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Courses at Tufts will constantly push you to think beyond both the textbooks and your comfort zone. Professors empower students to formulate their own research questions, take agency over their coursework, and expand the boundaries of current knowledge. Here are just a few examples of the many ways these assignments are integrated into class curriculums. BY JOSH COHEN ’24

A pile of books, with a cutaway showing that there are rooms and people learning inside of them.

An Ideal Bookshelf: The Interdisciplinary Enterprise of Education ED013 Global Education: In the culminating assignment for this course, students were tasked with crafting their “ideal bookshelf” of resources they would use to teach an in-depth K–12 course on a topic discussed in the class. Reflecting on the topics, authors, issues, and history that captured each student’s interests throughout the semester, projects had to explore what students believed youth should know as future global citizens. Utilizing formats such as bookshelf illustrations, podcasts, and videos, students drew from thinkers like W.E.B. DuBois, James Baldwin, and Ta-Nehisi Coates to create their vision. Example submissions included one project titled “The Politics of Forgetting: Confronting Colonial Amnesia in Imperial Nations” that included a scoping review of museum and monument ethics.

Hip-Hop Collaborative Playlist PSY051 Black Psychology: Drawing on psychological concepts explored through the course to examine the cultural experiences of people of African descent and how these experiences shape current individual perspectives, students analyzed the lyrics of a hip-hop song by a Black artist and related them to the class themes. Through units such as mental health, relationships and families, intersectionality, and history and roots, students were encouraged to apply these concepts to one of the most popular art forms in the world. Songs selected by students were later compiled into an open, collaborative playlist for the entire class to appreciate.

Health Plan Assessment CH002 U.S. Healthcare Systems: In this survey community health course on the architecture and organization of the US healthcare system, students were challenged to turn a critical eye to their own health insurance plans. Students systematically dissected each component of their health plans and evaluated the benefits, premiums, cost-sharing mechanisms, and other features to gain an intimate understanding of these important documents. In addition to comprehensively reviewing the components of healthcare on a systems level, students were empowered to take what they had learned from the course into their own lives to thoughtfully critique their own coverage. For many students with interests in shaping healthcare and health policy, this exercise closely modeled the type of exciting inquiry that students could expect in the field of population and community health.

Art and War SPN192 Special Topics: Deconstructing the Prado Museum: Charged with discussing tools to identify and overcome prejudices in what museums show and the stories they tell, students centered their final expositions on one of the most powerful and influential art institutions—the Prado Museum in Spain. During the Spanish Civil War, a period defined by chaos and instability, the massive organizational feat of protecting this source of national heritage has been praised as perhaps the “biggest efforts to save works of art in history.” In their final assignment, students were prompted to research examples of artwork in the museum and reflect on the importance of art in wartime. Making connections across time periods and artistic movements, students explored the daring history of protecting art from impending conflicts and the cultural significance of preserving these influential paintings.

Coding the Green Line CS015 Data Structures: Data structures, a core component to the computer science program at Tufts, are the methods and algorithms which are responsible for the storage, organization, and formatting of data values. As emerging coding scientists primed for careers across emerging technology disciplines, students in this course were presented with a unique opportunity to apply the data structures developed in the course to real-life phenomena. Inspired by the exciting new extension of the MBTA Green Line to Tufts’ campus at College Ave. Station, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022, students were assigned the project of creating efficient code for this train system. In their projects, students were tasked with applying algorithms to keep track of passengers embarking and disembarking trains and moving the train cars between stations.