Week 4: Interdisciplinarity in the Real World

Hi Cornerstone students!

My name is Rochele Medrozo, and this week we will be discussing how we can apply interdisciplinarity in our lives. Merely defining Interdisciplinarity is a task in itself. Simplistically speaking, it is defined as,

“…The essence of interdisciplinary studies, which is manifested through research involving two or more knowledge domains,” (Repko, 2008).

You will find that Interdisciplinarity is essentially focused on actual process of integrating several disciplines, which you learned about during Week 2. After having time to think about it, are you finding that you are able to demonstrate it even in your daily life?

Interdisciplinarity is used to describe a research process (Repko 2008). This process is a simple three-step model:

Step 1: Formulating insights into the problem or question

Step 2: Integrating these insights

Step 3: Reaching Interdisciplinary understanding

As a Studio Art minor, I can’t help but use art as a daily exercise for interdisciplinarity. For instance, if I wanted to create an artwork that needed to communicate a message, I needed to:

1.) Formulate insights or ideas (example: different media, tools and types of art) into the subject matter of my art piece,

2.) Integrate all of these insights (example: creatively blending the use of the different media),

3). Create an artwork that could have only been produced by the integration of different modes of art materials and genres.

Click here to read an article about Sung Rok Choi, an artist who is known for applying the interdisciplinary process into his art. Here is a link to Sung Rok Choi's work.

Increasing Your Interdisciplinarity

To increase your interdisciplinarity, consider your major areas and minor, and research volunteer opportunities in each area. You will find that many organizations need volunteers that are willing to be as creative and integrative as possible while volunteering. Volunteering allows you to help others, and allows you to integrate your disciplines into a new, meaningful cause.

I had the opportunity to volunteer with Arnold Palmer Hospital for about seven months now, and it culminated to a job offer! Every time I volunteered, I consciously tried to find ways to apply my knowledge of Education, Health Sciences, and my creativity through studio art. I suppose I did something right!

This Week’s Assignment:

1. How do you apply your interdisciplinarity in daily situations? Answer in at least two to three sentences.

2. What is interdisciplinarity not? Refer to your book, if needed. Answer in at least two sentences or more.

3. Upon answering questions 1 and 2, research a particular career (preferably one that you desire). You can then pick either of two options:

Option A:

-List at least 3 reasons why an Interdisciplinary Studies degree will help you get this job

-List at least 2 reasons why an interdisciplinary Studies degree will help you throughout your career.

Option B:

-Go onto YouTube.com and post a link of a video that displays how your future career uses an interdisciplinary approach. (YouTube is merely an example, feel free to use other resources)

-Be sure to identify what the career is in sentence form.

Week 3: Critical Thinking

Hi guys, I'm Katina and this week we are going to discuss critical thinking skills. Critical thinking includes a complex combination of skills.  Among the main characteristics are the following: rationality, self-awareness, honesty, open mindedness, discipline and judgment.

Critical thinking enables us to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses of otherwise objective data, and to evaluate how well each analysis might meet our needs. Facts may be facts, but how we interpret them may vary.

So to help us explore our critical thinking we are going to play a game. Bentham City is a game of thinking and reacting to different and sometimes difficult decisions.

Sometimes in life we have to make decisions that are not cut and dry. As a parent I experience this quite frequently. The movie John Q poses an ethical dilemma that would be every parents worse nightmare. Here is a clip to watch John Q

What do you think you would do in a situation like this?

My son had a brain tumor last year, the size of a ping pong ball in his cerebral vermis in the occipital region of his brain, he required brain surgery. if it was not for Children's Medical Services and the Neurofibromatosis Clinic at Florida Hospital, he would not have of been able to receive that surgery. We are all uninsurable since we have NF, it is a preexisting disorder and therefore we cannot buy insurance. It is scary to me that situations like this one depicted in the movie are real and they do happen.

This is the link to Bentham City,

http://sulley.dm.ucf.edu/~ethicsgame/bentham/game.html

once you access it you will enter your name and email address, then you will have to click over the characters to have them speak, click next when appropriate in the dialogue bubble. you will have to search around for items as well that will light up as you scan over them with the mouse. There are 6 scenes to work through make sure you click save when instructed between each scene. This is a fun exercise to explore various ethical dilemmas. Once you have completed this exercise briefly, in a few words answer the following questions:

1. How did the Bentham City score your reputation and self worth?

2. Did you find some of the situations difficult to come to a solution?

3. How does your critical thinking relate to being interdisciplinary?

4. From the comments you received about your responses, what insight have you gained about your own critical thinking and reasoning?

In at least 2-3 sentences discuss a situation in your own life that may have but you in an ethical dilemma.

Please respond to two other cornerstone members and remember to respond by replying, not starting  a new post and as always, put your first and last names at the end of the post.

I am looking forward to reading your responses,

Have a great week,

Katina Bolton

Integration of Disciplines

Hello Cornerstone Students,

We hope that all of you have gotten off to a good start. It can be overwhelming and exciting at the same time.  Once you settle into the process and the understanding behind Cornerstone it will be a great aid in helping you focus and organize your thought processes behind Interdisciplinary Studies.

The concept this week will be integration.  When you chose your areas and your minor what were your thoughts behind your choices?  Probably for some of you, it was what you felt comfortable with and or liked?  For some, it may well have been picking what sounded good. Whatever the reason, it is a good idea to start thinking and analyzing how your areas will integrate and what your ultimate goal is.

My areas of study are Letters and Languages and Health.  My minors are Sociology and Health Sciences. I started out with one minor in Sociology but last year added Health Sciences. So I have been asking myself how do these areas work together?  What does Spanish, Sociology and Health Sciences have to do with each other?  Well, it's interesting because just last week I started having more of a feel for what I can do to integrate these areas? 

I happened to go downtown Orlando with my husband and four children.  My 14 year old needed to take pictures of architecture for her Creative Photography class.   I had not been downtown in a very long time.  It was a rude awakening for me because I had not seen or been aware of how much the homeless population had increased in our city.  As a mom, I automatically became protective and scared for the safety of my children.  My husband was busy looking for good camera shots for my daughter to take while I was trying to control myself from having a panic attack.  Long story short, as we walked, thru the streets of downtown Orlando I was convicted about my attitude and also I felt so helpless. How could this crisis called homelessness have crept up on me? 

Homelessness has been on my mind since.   How do I integrate my studies to become a useful tool for the homeless?  Sociology helps me to understand the human interaction in our society and the dysfunction that is caused when life takes a dreadful turn?  How much of the homeless population is not English speaking which adds to their problem?  If someone is homeless there is not a plan in place to stay healthy and under a doctor's care? 

The following link will give you a glimpse of the ten year plan to end homelessness in our country:

http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2982

Click on it and select any number of cities in our country and get a feel for the urgency of this crisis.

I am developing my plan to achieve my goal of contributing to society with the integration of my areas and minors.  Ask yourself the following questions and in 300 - 500 words post your response.

- How have or haven't you integrated your areas and minor?

- Why is integration of areas/minor important in terms of professional, academic, and/or personal developing?

- How can your areas/minors be better integrated? 

After answering these questions,  find a current news story and explain how it is interdisciplinary or what an interdisciplinary solution might be.  Share your story and your thoughts.  (Post using 150 - 250 words.)

Post a response to two other students. 

Welcome!!

Hello everyone, my name is Nicole and I love to garden and cook
for fun. My hobbies play a large role in my life and are the driving force behind my career choices. I currently work in the Publix bakery and love my job. I choose to get an Interdisciplinary degree in the subjects of Health and Humanities with minor in Psychology. My curriculum has really helped me be able to understand all aspects of diet and nutrition and how they are represented to the public in the form of marketing. I would like to eventually work with the Publix Organic brands establishing better ways to make organics available to everyone. The Psychology and Humanities portion of my degree has helped me to better understand people’s wants and how to provide it in the most appealing way possible. Health, of course has
helped me greatly in understanding diet and its vast affects on our health. How about you? What are your interests and hobbies? Do they play a role in your decision to pursue interdisciplinary studies? I found it helpful to complete the Myers-Brigg test to find out more about my personality and occupational interests. I am an INFJ, what are you?
THIS
WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT
1.
Follow the link to the site and take the
test. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
2.
Post what your personality type is and anyinsights you may have after reviewing your results.
3.
Always post your replies for that week under the original post’s comments. Do not
start a new posting.
4.
Be sure to sign your first and last name at the end of your post.
5.
Respond to at least one other post.

When people ask me about my degree I explain to them that it is a custom made program that incorporates all of my interests and needs. This was important to me because I wanted
something that was not available in a regular degree program. So much of the world today is a melting pot of disciplines, to pick just one to study is difficult. Why was choosing interdisciplinary studies the answer for you?
This degree has both advantages and disadvantages. For me the obvious advantage was being able to incorporate the study of more than one subject to become a more rounded
individual. The disadvantage is that the interdisciplinary approach to careers and education is still fairly new and not completely understood by many people.
This can make it a little challenging to explain my education and career
choice to some people. What advantages and disadvantages do you see in choosing this as a course of study?
Nicole Williams


Hello, my name is Katina Bolton and I am excited about being a
mentor this semester. I hope I can be of great assistance to you, our
cornerstone group, as you all enter into the world of Interdisciplinary
studies. I know my mentors helped me a great deal when I was in cornerstone.
Let me tell you a little about myself and how I arrived at IDS. I am 39, I will
graduate before I am 40, yay!! I am a married mother of 2 boys, ages 12 and 14.
My life has taken me in many different directions, I have been an EMT, a
Personal Trainer and up until March of last year I was going to be a teacher. I
was in the Early Childhood Education program here at UCF and I decided that
since I have 155 credit hours (167 after this term) I really should utilize as
many as possible, that is when I found IDS. I thought it was a perfect fit for
me to integrate all of my credits and knowledge form so many classes. What my family and I like to do for fun is we love to fish, hunt, to go off-road, bowl, play Wii and now XBOX Kinects, I am so in love with the games on the Kinects. I love being active and I will be the first to admit I have a very limited attention span. I have had to train myself to not get up in the middle
of a timed online exam to go clean the kitchen ;). My areas of study are Health Science,
Behavioral/Social Science and my minor is Education. I hope to one day reopen my personal training company with a focus on our youth, especially the under privileged who may not
have the same opportunities as those from higher socioeconomic class to benefit
from an exercise program and a healthy diet.
The advantages of IDS would be the ability to utilize more skills
and not be locked into only one mindset or world view. The disadvantages are
having to defend the idea of IDS to family members and friends. How I explain
IDS to others is I basically tell them that it is a way to expand beyond just
one discipline to make myself more marketable. So, instead of just being able
to be employed as a teacher in K-3, I become employed in the health field, as
well as fields associated with social and behavioral health. I would love to
help children with health and nutrition as well as emotional and social
wellness.
I am looking forward to a rewarding final semester here at UCF and
I am glad to have you all as part of it.
Good luck,
Katina Bolton

Hello my name is Claudia Perez. I am
excited because this is my last
semester at UCF. I am looking forward
to working with my fellow classmates in this
mentoring project as well as you in
the Cornerstone class. The last three and half years
have flown by so fast. You will see
that it will fly for you also. It is worth the journey! I
remember my Cornerstone class and how
overwhelmed I felt. I had received my AA
degree from UCF in 1987. After 21
years of not being in school I decided (after much
prayer) that I would take the
challenge and return to school and complete my bachelor's
degree. Originally, in 1987, my major
was Foreign Language Combination - French and
Spanish. As I started to research my
choices in 2008 for a major the best choice for me
was Interdisciplinary Studies. I was
able to use my credits in Foreign Language as one of
my areas and then I chose to take my
new classes to complete my second area in Health.
I chose Sociology as my minor. I had
never taken any sociology classes but am surprised
to say that the courses that I
completed in this minor have been the most interesting and
enlightening. Last year I decided to
use some of my Health credits towards a second
minor in Health Sciences. I also
learned so much in these courses. IDS allowed me to
expand my interest and knowledge in
new areas.
• Usually what I do for fun includes
my husband and five children. We love to travel and
try to take a trip somewhere each
year. We spent Christmas and New Year's in
Snowshoe , West Virginia, Asheville,
North Carolina and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I love
to teach and have been homeschooling my
children since 1996. My oldest is in college
now. I also enjoy scrapbooking and
reading.
• I keep asking myself what I don't
understand about my major-IDS? Well, I am relieved
that Capstone's purpose is to bring
all the parts and pieces together in our minds so that it
will make more sense and will allow us
to explain it to others. I have a sense of how my
areas should work together but for the
last three years I have tackled each area separately.
Now I have to bring them together and
be able to present them as a compete package. I
tried to explain IDS to my uncle a few
months ago and he was not understanding my
explanation. I told him that it means
that I chose areas that I had a strong interest and then
would use them to find a career that
would incorporate them all.
• The advantages that I see in an IDS
education are the ability use your interests and talents
in the areas that you enjoy. You have
a more well rounded approach to tackling real life
situations that will incorporate your
broad knowledge base and you have more choices in
career opportunities as they arise.
You will each discover what these areas of strength
and competence in your college career.
It makes it exciting and rewarding. The greatest
disadvantage is probably the lack of
understanding in the general public of what
Interdisciplinary Studies is and how
much it can offer to those who are willing to give a
chance.
• Be challenged and enjoy your road of discovery! Take care, Claudia

Hello. My name is Kris. I'm 23 years old. I like to
read, watch movies, and spend time with my family and friends. My disciplines
for this major are Health Sciences and Social/Behavioral Sciences. My minor is
in leadership studies. My biggest advantage with this Major is all the
information I’ve learned...my disadvantage is where I’m going to apply it all
at! I became an IDS major because the major I had before this (communication
sciences and disorders) wasn’t for me. Instead of picking an entire new 2 year
program I came across this one and I've had no regrets.
Kris Pena

Hi my name is Megan, and
I’m excited that this is my last semester at UCF. I’ve had a great experience
but I’m ready to graduate! I’m from a small little island that has a fishing
problem and I’m currently finishing my capstone class back at home. I enjoy any
outdoor actives, such as biking, kayaking, fishing, boating etc. When I first
started at UCF my intend degree was Physical Therapy but I soon realized that I
didn’t want to be in school for all the years it called for. Luckily, I had
just enough Health Science classes so I was able to complete a minor. I’m so
happy that I learned about IDS because I absolutely love it! I love the idea of
being able to study more than just one area and not having to be in school
longer. When I describe IDS to my family and friends, I describe it as a degree
that allows me to focus and learn about more than just one area in particular.
I was able to change all my areas and turn them into minors, which I feel fit
my personality perfectly; Health Science, Education, and Hospitality. I like
helping people, I love working with kids, and I enjoy meeting new people. I’m
so glad that I learned about IDS and chose it as my degree; I wouldn’t have it
any other way! I look forward to being a mentor this semester and I’m excited
to be able to say that I’m a soon to be UCF Alumni, go Knights!
Best of luck to everyone,
Megan Sebastian

Hi there and welcome to the blog! My name is Rochele Medrozo, and I am 22 years
old. I am so glad to have spent the last three and half years here at UCF, but
I am very much looking forward to move onto my post-graduate life! Aside from
school, I enjoy drawing, playing guitar and running.
As a freshman, I knew I wanted to go into a profession that allowed me to help
and interact with others. Coming from a Filipino family, it seemed only natural
to consider nursing, but I knew that it was not for me. However, I spent half
of my college years as a Pre-clinical Allied Health Sciences major, but
uncertain of what I would do after graduation. I then discovered the career of
Occupational therapy and decided to pursue it. I switched over to
Interdisciplinary Studies so that I can tailor my degree so that it better
prepared me for graduate school (and eventually a career as an O.T.). My areas
are in Health Sciences and Education, and my minor is in Studio Art.
I wish you all the best of luck this semester, and I hope you have an amazing
experience in your IDS journey!
Rochele
Medrozo

My name is Amanda and I am 22. This is actually my 5th year at UCF so I am
especially excited to be graduating soon. I like going to the beach, reading,
and spending time with my friends and family. I really like the fact that my
two areas of study can go hand in hand. I am focusing on health sciences and
social/behavioral sciences with a minor in education. When I explain IDS to
others, I tell them my story in a nutshell. I couldn't find one major that
suited and interested me, so IDS allows me to combine my interests. I think the
advantages to IDS education is that it allows students to not be in a box with
just one area of focus. It provides a broader more varied educational
experience. I think one disadvantage could be job placement in the future.
Depending on the position, they may be looking for someone with a more
specialized degree. As I mentioned before, I searched and searched for a good
fit and really couldn't find it. I changed my major several times and finally
found IDS. It is perfect because I can combine my interests into one.
Best of luck to everyone!
Amanda Hofer

Hi everyone my name is Cristie Vargas and I am 23 years old. I am so excited to be
apart of this mentoring group, I thought it was really helpful to be able to
talk to capstone students when I was in cornerstone! My hobbies are camping and
couponing! I absolutely love doing both! I volunteer as a counselor for a
camping youth group at my church called Pathfinders. Over the past couple years
we really have been blessed to be able to camp all over the state of Florida
and have had special trips to Georgia and South Carolina as well. Latest
obsession of couponing I picked up like many others from watching the
television series "Extreme Couponing." I have been doing it for nine
months now and its really rewarding and addicting! Like many of you I'm sure
have already encountered explaining IDS can be a little tricky. We are not a
concrete major where we all are walking away with the same specific education
like accounting majors. I always tell people that IDS is a very tailored
education to the different subjects I was interested in. To which I always get
the follow up question "What can you do with that?" my answer is I
essentially have formal education in three different subjects and my
possibilities are endless. The advantage of an interdisciplinary education is
that we are gaining so much knowledge. Most students only study two subjects at
most three if they are double minors or majors, we at minimum study three
subjects. A disadvantage an interdisciplinary education has is that nobody know
what interdisciplinary is which is why explaining your major and knowing what
you want to do as far as career goes is so important. When I decided to become
an IDS major I was at a real crossroads in my education journey. I had been at
a state college getting my A.A. for four years and I felt really stuck. A
friend of mine had just started the IDS program at UCF after she explained it
to me it peaked my interest and I started to look into it and decided that this
program was the right fit for me. As we have all mentioned we are beyond
excited to be in our last semester at UCF! It has been an incredible journey
and get ready cause yours is just starting! I cannot wait to hear from all of
you as the semester continues good luck!

-Cristie Vargas