Executive Summary

Our strategic project has sought funding via the Monash-Warwick Alliance ‘Seed Funding’ strand (award confirmation by mid-May), which is part of a wider collaboration between IATL, two international Chemistry departments and the Centre of Theatre and Performance at Monash. This unique interdisciplinary project has already been the subject of national recognition (via the Royal Society of Chemistry journal for Chemistry, Research and Practice) and this phase of the project is designed to secure international recognition of our work. We are particularly interested in developing the pedagogy of early-career academics and a programme of undergraduate research alongside this work, which this IATL Strategic Project grant would ensure and embed.

We have applied to the Alliance for £7,350 + $14,454 [c. £15,500] and we are applying to IATL for £5,250 to support essential T&L activity to embed this work within both universities. This funding would cover faculty travel, support undergraduate research and train new academic practitioners to deliver the practical workshops. This will make the work sustainable in future years, and include dissemination activities to share this practice with the wider HE communities in both geographic regions. As part of this IATL Strategic project, we will appoint two ‘Lead Learners’ (using the OSL model piloted for the HEA, 2009-11), one postgraduate and one undergraduate (each focused on documentation and evaluation of the practice).

In the wider project, we have proposed to produce a new transferable model for interdisciplinary teaching (2015-16) across global curricula by extending our ‘Chemistry, Performance and Pedagogy’ experiments (2012-14) into a transdisciplinary realm of artistic-scientific practice. By making use of the International Portal, student exchanges and faculty expertise, we will expose STEM students at both institutions to creative arts practices and ‘open-space’ pedagogies. This process will be an original contribution to HE pedagogy leading to a co-authored publication and enhanced modules at each institution. There will be four staff (2 Chemistry-researchers, 2 Theatre-specialists) working with c.100 undergraduates, including four exchange students (2 Monash, 2 Warwick). This group will work intensively with c.30 students from each university in the digital aspects of the project, and we will appoint an A/V editor to document the learning process and create online learning materials.