2015 RTL Conference

The IMPACT Project (Interdisciplinary, Meaningful / Mentorship, Practice, Applied, Collaborative / Community, Transformative) provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from diverse disciplines (Engineering, Biology, Occupational Therapy) to apply their knowledge to address problems identified in collaboration with community partners. Throughout this project, teams of students work on open-ended problems to explore, create, and assess ideas with the goal of developing potential solutions. Students mobilize knowledge and hone their communication, critical thinking and teamwork skills. Our IMPACT Project model serves to catalyze student creativity, innovation, and community engagement. During our interactive workshop, we will demonstrate the steps required for implementation of our IMPACT Project model using a simulation of educator / student activities, and administrative logistics to connect and network with community partners. We will conduct interactive brainstorming discussions with participants that will identify the uses of the IMPACT Project model for addressing the needs of community partners while engaging students in the learning process. We will also have representatives of our current community partners in attendance to clarify and clearly demonstrate the diverse benefits of our IMPACT Project model.