Arts & Innovation

Expertly advised by Thayer faculty, paid undergraduate teaching assistants manage a materials library that links technology tools with physical materials and products. The library empowers Dartmouth students to grasp concepts and understand “materials thinking” while turning materials into technical solutions to complex engineering problems, art, or both. The library engages over 300 students and supports several project-based courses, including ENGS 3 “The Substance of Civilization,” ENGS 14 “The Science and Engineering of Music,” ENGS 21 “Introduction to Engineering,” ENGS 24 “Science of Materials,” ENGS 73 “Materials Processing and Selection,” and ENGS 171 “Industrial Ecology.”

Term: Ongoing

Project Leader: Ulrike Wegst (Associate Professor of Engineering)

In this Studio Arts course, students traveled to New York City to experience and document a series of public spaces. While in New York, the students participated in a forum on the course theme, co-organized by the American Institute of Architects and the Center for Architecture in New York. Upon their return to campus, students designed an architecture/art project intervention to improve the conditions and experiences of communities in a public space.

Term: Fall 2016

Project Leader: Zenovia Toloudi (Assistant Professor of Studio Art)

The Spring 2017 College Course, "Dave the Potter: Slavery Between Pots and Poems," examines the work of David Drake, a South Carolinian slave who made some of the largest ceramic storage vessels in America during the 1850s, signing them and etching sayings and poems into them as well. The course will include several experiential components, including re-printing couplets in the Book Arts Workshop, creating pottery in the ceramics studio, and an excursion to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to explore material objects associated with the course.

Term: Spring 2017

Project Leader: Michael Chaney (Associate Professor of English and Chair, African and African American Studies)

The DALI Scholars Learn + Build Program will create an opportunity for first-year and sophomore students to build a foundation in interaction design, UI/UX, and digital product design, that will be foundational in their studies at Dartmouth, prepare them to work in the DALI Lab, and teach them creative and technical skills in these relatively new areas of study. The program, designed for students with little or no prior experience, will include a hands-on course for learning the foundational principles and practices of interaction design, and a second term where students will apply and build interactive digital products as part of a design and development team in the DALI Lab.

Project Term: 2018-19

Project Lead: Lorie Loeb (Research Professor in Computer Science, Executive Director, DALI, and Director of Digital Arts)

An interdisciplinary team of students, faculty, researchers, and community members will collaborate to design, analyze, and build a tiny house at the Dartmouth Organic Farm. Tiny house design-build provides a context for the concepts learned in class and a tangible outcome, but more importantly, it will result in the formation of a community that is interested in tackling issues related to energy, health, and the environment. The tiny house will serve as a pilot for future projects, will be used by researchers for continued data collection, and will be open to the public.

Term: 2018-2019

Project Lead: Vicki May (Professor of Engineering)

Students engaged in new laboratory activities using experimental techniques, state-of-the-art technologies, and hands-on experience with human brains, which were integrated into three existing core courses in the undergraduate neuroscience curriculum. Watch the video.

Term: 2017-18

Project Lead: Robert Maue (Psychological & Brain Sciences)

Students in the FILM 7 "Mass Media and Democracy" course participated in a hands-on book arts workshop with Amos Kennedy, a letterpress poster artist. Kennedy's work is world-renowned for asking “uncomfortable questions about race and artistic pretension.” Students learned about Kennedy’s journey and watched the documentary called “Proceed and Be Bold” before his campus visit. After his visit, students reflected on how this experience influenced their own course projects. Members of the Dartmouth community were invited to share and reflect on these experiences.

Term: Spring 2016

Project Leader: Michael Evans (Neukom Fellow in Film and Media Studies)

This experiential project engages first-year students in the process of building digital portfolios that include samples from first-year writing courses as well as reflections on their writing and learning experiences. Additionally, students in their second year will be encouraged to continue building their portfolios, including drafts and polished projects from at least two general education courses, and written reflections at the end of the fall and spring terms. Finally, students will participate in portfolio-related events during the Sophomore Summer.

Term: Ongoing

Project Leaders: Christiane Donahue (Director, Institute for Writing and Rhetoric and Associate Professor of Linguistics), Megan McIntyre (Lecturer and Assistant Director for Program Development in the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric)

In partnership with faculty from the Mathematics department, graduate students trained in the best practices of teaching and learning formed pedagogical and mentoring teams to provide skills training, project support, and research assistance to small teams of undergraduate students in five mathematics courses.

Term: 2017-18

Project Team: Scott Pauls, Ann Gelb, Feng Fu, Peter Doyle, Rosa Orellana, and Eugene Demidenko (Mathematics), Adrienne Gauthier (Instructional Design), Cindy Tobery (DCAL)

This year-long film festival was integrated into the basic language sequences in Spanish and Portuguese and included public screenings, panel discussions, content-based student projects, and interaction with the broader Spanish-speaking community. Watch the video.

Term: 2017-18

Project Lead: Roberto Rey Agudo (Spanish & Portuguese)

This project through the Dartmouth College Libraries engages student journal editors, reviewers, and authors in educational programming on all aspects of authoring, editing, reviewing, and publishing. Students also participate in a Dartmouth-hosted conference for college student journal editors, developed by and for students.

Term: Ongoing

Project Leaders: Barbara DeFelice (Program Director for Scholarly Communication, Copyright & Publishing, Dartmouth College Library), Laura Barrett (Director of Education & Outreach, Dartmouth College Library)

Students took on in-depth research projects within the Dartmouth Library’s special collections and culminated the experience with a final journal article, work of literature, artistic performance, conference paper, or similar accomplishment.

Term: 2017-18

Project Team: Morgan Swan, Jay Satterfield, Peter Carini, and Sara Holston (Rauner Special Collections Library), Adam Nemeroff (Instructional Design)

This two-term, project-based capstone experience engaged seniors from 12 different academic majors in design thinking methodology with interdisciplinary groups of their peers and faculty mentorship to design applicable solutions to a real-world problem. Watch the video.

Term: 2017-18

Project Leads: Peter Robbie, Ashley Manning, and Eugene Korsunskiy (Thayer School of Engineering)

The Experiential Learning Term (E-Term) provided Dartmouth students with an authentic and rigorous immersion into the world of professional theater through a practical, dynamic, and intense internship at Northern Stage and Off-Broadway productions. Combined with professional and academic mentorship, the E-Term was a structured system for learning and reflection in a nonprofit setting. Watch the video.

Term: Ongoing

Project Leaders: Carol Dunne (Senior Lecturer in Theater), Peter Hackett (Professor of Theater), Jamie Horton (Associate Professor of Theater)

VoxFest is a 10-day residency in which four to five new theatrical works are developed, rehearsed and presented by accomplished Dartmouth theater alumni (as well as other selected professionals) in close collaboration with current students enrolled in the Department of Theater’s THEA 65, "Drama in Performance." Dartmouth students participate as they would in a professional workshop environment, serving as actors, assistant directors, dramaturges, stage managers and observers. They have meaningful interaction with alumni professionals in the field who can offer invaluable insight and perspective on the journey from Dartmouth into the professional theater world.

Term: Summer 2016

Project Leader: Dan Kotlowitz (Professor of Theater)