Miami Plan Innovation Lab

Purpose - A Curricular Sandbox

The Miami Plan Innovation Lab (MPIL) provides support to faculty and departments with re-envisioning new Miami Plan or high-impact courses.  It is both a creative space - a kind of sandbox to “play” and experiment with team designed, team-taught courses - as well as a problem-solving space. It is a place for course creation or significant pedagogical revision. While the idea emerged organically during the Office of Liberal Education’s implantation planning for MP 2023, it mirrors MiamiRISE recommendation #5 that states:

We recommend Miami develop a mechanism for experimentation using a curricular innovation lab. The president should task the provost’s office and the university registrar to develop a process to create experimental curriculum. We recognize that barriers do exist to such an approach, but we believe Miami can create a solution by making this an organizational priority. Miami should explore the concept of the "sandbox," an experimental model that allows academic units to beta-test versions.


The goals of the MP Innovation Lab include:

  • Developing brand new MP courses to solve curricular issues

  • Re-imagining existing MP courses that need revision - where pedagogy or curricular design are the issues

  • Facilitating transdisciplinarity and collaboration across units and divisions by supporting multidisciplinary discourse, team-designed or co-designed courses, co-taught courses, or new models for “team teaching.”

  • MPIL bolsters institutional cultural change that is “second-order change” or “deep change.” Prompting faculty, units, and divisions to view the role of the Miami Plan in the overall pedagogical, curricular, and institutional structure, “involves changing underlying belief systems that in turn change behavior and practice.” (Kezar 2018; Martin and Wardle 2022). “If the problem is…that the current focus on efficiency and accountability does not in fact lead to deep learning—then deep change in the values and culture of the system itself must be pursued.” MPIL provides the time, space, and resources to be change agents for deep learning through Miami’s liberal arts education.

  • Utilizing research and evidence-based practices/ principles drive course design and pedagogy.

The Issues and Concerns

With the revised Miami Plan set to begin in Fall 2023, we need to ensure that incoming students have courses available to them, including Signature Inquiry and DE and I, the two new areas of the plan. While this is true for all students, we are being strategic in course development to have high impact courses a priority. Thus our immediate actions address concerns from high-credit hour degree programs such as CEC, NSG, and teacher education programs.  Here, we are focused on providing courses that double-dip Perspectives Area courses with Signature Inquiry so that incoming students may complete requirements both efficiently and with the best possible curricular options.  This involves not only accommodating the programs, but re-envisioning the role of Miami Plan courses within the programs that will in-turn allow the programs to re-envision their own approaches.

MPIL Signature Inquiry Courses

Sustainability and Resilience

BIO/GEO 266 Climate Science Communication is a new Advanced Writing course in the Signature Inquiry area of Sustainability and Resilience. It fulfills a niche in the growing field of science communication, where discerning fact from fiction through creative, science-based storytelling is crucial.  The course was team-designed by faculty in BIO/GLG/ENG/MME, with a team-teaching debut in Spring ‘24 between BIO and GEO.

ECO/GEO The Business of Climate Change (PA1A, PA4C) This course provides a quantitative introduction to the ways in which climate and climate change influence businesses, organizations, and NGOs. Students will examine and model cascading impacts of weather and climate change through business operations and evaluate how responses and decisions can be made strategically for both institutions and climate sustainability. Students will engage in case studies, experiential learning, and a semester-long group project on an industry of students’ interest to develop their perspectives on the local impacts of global climate change and the role of sustainability and resilience in organizations’ operations, and to improve their quantitative communication skills.

BIO/GEO/IES 222: Sustainable Systems & Society (PA4C) In this course you will explore sustainability from multiple perspectives and at global and local scales. You will examine the social and ecological contexts of sustainability: spanning environment, economy, and social equity. You will learn to use multiple methods to understand impacts and motivations of stakeholder groups and the role of place in pressing sustainability challenges.

Global Health and Wellness

ATH/BIO/PSY 248 Brain, Culture & Mental Health  (PA2B, PA4B) Students examine the neurobiological, psychological, and cultural contributors to mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse - as well as the ability of the brain to change in response to positive and negative experiences. Symptoms, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment, and societal responses to mental health disorders will be covered with focus on resilience. Students explore the ways their perception and engagement with the world impacts brain function, and vice versa.  

THE 224 Acting for Medical Simulation is a new Signature Inquiry/Intercultural Consciousness course co-designed by NSG and THE in the SI topic area of “Global Health and Wellness.” The course is running in Spring ‘24 with a primary instructor from THE. It provides a critical service to our medical programs while engaging a wide range of students interested in healthcare, health policy, empathy development, and performance.

ENG/PSY/SOC 188 (your) Mental Health: A Community Project?  A Signature Inquiry course that approaches mental health through the lens of intercultural consciousness, designed by faculty in ART/ENG/PSY/SOC.  In this course, we reconceptualize mental health and mental illness so that it is no longer a “me” problem, but rather a “we” problem. We then work to design interventions that sustain mental health more effectively. 

Technology, Information, and Society

CEC/REL 264 Ethics in Science & Technology is a new Signature Inquiry/Humanities course team-designed by faculty in CSE/REL/PHL, part of the “Technology, Information, and Society” SI topic area.  The course will be offered in Spring ‘24 team-taught by CSE and REL faculty, and is at the cutting edge of curriculum development reaching students from a variety of backgrounds, including liberal arts, STEM, and biomedical fields.

Creativity, Storytelling, and Design

CCA/LIN 195 Creativity & Code Thinking -  is a Signature Inquiry course that fulfills the PA1A (Math and Formal Reasoning) component, designed by faculty in IMS/LIN/MUS.  In this course, students will explore and practice different forms of communication and expression within the coding discipline. They will learn to precisely and effectively articulate ideas and concepts through code itself and interactive classroom activities like presentations and simulations.