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Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions
science professor works with grad students in a lab

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions

NC State multidisciplinary experience created for all incoming first-year and transfer students.

This course was recognized with the 2024 Gertrude Cox Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning with Technology.

An Online Experience

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions is a special kind of multidisciplinary experience created for all incoming first-year and transfer students and their families.

Wicked Problems graphic with livestream, podcasts and video

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions aims to encourage students to discover more about various disciplines, to connect with the broader NC State community, and to apply and reflect on what and how they’re learning.

The experience is packaged as an online course available in WolfWare, NC State’s suite of academic technologies, giving incoming students experience with the technologies they’ll use during their academic careers before they begin their first semester at NC State.

(Y)Our Health

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2024 focuses on (Y)Our Health. We will explore challenges and potential solutions to physical and mental health, related social justice issues, and power and agency to affect change across scales from the individual, to the local, and global.

Each unit will engage students through a real-life situation and then offers wide-ranging multidisciplinary perspectives on that unit’s topic. Common threads through each unit will include: physical health, mental health, social justice, agency, academic, scholarly and community solutions, innovations, and opportunities.

What is a Wicked Problem?Play Video

(Y)Our Health

will be offered from December 9, 2024 – January 5, 2025, for first-year and transfer students.

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Free Credit Hours

Students can earn two NC State credit hours at no cost.

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Access Resources

Instructions on how to get started and access the course content.

Incoming Students Resources

After successfully completing the course, students earn two (2) NC State credit hours at no cost. Yes, two free credits toward your degree. The course has been approved to count toward the Interdisciplinary Perspectives GEP requirement.

The course is not required; however, we encourage students to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity created just for incoming students. Students can stop the course at anytime with no penalty.

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions aims to encourage students to discover more about various disciplines, to connect with the broader NC State community, and to Think and Do, applying and reflecting upon what they’re learning.

FEATURED CONTENT

College of Sciences undergraduate students work and collaborate in David Clark Labs on main campus. Photo by Marc Hall

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2024 Focuses on (Y)Our Health

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2024 focuses on (Y)Our Health and will be offered June 24-July 26. It is a no-cost, two-credit course that encourages students to explore different disciplines, connect with their professors and peers, and apply learned skills to the world around them.

DELTA News 
Students, faculty and staff enjoy a spring day by participating in a Pause for Tiny Hooves event at the Corner on Centennial campus. Therapy miniature horses from Stampede of Love, as well as therapy dogs, provide a wellness break from the end of semester rush. Photo by Becky Kirkland.

(Y)Our Health is Focus of Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions 2023

How can you attract new students to participate in a summer course before attending NC State? Offering two free credits is one way. What’s the catch? There is none!

DELTA News 
Eating in America Today - produce shelves in grocery store

Creating Interdisciplinary Solutions

Many of our most difficult challenges are too complex to solve through individual disciplines. Biologists cannot stop pandemics on their own, nor can engineers tackle global change alone.

Provost’s Office News 
Carrot being pulled up from ground

Food for Thought

“The Future of Food” is the third in a series called “Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions” launched in the summer of 2020 as a way to help keep students engaged over the summer as well as get used to learning online.

NC State Alumni Magazine 
Looking-Back-on-a-Wicked-Summer

Looking Back on a Wicked Summer

Five weeks, 47 presenters, and 100s of students later, Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions: Global Change celebrates a summer of learning.

DELTA News 
Wicked Awesome

Wicked Awesome

A new online course — “Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions” — gives incoming first-year students an extraordinary opportunity to learn and connect.

NC State News 
ELI Annual Meeting

ELI Annual Meeting 2021 On-Demand Session

Wicked Problems Require Interdisciplinary Solutions: The 10-Week Sprint to Create an Innovative Incoming-Student Experience

Wolfpack Solutions Video