Group Projects

Each participant will help develop, with two or three other class members, a group project that explores educational and professional development (details to be discussed in class). The schedule for presentations will be determined in class. Selecting a topic, and with prior instructor approval, each group will present for between 20 and 40 minutes. The presentations must provide an experiential component, a group discussion component, and an informational component. Additionally, each group must provide approximately equal presentation time to each of its members. Each group will also prepare a handout summary of their topic (with short reference bibliography, as required) to present to each member of the class as a professional resource.

Assessment criteria for the group presentations are as follows:

• Willingness to take appropriate risks and to challenge oneself.
• Willingness to speak up and to lead.
• Openness to interpersonal process.
• Willingness to collaborate with other practice co-facilitators.
• Consideration of and responsiveness to others.
• Commitment to enhancing the interpersonal experience of everyone.
• Willingness to examine personal values, beliefs, and judgements.
• Ability to take personal responsibility for learning.
• Willingness to deal with conflicts appropriately.
• Ability to be open and responsive to appropriate feedback.

The central idea of the presentations for this course is to give you opportunities to practice interdisciplinary thinking, collaboration, and expression. As such, the group presentations should be interdisciplinary. Essentially, this means that you should try to use multiple presentation strategies and modalities. These might include (but are certainly not limited to) any of the following:

• Storytelling
• Poetry
• Music (playing)
• Drumming
• Singing
• Dance
• Movement
• Sport
• Ritual
• Film (showing)
• Film making
• Photography
• Web content
• Craft work
• Art making
• Individual reflection
• Meditation
• Health practices
• Creative process (any type)
• Group communication
• Cultural practices
• Nature experiences

Whenever possible (and workable), try to mix together multiple modalities into a single presentation. For example, you might ask the group to do some individual reflection using the modality of poetry, then create a series of movements based on the poetry, then work in small groups to talk about and share the process. Many configurations are possible. The trick is to choose an activity that you enjoy, then find a way to apply it to the content (suggested presentation topics will be discussed in class). Please do not create your group presentations using only written and/or spoken materials. In other words, don't just stand up at the front of the class and talk about the presentation topic. Utilize the energy of the group. Feel free to experiment with activities and modalities that may not seem, on the surface, to be related to the topic at hand but which might, upon experiment, yield surprising connections and results. Be playful. Allow yourself to laugh at yourself, to be embarrassed, to engage with the process in novel and interesting ways.

In authentic university work (which is, by definition, interdisciplinary), riddles and puzzles are highly prized. Accordingly, the presentations should (ideally) not be complete explanations or presentations of material. Feel free to play with challenging exercises, with impossible scenarios, and other conundra.

The best presentations offer more questions than answers. They, are essentially, gateways into the mysterious–which, as Einstein will tell you, is an important place to be:

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

The group project is worth 20 percent of your final grade (and is a replica, in miniature, of your involvement in the entire class).