Fall 2015 Brown Bag Speaker Series: Darren Ruddell

GeoDesign Experiential Education: Successes from the Amsterdam Problems Without Passports Course
Dr. Darren Ruddell
Assistant Professor (Teaching) and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Spatial Sciences Institute

The USC Dornsife Problems Without Passports (PWP) program aims to engage USC undergraduate students in problem-based learning where they study complex transnational challenges in a foreign county.  One of the course offerings in the PWP program is SSCI 350: International GeoDesign which introduces students to the critical and spatial thinking skills of GeoDesign while engaged in both classroom and field settings in Los Angeles, California, and in the Netherlands.  GeoDesign is a forward-thinking, interdisciplinary framework that pairs planning, design, and environmental systems with geospatial technologies to explore ways to build a better world.  The five-week intensive course is a collaboration between faculty from the University of Southern California and Vrije University, and includes a two-week field experience in the Netherlands to provide students with vital insight into Dutch strategies at integrating land management, transportation systems, ecological conservation, and high quality of life.  Learning objectives are accomplished through a combination of readings, discussions, presentations, guest lectures, field excursions, hands-on activities, in addition to an applied case study to develop a mixed-use green zone in the Amstelland region of the Netherlands.  The capstone assignment for this course requires students to develop and present a proposed GeoDesign strategy to address a complex challenge in Los Angeles County