We want you (to come to your senses)!
Come and be part of our Student Thinktank!
Senses are an essential way in which we engage with the world around us. Our bodies are the primary tools we gather data with, relate to each other, understand the environment we live in. In essence all learning starts with the senses. Yet at university the senses are taken for granted and not specifically catered for or evaluated in class. It is the assumption that students will ‘pick it up’ as they go to class, attend labs or workshops, make site visits or do internships.
The “Senses-based learning” Comenius Project aims to re-balance and reassert the importance of sensory skills in university education and in professional practice. We believe sensory skills are essential to research and professional practice and they need to be specifically, explicitly, and critically taught, trained, and evaluated.
This is where you come in!
What we are looking for:
We are looking for student-designed and student-led projects!
We are looking for teams of 2 to 5 creative and motivated students that are interested in developing their creativity.
What we can offer:
We can give you a budget of 3000 to 7000 euros (and yes you can pay your own time and lots of project material to make your dreams come true).
We will organize artistic support, coaching session and inspiring workshops that will help develop your research question and implement your project. You will have a chance to collaborate with artists.
Your projects can fall into four categories:
- Senses and space: Imagining the Sensory Lab
Within the framework of the project we are setting up a Sensory Lab. This Lab has a digital and a physical leg. A space to meet, share, experiment, display resources, present research, generate ideas: this is not a usual classroom/website as we thrive for authentic learning environments.
You can decide to focus on designing the physical sensory Lab, help improve the digital lab (sensesbasedlearning.org) or both!
We need your help to imagine what this lab can look like, what it can do, how it can stimulate creativity, and how we can keep it interesting and innovative for teachers and students alike.
Timeline: from October to January (start and end date are indicative and are up to you)
- Senses and professional practice: designing and transferring sensory activities into professional practice
Design senses-based activities for transferring into your professional practice (any programmes and faculties welcome!). After familiarizing yourself with the principles of senses-based learning you will create sensory activities specifically tailored to your domain of study and that can translate into your very own professional practice!
We need your help to think outside the box and into your professional field.
Timeline: from October to January (start and end date are indicative and are up to you)
- Senses and experience: designing, organizing and implementing a sensory event
Calling all event planners in the making! Take the reins and design, organize and implement a sensory event. Based on the principles of Senses-based Learning your event can take any form using new or existing experiences/ material from the Lab, presenting student designed material, or creating a fun interactive sensory workshop and much more!
We need your help to create a memorable sensory experience for students, teachers and the Maastricht community at large.
Timeline: from October to January (start and end date are indicative and are up to you)
- Senses and performance: designing a workshop for the general to the public
Collaborate with Marres: House for Contemporary Culture to make a Training the Senses session, where you can test out sensory exercises on the local community of Maastricht. You will get the chance combine theory and practice of Senses-based Learning and design a workshop on a sensory topic that interests you!
We need your help to make a new Training the Senses workshop for Marres.
Timeline: from October to January (start and end date are indicative and are up to you)
How will we choose?
Your team submits a one pager project description with:
- Which category you want to work on (space, professional practice or event)
- The composition of your (dream)team (3 to 5 students, you can be from the same faculty/programmes or not, as you wish)
- What is your ‘sense’ motivation. How do you relate to your senses and senses-based learning in general?
- How you would like to spend your budget (more or less, it doesn’t need to be precise at this point)
- A first idea of what you would like to do (a first draft idea is enough)
Yes, you can submit more than one project!
The successful projects will be selected by a jury composed half of students, half of staff.
You will be helped in the implementation by the Senses-based Learning existing team and artists.
Email your proposal at senses.basedlearning@gmail.com by October 5th.