Students will enter the project as documentarians by examining how communities are represented, noticing what evidence reveals about Noyo, and generating the first authentic questions they want to investigate.

Students will refine the questions worth asking about Noyo, test those questions against evidence and ethics, and build a practical fieldwork plan for interviews and observations. Across the phase, they will move from curiosity to method by drafting hypotheses, identifying needed voices and source types, peer-critiquing plans, and revising interview tools before beginning early evidence collection.

Students will organize and test the strength of their documentary evidence, compare perspectives across sources, identify patterns and gaps, and propose a defensible story direction for how Noyo should be represented next.

Students will present their Noyo documentary evidence and emerging community story to an authentic audience, explain how their claims are grounded in interviews, observations, and source material, and reflect on how their investigation changed their understanding of Noyo and their role in shaping its future.