The 2015-16 City Tech GenEdge College Theme

The City Tech GenEdge College Theme is a simple invitation: we offer an open-ended idea you can use to drive a single lesson in your class, a project in your club, or any number of pursuits you choose to execute. It is a voluntary effort that provides us all a chance to gather later to compare notes and celebrate the work of our students in response to the your framing of the theme. This year, we explore KNOWING BROOKLYN.

The 2015 City Tech GenEdge College Theme
(PDF of Trifold Brochure)

The City Tech GenEdge Logo

THE 2015 COLLEGE THEME: KNOWING BROOKLYN

This year, we invite you to explore Brooklyn itself: how do you know Brooklyn? How do you see its history, present, and future? What impacts its citizens, how is it changing? Using your discipline, experience, and place in this place, take time to get to know Brooklyn more deeply than ever.

AN OPEN INVITATION: PARTICIPATE IN THE THEME!

The Open Call for Participation is meant for all instructors, committees, clubs, students, staff members, and organizations to voluntarily take the theme as inspiration for one assignment, or event, or gathering. Any artifacts of student work will be gathered, documented, and displayed at key times so we can come together and truly connect over our shared interests and particular pools of knowledge.

Contact us at GENEDTHEME@CITYTECH.CUNY.EDU

CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS

COMMITTEES

The Interdisciplinary Committee works with faculty members throughout the college to develop Interdisciplinary courses and works to promote an interdisciplinary intellectual culture. The IDC will be exploring How do we create, navigate, celebrate and disseminate interdisciplinary knowledge of Brooklyn?

ORGANIZATIONS

The Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center will be engaging with the theme with the question: What Has Happened to Brooklyn — How, Why, and with What Consequences Does a Place Change? Through the course of the academic year, the BWRC offers four Breakfast Talks, an Annual Conference, and two Scholar Presentations, all dealing with facets of their exploration.

STUDENT CLUBS

The City Tech Printmaking Club is working on hand-printed posters exploring participants’ lives in Brooklyn. We strongly encourage all clubs of any type to develop projects as well.

A HISTORY AND THE FUTURE

What Does Freedom Mean?

During the 2014-2015 year, the African American Studies Department chose this question as its annual theme to encourage critical reflection about the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment. The department explored the theme through college events, library exhibits, and classroom activities.

In the fall of 2014, the General Education Committee was exploring the idea of developing an annual theme for the college, and, with the encouragement of the African American Studies Department, decided to use the theme as well. It became the foundation of a pilot project conducted by Gen Ed Committee members from multiple departments in all three colleges. The faculty members revised the question to conform to their specific disciplines, courses, and pedagogical goals. The students answered the question with insight, creativity, compassion and depth. See that work here.

The success of the “What Does Freedom Mean?” theme inspired the Gen Ed committee to explore a new theme for the 2015-2016 school year. The purpose of theme projects is to engage diverse General Education principles, to inspire students to intellectually explore complex and compelling concepts in ways that enhance their educational experience, and to encourage all members of the City Tech community to bridge disciplinary boundaries as they connect through processes of asking and answering demanding and dynamic questions.

THE CITY TECH GENEDGE

The City Tech GenEdge is the result of years of college-wide curriculum development and effort by the General Education Committee. We have taken the Gen Ed requirements, the students’ needs, and the expectations of society to put together a meaningful approach to skills and attitudes we all can use. This is the added benefit of culture and community our students and graduates deserve as they enter the world as engaged citizens. This is the added boost our college provides to excel and the tools it gives to be productive throughout entire careers.

This is the City Tech GenEdge.