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Abstract
Our population is aging, calling for communities to be more age friendly and younger individuals to be more aware of aging issues that will impact their personal and professional lives. However, colleges provide few opportunities for students to prepare themselves for a more age-diverse world. Drawing on a new general education core curriculum that calls for students to gain and integrate information within four different knowledge perspectives, we describe a multidisciplinary course that uses information from the physical and social sciences to examine age-friendly community problems and solutions. Topics included environmental health, industrial ecology, and sustainable energy in the context of social-psychological well-being across the life span. Research activities and design projects gave students hands-on opportunities to apply multidisciplinary approaches to complex problems and gain age-related knowledge. Evaluations indicated that the course successfully accomplished its learning objectives, and several lessons were learned about delivering an age-friendly, multidisciplinary course.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kimberly S. Farah
Kimberly S. Farah ([email protected]) is a professor of chemistry and the director of the Applied Forensic Science Program, Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts.
Joann M. Montepare
Joann M. Montepare is a professor of psychology and director of the RoseMary B. Fuss Center for Research on Aging and Intergenerational Studies, Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts.