Tunxis art students celebrated the end of a 10-week virtual international exchange collaboration this semester with students from l’Institut universitaire de technologie de Cachan (IUT) during a virtual online video conferencing meeting on Dec. 3, in which both classes presented research they completed together, followed by an awards ceremony.

The “Color Theory” class, taught by professor Carianne Garside, first met their counterparts from l’Institut universitaire de technologie de Cachan (IUT), located outside of Paris, during a virtual online meeting in October to meet and start their work together on their project, “Artists and Engineers: Communicating in Color” with Mathilde Svab’s English students at IUT-Cachan.

During the experiment based on color psychology, small mixed groups of Tunxis and IUT students worked together to do research on the use of color. The groups had to come up with a question about color, form a hypothesis and do research, which they presented together in visual form during the final class. A few of the 10 groups’ projects included finding out how different colors of foods affect perception of taste, how food packaging colors affect choices, and product colors for men’s and women’s beauty products in the United States and France.

“These students consistently demonstrated motivation, creativity and an extraordinary amount of patience as they navigated a new subject, language barriers, time differences, and many new technologies,” said Garside. “I am thrilled for them not only for the new color content they now are fluent in, but for the incredible experience they gained through this opportunity. One thing that kept them all going through it all was the connection to new friends across the Atlantic.”

The first of its type to be offered at Tunxis, the class was part of CT Clicks: The CT Community Colleges’ International Education Initiative, made possible through NSF grants awarded to the College of Technology and its Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing, hosted by TCC.

CT CLICKs is the first initiative of its kind in Connecticut to create systematic study abroad opportunities for students of the CT Community Colleges, and ultimately aims to widen paths to international education for the over 70,000 credit-enrolled students of the 12 CT Community Colleges. Other current CT CLICKs partners for the initiative are Asnuntuck, Middlesex, and Northwestern Connecticut Community Colleges.

Students in the class will have the chance to apply for a two-week “bootcamp” at The École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris this summer on “Sustainable Design,” where they will have the chance to meet their teammates in person. Selected students may be able to have tuition and airfare covered for this opportunity through an NSF grant.

Tunxis Community College in Farmington offers more than 70 associate degrees and certificates, and is the recipient of a $2.8 million National Science Foundation grant that established the CT College of Technology’s Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing, an NSF Center of Excellence. To learn more about Tunxis, visit tunxis.edu.

The CT College of Technology at Tunxis Community College is a consortium of all 12 CT Community Colleges and eight public and private universities that was formed through CT legislation in 1995 to establish seamless pathways in engineering and technology. It also provides seamless career pathways for students to earn certificates, associate of science and bachelor of science degrees in manufacturing, engineering, and technology disciplines with no loss of credit upon transfer. For more information on the College of Technology, contact Karen Wosczyna-Birch, Ed.D., at 860.723.0608, or [email protected].