Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A transdisciplinary approach to integrating and applying knowledge from both academic disciplines and non-academic fields to jointly develop innovative solutions to particular scientific and societal problems in human health. Coursework emphasizes collaboration and is based on community-embedded projects.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course offers students with a range of academic and professional interests an opportunity to engage in jointly exploring current human health challenges and co-creating fresh approaches to addressing them. Using active and experiential learning, students apply, integrate, and build on their knowledge and lived experience in areas such as health psychology, change, health promotion, communication, technology, intervention design and systems thinking as they collaborate towards discovering effective ways of improving an aspect of health in a particular population.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

You will have learned successfully in this course if it enables you to:

1. Critically examine influences on beliefs, thoughts, behaviour and health outcomes in yourself and others.
2. Identify studies and frameworks, critique methods and findings, and apply lessons from health psychology, behaviour change and health promotion interventions and programs to current human health challenges.
3. Apply, integrate, and build on your knowledge and lived experience in a range of health- and behaviour-related areas towards exploring creative approaches to addressing current human health challenges.
4. Actively engage in investigating challenges, reflecting, ideating, experimenting, iteratively designing and testing aspects interventions and programs that effectively promote living a healthy, joyful, and fulfilling life.
5. Design and critically evaluate fresh approaches to promoting health and well-being in individuals, organizations, and/or communities.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Studying a wide range of principles, theories and practices relevant to addressing human health challenges will help provide students with a foundation for the quest to imagine and pursue fresh approaches, and design more effective solutions. As the course unfolds, the instructor will suggest one or two articles or other sources for the class to engage with in preparation for each week’s class conversation. These readings are an essential component of the course, with class sessions complementing the readings and building on them. Students are expected to have completed the assigned readings prior to attending class. Students are also encouraged to share or suggest other sources or materials relevant to the class's joint inquiry in this course.

REQUIRED READING NOTES: