CAC offers new course to encourage ‘outside the box’ thinking

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Beginning this fall, Central Arizona College students will have an opportunity to participate in a Le Monde Learning Community that encourages them to learn from each other while developing long-lasting intellectual relationships.

And it won’t involve cycling up the Pyrenees or a 3,600-kilometer Tour de France training regiment with three-time race winner Greg LeMond.

“Le Monde is a community that promotes the engagement of students in active learning,” Milos Podmanik, a professor of math at Central Arizona College who is orchestrating the program, explained. “The program helps to build self-confidence by fostering teamwork and friendships, and it supports thinking outside of one’s borders. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of many ideas and how the world, hence the French word, Le Monde, is a culmination of ideas.”

While LeMond strung together 20 stages to become the first American to win the Tour de France, the Le Monde Learning Community brings together classes from multiple disciplines to enhance the educational experience.

Students in the learning community, typically those in their first or second year of study at CAC, also can reap the benefits of interdisciplinary study in this venture. In addition to learning together, students in Le Monde will have the opportunity to participate in a field trip that enhances the experiences shared by those students.

Le Monde continues to grow with additional institutions of higher education employing this method of learning. The popularity growth is due, in large part, to the improved retention rates and grade point averages of the students associated with learning communities.

The Le Monde courses for the 2010 fall semester are:

MAT092: Introductory Algebra (CRN: 10358), Milos Podmanik (TR 10:30-11:45)
ART207: Art History I (CRN: 10082), Alyson Hanson (TR 1:30-2:45)
ENG101: English Composition III (CRN: 10266), Karen Hindhede (TR 3:00-4:15)

Students interested in registering for Le Monde should speak with an advisor by calling 520-494-5410. All three courses offered this fall will help fulfill AGEC requirements.