Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Coloring Science Vincent Denef LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Nyeema Harris LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Josephine Kurdziel LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Nathan Sadowsky LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology $10000.00 |
A key factor influencing academic and career choices by undergraduate students is the presence of role models. These role models can be the faculty and graduate student instructors that teach them, but also the scientists that are highlighted in the textbooks and lectures. Currently, there is lack of geographic, ethnic, and racial diversity of these potential role models present in course materials. This is due to the combination of historic and current opportunity gaps, bias in selection by publishers that typically stick to the classic examples, and shortfalls in crediting of past scientific contributions by scientists belonging to such underrepresented groups. In this proposal, we aim to develop a resource that can be used in the main introductory gateway classes to the various biology majors, with the goal to increase the diversity of presented role models to approximately 5,500 students per year. This resource will consist of a collection of lecture slides pertaining to the core concepts taught in these classes, highlighting the key work contributed by scientists of color. |
| Lettersmith: Supporting Students in Client and Employer Communication Julie Hui Information $6000.00 |
Respectful and professional client and employer communication is a critical skill for students’ professional development. The goal of this proposal is to continue the development of Lettersmith, an online tool that scales expert guidance for student email communication with clients and employers. Instructors (e.g. professors, career counselors, lecturers) express that students continue to make various mistakes in their professional communication, including not using appropriate language, not clearly stating their intentions, failing to personalize their message, or lacking the confidence to even send these messages in the first place. In effect, instructors spend a significant portion of their time reviewing individual emails and repeating the same guidance, sometimes even rebuilding student-client relationships due to avoidable communication errors. For the past three years, we developed and tested Lettersmith (https://lettersmith.io/), an online tool that provides an instructor-informed checklist of best practices, tagged examples provided by instructors and peers, and open space for students to write a draft in their own words. While the prior work focused on improving student communication quality and confidence, we aim to better understand and incorporate instructor needs, specifically 1) supporting greater awareness of student-client and -employer communication relationships, and 2) providing the ability to allow for more nuanced and readily-available communication guidance in the tool. In the future, we hope to perform further studies to better understand how tools like Lettersmith could reduce the gap in access to communication guidance across marginalized student populations, such as first-generation college students and non-native English speakers. |
| Development of an Interactive Textbook Platform for Engineering and Science Education John Kieffer Engineering - Materials Science and Engineering $5974.00 |
The primary goal of this project is to create novel electronic textbooks with interactive content. The key innovative aspect are numerical simulation models, or widgets, of processes and phenomena that are conceptually abstract, involve atomistic level mechanisms that are too small to directly observe, or occur within an industrial scale installation. Hence, they are difficult, if not impossible to demonstrate in class or a laboratory. However, using HTML5 and Javascript, simulations can be directly embedded in the text, and allow the reader to interactively explore processes and fundamental concepts that form the theoretical basis for various disciplines. It allows the reader to immediately test their understanding of the imparted information by manipulating the process parameters or phenomenological conditions to probe the effect on outcomes. Learning takes place through instinctual communication with the simulation, by merely swiping a finger across a tablet to control parameter settings. E-textbooks of this caliber do not yet exist, and their interactive functionality represents a pedagogical innovation. Embedded process simulations provide students with a radically new immersive learning experience, in that the content is not preconceived but it is generated on demand, in response to user queries. To realize this technology on a larger scale we propose to develop an easily expandable and user-friendly coding platform, made accessible through an efficient workflow integration and a generally applicable code design, organized into a library structure. We emphasize high quality GUIs with functional layout, instinctive usability, and esthetically appealing graphics. |
| Undergraduate Medical Education Introduction to Antimicrobial Decision-Making Emily Abdoler Medical School $2649.00 |
Research indicates that physicians have difficulty selecting appropriate antimicrobials for treating infections, which can harm patients and lead to increasing antimicrobial resistance. Difficulty with antimicrobial prescribing likely begins early in medical education, and nationally many medical students consider their knowledge of infectious diseases (ID) and microbiology inadequate at the time of graduation. At the University of Michigan Medical School, the first year ID/Microbiology course is the last dedicated opportunity for medical students to gain knowledge regarding optimal antimicrobial selection; during clinical rotations, they learn directly from practicing physicians who may be among those making antimicrobial prescribing errors. This project aims to provide medical students with a framework for antimicrobial selection and schema for organizing their ID knowledge during the first-year ID/Microbiology course, while also introducing the concept of therapeutic reasoning. The framework will be provided on a laminated card and introduced through an interactive, case-based session. The framework will be reiterated through each of the course’s clinical syndrome lectures, thereby providing an organizing structure for students’ burgeoning knowledge. It also will be reinforced and applied through two new interactive sessions – healthcare acquired infections and antimicrobial stewardship – that touch upon themes of empiric antimicrobial selection and de-escalation. continued in Project Objectives |
| Undergraduate Public Health Curriculum Assessment and Redesign Emily Youatt Public Health $10000.00 |
The U-M School of Public Health Office of Undergraduate Education (SPH OUE) requests a Faculty Development Fund award to assess and redesign the undergraduate core curriculum and culminating experience. With an annual enrollment of approximately 90 students per cohort, the core curriculum and culminating experience represent the six required courses all students take during their two years as public health undergraduate students. Delineated during the development of the program, these six courses were structured with input from the full SPH faculty to collectively address the learning domains and competencies defined by SPH’s accrediting body. Taught by faculty members from four SPH departments, these courses are interdisciplinary in nature and address a broad set of learning domains. The intent of these courses is to provide students an integrated introduction to key concepts and knowledge from across the field of public health (core curriculum), and to synthesize experiences in the program and connect them with student’s public health practice and professional goals (culminating experience). Initial feedback from faculty and graduate student instructors (GSIs) teaching required courses and from students enrolled in the courses has been mixed. While instructors and students alike see the benefits of a required, sequential set of courses, concerns remain about the content and structure of the core and culminating experience. We are requesting funding to support an in-depth assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the existing undergraduate required curriculum, and to implement a redesigned curriculum that better meets the learning needs of undergraduate public health students. |
| Empowering Educators: The MENTOR Series Daniel Cronin Medical School Michelle Daniel Medical School Seetha Monrad Medical School Gurjit Sandhu Medical School Vineet Chopra Medical School Robert Dickson Medical School Medical School Amit Gupta Medical School Nathan Houchens Medical School Sanjay Saint Medical School Jakob McSparron Medical School Janet Biermann Medical School Medical School Medical School Patricia Mullan Medical School Michael Englesbe Medical School $6500.00 |
Historically, medical students at the U-M Medical School have had limited educator preparedness training. This is unfortunate as once medical students graduate they have significant responsibilities teaching co-residents and the next generation of medical students. Although a teaching elective does exist within the medical school, it is not scalable and not suited to practice clinical teaching. This grant team seeks to create a new “Clinical Teaching Elective” which will be scalable and flexible, allowing senior medical students to learn core teaching principles and skills while simultaneously being immersed in clinical practice. To accomplish this, our grant team is developing a central repository of best teaching practices that can be used as a curricular tool and on-demand teacher’s guide, the Medical Educators Novel Teaching On-demand Resource (MENTOR) Series, which is comprised of primarily concise educational videos supplemented by summary infographics. Importantly, select videos will also be used futuristically to fill gaps in other areas of the medical school curriculum. The creation team is composed of a diverse group of education experts from various departments and divisions, who are involved in content creation, design, evaluation and implementation. To ensure that our resource is optimally created for a variety of learning styles and preferences, we will be obtaining iterative feedback from medical student group interviews. The grant money will be used to fund food for medical student group interviews, as well as costs of video and infographic production including editing videos, script styles, animations and graphics based off medical student feedback. |
| Designing and Implementing a Structured Process and Task Trainer for Teaching Digital Vaginal Examination in Labor Ruth Zielinski Nursing Megan Deibel Nursing Lee Roosevelt Nursing James Ashton-Miller Engineering John DeLancey Medical School Helen Morgan Medical School $10000.00 |
In maternity care, it is essential that nurses, midwives and physicians have the skills needed to evaluate progress during labor. Digital vaginal examination (VE) during labor is an essential skill for students to master, but one that is challenging to teach and practice in the simulated clinical setting. Affordable, realistic simulators are not currently available and standardized patients cannot be utilized to simulate labor and birth. Because VE during labor can be uncomfortable and intrusive, it is imperative that students are prepared prior to clinical so they can perform VE in a way that causes the least discomfort while at the same time correctly assessing for labor progress. In a collaborative effort between midwifery faculty, obstetrics/gynecology, and engineering, we propose to: (a) develop and evaluate a structured step-wise process for teaching VE (b) design, build, and evaluate a realistic vaginal examination task trainer that can be utilized for nursing, midwifery and medical education and (c) evaluate the effectiveness of both the educational approach and the task trainer using a three armed, pretest-posttest design with midwifery and medical students as participants. |
| Using 3-D printed anatomical models of specimens from the Museum of Zoology Research Collections to transform experiential learning in six vertebrate biodiversity laboratory courses Hernan Lopez-Fernandez LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Alison Davis Rabosky LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Benjamin Winger LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology $10000.00 |
A grant from CRLT will enhance lecture materials and laboratory exercises in six vertebrate biodiversity classes through the use of 3-D printed anatomical models made from images generated with X-ray computed tomography (CT). Recent access to CT is made possible through the acquisition and installation of a Nikon X-ray CT scanner in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The scanner is located at the Research Museums Center in close proximity to > 4 million specimens of fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals including an extraordinary collection of fluid-preserved specimens, all housed in the Museum of Zoology (UMMZ). The ability to generate CT images and produce models of both hard and soft anatomy from valuable fluid preserved research specimens, using noninvasive techniques, will provide opportunities for students to engage with the great diversity of vertebrate form and function. For example, students will be exposed to the differences in internal anatomy such as the windpipes of cranes that are coiled to amplify sound. Printing models at magnification will provide opportunities to compare small anatomical structures such as the pharyngeal jaws or gill arches of fishes or the bones of a snake skull. Students will use models to articulate entire skeletons or assemble and disassemble bones of the skull and other structures. These self-guided activities of discovery and research will provide a better, more intuitive understanding of species diversity and variation with less memorization. |
| Augmented Tectonics: Immersive Technologies for Building Construction Jonathan Rule Architecture and Urban Planning $10000.00 |
Recently various industries have begun to embrace advances in AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality) technologies. These readily and accessible platforms are beginning to integrate themselves within the architecture and construction industries as a way to aid in project design, delivery and execution. This project, intends to explore the new possibilities that AR, VR and MR applications can foster in the understanding and representation of architectural designs, construction systems, details and sequences at a pedagogical level within the classroom. Using AR/VR/MR as a learning environment provides a significant step forward, where students will be able to move beyond their screens and interact with designs through an immersive environment. They will be able to develop a greater understanding of the designed space as well as have the ability to more easily visualize the complex array of layers that are included in the assemblage of an occupiable structure. The grant will fund the necessary hardware and software for a mobile AR/VR/MR station tailored to the discipline of architecture. The mobile system will allow for the multiple faculty members and students interested in the application of AR/VR/MR within the college of architecture and urban planning freely experiment with this technology both inside and outside of the classroom. |
| Compassionate Conversations Curriculum for Michigan Medicine: Building a core communication curriculum for medical students, postgraduates, and faculty Michael Mendez Medical School Nathan Houchens Medical School John Osterholzer Medical School $10000.00 |
Ineffective physician communication leads to increased stress for families related to treatment decisions and the condition of patients. Many families do not understand basic information about their loved ones’ illnesses and treatments, and physicians frequently miss opportunities to address family concerns and attend to family emotions. While communication guides and conversation roadmaps have been published, Michigan Medicine lacks a program common to medical students, post-graduate trainees and faculty that provides our trainees the necessary communication skills and practical tools to navigate these conversations. CRLT funding will provide key support to assist the program in its initial phase of growth. This proposal describes the development of a dynamic family meeting simulation model that engages learners with improvisational actors and highly trained faculty-facilitators in a manner that optimizes achievement of the following goals: 1) To develop a sustainable communication training program that enhances the ability of trainees to compassionately and effectively conduct conversations which identify the values, goals, and life-sustaining treatment decisions of patients with serious illness. 2) To recruit and train communication education champions to create a network of Compassionate Conversation Facilitators at Michigan Medicine |
| Vocal Health Lab, Somatic Bodywork & Curriculum Development for the Contemporary Musical Theatre Performer Catherine A. Walker Music, Theatre & Dance $10000.00 |
This 3-tiered initiative will enhance the curriculum and training of the musical theatre majors as well as provide professional development for faculty members in the Musical Theatre, Theatre & Voice Departments. The Musical Theatre department remains committed to providing a comprehensive, cutting-edge, holistic, approach to training today’s performers. Part One: New Vocal Health Lab - Musical Theatre students will have regular access to Voice Specialist, Marci Rosenberg (CCC-SLP). Musical theatre performers are at greater risk for developing voice disorders. Even a minor voice disorder can have a significant impact on the performer. The Vocal Health Lab will offer specialized care and training for the students who regularly sing using a high vocal load and become proactive at detecting emerging problems. Part Two: Alexander Technique Somatic Training - By training both faculty and students to optimize posture and alignment, the functionality of the voice will improve. Additionally, Alexander Technique has been shown to reduce stress and improve overall well-being; essential for Musical Theatre performers. Continued in Project Objectives |
| Exploring the Art of Japanese Papermaking and Water Printing in Interdisciplinary Collaborative Context with artists Hisashi Kano and Tomomi Kano Endi Poskovic Art & Design $6000.00 |
I intend to bring two distinguished master papermakers Tomomi Kano and Hisashi Kano from Japan to Stamps School and the University of Michigan as visiting artists during September and October 2019. During the period of approximately five weeks, Tomomi Kano and Hisashi Kano will be working at Stamps School printmaking and fibers studios collaboratively teaching Japanese paper making with me, and producing a large scale artwork in partnerships with UM students and faculty. Upon completion, the final artwork will be presented in art exhibitions in Ann Arbor and Japan in 2020 and onwards. Furthermore, this collaborative effort and the research conducted in the sustainable development of kozo, mitsubara, and gampi fibers for paper making and printmaking would be presented at conferences, panels, workshops and other educational forums nationally and internationally. |
| The Recording Studio is the World's Best Practice Room; creating an environment for student violinists to grow into professional musicians by learning to really listen and transform their concert sound. Danielle Belen Music, Theatre & Dance $4725.00 |
The ability to easily and regularly record oneself is an absolute necessity for a violinist, and especially for a college student at the brink of what is hopefully a lifelong career in music. An even more important skill is learning how to honestly and proactively listen to oneself. I propose to enhance my violin teaching studio with two professional quality microphones, installed semi-permanently to transform the space into an ad-hoc but quality recording studio, on-demand when needed. I dream of creating a culture of self-empowerment among our violin students at the University of Michigan, where they will learn and understand not only how to record themselves, but how to listen back in an engaged way, using this tool to push and lift their level and standard of playing. Initially, this process would take place under my guidance, already working one-on-one with them weekly as their private instructor. No words of mine would ever be more powerful than listening back together to a just-recorded phrase, positively but critically analyzing it and trying again, and again. This resource of instant-recording would be embraced and maximized in an educational way that isn’t possible under the current infrastructure of our school. Hiring a professional audio engineer is expensive, reserving a hall is limited, and both simply can’t be done often enough to realize the student’s professional potential. Recording on one’s phone is convenient but never has the same quality or gravitas as the real thing. Finally, for each student, this educational exercise could gain the momentum needed to end up with a tangible high-level recording for professional use as well. Self-promotion through one’s online presence is vital for the modern musician. I believe the impact and execution of this project is unique and I appreciate your consideration. |
| Teaching APRN Students to Auscultate and Diagnosis Common Heart Murmurs Using a Virtual Classroom Nicole Boucher Nursing $5181.55 |
The porposed project is to utilize Emurmur in the Advanced Practice Registered Nursing programs. Emurmur® has created a new approach for faculty to utilize when teaching students to auscultate and diagnose common heart murmurs. Emurmur® has two applications that can be utilized on smart phones, Ipads, or tablets. These applications are Emurmur Primer and Emurmur University. Emurmur Primer is an application for students to use individually as a learning tool. Emurmur primer is a self-study for the students to use to be prepared to participate in Emurmur university virtual classroom. The Emurmur Primer application allows students to work at their own pace moving from a novice level to expert. The second application, Emurmur University, is an interactive application designed to be utilized in nursing and medical schools to teach auscultation skills to students. Emurmur University is an interactive application that allows the faculty to create a virtual classroom. In the classroom faculty control the heart sounds and murmurs heard by the students. The virtual classrooms allows for interactive teaching and live group testing. The live group testing allows the faculty, in real-time, to refocus teaching and increase learning based on the analytics of the group. Utilizing this new approach for teaching students through the use of Emurmur Primer and University will provide all students will equal exposure, access, and practice to a number of heart murmurs. |
