NeXuS: Engage~ Experiment~ Enjoy! (Fall 2015)
Director’s Corner
Welcome to the first issue of NEXUS! Like the Common Core as a whole, NEXUS connects you to your friends across faculties, to important issues, to your teachers and tutors, and to life on and beyond the campus.
We have formed a fantastic group of Student Ambassadors that are here to serve you and to let us know how we can all work to improve the experience of the CC. Let us know if you’d like to serve as an Ambassador!
We have also begun to collect samples of all the great student work occurring in the CC classes—videos, writing, photography, and more—and would like you all to add to that. Send us examples of your most inspiring work!
And the CC Lounge (Main Building 150) will once again be serving as a space for you to use for group meetings, exhibits of your photographs, paintings, writing, or presentations. Come talk, come listen, come watch, or just come hang-out!
I’m happy to talk with anyone about anything at any time, so give me a shout at gklindgren@hku.hk. Stay in touch and enjoy the Fall!
All best,
Gray
Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, PhD
Professor & Director
Common Core
First-Come, First-Served Enrollment
Responding to student concerns about not being able to enroll in CC courses of choice, we have now moved from the Auto-Ballot to a First-Come, First-Served enrollment system during the course selection period. Create the Common Core you want!
Student Ambassadors Wanted!
The Common Core wants You to serve as a Student Ambassador to help us shape the courses and to make the Core more student-centred. Please send your self-nominations to us at chiting@hku.hk.
The Common Core Community and Business Advisory Board (CCAB)
The CCAB offers the guidance of leaders from a variety of sectors across Hong Kong who enthusiastically support the aims of undergraduate learning as a synthesis of specialization developed in the majors and the complementary ability to deepen capacities for inquiry, communication, creative and critical thinking, and collaborative team-work. The contributions of the Advisory Board members include sharing their wealth of experience with students and staff; designing additional connections between the Common Core, Hong Kong, and the Global Community; and helping to articulate a clear set of graduate attributes that will serve the students well as they move beyond the boundaries of the university.
Huge thanks go to our current members of the Board: Stacy Baird, Executive Director, Intellectual Property Program, US-China Clean Energy Forum; Wendy Gan, Senior Advisor, Jax Coco; John Huen, Founding CEO, KodingKingdom; Rosa Kusbiantoro, Manager, Advisory Services at BSR: Business for Social Responsibility; Otto Ng, Co-Founder, LAAB: Art, Architecture, Events; Ricky Tsui: Director R & D, East Asia, ARUP; and Lynn Yau: Founding CEO, Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection
Common Core Events
The Lounge (MB 150) is a place for students and staff to hang-out between classes or to use as a study or meeting space. We have also hosted Myanmar Week (including a showing of the Burmese Harp and an exhibit of Myanmar paintings); Inventing the TransDisciplinary University; Eastern Visions (which leads student exchange groups on learning tours); a parent-child group from the Institute of Human Performance; Women + Activism; and Open Houses with the Director.
We will also be hosting workshops on Mind-Mapping, Coding for Success, and playfully exploring the “transdisciplinarity” of cosmetics, maps, and money; lectures on “Ants and Cathedrals” and “Art and Math”; and we are hoping to launch a research exchange with the University of Utrecht.
For information on what’s coming up, go to commoncore.hku.hk.
CCST9030 Forensic Science will Launch the 1st Mobile Game to the Public
Are you a big fan of crime shows such as CSI, Bones, and Dexter? Funded by the HKU Teaching Development Grant, CCST9030 Forensic Science is dashing to the new game-based learning territory by developing the first mobile app to the public. People will solve a few crime scenes by finding and analyzing evidence, answering forensic science-related questions, and identifying the suspects. The first Android version is expected to be ready in April 2016.
Rumors and Tall Tales: What’s the Real Scoop?
- An F-grade DOES count into all of your GPAs, so don’t make an F! These are NOT replaced by re-taking a course; BOTH grades are recorded on your transcript.
- ANY percentage of plagiarism is wrong and can be taken to the University Disciplinary Committee. It is NOT the case that “low percentages” on a Turnitin record are not forwarded. (This decision is up to the discretion of the Course Coordinator and the Common Core Curriculum Committee.)
- CC Courses CANNOT (yet) be taken as free electives, since they need to be available for students fulfilling their UG5 requirements.
Coming Soon! – Common Core Research and Innovation Studio
Helping you create a relationship with your own future