New interdisciplinary partnerships among academic departments will give students in six academic disciplines new opportunities this spring.

Students in three chemistry and psychology courses will work in peer-led team-learning groups, a nationally recognized best-practice teaching program. The team setting encourages students to express their opinions and ideas about a given problem. The sessions provide a less formal environment in which group members can question, analyze, and discuss problems to both reach a solution and master the underlying concepts. This approach will be used in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and the psychology department’s elementary statistics course as a way to increase the number of students who successfully complete the courses.

The project will be led by Dr. Jahangir Emrani of the Department of Chemistry. His co-principal investigator will be Dr. Alvin Keyes of the Department of Psychology.

A new undergraduate course in weather and climate will benefit from a collaboration between the departments of History and Energy and Environmental Sciences (EES) focusing on geographic information systems (GIS). The course will expose students to the interdisciplinary nature of weather and climate by including case studies of battles, food production and transportation, among other topics.

The history department will develop a new field of graduate study, “Historical GIS.” GIS is a critical, pervasive tool for the modern study of history. GIS proficiency provides students with a skill that is in demand in the job market in many fields. It also enhances research capabilities of students and faculty alike.

The collaboration will be led by Dr. Ademe Mekonnen of the Department of Energy and Environmental Systems, along with co-principal investigators Dr. Keith Schimmel of EES and Drs. Arwin Smallwood, Phil Rubio and Dwana Waugh of the Department of History.

The departments of Biology and Sociology & Social Work will partner with the Office of Undergraduate Research and Guilford College to engage undergraduates in community-based participatory research. The program will build collaborative relationships between underserved populations in Greensboro and students and faculty from A&T and Guilford. Students will be trained in leadership and cultural competency, enabling them to serve as interdisciplinary civic scientists and scholars to conduct research addressing real-world community needs.

Dr. Kelsie Bernot of Biology, principal investigator, and co-principal investigator Dr. Maura Nsonwu of Sociology and Social Work will lead the project.

Funding for these projects comes from the Innovation Ventures Fund of the College of Arts & Sciences, a program started three years ago to promote effective new team-based approaches to teaching.