Case Study: CPS training for Science 100

The Situation – All freshmen at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) are required to take Science 100. Donald M. Drost, Ph.D. and professor of physics designed the class to introduce UVI students to numerous scientific fields and to demonstrate how they are relevant in their lives. After working with Stavros on another project, Dr. Drost decided he wanted to incorporate Creative Problem Solving (CPS) training into the class to help students engage and solve problems more effectively.

The Innovation Challenge – Dr. Drost asked Stavros Michailidis to design and deliver a 50 minute in-class experience for students that could effectively provide foundational and practical training in CPS and demonstrate its use in science and their individual lives.

The Result – Over 200 students received CPS training during three individual sessions. After each session many of the participants expressed interest and signed a petition to introduce a full semester-long class in Creative Studies. To address this request, a proposal was drafted, submitted and subsequently approved for a class titled Applied Creative Studies. It will be offered as an special topics interdisciplinary elective in the Fall semester. Furthermore, Stavros Michailidis, Dr. Drost and two additional colleagues have written a series of grant proposals to study the effects of CPS training on undergraduate students at UVI.

Donald M. Drost, Ph.D. Professor of Physics, University of the Virgin Islands:

“Early in the semester many students are wary and often un-engaged. This CPS class seems to have allowed them to express their ideas, built trust with one and other and the faculty, and generated buy in. When they returned to the following lecture they were transformed. They were like a different group of students.”