The Signature Project

Your INCP has a topic, which you selected based on your own passions and what you think will engage students across multiple disciplines. Students have signed up because the topic interests them. But that is just the start of INCP. Once students arrive to the class, the work begins as they design and implement a signature project related to the course topic. They may work in small groups or as one large class group that splits into different aspects of the work. It’s up to them to figure it all out, and your job is to be a facilitator, coach, and support. A signature project: 

• Is transdisciplinary: The project integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines and sources to create something new that could not be created without all of them. 
• Is completed collaboratively: The project is large and complex enough that it requires input and work from more than one person to be successful.
• Is student-driven: While faculty, staff, and community partners provide guidance and coaching, student agency and independence move the project forward.
• Requires metacognitive reflection: Students reflect on what and how they learn and how their learned knowledge, skills, and dispositions might be transferable to other contexts.
• Reaches beyond the walls of the classroom: The work of the project touches the world outside the classroom in some way.
• Has an external audience for project results: The results of the project are presented to someone who is outside of the class.
• Is completed ethically and respectfully: Work on the project engages internal/external audiences and/or partners with mutual benefit.