Changemakers Lab, 2024-2025 - Prospectus

Description

This Honours elective course gives students the opportunity to challenge themselves to creatively address real-world societal issues in the Netherlands in a practical hands-on way. Changemakers Lab encourages individual freedom to choose causes that the students are invested in and fosters personal initiative in addressing the divisions across social, economic, and political strata. Through individual or collaborative projects, students will transform abstract concepts into practical solutions, ground themselves in the current societal climate, and develop responses to pressing societal issues.

Throughout this course, students will:

Find social issues they are passionate about within their community.
Create an action plan and defend it in front of fellow students and staff.
Go through the process of following through with their plan and learn to navigate setbacks and/or challenges.
Track their progress through checkpoints and coaching meetings with teaching staff.
Produce a final project which will achieve tangible social impact and make meaningful differences in their communities. This may be done through an event, a multimedia presentation, or any creative outcome they would like to explore.
Reflect on the progress they have made and how they felt throughout this course.

This course is designed to challenge students to come out of their comfort zones of academia and into practical work with their communities. Students will be pushed to explore and break down social or political barriers that have risen in our communities. This course uses design thinking as a teaching method to push students towards generating solutions. The intensive teaching method is characterized as a ‘pressure cooker’ which may not be suitable for all students. Students are advised to carefully consider before signing up for this course.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, students will:

Apply theoretical knowledge to real-world social issues.
Develop project management and organizational skills.
Identify a knowledge and skill gap and work towards filling it.
Gain experience working collaboratively with diverse groups.
Enhance the ability to create and execute strategic plans.
Demonstrate effective communication and presentation skills.
Reflect on the development of skills and project-based work.

Course Materials

All mandatory readings, necessary documentation and instructions will be made available via Brightspace.

Mode of Instruction

This course is 5 ECTS, level 300 which translates to 140 hours which will be divided into the following ways:

2 Seminars of 2 hours each (4 hours)
A group meeting for students to present their plan and receive feedback (2 hours)
Regular mandatory coaching meetings of 0.5-hour with a course instructor (5 – 10 hours)
Literature study (20 hours)
Working on the development of the action plan (80 – 100 hours)
Final Product Presentation (10 hours)
Final Reflection (5 hours)

Note: These numbers are an indication and can differ per student. Each student is required to spend 140 hours on this course but can allocate time to specific parts based on personal preferences/ selected methods if they meet the requirements.

Assessment method

Students will be assessed on a pass/fail basis.
This course will be assessed through three components: attendance & participation, action plan and final reflection. Each component will be given a pass/fail grade, and students must pass all three components to pass the course.

Skills

Researching	Collaborating	Reflecting
Analysing	Oral communication	Independent learning
Generating solutions	Written communication	Resilience
Project-based working	Presenting
Digital skills	Societal awareness

Note: Depending on the project the student chooses to complete, different skills may apply.

Timetable

The seminars and group meetings for this course will take place on Wednesdays from 18:15 to 20:00 at the Pieter de la Court building, Faculty of Social Sciences.

Coaching meetings will be set up on a weekly/bi-weekly basis via Brightspace between the student and coach to track progress with the project.
The presentation of the final project will occur between the students and the course instructor at a convenient time for both, but students should aim to be finished by Friday 16th December.

Admission Requirements

This elective course is for students in the Honours College Science, Society and Self track in their second/third year.

Registration

You will receive an invitation and registration form for this course from the Honours College FSW. You do not need to register for this course via uSis, the registration will be done centrally.

Contact Info

For any questions or further information please contact course coordinator Sangar Paykhar at: s.paykhar@fsw.leidenuniv.nl