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Projects
Project Criteria
The principal criteria that make a successful Mini-Term project are academic merit and a well thought-out timeline of goals to be achieved. The Mini-Term Committee reviewing the project proposals will principally consider the following:
- academic merit of the project,
- goals that you want to achieve during Mini-Term, and
- constraints on the project. (i.e. time and resources required, etc.)
Academic merit incorporates the combination of creativity and various resources, skills, and forms of learning necessary to develop an organized and thorough understanding of a subject. A project with strong academic merit typically involves multiple forms of learning that may include investigating a particular subject, developing a significant skill, problem solving, critical thinking, or many others. There are also numerous sources of information that a student can employ as resources: books, journals, websites, experiments, experts in the field, audio and visual media, etc.
A project that is limited in terms of forms of learning and resources is likely not a good project. In order to assure strong academic merit, you should tackle your project from different points of view using various approaches in order to develop as complete an understanding of the subject as possible.
The time and resources required to successfully complete the learning activities are a significant consideration. The project should fully engage, yet not overwhelm, each of the students involved for the full seven academic days of Mini-Term. The size of the project must appropriately match the resources available to implement it.
Please think through your proposal carefully and address the required questions completely, since you may only have one chance to convince the committee that the project idea is a valid one.
Proposal Format
To submit a proposal for an Independent Project—whether as an individual or as a group—you must respond to the seven proposal questions regarding the learning activities you plan on-line through the Mini-Term link in your student Focus account no later than Monday, November 11th.
To see the proposal format, click here.