Development, Testing and Application of ACRE: An Agro-Economic Production Model on Regional Level

ACRE is an Agro-eConomic model for agricultural pRoduction on rEgional level. Based on an extension of Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) this model was developed as a decision tool for politics with respect to questions of global change scenarios. The validity of the theoretical approach as well as the algorithms has been tested by calculations with empirical data. Currently, ACRE is applied in large interdisciplinary projects. This paper introduces the development of ACRE, from the theoretical framework to testing its validity and current application.mathematical programming, variant-activity, regional model, agricultural production model, interdisciplinary projects, Agribusiness, C61, Q15, E23, Q21,

Interdisciplinary Projects-Based Community Entrepreneurship Courses

Over the last approximately fifteen years, the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law has developed a multifaceted set of courses, including interdisciplinary courses, pro bono clinics, and other programs and events relating to for-profit entrepreneurship and economic development, and social and civic entrepreneurship. This presentation will describe two recent interdisciplinary additions to these offerings-- the Law, Technology and Public Policy (LT&PP) course and the Entrepreneurial Urban Development (EUD) course. Both have strong elements of increased access to law and justice, with particular focus on presently disadvantaged and underrepresented individuals, groups, and communities. They significantly enhance the training of individuals to become effective community economic development and social justice advocates and facilitators. They deliver productive projects-based learning through multidisciplinary teamwork among faculty, students, and government officials and/or community activists, grounded in design thinking, and embracing the emphasis on empathy and constructing solutions responsive to the needs of various stakeholders that design thinking entails

Technology-enhanced learning as a site for interdisciplinary research

This briefing on Interdisciplinary Research is the fifth publication of its kind emerging from the Technology Enhanced Learning Research programme (TEL). TEL is a £12m programme running from 2007-2012 with eight large interdisciplinary projects aiming to combine technological and pedagogical expertise to improve outcomes for learners. The programme is funded jointly by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. TEL also commissions analyses of key theoretical, practical and policy issues across and beyond the eight projects, and in the wider TEL field

Québec ESL high school teachers' conceptualization and implementation of interdisciplinary teaching practices : a sociocultural perspective

The goal ofthis qualitative study was to examine Québec secondary school ESL teachers' conceptualization and implementation of interdisciplinary teaching. Engestrom's (2001) theory of activity systems framed this study within a sociocultural perspective. Data collected over the second half of a school-year were mainly gathered through in-class observations and interviews with six ESL teachers who were implementing interdisciplinary teaching, their school administrators, a curriculum consultant of the school board, and selected students. The findings identified three problems with the way the interdisciplinary projects were structured: (a) sequential versus simultaneous implementation of the different subject components of the interdisciplinary projects, (b) the amount of English language usage in the class, and (c) the task design of the English component of the interdisciplinary projects. The findings identified the most important constraints to the implementation of interdisciplinary teaching included a lack of scheduled common planning times with interdisciplinary partners and a dearth of professional development opportunities, material, or documents relating to interdisciplinary teaching

Interdisciplinary Projects – Moving from Transfer to Transformation in Learning

In the PBL communities, we have always argued that the deep learning in the projects would compensate for the lack of knowledge from taught courses by the students’ ability to transfer knowledge to new areas. Within the disciplinary discourses, this has proved to be valid as the transfer of learning works within the same language and disciplinary thinking and the projects share similarities. However, we have learned that in an interdisciplinary context, where students are to transform their experiences from a disciplinary to an interdisciplinary context, the students do experience difficulties in leading and managing their projects. This keynote will be based on results from the research project funded by Poul Due Jensen Foundation on interdisciplinarity and problem- and project-based learning (PBL). Key concepts in interdisciplinary types of projects will be presented together with research findings on students learning experiences. These findings are leading to a discussion on transfer and transformation in engineering learning – both in terms of scientific knowledge and generic competencies. The main message is that in order to facilitate interdisciplinary and flexible learning, the engineering curricula needs to be built on a higher degree of transformation and variation

Authenticity ahead of interdisciplinarity – a scoping review of student experiences in interdisciplinary science projects

Interdisciplinary projects are reported to facilitate the development of both disciplinary and generic skills. They vary in their design and implementation, but the effectiveness of different project models has not been studied. The aim of this study was to determine student satisfaction, engagement with learning and development of employability skills across interdisciplinary projects with different delivery models. This scoping review appraises interdisciplinary projects implemented in science-based undergraduate degree programs. Projects with varying models of delivery, interdisciplinarity, authenticity and external partner involvement were examined, and the reported student learning and satisfaction ratings compared. Descriptive statistics and cross tabulation using Fisher’s Exact test were used to analyse the data. The interdisciplinary project model had little effect on engagement with learning, but student satisfaction improved if the project task was rated as authentic (p<0.05). Improved learning was reported in about half of the projects reviewed. Improved employability was reported in projects where students used discipline-based skills to provide a consultancy (p<0.05), and those where an external partner was involved (p<0.05). The interdisciplinary project model did not affect disciplinary or employability skill development, apart from interdisciplinary competence, which was significantly improved in a truly interdisciplinary project (p<0.01). Interpersonal skill development was significantly improved where projects had integrated rather than sequential tasks (p<0.05). Overall, interdisciplinary projects that were authentic and/or involved an external partner generated better student satisfaction and real-world experience. These results inform the future design of interdisciplinary project-based learning tasks and encourage involvement of external partners in project design and delivery

17 ways to say yes:Toward nuanced tone of voice in AAC and speech technology

People with complex communication needs who use speech-generating devices have very little expressive control over their tone of voice. Despite its importance in human interaction, the issue of tone of voice remains all but absent from AAC research and development however. In this paper, we describe three interdisciplinary projects, past, present and future: The critical design collection Six Speaking Chairs has provoked deeper discussion and inspired a social model of tone of voice; the speculative concept Speech Hedge illustrates challenges and opportunities in designing more expressive user interfaces; the pilot project Tonetable could enable participatory research and seed a research network around tone of voice. We speculate that more radical interactions might expand frontiers of AAC and disrupt speech technology as a whole

Contemporary foreign language teaching methods as a means of formation of communicative competences at an entrepreneurial university

The article demonstrates that the development of multi-component foreign language communicative professional competence in a process of foreign language teaching at an entrepreneurial university contributes to the formation of Soft Skills. Interdisciplinary projects are considered among the priority teaching methods at an entrepreneurial university. Hackathon is one of the forms of interdisciplinary projects. Interaction and collaboration of students during the project implementation contribute to the formation and development of various components of foreign language communicative professional competence and Soft Skills.Данная статья демонстрирует, что формированию soft skills способствует развитие многокомпонентной иноязычной коммуникативной профессиональной компетенции в процессе обучения иностранному языку в предпринимательском университете. Среди приоритетных методов обучения в предпринимательском университете рассматриваются междисциплинарные проекты, одной из форм которых является хакатоном

Metodologia per dissenyar/programar projectes interdisciplinaris a l'ESO

Treballar amb projectes interdisciplinaris afavoreix l'assoliment de les competències dels alumnes, ja que reforcen el pensament crític, la col·laboració entre iguals, la creativitat, entre d'altres. No obstant això, en moltes ocasions no tenim eines o fulls de ruta per dur a terme aquesta interrelació. Els centres i docents tenen dificultats per aplicar els projectes interdisciplinaris a causa de la complexitat de relacionar-los amb el currículum, organitzar-se entre diferents assignatures o cursos, fer les programacions, avaluar per competències, etc. The use of interdisciplinary projects favors students' achievement of the competences as they reinforce critical thinking, peer collaboration, creativity, among others. However, on many occasions we do not have tools or roadmaps to carry out this interrelation. Schools and teachers have difficulties in applying interdisciplinary projects due to the complexity of relating them to the curriculum, the organization between different subjects and/or courses, make the didactic program, evaluating by competences, etc. Given these problems, this work provides a tool or methodology to design/program interdisciplinary projects in a simple and orderly way by monitoring phases. Tenint en compte aquestes problemàtiques, aquest treball subministra una eina o metodologia per dissenyar/programar projectes interdisciplinaris d'una forma senzilla i ordenada mitjançant una seqüència ordenada de passos a seguir

Diversity, Globalization, and 'Growing up Digital': Navigating Interdisciplinarity in the Twenty-First Century

Three main challenges face interdisciplinary practitioners in the humanities, social sciences, and professional education: (1) the difficulties and opportunities posed by diversity, (2) the challenges posed by globalization, and (3) the challenges posed by an environment shaped by information technology and the impact of new generations who "grew up digital." The theoretical literature on interdisciplinarity has focused largely on defining interdisciplinarity or establishing its acceptability as a mode of academic knowledge production. I argue that we can better understand the challenges interdisciplinary practitioners face by analysing specific interdisciplinary projects rather than by focusing on interdisciplinarity as a generic whole. I see interdisciplinarity as an integral part of the knowledge-production system: a normal part of the processes of fragmentation, synthesis, and recombination of knowledge (Salter & Hearn, 1996). Consequently, generational and environmental changes are part of these normal processes and must be understood as such. By exploring ethnic studies and women's studies in North America, I attempt to illuminate the historicity of interdisciplinary projects and how they change over time. This in turn demonstrates our need for criteria to assess the success of interdisciplinary projects that go beyond institutionalization, which, to date, has been too often the only criterion of success