Achievement

The CHANGE approach to interdisciplinary training was highlighted in a presentation at the 2009 AESS conference, and a research methods seminar for the Culture, History, and Environment program at UW-Madison. A training activity, developed and presented by CHANGE Trainees and Associates, was used in both of these settings to help participants understand how the differences among academic disciplines affect the ways that researchers conceive of problems. The activity, "Picturing Interdisciplinarity," presents a complex environmental scenario and asks people to literally draw a picture of their role in understanding the problem. A facilitated, structured conversation about the resulting drawings allows participants to reveal and discuss their different conceptualizations of the issues. Participants in both the conference presentation and the methods class said that the training was unique and helped them better understand the differences in problem-solving approaches across disciplines.