Cohort July 2022: Faculty of Science – Denise Gabriel, Lee Groat, Mary Anne Lyons, Payton Mackwood, Ruby Willett
Integrated Sciences specialization overview
Integrated Sciences (ISCI) is a unique undergraduate specialization within the Faculty of Science. Students design a specialization by means of a degree proposal that consists of curricula tailored to their educational goals. Students receive personalized mentoring from a disciplinary expert in their field and are encouraged to become self-directed learners. Integrated Sciences offers ISCI courses that span diverse scientific disciplines. These courses strive to promote a high level of engagement amongst students and create a community amongst students with wide foci.
Benefits of the course
ISCI 400 will provide a platform where students can reflect critically on their interdisciplinary degree proposals, apply them to the real world, and share them with the scientific community. Students will demonstrate how they are synthesizing learning across their disciplines in the form of a presentation (in person or online) or a poster.
The development and implementation of this new course are supported by the Integrated Sciences Director. This capstone course was encouraged by the 2021 program review report that called for a means where students can evaluate and reflect upon the outcomes of their integrations. ISCI 400 will encourage students to assess the learning objectives of the degree programs they created and contemplate how their studies can be applied beyond their undergraduate degree. The course will provide a platform for, and support students in communicating these degree reflections to the community.
Course development
The ISCI 400 Capstone development project involves students, staff, and faculty, partnering to develop and pilot the ISCI 400 course to be held from January 2023 to April 2023. Course development will take place from September 2022 to December 2022. The team will recruit student participants, create course modules, assessment models, and a Canvas site for the course. Mechanisms to create a sense of community and collaboration among students, staff, and faculty will be explored. An evaluation plan for the pilot course will be developed and implemented while ensuring the proposed course aligns with the strategic priorities of the Integrated Sciences specialization. In addition, the project will include an evaluation by all partners of the additional benefits of ISCI 400 to the ISCI curriculum. In particular, how the key learning objectives of ISCI 300 can be re-engaged in ISCI 400. The outcome of this project will be a curriculum proposal that will be presented to the Faculty of Science Curriculum Committee in September 2023, with the course formally incorporated into the Integrated Sciences specialization requirements in 2024.
Expected results
It is expected that the collaboration of students, staff, and faculty in this project will increase the credibility and legitimacy of the new course while meeting the needs of the Integrated Sciences program and its students. Students will have a better understanding of how their courses connect and how that connection can be applied beyond their undergraduate degrees. The partnership will encourage active student engagement in course development, which is important as the course impacts all Integrated Sciences students.