College of Arts and Sciences Introduces New Adventure-Based Requirement

December 10, 2015 -- A one-of-a-kind requirement beginning Fall 2016 has been announced at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. First Year Adventure is an innovative class mandatory for all first year students within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS).

The class is designed to promote student engagement, with the goal of improving retention rates. It was devised to bring students and faculty together for the purpose of exploring questions and topics in a faculty member's field of interest without being tied to any specific major or minor course requirements.

Faculty members are in the process of preparing innovative topics that fulfill three learning outcomes based on the American Association of Colleges and Universities Essential Learning Outcomes and are in alignment with the liberal education goals of CAS and UW-River Falls.

They are:

Information Literacy. The ability to know when there is a need for information, and to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

Critical Thinking. The habit of mind characterized by comprehensive and open exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events.

Constructive Teamwork. The effort an individual puts forth into team tasks, the manner in which an individual interacts with others on a team, and the quantity and quality of contributions that individual makes to the team as they explore an open-ended question or desired goal.

It is the hope of the College of Arts and Sciences that this requirement will not only promote exploration, inquiry, and application of an interest, idea or issue outside of a student's normal course of study, but also offer an exciting and unique learning opportunity for both students and faculty.

For more information about the First Year Adventure, email CAS Associate Dean Tricia Davis at tricia.m.davis@uwrf.edu.