The Interdisciplinary Teaching Cohort organized an event called “Chocolate Day,” where classes from different departments incorporated chocolate into their lessons for the day. Additionally, there were interactive tasting stations hosted by faculty on the Quad on Feb. 19-20.
World Languages Chinese Teacher Bin He said this day prepared students to use multiple subjects in future jobs by incorporating chocolate into various classes.
“We want to give our students a little bit of experience of how it exactly feels to learn different subjects under one theme,” He said. “Like when you go to real work or start your job, subjects are always combined.”
Athletic Director and Diversity and Equity and Inclusion Specialist Chelsea Heyward said that chocolate was used as the pilot because it is applicable to many subjects.
“If they were to do a history event, it might be hard to find a connection through science or through visual arts,” Heyward said. “But chocolate is something kind of universally known and appreciated by most.”
He said the faculty chose chocolate as the first topic because it can be added into different classes.
“It should be a theme for different classes,” He said. “This way, teachers can easily use those items to start the class to incorporate it into their classes.”
Math Teacher Andrew Theiss said the repetition of learning about chocolate in multiple classes can engage students.
“Teachers can still teach to the best of their ability,” Theiss said. “It will hopefully give the students a more harmonious experience for a couple of days because they’re all going through class and hearing the same topic in every class.”
Theiss said that everyday life requires multiple skills from different classes, and that by teaching students in this way, they will become more committed.
“Education moves at a glacial page and everyone has been teaching this way forever,” Theiss said. “We need to spice this up because in life, we are all touching each others’ topics.”
Heyward said she has worked to include athletics in the event and to raise awareness of the interdisciplinary aspect of the day.
“I’ve been helping with getting athletics involved,” Heyward said. “I’m working on a one-pager to have at the table for the activities, so that people know all the ways that chocolate intersects with the different departments at this school.
Heyward said that students can participate by providing feedback about what topics would be exciting for future interdisciplinary events.
“Students can get involved by sharing more feedback with the teachers and faculty and staff about what would be helpful or what fun topics might be engaging in the future,” Heyward said. “Also, students should share if they have any ideas on how to improve it.”
He said that teaching students about issues they are passionate about will make their learning more impactful.
“Learning is all about experiences,” He said. “We already have artificial intelligence (AI), so if we can’t trigger their interests, they will lose their passion for learning.”
