Using Individual and Group Projects to Promote Transdisciplinary Skills Through Creative Application of Learning: A Decade-Long Practice Across Three Countries.

A curriculum designed to promote disciplinary content knowledge inevitably fosters transdisciplinary skills that students can continue to apply beyond the classroom. These skills can be either assumed or intentionally integrated into the instructional process. Over a decade and across three countries (USA, Sri Lanka, China), individual and group projects have been used to enhance transdisciplinary skills and encourage creative applications of learning in physics, differential equations, computing, and philosophy of science. Projects fall into individual, small-group, and whole-class categories. Individual projects often involve iterative poster designs, where students distill complex concepts into a single-slide visual, linking real-world applications to theoretical foundations. Group projects require students to produce independent products, such as digital stories in mechanics or engineering heat engine applications in thermodynamics, reinforcing hands-on problem-solving. Whole-class projects engage teams working on different sections of a larger project, cultivating leadership and responsibility. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 400-student philosophy of science course produced a peer-reviewed journal, and in Spring 2025, 275 students in an introductory electricity and magnetism course will design a space colony. Through these projects, students learn to creatively apply knowledge, navigate ethical standards, utilize diverse tools, and develop a sense of responsibility and community, cultivating critical thinking, leadership, and communication skills for challenges beyond academia.