Bringing Creativity into the Classroom
Who says the classroom has to be all about quizzes and term papers?
Who says the classroom has to be all about quizzes and term papers? Not Assistant Professor Dr. Wanda Martin. This year in her community health nursing class she decided to give students the choice between writing or getting creative. “It was a big experiment for me and well suited to the community health class. Students could choose to write a traditional paper on their own, or work in a group to produce something creative.”
The focus of the community health nursing class is health promotion. Topics such as community assessment, program development, social marketing and issues unique to Saskatchewan’s Aboriginal, rural and remote populations are covered throughout the term. The purpose of the art-based assignment was to identify an issue that a community health nurse might encounter and to plan an alternative approach to talk about the issue. “The students started by submitting a proposal for a project that could be presented to a targeted group as a public health communication or social marketing campaign,” said Martin. “The final projects included a photo series, original song, infographics, advocacy videos and a children’s story book – Bunny’s Secret.”
About half the class took part in completing the art-based project. When asked how she felt it went, Assistant Professor Martin replied, “Students commented on how nice it was to use the creative part of their brain. This is one way, I think, we can encourage imagination while sharing hidden talents.”
Below are some examples of projects that were submitted:
Sexual Assault Awareness by Kyle Moroziuk, Marissa Schedlosky and Meagan Yagelniski
Ageism by Serena Lazaroff, Veronica Siemens and Simerjiet Sangha
Harm Reduction Awareness by Jayme Mannix, Maren Nielsen and Kelsey Van de Sype
Managing Type Two Diabetes in the Community by Brooklyn Campbell, Jeffrey Gillen and Breanna Molnar
FASD by Christina Boobyer, Melissa Mann and Ezell Pakingan
Students Kyle Moroziuk, Marissa Schedlosky and Meagan Yagelniski really enjoyed completing this project. “Our group wanted to do a project on sexual assault awareness, as the project was meant to be directed at a community and considering we are all students on campus, we wanted to focus on a change among the community of university students. We wanted to “speak out and stand together” because by speaking out we are raising awareness about sexual assault and by standing together, we can tackle this issue because it is not the responsibility of any one individual to solve this problem, but the whole community. We see ourselves as just one small piece in the puzzle to tackle this university community issue. It was a very rewarding and meaningful project to do.”