#interdisciplinary

Develop a 4-week Project-Based Learning (PBL) unit for middle school science. Driving Question: 'How can we, as student scientists, design a solution to reduce our school's carbon footprint?' Week 1: Entry event (documentary clip), research phase (causes of climate change). Week 2: Investigate local impact, interview school maintenance staff on energy use. Week 3: Brainstorm solutions (e.g., recycling program, energy-saving campaign), form expert groups. Week 4: Develop final product (presentation, proposal to principal, prototype), public exhibition of learning. Assessment: rubric for collaboration, critical thinking, final product quality. Integrate math (data analysis) and ELA (persuasive writing).

Build effective interdisciplinary research teams. Team formation: 1. Identify complementary expertise needed for research questions. 2. Include diverse perspectives: disciplinary, methodological, demographic. 3. Define roles clearly: PI, co-investigators, data manager, statistician. 4. Establish governance structure: steering committee, working groups. Communication strategies: 1. Regular meetings with clear agendas and action items. 2. Shared workspace: Box, Slack, or Microsoft Teams for collaboration. 3. Project management tools: Asana, Trello for task tracking. 4. Documentation: meeting minutes, decision logs, protocol changes. Intellectual property: 1. Authorship agreements early: contribution thresholds, order determination. 2. Data ownership and sharing agreements. 3. Publication timeline and journal selection process. Common challenges: 1. Different disciplinary cultures and vocabularies. 2. Competing priorities and timelines. 3. Geographic distance. Solutions: team science training, conflict resolution protocols, regular check-ins.