Courses

This page provides an overview of courses taken at the Action Lab, as well as relevant information about credits and academic requirements. Students from CT State Community College Capital and Trinity College are invited to apply to the Action Lab.

Students must be available to enroll in two Action Lab courses:

• LAAL 200 Action Research Methods in Hartford (meets on Mondays 1:30-4:10 pm)
• LAAL 201 Hartford Research Project team that meets either Tuesdays (1:30-4:10 pm or 6:30-9:10 pm) or Thursdays (1:30-4:10 pm) or Wednesdays (1:30-4:10 pm or 6:30-9:10 pm).

Whereas LAAL 200 is mandatory for all students and has a fixed meeting time, LAAL 201 has several time slot options to adapt to the students’ availability, as shown in the table below:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Courses Meet	LAAL 200 Methods course (all students) 1:30-4:10pm	LAAL 201 Hartford Research Project Time Slot #1 1:30-4:10pmOR Project Time Slot #2 6:30-9:10pm	LAAL 201 Hartford Research Project Time Slot #3 1:30-4:10pmOR Project Time Slot #4 6:30-9:10pm	LAAL 201 Hartford Research Project Time Slot #3 1:30-4:10pm

LAAL 200: Action Research Methods in Hartford

What is the role of academic research in social change? How can students and community groups collaborate effectively to co-create, implement, and use research projects to solve social problems? In this course, students will study the theories and methods of interdisciplinary action research. Emphasizing ethical collaboration, students will learn research design strategies, methods, tools, and research tools in order to work with community partners to solve pressing problems. Students will learn to use a variety of statistical, geographic, and interview data to answer questions, make recommendations, and tell stories about the issues that are most relevant to Hartford.

Enrollment limited to 20. Requires permission of instructor. Requires concurrent registration in LAAL 201. Fulfills Numerical and Symbolic Reasoning requirement at Trinity. Cross-referenced under CLIC, EDUC, HRST, PBPL, URST, and may count toward other majors on case-by-case basis.

LAAL 201: Hartford Research Project

In this project-based class, students and faculty fellows will work in teams with Hartford community partners to research social problems and develop solutions. The projects we undertake are defined by Hartford community partners. Sample projects may include: analysis of mortgage lending disparities, focus groups on civic engagement, neighborhood public history projects, and urban development case studies. Students will learn and apply project management techniques, work collaboratively with community groups to develop research questions, select appropriate methods, and communicate results with media appropriate various audiences.

Enrollment limited to 20. Requires permission of instructor. Requires concurrent registration in LAAL 200. Cross-referenced under CLIC, HRST, PBPL, URST, and may count toward other majors on case-by-case basis.

Credits & Requirements

Trinity Students:

The two Action Lab courses count 1 credit each (2 in total). Cross-referenced Action Lab courses may count toward Trinity majors in Ed Studies, Human Rights, Public Policy & Law, and Urban Studies. Action Lab courses are also accepted by the Urban Studies and Community Action minors. In addition, completing LAAL courses fulfills the Numerical & Symbolic Reasoning and Wellness requirements, and is necessary for obtaining the Urban Engaged Learning and Academic Leadership experiential certificates. Please contact the Action Lab Director Laura Minor (Laura.Minor@trincoll.edu) if you have questions about the application process.

CT State Students:

The two LAAL courses count 3 credits each (6 in total) and will transfer to the student’s CT State transcript as follows:

– LAAL 200 Action Research Methods in Hartford = SOC 2098 Special Topics in Sociology: Community Research Methods
– LAAL 201 Hartford Research Project = HUM 1098 Special Topics in Humanities: Hartford Research Project

These courses apply to any major that requires a Social Sciences Elective, a Humanities Elective, and/or Unrestricted (i.e. Free) Electives. Capital students need to contact the Capital Faculty Director for advising on this process and for registration in these courses. The current Faculty Director is Professor Jeffrey Partridge (jpartridge@ccc.commnet.edu, 860-906-5191).