Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| A Service Learning-Based English Language Course for International Graduate Students at the University of Michigan Deborah Des Jardins LSA - English Language Institute $4884.00 |
Many international graduate students at the University of Michigan struggle to gain the necessary language skills to succeed academically and participate fully in the life of the university and the local community. Many report feelings of social isolation and a lack of knowledge about US and local institutions and culture. Even many of those whose language skills are sufficient to succeed in their academic work are uncomfortable in informal social interactions and thus face difficulties forming personal social networks with English speakers. This lack of social connections, in turn, deprives them of opportunities to practice and improve their English skills. We therefore propose to develop an ELI community-based service learning language course for international graduate students at the University of Michigan. Such a community-service based language course for international graduate students would be truly groundbreaking. Although numerous experiential and service-learning courses exist at U-M, our proposed course would chart new territory by focusing on language enhancement, intercultural exchange, and cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward community service and volunteerism. It would also connect international graduate students to local residents from a range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. This intensely engaged learning experience could nurture a sense of community among participants from different fields. The service they perform would directly benefit individuals in the local community and offer intercultural experiences to local residents as well. This is in keeping with the University's stated goal of supporting and enriching the local community and connecting our neighbors with life on campus. |
| Connecting the Pieces: Enhancing Student Learning in Structural Design Courses McCormick Jason Engineering Sherif El-Tawil Engineering $6000.00 |
The goal of this project is to enhance student learning in structural design courses by providing students a more complete picture of the design process and connecting what is traditionally taught in these courses with how structures behave and how they are designed in practice. Traditionally, structural design courses are taught by systematically proceeding through the analysis and design of different types of members based on their loading. However, such an approach does not meet the needs of all students, particularly those that learn best with a clear picture of the overall problem and how the different pieces of that problem come together. In order to achieve this goal, a complete revision of the laboratory component of the CEE 413 "Design of Metal Structures" class will be undertaken. The laboratory session will be converted into an active learning environment that will provide an opportunity to better visualize individual member and connection behavior through physical and virtual reality based demonstrations along with providing the ability to apply design concepts to the ongoing design of a case study building. By using a case study building as the backbone for studying member and connection design concepts and creating a more active learning environment similar to a flipped classroom, students will not only better understand how the design of each component of a structure fits within the overall design, but also achieve it in a more hands-on manner. |
| Development of Course Content Connectivity Resources for the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum Okwudire Chinedum Engineering $5947.00 |
Current engineering instruction is often compartmentalized within courses such that knowledge is disconnected and well-defined relationships are not adequately established across a curriculum. A compartmentalized curriculum does not encourage synergistic thinking and is fundamentally at odds with the interconnected nature of the knowledge needed by the Engineer of the Future. The objective of this project is to develop so-called 'Course Content Connectivity' (or 3C) resources for the mechanical engineering undergraduate program at the University of Michigan. 3C resources will provide an easy way for faculty to see the connections among the various courses in their undergraduate curriculum and supply a repertoire of tools (e.g., worked examples, problem sets, and project materials) that they can use to teach related concepts in a way that better allows students to see those connections. The effectiveness of the developed 3C resources will be evaluated using concept inventories and student-generated concept maps. If successful, this effort can be a model for not only other departments in the College of Engineering here at U-M, but also for those in other academic units or universities that suffer from constraints to implement fully-integrated curricula. |
| Ecology & Religion: Sustaining Visions for Earth's Future Rolf Bouma LSA $6000.00 |
Developing a 300/400-level Program in the Environment course in Ecology and Religion that a) explores world religious traditions for principles, teachings, practices and worldviews connecting humans to the natural world; b) exposes students to the teachings and practices of a variety of contemporary religious communities and individuals on environmental issues; and c) identifies in religious visions the ambiguous potential – a rigorous assessment of prospective goods and ills – for moving to a sustainable ecological future. Continued in project objectives |
| Using TeachLivE™ to Prepare Teaching Interns for the Social and Emotional Dimension of Practice Shari Saunders Education $10000.00 |
During the 2013-2014 academic year, secondary teacher education faculty in the School of Education updated our program outcomes, competencies, and the related rubric that is used by field instructors and mentor teachers to evaluate interns' performance in the field. In both of our secondary teacher education programs these guiding curricular documents now include noncognitive factors (i.e., academic behaviors, academic perseverance, academic mindsets, learning strategies, and social skills) and social-emotional learning competencies (i.e., self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making). Because these factors and competencies are relatively new to our interns, we would like them to have opportunities to practice using their emerging knowledge of these factors and competencies without adversely affecting the learning of real secondary students. We propose to do this by using TeachLivE™, a virtual classroom setting with avatars as students. TeachLivE™ is unique because it uses a human-in-the-loop paradigm that allows for a simulation that presents the complexities of dealing with real students. We seek funding to pilot TeachLivE™ in the Secondary MAC program which would involve a) developing four modules for use with the TeachLivE™ simulation, b) providing interns with small group and individual opportunities to engage with avatars through the simulation, and c) appraising the value added by having interns practice with the TeachLivE™ avatars. We are also seeking funding to demo TeachLivE™ with faculty and instructors not participating in the pilot to determine how to expand the use of TeachLivE™ to our other teacher education programs. |
| Skills for Patient- and Family-Centered Care with Diverse Populations: A Flipped Course Supporting Service-Learning Adrienne Lapidos Social Work $9972.00 |
Background:This project simultaneously addresses two curricular needs in the UM Dental Hygiene Program: (1) linking academic content on cultural competence to clinical experiences;(2) creating a formal mechanism to "debrief" clinical experiences that take place in diverse underserved communities. Project Goals: Faculty at the School of Dentistry and the School of Social Work will collaborate to develop a Dental Hygiene course on Patient- and Family-Centered Care with Diverse Populations. The course bridges academic knowledge into the clinic by reinforcing evidence-based communication skills and monitoring their application in community placements. It also bridges clinical experiences into the classroom by fostering mindful self-reflection on how one's own background and perspective affect interactions with culturally diverse patients. Project Design: A "flipped" classroom design frees class-time for applying academic knowledge to real world situations and processing complex service-learning experiences in a safe space. National experts will be recruited to record lectures on topics such as health disparities and access to care. The course benefits from cross-pollination of Dental Hygiene and Social Work sensibilities. Scope: In year one, this project will impact senior Dental Hygiene students (26) and the patients they serve. The course will be evaluated and improved, and thereafter offered annually. Evaluation: A pre-course survey will provide baseline data. In addition to completing post-course surveys, students will meet with an outside consultant in focus groups to assess how the course affected their clinical work and professional development. Students will receive a post-graduation survey to determine the extent to which learning is sustained in practice. |
| Blended Learning across Design-related Disciplines Bruce Tharp Art & Design $6000.00 |
How might we more consistently and effectively communicate about design to graduate and undergraduate students from various disciplines in different learning environments, such as 1) interdisciplinary seminars, 2) disciplinary studios 3) interdisciplinary team-based studios, and 4) interdisciplinary para-curricular projects? The goal of the proposed project is to create a series of informational videos that communicate consistent content about design to various audiences as part of a "blended" pedagogical approach. The video series is comprised of 6, 10-minute videos that address the breadth of design's capacity using a four-field framework: Commercial Design, Responsible Design, Experimental Design, and Discursive Design. A primary means of assessment will be a web-based student evaluation form that will address student comprehension of content, preferences regarding various modes of content delivery, and effectiveness of the blended context. In-depth, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 5-10 students each from the ArtDes 150, ArtDes 510, ArtDes 417, and DHT to understand the form and content issues more deeply. Further interviews will be conducted with course professors to understand the effectiveness on student learning, which will also serve comparative data points to student perspectives. |
| Innovations in Inclusive Teaching: Development of Dynamic Pedagogical Tools and Faculty Communities of Practice Naomi Silver LSA $10000.00 |
Title: Innovations in Inclusive Teaching: Development of Dynamic Pedagogical Tools and Faculty Communities of Practice Overview Recent student activism at Michigan and nationally has been a catalyst for renewed faculty engagement about diversity and inclusion in our classrooms and in related faculty interactions with students. In response to that activism and building on efforts within the College of LSA to address climate concerns, we seek to provide innovative teaching methods and tools that foster success for students through inclusive teaching practices. We will create a robust set of teaching resources to share widely with faculty and develop a cadre of faculty "experts" who will act as informal consultants to other faculty seeking assistance in using these materials and in strengthening their own inclusive teaching practices. |
| Bringing Astronomy Down to Earth: Transforming Introductory Astronomy Through Live Table-top Demonstrations $10000.00 |
We propose to transform the learning experiences of undergraduates in very large introductory astronomy courses by developing a large suite of table-top demonstrations specifically related to astronomy. The University of Michigan Physics Demo Lab provides outstanding support for teaching undergraduate physics and astronomy courses. The vast majority of existing demonstrations offered by the Physics Demo Lab are specifically geared toward explaining physics phenomena, but only a small subset of them are explicitly related to astronomy. Therefore, there is significant untapped potential for designing astronomy-specific demonstrations, which we intend to realize as part of this proposal. Students have already responded in an overwhelmingly positive manner to the limited number of demonstrations that are currently part of my introductory astronomy courses. These demonstrations are an effective teaching tool largely because they encourage the students to recognize, label, and discover the knowledge that they already have about the physics underlying astronomical phenomena. This implicit knowledge is acquired through everyday experiences but it is the live demonstrations that allow for this knowledge to become explicitly connected to astronomy. This approach makes the class material accessible to those students who may be less comfortable with more formal, traditional academic styles of instruction, and makes the teaching more inclusive and understandable to non-experts. This is a collaborative project between the Departments of Astronomy and Physics. The new suite of astronomy demonstrations will be documented on the Physics Demo Lab website. Consequently, new demonstrations will be easily "recyclable," which will ensure the lasting impact of this initiative. |
| The Statistical Education of Future Teachers at the University of Michigan Nina White LSA $10000.00 |
“The Statistical Education of Future Teachers at the University of Michigan” is a collaboration between the Departments of Statistics and Mathematics to design materials for a new course aimed at the statistical education of future teachers. Such a course is currently lacking in our mathematics teacher preparation program and is much needed as the emphasis on statistics in the grades 6-12 curriculum grows. The course will be a special, double-length lab section attached to the standard introductory course STATS 250. It will extend the conceptual discussion of topics in STATS 250 and build bridges to related topics in the grades 6-12 curriculum. Labs will also focus on growing future teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of statistics---for example, knowledge and understanding of common student misconceptions. Neither department would be able to tackle this project alone. Statistics contributes their deep disciplinary knowledge and Mathematics contributes their experience teaching “content courses” to future teachers---courses distinct from both teaching methods courses taught in the School of Education and mainstream math courses for engineers and mathematics majors. Ideas and techniques from inquiry-based learning (IBL) will permeate the course design. This teaching method has a long successful history in the Mathematics Department and has been shown in national studies to narrow the achievement gap in college math courses between traditionally high-achieving and traditionally low-achieving groups of students. |
| Engaging Psychology Students through The Case Method Approach $6000.00 |
Students are engaged by opportunities to act, and interact, in class, a challenging goal for the large (n=450) Introduction to Psychology courses at Michigan. One successful model for “4C” instruction (Critical thinking (problem solving), Communication, Collaboration and Creativity/innovation) is the Case Study Method. Predominant in law and business school instruction, the case method organizes the class session around a real case study with characters, dialogue, and a relatable scenario. A dilemma is presented requiring decisions to be made by the characters (students). Students are assigned roles, and go on to accomplish specific open-ended tasks through interaction. Studies show that students’ attitudes, attendance and essay exam performanced improve under this pedagogy. The proposed project aims to produce and test case exercises that capture key elements in the Psychology curriculum and actively engage students through interaction. The project plan involves initial training in case method teaching, development of a set of psychology cases, pilot testing and revision, and a trial run in a large lecture Introduction to Psychology course including assessments by GSIs and students. The results will inform us about the feasbility of student interactions in a large lecture setting, determine whether this method can be rolled out in other instructors’ introductory psychology courses, and perhaps serve as a model for other programs. This project will contribute substantially to the teaching and learning environment in the large-scale Introduction to Psychology courses (with over 2700 students enrolled each year), and will dramatically change the learning experience for our students. |
| Expanding the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program Curriculum Paul Barron LSA Carol Tell LSA $10000.00 |
The mission of the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program (LHSP) is to provide an inclusive and creative living-learning community for students interested in writing and the arts. Through our curriculum, programs, student leadership, faculty involvement, and cultural events, we hope to cultivate students’ critical reading, writing, arts, and thinking skills, and promote the link between creativity and academic excellence. LHSP courses form a core component of this mission. In course evaluations and in the annual Michigan Learning Communities (MLC) survey (with LHSP specific questions), students consistently report the value of small classes focusing on writing and the arts within the community with instructors who are accessible beyond the bounds of the classroom. Whitaker grant funded research on the MLCs, which LHSP is part of, has consistently shown that disadvantaged underrepresented minority students, first generation, and Comprehensive Studies Program students receive greater benefit from learning community involvement than other student populations in the programs (also when compared to control groups). Benefits include academic performance, self reported measures of connecting with faculty, and awareness of campus opportunities and resources. We are requesting $10,000 to pay summer stipends to four faculty working group members to structure innovations to expand the curriculum, specifically to: 1) create a course centered in Ypsilanti around place-based learning and community engagement in the arts and writing; 2) to devise a Race & Ethnicity Requirement course that first-year LHSP students would take; 3) Revise LHSP 228 to reflect a multitude of voices across race, class, gender, and culture, when investigating the course’s question What is Writing? 4) create tools and schedule forums to assess the proposed changes. |
| Strengthening Education for Justice and Diversity Beth Reed Social Work Jorge Delva Social Work $10000.00 |
In fall, 2015, the School of Social Work (SSW) implemented a required first term course in the Masters of Social Work (MSW) program (N-360 students/year) focused specifically on Justice and Diversity. Goals for this project are to: a) examine systematically how the course’s 15 sections were implemented, with what impacts, and b) use this knowledge and additional resource development to • Inform future implementations of this course, • Contribute to knowledge development about education for social justice, and • Develop methodologies for curricular assessment. Specific components: 1) identify key elements within each section, with systematic analysis of syllabi and course descriptions, and interviews with instructors, emphasizing similarities and differences; 2) develop and implement procedures for assessing student skills and knowledge related to justice and diversity; 3) determine whether different course elements are related to particular clusters of student knowledge and skills; 4) use this research to inform resource development and preparation of instructors for for fall, 2016; and 5) put in place on-going process and formative evaluation measures for future iterations of this course. What we learn will be helpful for faculty and curricular development as well as for the effectiveness of this particular course. The leadership team is comprised of all ranks and types of faculty, the Associate Dean for Educational Programs (ADEP) and the Chairs the Multicultural and Gender Affairs (MGA) Committee, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee (creating the SSW component of the President’s DEI strategic planning, working closely with the Curriculum Committee and student groups. |
| School of Public Health Community of Learning for Undergraduate Education Gary Harper Public Health Jane Banaszak-Holl Public Health Dina Kurz Engineering Jillian McConville Public Health $10000.00 |
The addition of a formalized undergraduate degree program to the University of Michigan, School of Public Health (SPH) will engender a pedagogical culture shift in order to fulfill the mission of Undergraduate Education at SPH. The School of Public Health Community of Learning project will create a community of faculty members who will engage in a range of activities focused on innovations in undergraduate teaching methods and innovations in the undergraduate curriculum. The proposed project is based on the concept of Communities of Practice (CoP). The three core CoP elements are as follows: a) domain (topic which creates common ground for knowledge and guides learning—identity and focus), b) community (membership, relationships, and interactions—sharing ideas and asking questions), and c) practice (methods, knowledge, and expertise developed—frameworks, ideas, and tools are shared). Based on the CoP core elements, we will be enacting 5 different CoP-related activities with varying degrees of frequency in order to build a stronger Community of Learning related to undergraduate education. These activities include: 1) interactive web-based resources, 2) formal skills-building workshops, 3) informal interactive discussions, 4) mentoring, and 5) individual consultations. Project activities will occur between April 2016 and April 2018, and focus on improving expertise in two general areas: a) teaching methods related to undergraduate education, and b) curriculum development related to undergraduate education. The expected outcomes from this CoP project will be assessed through a range of assessment strategies including course evaluations, pre/post-surveys, syllabus reviews, and counts of web-related activities. |
| The Hidden Curriculum⎯Experiential Learning in Socially and Economically Contrasting Health Care Settings and Influence on Residency Competency Development in Delivering Care to Diverse Populations Adrianne Haggins Medical School Laura Hopson Medical School Michael Clery Medical School $2600.00 |
Emergency medicine (EM) physicians are clinically trained to encounter and provide care for a myriad of acute and life-threatening medical conditions for anyone that seeks care for conditions believed by the patient to be a medical emergency. The mandate to care for this broad swath of the population is irrespective of insurance status, immigration, English proficiency, or race/ethnicity. The inability to be sensitive to the needs of diverse populations has been attributed to adverse effects on patient adherence and health outcomes. Cultural competency curriculum may enhance a physician’s ability to effectively engage with diverse populations. However, little practical guidance has emerged to provide post-graduate educators with a framework to instruct resident education. Given the limited dedicated health disparities or cultural competency curriculum in residency training, it is imperative to explore whether resident experiences in contrasting social and economic (minority, low-resource vs. non-minority, higher resource) clinical settings, and serving diverse patient populations, affects communication and professional values competency development. We will examine resident trainee attitudes related to their exposure to diverse socio-cultural clinical settings and their patient-provider interactions, as well as how these experiences influence their understanding of health disparities and ability to provide care to diverse patient populations. We anticipate that this project will inform formal and informal strategies to develop cultural competency curricula for our residents. These results will also be used to design a survey instrument to gauge the impact of adapted educational curriculum on resident competency development. |
| Improving Communication among the Healthcare Team through an Interprofessional Education Virtual Training Dana Tschannen Nursing $6000.00 |
This project proposes an innovative approach to engaging members of the healthcare team in a virtual interprofessional (IPE) activity centered on Crew Resource Management principles of effective leadership and followership. Crew Resource Management (CRM), a training method which focuses on the management of human error and risk reduction in the environment, is one training method that has been instrumental in supporting aviation’s excellent safety record and has unique characteristics that have shown promise in reducing communication failure in healthcare. Integrating CRM principles into interprofessional training may be what is needed to improve communication and teamwork among the healthcare team. In this project, students in each of the healthcare disciplines (e.g. nursing, medicine, pharmacy, public health, and dentistry) will be asked to participate in a virtual IPE CRM activity. Participants will receive content related to the CRM leadership behavior segment through a self-learning module, which will be followed by participation in virtual simulations in Second Life. Second Life supports a high degree of interactivity, including role-plays and simulations, thus providing a rich environment for multi-disciplinary team training. Specific aims of the project include: (1) examine the feasibility and acceptability of virtual interprofessional education focused on the Crew Resource Management principles of effective leadership and followership; and (2) examine the levels of facilitators’ skills, knowledge, and use of effective communication/team strategies among clinicians after SL training. Results from this study will inform the feasibility and acceptability of using a virtual environment for an IPE intervention that includes skill-based learning. |
