IST 397 Interdisciplinary Inquiry

Interdisciplinary Inquiry will develop skills for research and literacy across disciplinary fields and apply strategies for creating an informed research proposal. The culminating informed research proposal is part of a portfolio that includes critical reflection on the student’s coursework at NKU and the complex personal, professional or community problems that interest them. This is a Capstone course for the AAIS degree and a prerequisite for the BAIS Capstone (IST 497). Prerequisite is sophomore status.

Successful students in IST 397 are capable of multidisciplinary thinking. They are introduced to interdisciplinary work but perhaps not yet accomplished. Successful students are able to see connections across different college disciplinary courses and can describe how different disciplines can contribute to a single problem. They are capable of finding and evaluating relevant information from a variety of disciplinary sources. Successful students are ready to move into self-conscious interdisciplinary study.

Integrative Thinking

• • Students in IST 397 identify and describe the kinds of disciplinary perspectives and methods within a meta-major that are relevant to a particular complex global problem.

Critical Thinking

• • Students in IST 397 craft arguments for a position that are simple but clear.

Communication

• • Students in IST 397 produce writing that is sensitive to the audiences proscribed in typical classroom assignments.

Information Literacy

• Students in IST 397 identify, categorize, evaluate and cite multiple informational resources so as to begin research for a multi-disciplinary problem-based project with respect to a general theme in the Arts and Sciences.

All students will create a portfolio of their work. Students who have taken IST 185 Introduction to Integrative Studies will continue with the portfolio created in that course. Students who are working under catalogs before 2018 should consult their instructor for portfolio requirements. The portfolio requirements created in IST 397 include

• Prospectus (IST 397)

The development of and research for an interdisciplinary thesis or hypothesis centered on the disciplines on which you are focused.

• Case Study Analysis (IST 397)

This assignment involves drawing on disciplinary insights and approaches to integration and lays the groundwork for the prospectus.