Building a degree program from scratch: lessons learned while adapting UBC courses for a new BSc degree program at the University of Central Asia

Imagine the possibilities if you could design and build a B.Sc. degree program from scratch. Our team of 11, including 9 past or present UBC science educators or science education specialists, is involved in exactly that scenario now, as we work on our UBC/UCA partnership project to develop a 22-course BSc program in Earth and Environmental Science for the new University of Central Asia campus in Khorog, Tajikistan. In this session, we will first invite participants to think about building a curriculum from the ground up, then UBC/UCA project team members will share their experiences and lessons learned. Participants will hopefully gain insight into possibilities, challenges, requirements and constraints of their own program courses and curricula. While participants may anticipate some of our lessons learned, others may be surprising or inspirational for all of us engaged in ongoing curriculum review and reform.