Research Skills & Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

Femi:
Research is used every day in our lives. You may not notice it, but every day when you encounter a problem you follow specific skills to arrive at a resolution. The same steps work for all environments such as school, work, and at home. For instance, you have to describe the problem at hand to oneself to gain a fair assessment. However through research you would look for solutions from multiple areas. You may turn to your father, a co-worker, or even a stranger to gain many perspectives on the issue. Based on the perspectives at hand, you’d select relevant information. This would help allow your input to become more efficient. The next phase would involve how you would represent the problem. Creating a map or diagram would suit the bill. However, in real life scenarios, you’d most likely fulfill this step mentally without even knowing it. Another step is to take all the advice at hand or information and make inferences between them. Synthesizing all of the perspectives given from each source will give you the best overall solution. These skills could also be enforced for future employment. For example, you would first find a place of interest. After you would ask around to get several perspectives for consideration from past and current employees, research about the company’s background, and first-hand experience through visitation. You would integrate all of the connections between all of the sources to make the best decision to whether the job fits your choice. Your ability to solve problems by using research will make you extremely valuable because you’ll be have the best solution 100% of the time. Most co-workers won’t search a variety of fields or perspectives to get the best possible answer. They are just in it for the quick fix and to get the job done. However, by implementing the research you’d get ah deeper meaning and will be highly favored by the employer. This could lead to a new promotion or other employee benefits.
Alexis:
This week’s topic got me thinking about cell phones. I wonder how many of you have cell phones with internet capabilities. Well, my phone has internet and I defiantly take advantage of that. How many times have you been with a group of friends and you were trying to figure out what last night’s basketball scores were? Or what the actual answer was of number 23 on the test you just took? Or how many calories that box of pizza had in it. Believe it or not, your ability to be able to find those answers comes from the skills you have obtained by doing research all throughout your college and even high school careers. Researching is an incredibly valuable skill to have in a collegiate setting and more importantly, a professional setting. Every project, every presentation, every interview, even down to almost every e mail you write will require you to do research. The next time you go on a job interview you will have to do some research on the company so you know I little a bit about who your interviewing for and what kind of questions to ask him or her. Being able to research from interdisciplinary perspectives is even more valuable to an employer because of the vast array of knowledge it is possible to obtain through different types of research that we know how to do and others don’t. As you think about what to post this week, we want you all to come up with a work scenario where your research and problem solving skills as an interdisciplinary thinker might come into play. Also, we would like to hear a little bit about some of the research you all are currently doing for your project and give some advice to your other classmates in this blog. If you all have any questions for us about research and its general application in the real world, this week is a great time to ask :)

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking enhances one whom partakes in interdisciplinary studies by causing them to weigh out every solution before they make a decision. I believe that it is actually the essence of being interdisciplinary. This is portrayed by the Virtual Philosopher in which you are given a scenario while being able to pick from very different solutions. This causes the individual to put on their thinking caps and determine which solution would be the best fit for the issue. This process allows a student or researcher solving a problem to arrive at a more efficient solution by carefully evaluating each alternative. Alexis finds critical thinking to be vital in the major because it is our responsibility to make responsible judgments and reflections on our experiences and observations we have made in all or our areas. As interdiciplinarians, we have to make sure that we are integrating our areas properly and we cannot do this without proper critical thinking skills.Throughout the day we all use our critical thinking skills even if we don’t notice it.


Using the virtual Philosopher we are able to see the way in which use our critical thinking skills. In the exercises we are asked to make some difficult ethical and moral issues. Click the link below which will take you to an interactive exercise called Virtual Philosopher developed by Dr. Wade Maki from the Philosophy department at the University of North Caroline at Greensboro.Virtual Philosopher Link (must have updated FLASH to play correctly): http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.uncg.edu%2Fdcl%2Fcourses%2Fvicecrime%2Fvp%2Fvp.html&h=9fb851e85cc7f67e3418c55854c75479 Using the virtual Philosopher allowed us all to gain new insights to how our minds think and our moral fiber. We would love to hear what all of your experiences were with the Virtual Philosopher, Let us know, “ Do you agree or disagree with the outcome?”

Understanding Interdisciplinarity Integrating Areas

“A Smoothie is integration at its finest”

Greetings Mentees! Have you ever ordered a smoothie from Smoothie King and watched the specific ingredients (strawberries, bananas, or maybe even protein) that they threw in the blender to make the whole delicious product of enjoyment. Well, mentees this process that you’ve witnessed is known as integration! If this example didn’t allow you to understand this term fully, then let’s jump right into blog below!


The formal definition of integration is: an act or instance of combining into an integral whole (Repko, 2008). You could simply think of chocolate milk (chocolate and milk) or your house (wood, cement, metal) as integrations. Or you could get more complex and look at, for example, a sales rep for Boeing. This job requires knowledge in the disciplines of marketing, communication, engineering, and of course sales. For the sake of interdisciplinary studies, integration is the process of taking various fields of study and utilizing information learned from these fields in order to augment your understanding or performance in another field. An example includes a medical doctor combining MRI scans and various cognitive psychological tests in order to determine a mental defect. Another example is a building contractor laying both the plumbing and electrical wiring during a project, integrating two separate fields to yield one result.

Cristina integrated her areas and both of her minors by taking behavioral theories and applying under social contexts, for example last spring she worked as a volunteer at a performing arts camp for under privileged kids. From a social theorist’s point of view she offered these kids an alternative to engaging in illegal street activities with their older siblings, friends or cousins. She applied the social theory of Differential Association, which states that through interaction with others; individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior, to removing the compulsion to commit crimes against society in urban youth.

Alexis believes that being able to understand integration is exactly what my IDS major has done for me. In all of the marketing classes she took, she explored mostly in the sales area. She enjoyed sales so much because of her theatrical background and her passion for entertaining and getting a crowd to enjoy her presence. Her communications concentration portrays how to communicate properly in the mass media which is another form of marketing. She has found ways to integrate all of my areas together and it has helped her excel during her last four years. As illustrated by the above example, integration of your areas/minor is important especially in the professional world. As far as academia is concerned, knowing how to integrate your studies will be a huge benefit while doing any kind of research and will even give you different ways of approaching research to get the most out of what you find.

I have chosen my areas of study to form a clearer understanding for the realm of healthcare. In my area of Life/Biomedical science, I learned about the human body, location of organs, and functions of those specific parts. However in my Behavioral/Social science area, I learned about the developmental stages and the many mental processes of cognitive psychology which would provide help when dealing with future patients. My minor health service administration pretty much speaks for itself. It covers everything from the day to day operations of a health care facility, the positions/staff pyramidal structure of a hospital, and how to bring more awareness to communities that are seeking efficient health practices.

Integration is important in all aspects of life because one specific field of study cannot accommodate every potential problem found in the work place, school, home or personal life. I do not think that my areas/minors can be better integrated because I chose them to directly cater to my future career goals of being on Broadway and/or becoming a co-op agent for the FBI and one day funding my own non-profit performing arts program. Think of combining your areas of studies/minor as combining the pieces of three different puzzles. It is often difficult to integrate your areas because they differ from one another so much. Although, it seems challenging it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE! There is a common ground that between the disciplines that must be assessed. Once this is achieved, you will arrive at a new understanding, which later creates the “functional whole”.

Breadth + depth + synthesis = integration

My areas/minor could be better integrated if I applied myself to three main concepts. The concept breadth would be use to assess disciplines that are distant from another (ex. Natural science and humanities) than disciplines that are relatively close (ex. Physics and chemistry) I would also use the concept depth which involves drawing sufficient insights from each discipline. The last concept that will be used is call synthesis, which involves finding a common ground between the insights to gain a better understanding.

This concludes our informative blog on integration but we would love to know how or why you haven’t integrated your areas and minor. We would also like to know how your areas/minor could be better integrated. Do you feel that integration is an important tool for being successful professionally or academically?

Welcome Home Mentees!!!

"This blog site is your new home mentees, and trust us.. there is no place
like home"

Hello there mentees! We would like to take this time to welcome you to your second home away from home. As your mentors, we feel that its absolutely necessary to provide you with a comfortable blogging site which you could kick-back, relax, and engage in conversation. When your resting from class, or taking a break in between time at the Rec Center, or even tired from long periods of facebook chats, feel free to voice your thoughts through our comment section! With that said, here's a little about us.....!


Hi my name is Cristina Gutierrez I am a senior here at UCF. My areas of study are Health and Public Affairs/ Behavioral and Social Sciences. My minors are Theatre, Criminal Justice and a certificate in CSI. The reason I have chosen to be an IDS major is because my interests and ambitions are very versatile and I wanted a degree program that would help achieve my personal goals not the goals outlined by a specific degree program. I came into UCF as a BA theatre major then switch to a double major in Criminal Justice and Theatre. But after the first two years I realized that I wasn’t happy with the theatre department and was bored taking solely criminal justice classes. At the end of my junior I made the switch to IDS.When I explain IDS to others I honestly just tell them it’s like a Liberal Arts degree on steroids. In my experience this has worked far better for me then trying to explain to someone what interdisciplinary studies is. The main advantage of having an interdisciplinary education is that you pick your own curriculum so you have the power to choose the classes that interest you the most and fit your personal and professional needs. Another advantage is that you are becoming well versed in various areas and are able to use this in your future jobs. The main disadvantage to an interdisciplinary education is the fact that most people do not understand what you are studying and some may find it to be a fluff education because it doesn’t specialize in one area or topic.

My name is Olamide Olufemi Borisade but I go by Femi for short. I think its obvious why when you look at that monstrosity of a name. However, it also communicates that my origins hail from Nigeria, an eastern country in Africa. I was raised in Jacksonville, Florida but moved to Orlando to attend the University of Central Florida in 2005. I am 23-year-young and recently moved back to Jacksonville while pursuing the rest of my Interdisciplinary degree through web-based courses. I am a senior and my areas of study are Life/Biomedical sciences and Behavioral/Social science with a minor in health service administration. One may ask, why all the sciences? I will simply answer because my major was intended to be nursing; however once I switch majors, I had absolutely no regrets!Many people have their own definition of interdisciplinary studies and what it truly means. Some may use the basic text book definition being research that involves two or more knowledge domains. However, I must emphasize to you that the proper and most fitting definition to refer to is based upon an understanding. You as a student and pursuant of such a degree must understand that your currents fields of study provides much insights. These insights are generated to answer specific problems. However, you must use all the insights equally to successfully build new knowledge that is needed to address the issue. This process is called integration next week!An advantage of interdisciplinary education is that you’re basically creating your own program to reach your personal goals. You pick the fields of study and the courses in which you may pick based upon choice and flexibility. It will help you in the real world because it will allow you to be very knowledgeable and well rounded in a number of areas. This will be most fitting when employees are determining who has a wide range of experience for a specific job or position. There are other disadvantages though, such as not having one area of mastery. For example, you may be good in math and science; however you’re not as smart in math to pursue a rocket science profession as someone who was an engineer may do so easily. Another disadvantage to be considered would be timing. There should be a balance between each discipline to allow you to be partially aware or informed of the study. Finding this balance may require much thought and self-evaluation.

Hello everybody! My name is Alexis Quittner and I am a Senior here at the best school in the world, UCF. I am currently an interdisciplinary studies major which is obviously what brings be here. My two concentrations are Arts(specifically theater) and Communications. My minor is marketing. Explaining this major doesn’t have to take forever like everyone thinks. When people ask what im graduating with I tell them Im getting a Bachelors of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. I follow the “whats that?” question with “It’s a way to double major with a minor and graduate on time.” That answer is always followed with a chuckle and an impressive glance. People love this major because it makes you qualified to do more than one thing and makes you a better candidate for graduate schools.

I could go on for days about the advantages of this major but I’ll just pick one instead. We all get to study everything that interests us! We don’t have to limit our mind to one subject. We can use it to our full potential and get as much knowledge as possible out of our undergraduate degree.


This is simply just one of our blogs that we will share this semester. We hope to interact with you all in future blogs as well that will cover IDS topics. Well now that we've introduced ourselves, we find it only fair and fitting that you return the favor and tell us somethings about you! What are your areas of study? What's your year of study and how having an interdisciplinary education has affect you (disadvantages & advantages)? We would also know how would you explain what your major is if questioned? Mentees, Please leave your responses in the comment section below. We can't wait to hear from you!