December Teaching Symposium
Doing, Reflecting, Connecting: A Symposium on Experiential Learning
Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 10 am - 2 pm, Medford campus & online
Join us for a day of experiential learning, an approach where we learn by doing, reflecting, and connecting. After a welcome by CELT's Director, Dr. Dana Grossman Leeman, participants will choose from several hands-on learning activities led by Tufts faculty and staff representing a variety of disciplines and teaching contexts. We'll reconvene to reflect on how we might apply what we have learned to our own teaching. After lunch, participants will explore how AI can help them design and enhance immersive learning opportunities.
Register Here
Program
9:30–10:00 AM | Check-in & Breakfast
10:00–10:30 AM | Welcome & Introduction
10:40–11:50 AM | Experiential Learning Workshops
12:00–12:30 PM | Communal Reflection-on-Action
12:30–1:00 PM | Lunch Break
1:00–2:00 PM | Using AI Bots for Experiential Learning
Experiential Learning Workshops
Humans in the Loop: Exploring How We Build—And Bias—Information Systems
Tisch Library Digital Design Studio: Anna Kijas, Kim Forero-Arnias, Kaylen Dwyer
Join us for a playful, collaborative approach to critically examining our digital and information worlds. Whether it’s a library catalog, archival finding aid, search engines, or artificial intelligence—the biases in the system are a result of humans’ construction, organization and classification of information. You will practice close reading strategies through a hands-on, no-tech activity that can be adapted to your teaching context to surface, discuss, and describe how systems of power impact visibility, representation, and access to knowledge.
In-Person
Gamification and Computer Engineering
In this session, you will experience the use of games to teach complex concepts and algorithms intuitively. The activity will be framed as a cooperative card game where the players arrange their board, set their rules, and then follow them through the deck to record the score. In the process, you might learn something about caches, a core component of modern computers.
Remote
AI-Powered Experiential Learning: A Hands-On Exploration
In this interactive session, participants will use browser-based electronics and coding simulators to build a simple interactive prototype with AI guidance - no prior technical experience required. With minimal upfront instruction, you’ll experience how AI can scaffold exploration, creativity, and reflection - the core elements of experiential learning - while adapting to diverse skill levels and disciplines. Faculty will leave with practical ideas for bringing authentic, project-based learning into their own classrooms in scalable and inclusive ways.
Hybrid
The Walking Classroom
Student learning is enhanced by real world applications of course content, but in the classroom, these connections aren’t always self-evident. In this demonstration, we will go outside to observe elements of campus that relate to my introductory science class (don’t worry, I’ll give you some ideas) and use those observations to spark curiosity and forge connections. Participants will leave with ideas for how to connect their course material to the world beyond the classroom, whether it be the biology of the leaves, the architecture of the buildings, the light from the Sun, or the history and anthropology of this area.
In-person
Using AI Bots for Experiential Learning
Amy Goldstein, Courtney McDermott, Joe Sansone, Freedom Baird, David Grogan, Justin Horvath
Discover how AI can help you bring experiential learning into your teaching. In this hands-on session, faculty will guide you through activities featuring two custom AI chat bots: one that simulates an intake interview, and another that supports applied problem-solving. Then we will reflect on what you learned and consider how you might incorporate bots into your teaching and experiential activity design. Please bring a laptop, tablet or phone in order to fully participate. If you are not sure what a custom AI chat bot is, this session is for you. If you are an experienced AI bot builder, this session is also for you.
Hybrid