{"id":171381,"date":"2025-12-18T08:14:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=171381"},"modified":"2026-01-13T10:22:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T15:22:47","slug":"two-instructors-30-first-year-students-and-one-bunny-walk-into-a-classroom-interdisciplinary-learning-abounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/18\/two-instructors-30-first-year-students-and-one-bunny-walk-into-a-classroom-interdisciplinary-learning-abounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Two instructors, 30 first-year students, and a bunny walk into a classroom: Interdisciplinary learning abounds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the last week of classes for the fall semester, two instructors, two classes, and one rabbit gathered together for an interdisciplinary, interactive first-year seminar class session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was easy to tell who was from which course. Students from \u201cBeyond the Rainbow: Exploring the Language (and the Science, Art, and Culture) of Color\u201d had all walked in sporting colorful hats. Joining them in a classroom in Dana Hall were students from \u201cSex in the Brain: The Neuroscience of Sex, Gender, and Hormones.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is typical for students to grow close in these small  \u2014 16 students maximum \u2014 seminars, this merging of the courses for a class session was a new idea, meant to create new connections between both the subjects and students as the semester came to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Instructors
From left, Wells Castonguay, the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning’s assistant director, and Lindsey Hamilton \u201905, the center’s director, welcome their respective first-year seminar students to a special end-of-semester joint class session. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lindsey Hamilton \u201905, director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, and Wells Castonguay, the center\u2019s assistant director, devised the plan. Castonguay was teaching \u201cBeyond the Rainbow\u201d and Hamilton \u201cSex in the Brain.\u201d Throughout the semester, each instructor had heard students\u2019 ongoing curiosity about the other\u2019s course and saw an opportunity for the students to learn from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ina Dobreva \u201929 of Sofia, Bulgaria was in \u201cSex in the Brain,\u201d while her friend Celina Carman \u201929 of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was in \u201cBeyond the Rainbow,\u201d and the two had often talked about the similarities between their two courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were saying every time, \u2018We have the same course, just in a different font,\u2019\u201d Dobreva said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both courses were highly interdisciplinary, as first-year seminars (FYS in Bates speak) are designed to be. \u201cSex in the Brain\u201d explored everything from neuroscience to endocrinology to human behavior, while \u201cBeyond the Rainbow\u201d focused on subjects like physics, neurobiology, and language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the classes came together, it was a lively scene, with students swapping knowledge, playing games, and petting Patience, Castonguay\u2019s foster rabbit, who lounged in a playpen. (Patience, not a regular visitor to the class, was making a special appearance to celebrate the end of the semester.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Classmates Regan Clute \u201929 of Tahoe City, Calif., and Wynn Harward \u201929 of Erie, Penn., hang out in Dana Hall after giving their classmates a presentation about what they’ve learned across the semester in “Sex in the Brain.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All first-year Bates students are required to take an FYS. As entry points to Bates\u2019 rigorous and diverse curriculum, the courses aim to transition students to college-level writing and set them up for academic success. FYS instructors serve as advisors to their students until they declare their majors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FYS offers students an opportunity to take a class in a field that might be new and unfamiliar to them. In fact, students shouldn\u2019t necessarily take an FYS related to the subject they plan to major in, Hamilton explained. \u201cIt really doesn’t matter which topic you get,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cYou learn so much in critical thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton is speaking from experience \u2014 both as an instructor and a Bates alumna. When she arrived at Bates as a first-year student, she was \u201claser-focused\u201d on neuroscience, until the liberal arts curriculum introduced her to interdisciplinary possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I took other courses, I started to get really excited,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cMy own FYS here at Bates was awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With small class sizes, first-year seminars also play an important social role for new Batesies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all became friends over the course of the semester,\u201d said Wynn Harward \u201929 of Erie, Penn., a \u201cSex in the Brain\u201d student. \u201cI look forward to class every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FYS students shared what they\u2019ve learned with their peers during presentations on each course. First, \u201cSex in the Brain\u201d students Dobreva, Harward, Regan Clute \u201929 of Tahoe City, Calif., and Sofia Rossi \u201929 of Memphis, Tenn., gave a presentation about behavioral differences between sexes. They dipped into their knowledge of both hormones and societal gender expectations to explain how sex differences are biologically, socially, and culturally based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"First-year
From left, first-year students Regan Clute, Wynn Harward, Sofia Rossi, and Ina Dobreva (not pictured) lead their classmates in an activity to demonstrate behavioral sex differences. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The students demonstrated sex differences by reading a list of behavioral traits and asking peers, with their hands in the air, to lower a finger for each trait that they felt represented them, such as, \u201cPut a finger down if you instantly notice when someone changes perfume, deodorant, or shampoo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the activity, there was a clear divide: far fewer fingers were left standing among the female-presenting students.\u201cIt was really interesting to see \u2014 even with something that seems almost ridiculous, but it is topical \u2014 there really is a difference,\u201d Clute said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Ruby Wiley \u201929 of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Skye Pearlman \u201929 of Harrison, N.Y., and Evelyn Hoskins-Hynek \u201929 of Silver Spring, Md., gave a presentation about \u201cBeyond the Rainbow\u201d for the other students, covering everything from the eye\u2019s rods and cones to how language impacts perception of color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To demonstrate the latter, the presenters asked their peers to redraw and rename color boundaries from those of the typical ROYGBIV spectrum created by Isaac Newton (that\u2019s red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Students got creative with the possibilities here; one divided the spectrum into five categories with nature-inspired names like \u201cflower\u201d and \u201cgrape,\u201d while another divided the spectrum into three colors named after high school science courses: \u201cchemistry,\u201d \u201cbiology,\u201d and \u201cphysics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRainbows are just a spectrum of hues,\u201d Wiley said. \u201cThere’s also value and chroma and so many countless ways to divide up the color space, which we see in a lot of different languages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While presenting, Wiley was sporting a baby blue hat with \u201cneela\u201d (romanized \u0a28\u0a40\u0a32\u0a3e), the Punjabi word for colors that fall into English category of “blue,” written across the front. The colorful hats were connected to two different assignments from the semester, the first being an essay about a favorite color and, the second, an independent research project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Ruby Wiley \u201929 of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, wears a baby blue hat with \u201cneela\u201d (romanized \u0a28\u0a40\u0a32\u0a3e), the Punjabi word for colors that fall into English category of “blue,” written across the front; the hat was connected to two different class assignments from the semester. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA narrative essay about our favorite color sounds simple, but it wasn’t just, \u2018Oh, my favorite color is baby blue,\u2019\u201d Wiley said. \u201cIt was, \u2018Why is it baby blue, and how would you define it? What makes it your favorite color?\u2019 It’s a writing class. We were focusing on our creative writing skills there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the other assignment, students had interviewed someone who spoke a different language to learn about how they categorized color. So, for the final class session, Castonguay brought each student a hat in their favorite color and asked them to write the name of the color, in the language of the person they had interviewed, on the front of the hat, combining the results of the two assignments to offer a glimpse into what the course covered \u2014 from linguistics to cultural interpretations of color to personal experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWells just made everything enjoyable,\u201d Ruby Wiley \u201929 of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, said. \u201cShe made sure to make it engaging no matter what we did.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning’s Assistant Director Wells Castonguay brought their foster rabbit Patience to class for their first-year seminar’s last class of the semester. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In preparation for the joint class, all of the students, working in groups, had prepared presentations about the semester. The final groups from each respective class were chosen by their peers to present at the joint session. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castonguay said that their students didn\u2019t realize just how much they had learned and how many subject areas they had covered throughout the semester until they began preparing the presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was fun when they were preparing for this class hearing them say, \u2018Wait, I have to teach that. They’re not going to know that,\u2019\u201d Castonguay said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the presentation, Castonguay overheard a conversation between one of their students and a \u201cSex in the Brain\u201d student amazed at everything that \u201cBeyond the Rainbow\u201d had covered. As Castonguay recounted, \u201cthey said, \u2018You really learned all of that? You learned physics and neurobiology?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Castonguay\u2019s student answered. In one semester, they really had learned all of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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