Interactive learning exercises such as role play, design challenges, and quantitative analysis provide students with the opportunity to dive deeper into practice and quickly strengthen skills. Field excursions and summer travel programs are an option for some cases and students. MSC exercises are:
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Adaptable
Designed to be challenging, they are also adaptable to be appropriate for different levels, from undergraduates to practitioners and policy makers.
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Unscripted and improvisational
Reflecting real-life situations, MSC exercises provide space for creativity, self expression, and constructive conflict to emerge.
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Integrative and decision-oriented
Integrating experiential and analytical learning, activities guide students toward applying new knowledge to problem-solving—culminating in skills that allow for a decision.
MSC exercises takes advantage of face to face interaction.
Walk in their shoes
In the Michigan Wolf Wars case, students use stakeholder role plays to resolve political impasses while practicing wildlife-human conflict resolution and and policy negotiation skills.
Run the numbers
In the National Adaptation Plan of Action (or NAPA) case, students first master economic cost-benefit analysis and then run a more complex analysis with the addition of socio ecological parameters, to rank Ethiopia's proposed NAPAs for their protection of people from climate volatility.
Map and explore
In the Urban Farming case, students use an interactive map called Social Explorer to visualize land use allocation and zoning, then take a field trip to Detroit as participant observers of labor and social relationships on an urban farm.
Get into the water
In the Maple River Dam Removal case, students encounter the technical, ecological and epidemiological up sides and down sides to removing a dam. The case gets them into the water to take measurements and model results about the surrounding habitat: before, during, and after.