When academic study is structured around service, rather than the other way around, lines between disciplines can become blurred. Service-based courses often require an interdisciplinary approach, because the problems of a community cannot be addressed through a single discipline. A new course package at San Jose State University will focus on local parks from the perspective of three disciplines: biology, political science, and engineering. The added bonus: as students work to increase access to the parks and enhance bio-diversity of plant life, the theme-based package the courses intertwined around a single theme will fulfill their general education core requirement.
