subsequently students will meet to talk about their experience and develop individual or group projects.
SPACE will continue to commit to hosting a series of SPACE talks, with presentations by students, faculty and invited guests, and continue to set up collaborations between disciplines to create “project courses” which integrate classroom projects with SPACE activities, as well as mounting an exhibition in the Warren G. Flowers Gallery of individual and groupworks by students and other College projects. A SPACE week is planned to overlap with the first week of the Exhibition.
Project Update
In the 2017-2018 academic year, S.P.A.C.E. hosted and participated in a number of events with over 900 students attending the events and more than an additional 700 students and faculty actively engaged in one or more S.P.A.C.E. projects.
Direct Student Involvement and Engagement
S.PA.C.E. continued to expand activities involving student initiatives wherein students proposed projects based on their interests and then explored, researched and created these projects while receiving feedback from the SPACE coordinators, various faculty members, mentors and their peers. The projects involved sustained regular yearlong collaborations and mentorship and led toward participation in the en-tropy exhibition as well as in student activities such as presenting talks at ScienceFest and participating in the first Dawson Hackathon and contributing to the S.P.A.C.E. website.
Student Groups
Joel Trudeau continued his work with the SPACEcorp group. Approximately 35 students worked on self-directed undertakings and received mentorship from various faculty, members from the greater College community and alumni—five alumni returned to the SPACEcorp group to provide mentorship to this year’s student groups. Twelve of the students completed their CEs through SPACE and ten students presented their projects at ScienceFest. Algorithms, a technical art creation, which integrated elements of ongoing investigations by students of the SPACEcorp collective, as well as from students from the new SPACE 365: Make Things That Matter complementary course was displayed in the en-tropy exhibition.
The summer internship model is continuing in the SPACEcorp group this year with 15 summer interns working on Research and Development during June/July 2018. This group of committed students will work with mentorship throughout the summer and become leaders next year going on to mentor new students.
Andrew Katz led the SPACEmag group and helped facilitate, from the conception stage to the presentation stage, approximately 10 projects involving over 40 students and several faculty. In addition, he worked with approximately 30 students to create articles and creative work. The outcomes of these projects were displayed in the exhibition and/or on the SPACE website.
In 2017/2018, Amanda Beattie created the ArtSPACE group. Fifty-three students signed up to participate in a series of visits to artist studios, artist-run centres, art foundations, galleries and museums. During these visits, students had a chance to get to know the local art community and meet artists, curators, gallery directors, educators and other cultural workers.
Lisa Steffen continued to make connections within the Social Sciences through having former RM students present to a RM class, organizing the showing of the movie Hidden Figures to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, and organizing the interactive experience, Navigating Entropy, and a video contest by the same name. Planning is ongoing for the next Ada Lovelace Day in the Fall.
Curriculum and Classroom Connections
As mentioned above, in 2017-2018, twelve students completed their Comprehensive Examinations through S.P.A.C.E. A number of the students presented their projects during the ScienceFest at the end of the Winter semester.
The following curricular projects took place this year with approximately 200 students directly involved in these projects:
• CERN project: Nine students in collaboration with HEP led by Manual Toharia worked on a proposal to run an experiment at CERN.
• Illustration students: 45 first year Illustration students created original editorial illustrations to accompany articles and prose on the SPACE website.
• Illustrations students:35 students submitted design proposals to be considered for the 2018/2019 SPACE theme posters. The SPACE team chose 4 finalists who went on to pitch their proposals to the SPACE coordinators.
• 2 Visual Arts classes: I Illustration class: Approximately 80 students explored the en-tropy theme
• English course: approximately 30 students worked on en-tropy related articles
SPACE 365: Make Things That Matter
The new complementary course, SPACE 365: Make Things That Matter ran for the first time in the Winter 2018 semester. Thirty-one students from 15 programs and profiles collaborated on a diverse array of projects. The spectrum of activities being led in the course are evolving in and being informed by evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. The course will again be given in the Winter 2019 semester.
In addition to the above, students from various disciplines submitted articles for publication on the S.P.A.C.E. website. Twenty new articles were published on the webzine this academic year, with a number of articles ready to be published once they have passed the final editing process..
The work of 188 students from across 24 disciplines who were directly involved in individual and/or group projects, was displayed in this year’s annual exhibition, en-tropy. Faculty, Dawson staff, and graduates also had their work displayed in the exhibition. A print and a virtual catalogue accompanied the exhibition. Approximately 200 people attended the vernissage.
SPACE Sponsored Events
The following S.P.A.C.E. sponsored events also took place during the academic year:
• Three former RM students led a panel discussion in a RM class. They discussed how they "combatted entropy" and kept their work on track; 32 students participated.
• During the Humanities conference, three SPACE coordinators discussed how the 2017-2018 theme ENTROPY invites reconsiderations in a broad range of contexts; 110 students attended the presentation.
• ArtSPACE students met for brainstorming sessions on outings. The students:
o visited artist Glen LeMesurier at his studio and sculpture garden, Jardin Du Crépuscule , in October
o visited the exhibition,L'OFFRE, at DHC/ART, a foundation for contemporary art.
o Attended a talk, Burlesque! And "Navigating En-tropy, given by Holly Gauthier-Frankel (aka Miss Sugarpuss)
• A social get-together with the SPACEmag, SPACEcorp and ArtSPACE students took place in October; 22 students attended
• An interactive experience Navigating En-tropy, was held in the Upper Atrium in November and a video contest with the same theme took place in the Winter semester: 70 students participated
• SPACE interns Luis Sanchez and Juan Cheng Li participated in the McGill Hackathon—Joel Trudeau was a mentor at the hackathon. The students each received a $500 bursary to study at McGill.
• SPACE hosted two talks during Social Science Week; over 300 students attended the talks
• SPACE sponsored a speaker for the GreenTalks which took place during Earth Week; 120 people attended the talk
• 8 SPACEcorp students and 2 SPACEcourse students presented during the ScienceFest talks
• S.P.A.C.E. spearheaded a Hackathon during ScienceFest; 35 students took part including students from Dawson, Vanier and Marianopolis
• 15 summer interns began working on projects in May and June and will continue their work throughout the summer
Outreach and Community Participation
Drawing on the continuation of his work with the SPACEcorp group, and his experience in teaching the new SPACE 365: Make Things that Matter course, Joel Trudeau gave a talk, Learning by Design: Design Based Learning in and out of the Classroom, at Saltise 2018. Joel was awarded a $2000 prize at the conference which will be used in part toward funding the summer student internships
Joel Trudeau, along with 20 S.P.A.C.E students and 2 graduates, worked with faculty participants at the WID spring conference a two-day workshop on Design Thinking.
In June, Joel presented a related module based on the Hackathon inaugurated this year to CEGEP teachers from various colleges. As well in the month of June, two students and a graduate mentor participated in a 3D Printing Workshop at the Milieux Maker Lab at Concordia University, beginning of a collaboration in education makers.
