Solve real-world challenges from partner organizations
The Sandbox is an innovative program that partners external organizations with multiple A&S courses, offering you the opportunity to participate in experiential learning while in the classroom setting.
As part of a Sandbox course, you will be tasked with creating multifaceted solutions to real-world challenges, while fostering multidisciplinary skills and connections. Students from several courses address the same problem, providing a unique opportunity for students from different subject areas to propose solutions from their distinct perspective. When the project ends, students have a chance to present their insights and solutions to the external organization.
Courses with a Sandbox component earn 0.5 or 1.0 credit and count towards degree and program requirements.
There is no additional cost to participate in a Sandbox course.
Benefits of Sandbox
By enrolling in courses with a Sandbox component, you can:
- Collaborate with students in other disciplines
- Develop relationships with external organizations
- Work on real-world projects to add to your resume or portfolio
Who is Eligible to Participate?
Sandbox courses are open to students in any year. To be eligible, you should be:
- A full-time undergraduate degree student in the Faculty of Arts & Science — St. George campus
- In good academic standing
- Enrolled in a course offering a Sandbox component (see course list below)
Sandbox Courses
You can enrol in the Sandbox courses during regular course enrolment periods.
| Course Code & Name | Term | Department/Unit | Project Description | Partner Organization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRN303H: Ethics & Society | Fall | Trinity Ethics Society & Law | Examination of 3 distinct political-philosophical theories of justice and ways they can be operationalized to construct a stronger foundational argument for the reparative and transformative legal remedies that BLAC seeks for Black communities in Ontario. | Black Legal Action Centre |
| STA130H: Intro to Statistical Reasoning | Fall | Statistical Sciences | Students analyze data on frequency of Emergency Department visits, length and number of hospital stays, healthcare costs in addition to demographic characteristics and health profiles associated with different healthcare utilization patterns to help Nucleus tailor programming. | Nucleus Independent Living |
| ENT200H: Intro to Entrepreneurship | Fall | Centre for Entrepreneurship | Employing entrepreneurial strategy to create and apply a framework to uncertainties around customer base, technology, organization and competition in the following sectors: healthcare (Nucleus), marketing (B4Brand) and media. | B4Brand, Nucleus |
| STA304H: Surveys, Sampling and Observational Data | Fall | Statistical Sciences | Students help STEMBuddies design a survey to assess needs, preferences and feedback of high school students for the development of a STEMBuddies handbook. Students will also use simulated data collected from the survey, creating one graph and one confidence interval. | STEMBuddies |
| CHM410-1410: Advanced Analytical Chemistry | Fall | Chemistry | Pueblo Science is creating robotics modules and using newly designed sensors and particle monitors; Chem students will explore the uses of the newly designed sensors by conducting experiments to measure turbidity, pH, particles, and some students with coding experience may explore other types of robotics monitors. | Pueblo Science |
| INI102H: Storytelling Through Creative Nonfiction | Fall | Innis ONE | Students develop an ethical storytelling toolkit that The Stop can use to share personal narratives. Groups of 3 create a guide to collect stories with integrity, cultural awareness, and care for the storyteller’s dignity. Areas include: social media, funders, observation-based. Toolkit consists of consent framework, story prompts, storage/use policy, rationale. | The Stop Community Food Centre |
| STA2053H: Special Topics in Applied Statistics | Fall | Statistical Sciences | Two students support the work of STA490Y student group in consultative process with Beach BIA to use open source City of Toronto data for revitalization project | Beach BIA |
| HST306H: Health, Nutrition and Food Security | Fall | Health Studies | Students create research questions for Nucleus | Nucleus Independent Living |
| STA490Y: Statistical Consultation, Communication, and Collaboration | Fall/Winter | Statistical Sciences | Analysis of various datasets from publicly available City of Toronto sources such as Toronto Parking, Bike Share, etc to fill in blanks related to park and retail foot traffic trends. | Beach BIA |
| HMB490Y: Health in Community | Fall/Winter | Human Biology | Pairs of students complete volunteer hours for community organizations, applying design thinking strategies to pervasive problems while connecting with other courses to support organizational goals. | Pueblo Science, Down Syndrome Association of Toronto, Autism Education Support, Youthlink |
| TRN407Y: Community Research Partnerships in Ethics | Fall/Winter | Ethics, Society & Law | A fourth-year independent research project that pairs individual students with community organizations. | The Stop Community Food Centre |
| ITA250Y: Intermediate Italian | Fall/Winter | Italian Studies | Students from ITA250Y collaborating with HMB440 Dementia students at Italian Long-Term Care facilities to practice Italian conversational skills while taking part in intergenerational friendships | Villa Colombo Long Term Care |
| HMB342H: Epidemiology of Health & Disease | Winter | Human Biology | Students create infographics using Nucleus data on rate of hospitalizations before and after receiving home care services | Nucleus Independent Living |
| RSM495H: Management Consulting | Winter | Rotman Commerce | Teams of students take on management consultant role to address partner's business needs, from rebranding to marketing, communications and business analysis | Beach BIA, GenWell, B4Brand |
| GGR472: Developing Web Maps | Winter | Geography & Planning | GIS web mapping of The Beach neighbourhood and countries in Africa focused on renewable energies | Beach BIA, Clean Air Task Force |
| EDS355H: Social Justice in Education | Winter | Education & Society | Groups of 3-4 students work to create training modules or digital curriculum for various community partners | STEMBuddies, Pueblo Science, Autism Education Support, Youthlink |
| NFS481H: Advanced Food Science | Winter | Nutrition Sciences | Students create Standard Operating Procedures based on food handling guidelines to be used during Community Kitchen workshops | The Stop Community Food Centre |
| INI102H: Storytelling Through Creative Nonfiction | Winter | Innis ONE | Students create a master tour script for The Stop Community Food Centre | The Stop Community Food Centre |
| STA130H: Intro to Statistical Reasoning | Winter | Statistical Sciences | Students populate data from open sources on renewable energies in various African countries, then complete statistical analysis by country, energy type, etc | Clean Air Task Force |
| PSY349H: Laboratory in Social Psychological Field Methods | Winter | Psychology | Psycho-social intervention design including collection of data via surveying community members on their experiences with Anti-Asian Racism in the education system. | CCNC-SJ |
Case Studies
Below are a few examples of the challenges students in Sandbox courses work on with other courses and partner organizations.
The Toronto District School Board’s Active Transportation unit needed to raise awareness of the benefits of walking and biking to school as a healthier and more eco-friendly alternative to vehicles and school buses.
- Analytical environmental chemistry students collected air quality and road dust samples from school sites.
- Geography web mapping students created live, GIS web maps of school neighbourhood walking routes.
- Writing and rhetoric students used these outputs to create infographics and social media reels highlighting the benefits of active travel.
"I learned how to apply GIS analysis tools to help benefit society and the environment, which is something I want to do in my career."
— Geography student
The Problem:
UNICEF developed a machine-learning model to predict conflict escalation across the globe. They enlisted The Sandbox at U of T to refine the model’s accuracy while also exploring its ethical and geopolitical impacts.
The Sandbox Solution:
To tackle this multi-faceted problem, The Sandbox enlisted the collective output of students in statistics and computer sciences courses for data and technology solutions, while students in political science and ethics courses examined societal and humanistic perspectives.
The Business Improvement Area (BIA) in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto analyzed visitor and consumer trends, creating a cohesive plan to increase foot traffic to the natural amenities and commercial corridor as a third space. Statistical Sciences students identified retail and traffic patterns using open source City of Toronto data. Geography GIS students created an interactive web map that allows users to customize interest-based routes and itineraries including nature walks, pub crawls and foodie destinations. Rotman Management students devised strategies for retail, food & beverage and marketing, to increase revenue and rebrand small businesses. Students from all participating courses collaborated together, sharing data findings, branding, and mapping tools to create a blueprint that can benefit all of Toronto’s 84 BIAs.
What began as one of Canada’s oldest food banks, The Stop has evolved into a vital community support offering food hampers, hot meals, mom + baby programs, green barn and farmer’s market, tax clinics and community kitchen programs. Innis ONE Creative Nonfiction writing students created guidelines for ethical storytelling and interviewing, and universal volunteer tour scripts. Nutrition Sciences students created Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and food safety guidelines to be used in the community kitchens, ensuring proper food handling and sanitation procedures. An independent research student from Ethics & Society completed a policy translation project, creating infographics to simplify government applications such as tax forms and disability benefits.
Funded by the Ministry of Health, Nucleus provides healthcare services to seniors and people with disabilities, supporting in-home care while lessening the burden on hospital admissions. Entrepreneurship students created a detailed report on possible for-profit supplemental revenue business models to meet increasing demand, Statistical Sciences students analyzed data on hospitalizations and readmissions before and after in-home care, and Human Biology students created public-facing infographics using the Statistics students’ data findings.
A long-term care facility with a large cultural Italian population was the site where two courses, Intermediate Italian Language and Human Biology, matched students to visit residents and establish inter-generational friendships. The Italian language students sought to improve their conversational Italian skills with residents, while Biology students in the Dementia course sought to forge meaningful connections with adults experiencing neurodegenerative disease. The two courses were able to connect asynchronously via digital platform to reflect on their transformative experiences learning about heritage language and cognitive decline.
Sandbox in the News
Over a thousand students from 11 different courses came together to solve problems faced by the Toronto District School Board, UNICEF and Access Alliance. Using their multidisciplinary skills, they created a model for refugee resiliency, used machine learning to predict conflict escalation around the world, worked with one of UNICEF’s data management platforms and helped the TDSB analyze environmental data and develop a plan to encourage students to walk and cycle to school instead of using a car or bus.
Read more about their experience: Sandbox program pairs students with organizations outside U of T in solution-seeking collaboration
Get Started
For more information or to get started, please contact Christine Ovcaric, Program Manager, The Sandbox, at christine.ovcaric@utoronto.ca.
About the Global Sandbox Alliance
The University of Toronto is a member of the Global Sandbox Alliance, a network of institutions offering The Sandbox model. Originating in Australia at the University of New South Wales, this global network will foster productive, lasting partnerships, leveraging global expertise and resources to support the member universities’ research, education and social engagement activities.