Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul) Climate Change Response Project Team (Director Kang Yoon Hee) successfully concluded the ‘2025 Academic Year Coding Education for Humanities and Social Sciences Students’ last November, in collaboration with the SW education volunteer club ‘Do, um’ from the College of Software Convergence. This program aimed to enhance the digital literacy of humanities and social sciences students and cultivate convergent talents capable of analyzing climate crises and ESG issues using data.

△ Scene from the ‘2025 Coding Education for Humanities and Social Sciences Students’

The program was conducted in two sessions from April to November at the Net Zero Living Lab (Room 1514, Bukak Building). Professor Kang Yun-hee from the Global Climate and Environmental Convergence major and Professor Choi Eun-mi from the Software Convergence major participated as supervising professors, enhancing the program's educational expertise.

The program was operated by ‘Do, um’, a software education volunteer club whose name embodies the meaning ‘Do first, before hesitation (um)’. Currently, approximately 35 students participate regardless of their major. Do, um has been conducting ongoing software education activities for the local community, and this year provided SW education to elementary and middle school students in the Seongbuk, Gangbuk, and Nowon districts. They have also gained field-based educational experience by visiting local elementary schools to run SW camps.

The first semester program ran for a total of six sessions from April to May. It focused on lowering the psychological barriers to programming for humanities and social sciences students new to coding. The mentors restructured the curriculum, traditionally designed for majors, from a non-major's perspective. Classes centered on Python's fundamental syntax, including variables, conditional statements, and loops. The total class time of 2 hours and 30 minutes was adjusted to allocate 1 hour and 30 minutes to theoretical explanations, while expanding the practical exercise portion. This allowed participants to apply what they learned to real-life examples, enhancing their understanding.

The second semester program ran from September to November as an advanced course over seven sessions. Students learned to preprocess and visualize climate data using core Python libraries like Numpy, Pandas, and Matplotlib.

In the latter part of the program, students undertook a ‘Climate Prediction Program Development’ project, integrating climate APIs with external libraries. They implemented a program that retrieves and analyzes real-time temperature, precipitation, and weather information for a specified region, strengthening their data analysis and programming application skills.

This training went beyond simple knowledge transfer, becoming an opportunity to foster communication and collaboration among students. Mentors and mentees participated as peer learners rather than in a vertical relationship, experiencing mutual growth through the process of solving problems together. Shin Min Cheol (Software major), Vice President of the Du-um Club, shared his thoughts: “I was impressed that the mentors personally planned the curriculum and prepared the training,” adding, “Seeing non-major mentees utilize libraries to complete their projects was deeply rewarding.”

Through this program, Kookmin University's Climate Change Response Project Team confirmed the importance of humanities and social sciences students developing the ability to solve problems independently using coding. Recognizing the limitations of covering Python comprehensively with only one weekly class, the team plans to expand convergence education by strengthening learning connections and providing continuous hands-on practice opportunities.

As the lead institution of the HUSS Environmental Consortium, Kookmin University, together with Duksung Women's University, Ulsan University, Inha University, and Chosun University, is breaking down boundaries between universities and disciplines. Under the theme ‘Coexistence and Mutual Prosperity in the Era of Climate Crisis,’ it is cultivating future-oriented humanities and social sciences talent equipped with problem-solving capabilities and convergent thinking through interdisciplinary education.