C I P
PROGRAM OFFERS INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING EXPERIENCE
W
hen Dr. Charles Pibel came to Georgia Gwinnett, he saw an opportunity
to create an innovative, interdisciplinary learning experience for students.
The Community Innovations Projects
(CIP) program creates a collaboration
between student/faculty teams and community organizations around a question or a challenge. The teams develop research activities designed to solve or increase
understanding about the problem, conduct research and report their findings.
STUDENT
COMMUNITY
“CIP activities are usually found at
schools with engineering and science
programs,” said Pibel, who spent his un-
dergraduate years at an institution where a
FACULTY
CIP-like program has run for about 60 years. “Here at GGC, the Center for Teaching
Excellence (CTE) has worked to adapt the
concept into a pilot interdisciplinary activity
that provides outstanding learning opportunities for students in a wide range of majors.” The initiative also expands the college’s
ability to provide students with holistic, high-impact, real-world experiences.
“Relatively few students are able to
obtain internships because there just are
Political science majors Santessa Young and Max Doster prepare standard solutions for analysis of hazardous air pollutants.
6
I
Photos courtesy of Drs. Charles Pibel and Kathryn Zimmermann.
Ge orgia Gwinne t t C ollege
