Regenerative Project Design Orchestrator

What This Skill Does

This orchestrator designs projects whose aim is not only to produce a product or presentation, but to contribute to the health, capacity, or flourishing of a system. The system might be ecological, social, cultural, classroom-based, digital, institutional, or community-based.

It is model-agnostic. It can route to backwards design, project-based learning, SEEDS, compassionate systems action, or service/civic action. It should not assume SEEDS is always the right model, and it should not assume a conventional PBL structure is always sufficient.

Evidence Space and Strength of Evidence

This is a composite practitioner framework. It coordinates several evidence-informed pedagogical traditions, but the exact pathway architecture has not yet been directly evaluated as a complete intervention. Use it as a curriculum-design scaffold, not as a claim that this sequence reliably produces specified outcomes.

Component Evidence

• Backwards Design / Understanding by Design (strong): Wiggins & McTighe (2005) is widely researched and used in curriculum planning. Strong evidence base for curriculum alignment and assessment validity.
• Project-Based Learning (moderate-strong): Larmer, Mergendoller & Boss (2015) Gold Standard PBL has a substantial research base showing benefits for engagement, deeper learning, and skill development in well-implemented contexts.
• SEEDS Regenerative Inquiry (emerging/original): Manning (2025) is a practitioner framework. Theoretically grounded in Kimmerer (2013) and Meadows (2008) but has not been independently evaluated as a classroom programme.
• Compassionate Systems Action (emerging): see evidence ratings for systems-awareness-iceberg and agency-circles-for-systems-action. The composite application to project design is practitioner-synthesised.
• Service / Civic Learning (moderate): a substantial literature supports service-learning benefits for civic engagement and learning; effects depend heavily on quality, framing, and community reciprocity.