Achievement

Faculty from the CIIP developed a quantitative metric to measure the multidisciplinarity of research aspirations among our IGERT trainees. The concept is based on T Competency; the vertical part of the T represents disciplinary research and the horizontal part of the T represents multidisciplinary research. We created an instrument that allows students to create T’s to reflect the disciplinarity of their research goals. The aspect ratio of the T (width divided by height) is a measure of multidisciplinarity: T’s with an aspect ratio less than 1 reflect discipline-based interests and T’s with an aspect ratio greater than 1 represent multidisciplinary interests. The T metric provides us a quantitative instrument to establish learning goals and track progress. It also provides us a clear language to discuss multidisciplinary research endeavors. A paper describing our assessment tool is current in review with the Journal of Natural Resource and Life Sciences Education.