Brainstorming Workshop @ UniCV

This Friday, I took a step to introduce the WeLab teaching style by forming a brainstorming workshop between the UniCV engineering professors and students - and it was a HIT! 

A few days before we prepped by going over the brainstorming activity (below) Professor Banzaert did in my first class with here: what materials do we need, how will we use the most of an hour, what should the environment/vibe feel like, etc. I even got Paulo to agree to help breakdown the formal professor-student division that Cape Verde (and most schools everywhere) cling too. The day of, I was expecting each professor to bring maybe 1 or 2 students but there were so many people (20-30 people). After doing a brief presentation on Wellesley (same ECAA presentation) and the brainstorming rules (below), we had to break down into smaller and smaller groups for the activities. Even better, everyone who came was engaged and even wanted to stay longer to fuel more ideas and connections as the energy was high. I was pleasantly surprised to see both professor and student adapt quickly to the everything-goes, “we’re all equals” environment. One professor told us afterwards that she was going to use the activity and style in her own classes (success!).

But more importantly, the group developed really good ideas - and gave feedback on one another. We're placing all the ideas into one doc (One for Portuguese, One in English), organized by class area and if solo or collaboration idea. We're really excited to go through all of these and meet with the professors in smaller groups. Things are looking up!

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