Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Editing Hard Drive for Video Teaching $500.00 |
Editing is one of the most important processes in the production of any finished work. I teach Movie and Television Production, and for these media, editing is a process mediated heavily by hardware and software. In my classes I teach students how to take advantage of the software editing tools to construct and communicate the intellectual, emotional and conceptual takeaways of the work they are striving to produce. This past summer, LSA transitioned from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro as the primary editing software. Since I teach the software along with the conceptual knowledge necessary to successful editing, I need to have deep and thorough experience, and mastery, of the editing software. My Department, Screen Arts and Cultures, has purchased for me a new computer adequate to the demands of this new editing program. However, video editing requires an external hard drive to handle the massive data stream produced by the video cameras we use in my classes. Without a matched external hard drive, a computer will fight itself, simultaneously reading and writing video data, and will grind to a halt. I need an external hard drive matched to the new computer to take full advantage of my own research in learning the intricacies of the editing program. A fully compatible External Hard Drive is available (U of M Educational price) for slightly over $500. I am requesting $500 from this IDF grant and will make up the remainder from my RESIN funds to purchase this drive. |
| Enrichment through Experience: Teaching Music to Students in Under-Resourced Contexts Kate Fitzpatrick Music, Theatre & Dance $497.00 |
This grant will provide students enrolled in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance course entitled “Teaching Music to Underserved Students” with opportunities for engaged experiential learning within urban settings. This course will explore the complexities of teaching music in underserved contexts, and include topics such as the complex constructs of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culturally responsive pedagogy, and reciprocal community engagement. In addition to scholarly readings and discussions on these important topics, students will engage directly with underserved music programs and urban communities. The two major experiences that will be funded include a poverty simulation workshop and a field trip to Detroit. |
| International Economic Development Program Alan Deardorff Public Policy $500.00 |
The IEDP, which is a 2-month course plus a 1-week trip that focuses on a different country each year, will go to Greece this year. After studying Greece’s policy issues through January and February in the course, we will travel there during the Spring Break, Feb 25-Mar 5. I last taught the course myself in 2013, with focus on Cape Verde. Because the course deals with a different country each year, the course material is new each year, as are the logistical details of traveling there and arranging a week of meetings with policy contacts in government, institutions, NGOs, and the private sector. The course is costly to undertake and while it is supported substantially by the Ford School and by a small charge to the participating students, it relies heavily on students and faculty doing fundraising from outside the Ford School. My request here is for the maximum $500 that the Instructional Development Fund might provide to contribute toward that need. The course will require substantial effort on the part of both the instructor and the students to assemble the course materials and attract knowledgeable speakers to the 2-month course. However, I don’t expect that either of those components will require funding, as there is a wealth of expertise about Greece on campus. The funding will therefore go into the budget for travel to Athens, for housing expenses there, and for transportation within the city as we attend meetings in various government and other offices. |
| Tarot Symbolism, Divination, and Tarot Card reading $500.00 |
Our class, Ancient Magic and Witchcraft, covers the history of Magic in the West but focuses on the Greco-Roman legacy of magic. There are 150 students in the class. One component of the course focuses on Renaissance magic and the use of symbolism taken from Greco-Roman antiquity. We are studying the history of Tarot and the students are making their own tarot deck, based on themes relevant to 21st century students but rooted in Renaissance magic. For example, we thought of creating the "Black Lives Matter" Tarot or the "Climate Change" Tarot. After drawing, designing and printing the decks, students will learn how to do Tarot divination. We will spend a class session on the Diag (Dec. 1) offering readings to anyone and also teaching them about Tarot and about the relevance of the Tarot themes. For this purpose, we need funds to print the decks at printyourowncards.com. The cost is about $12 for each deck and we are trying to bring the costs down for the students. The money will go to printing the decks that we design and create. |
| Adding Soil Science to the Urban Planning Students’ Toolkit Larissa Larsen Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
Urban planners help shape the built environment. This means that they are frequently asked to evaluate specific sites for their development or redevelopment potential. Increasingly, urban renewal is occurring upon previously developed sites for a variety of industrial and commercial purposes. The rise of urban agriculture in cities such as Detroit requires knowledge of each site’s soil quality. This includes the chemistry and toxin level, the physical aspects of the soil profiles, and the biology of an urban site. The majority of urban planning graduate students have little to no background in the natural sciences. Therefore, they lack the technical ability to understand why soil is so critical from an environmental and public health perspective. Creating a series of applied modules could supplement the urban planning student’s course work and improve his/her ability to identify key questions that must be answered as part of a site analysis. Training more competent planners will increase the health and resilience of all members of a city. In order for urban planning students to critically assess the soil beneath their feet, we propose to blend active, place-based learning with traditional lectures. The soil component will include five twenty-minute modules that cover basic areas of soil science and how to analyze soil. These modules would combine short lectures with video clips from the field and each module would end with a list of key learning takeaways. The video portions of the modules are important so students understand how to conduct basic soil sampling, how to interpret the results, and ‘see’ different soil horizons. Peter Pellitier, a PhD student in SNRE and a teaching assistant for the Soil Ecology class will offer the technical knowledge and demonstrate the basic field skills. Larissa Larsen will ensure the content is applied in nature and relevant to both greenfield and brownfield situations. Students will collect soil samples in conjunction with the modules. |
| Name That Scenario Expansion $495.00 |
A critical skill for students in introductory statistics courses is the ability to select the appropriate statistical test for a given scenario. Historically, the Stats 250 course, like similar courses on other campuses, has assessed this skill using a standard pen-and-paper matching exercise. However, there has been little guidance for students to develop this skill set. Over the last several years, an online tool entitled “Name That Scenario” has been created to aide students in practicing this skill. As the applet requires a database of scenarios in order to generate a student question, this tool has also created opportunities for students to generate content - an important step in the learning process. This funding will be used for two related projects. The first is to employ a graduate or experienced undergraduate student to curate the content of the applet. This will include reviewing the existing scenarios for clarity and biases, providing detailed solutions to facilitate student learning from incorrect responses, and generation of new and topical content. The second project is making the applet openly available for anyone to use. The applet is currently hosted behind a login to the ECoach system. A version will remain here for use by enrolled students in Stats 250, as it can track progress and avoid repeat questions here. The new version will be formatted for easy access on mobile devices and by differently-abled users. |
| Cooking a Moderate-cost, Healthy, Culturally-appropriate meal for the families at the Ronald McDonald House Margot Finn LSA $420.00 |
What does it take to prepare a healthy, culturally-appropriate meal on a budget? In this activity, students will work in teams to create a menu, get the ingredients, and prepare dinner for the residents of the Ronald McDonald house of Ann Arbor. They will have to decide what a “culturally appropriate” meal for a group of families they know nothing about might look like and what counts as a “healthy” meal. They'll have to figure out what they have the knowledge and skill to cook competently. They may have to choose between convenience and cost when it comes to ready-prepared ingredients. And they'll have to work together to execute their meal plan. This activity will enrich our discussions about kitchen labor and give students a greater sense of the complexity involved in creating policies that attempt to get Americans to cook more or assume that doing so will make them healthier or improve their lives. |
| Bedside Ultrasound for the Pediatric Intensivist Kevin Kuo Medical School $405.00 |
Bedside ultrasound improves diagnostic ability and leads to changes in patient management. Adult emergency and critical care physicians have recognized the utility of bedside ultrasound and issued guidelines regarding bedside ultrasound training and utilization. Despite recognizing its utility, formal bedside ultrasound training is limited for pediatric intensive care physicians. The pediatric critical care fellowship is designing and implementing a curriculum in bedside ultrasound for its fellows. Our program consists of an introductory course followed by actual bedside ultrasound during routine practice. The introductory course includes both didactic and hands-on training sessions covering US basics, “knobology,” and focused clinical applications. After completing this course, fellows would perform bedside ultrasound during routine clinical practice and securely save the images and their interpretations for the purposes of quality assurance, expert review, feedback, teaching, and ultimately, institutional credentialing. Periodic guided training sessions led by interdisciplinary faculty trained in bedside ultrasound would provide opportunities to develop expertise using the principles of deliberate practice. A program of learner assessment includes pre/post-tests, hands on testing stations, image and interpretation review, and learner assessment during follow-up training sessions. We will assess fellow progress in performing bedside ultrasound (number of studies performed), the quality of their images and interpretations (via evaluation template), and the number of studies that changed patient management and/or outcomes (retrospective review). |
| "Agents of Change" Screening and Panel Discussion $400.00 |
This project involves a campus screening and panel discussion of _Agents of Change_, a new documentary that focuses on late 1960s campus activism around the formation of black and ethnic studies programs. _Agents of Change_ includes brief coverage of the Black Action Movement at the University of Michigan, and it draws explicit connections with contemporary activism related to race on college campuses. The panel discussion of the film will include students, staff, faculty, Co-Producer and Co-Director Abby Ginzberg, and a Detroit attorney who was a student activist at Cornell during the period featured in the film. The goals for the project are to: 1) deepen students’ knowledge of the history of campus-led efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; 2) enable students to make informed connections between earlier historical periods and current efforts to seek diversity, equity, and inclusion on college campuses; 3) create a space for dialogue about such issues among viewers from the university, the broader community, various disciplines, and different generations; 4) make the film part of the Askwith Media Center’s permanent collection; and 5) offer students enrolled in AAS 268 (“Community Collaborations: Race, Social Justice, and Engaged Learning”) an opportunity to organize a course-related campus event and to create an artistic response to the event that will be exhibited in GalleryDAAS during Winter term. The project is supported by the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, the Institute for the Humanities, the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Department of English. |
| Exhibition Design field trip to Washington, DC Hannah Smotrich Art & Design Katie Rubin Art & Design $500.00 |
ARTDES 400.003, Exhibition Design, is a new, collaborative, 2D+3D interdisciplinary design studio course. Co-taught by Katie Rubin and Hannah Smotrich and partnering with Maria Cotera, students will create a flexible, traveling exhibit on the work and life experiences of Chicana activist and photographer Nancy de los Santos. The exhibit will be shown first at the Reuther Library at Wayne State. As a key component of the students’ research phase for the project, we will bring them to Washington, DC in mid-September. There, instead of hearing lectures or reading books, students will have the opportunity to be exposed first-hand to a broad range of approaches to exhibition design in a short period of time (and geographic space). Since both instructors have prior design experience and contacts in DC, students will also have the chance to meet and talk with exhibition designers at the Smithsonian and design firms, adding “behind-the-scenes” insight. Before, during and after these experiences, students will be learning how to observe, document and share what they gather from site visits, analysis, conversations and reflection. This material and the inquiry it engenders will form the foundation for all that follows in this studio. Many of our students have not had the opportunity to mine the riches of the Smithsonian museums or had the chance to meet designers in those contexts. |
| Digital Re-skilling for Design & Production Christianne Myers Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
As I have continued to work as a professional costume designer, I have observed how quickly digital design practices have become the norm in all areas of theatre design. Costume renderings are now easily developed, shared, refined, and completed digitally. I propose to purchase an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil and during this current school year “take” my own Design Rendering course concurrently with this next cohort. The difference is that I will tackle each assignment digitally, outside of the classroom, and learn what is possible and how future iterations of the syllabus will need to change as more technology is integrated. The tools and technologies available now offer a high degree of detail, are artistically gratifying to use, and are more affordable. I am impressed with the flexible and comprehensive tool selection, as well as the ability to export in a variety of file formats. My first task would be to start sketching, as I did more than 35 years ago when I began people watching and drawing from life. Just as I teach, I will start in black and white, working linearly before advancing to shading, then full color. I plan to maintain a blog, tracking my progress as I discover what is possible in this medium. |
| Large Course Evaluation and Practicum for Future Faculty Christi-Anne Castro Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
This project will evaluate new and extensive Canvas resources to be initiated in a large, core lecture course required for undergraduate SMTD music students and optional for LSA music majors/minors (Musicology 139, Fall 16). The modules of the Canvas site and the evaluation garnered from student activity and feedback will then be presented to future musicology faculty as part of the Winter 17 course on world/global music pedagogy. These doctoral students will be required to not only discuss the materials and the findings, but also to think about incorporating similar exercises and technology into the syllabi for world music courses they must create as part of their final projects. |
| Creativity and Cognition Marianetta Porter Art & Design Elizabeth Hay Art & Design $500.00 |
IDF Project Summary Title: Creativity and Cognition The Creativity and Cognition proposal seeks support in the amount of $500 for the engagement of Robert Root-Bernstein, Professor of Physiology and noted expert in the field of creativity and cognition, to visit the Stamps Senior Integrative Projects Studio on Thurs., October 6, 2016. His highly-regarded book, Sparks of Genius: 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, examines the common “thinking tools” of creative geniuses across a range of disciplines revealing the links between internal imagination and external experience. The 13 “thinking tools” he outlines—observing, imaging, abstracting, recognizing patterns, forming patterns, analogizing, body thinking, empathizing, dimensional thinking, modeling, playing, transforming, and synthesizing—form the bedrock of the Integrative Projects Studio experience. Dr. Root-Bernstein’s insights about the roles these cognitive processes play in the creative enterprise will expose students to a varied range of mental and physical tools for their use in envisioning imaginative approaches and innovative solutions in their art and design practices. |
| IllumiNation: New American Works Recording Project: Recording Project featuring SMTD students and soloist Nancy Ambrose King Nancy King Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
I propose a recording project that will result in a recording of four (4) new works for oboe and orchestra or chamber ensemble, written by American composers, each of which represents a similar style of descriptive, picturesque, illuminating and extremely accessible music with a popular flair. Oboe performance majors at SMTD, of which there are 18 will actively participate in the preparation and recording process, by studying the scores to these new works, learning the techniques involved in performing the music, and being present at the recording sessions. The students will learn how to make a professional CD recording, and will be present at the sessions to observe and learn. The orchestra will consists of UM-SMTD graduate students and alumni, adding another dimension to the project as they interact with both their peers and professors. |
| Transdisiplinary focus- Research opportunities in Dance and Science Amy Chavasse Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
One-week residency by Beth Graczyk for teaching, talks, performances, symposia and conversations interrogating the creative process in art and science through a feminist lens, shaped by inter and trans-disciplinary experiences. Many of our Dance BFA students are dual majors, and the sciences are one area that many dance students choose to work in alongside their performing and technical training in dance. With this proposal, I will seek ways to illuminate the benefits of cross-pollination – how research methods and inquiry into the creative process in various disciplines apply widely and vibrantly. In making professional and pedagogical connections to Graczyk and her work, I’ll also benefit from locating language and methods to spark curiosity in my students. I’ll be able to offer pragmatic advice and perspectives on how inter and trans-disciplinary research and professions proliferate in 21st century callings. My network of connections outside the U-M community, formed through years of teaching, performing and working as a guest artist internationally, grows and accrues back to my work in the classroom through initiatives like this. Additionally, it is important to address the gender inequities that many of our students will face in both the professional dance world and in the sciences. |
| Development of an online novel for Japanese language learners at the novice level Yuta Mori LSA $500.00 |
Reading is one of the four main skills that is necessary to be continually developed when learning and using a language for effective communication, but reading skills tend to be less focused on than the other three skills at the novice level because of the difficulty to create texts on various topics due to the students’ limited vocabulary and grammar expressions. This project’s goal is to develop a visual novel that students (even at the novice level) can use to read Japanese for fun, practice grammar expressions, and learn Japanese culture at the same time. Visual novels are text heavy, but they usually have music and stills of characters to help you get absorbed into the story. The title of the novel is “Hello, Japan” from which students can read one chapter after they complete each lesson. The main character is a UM student who is now studying abroad in Tokyo. Along with reading, students are asked to answer multiple choice and typing questions for vocabulary and grammar review. Various cultural content such as how the college social life works in Japan and realistic situations that students studying abroad in Japan would encounter are incorporated into the novel at length, and I am confident that this novel will become a very useful material, mainly for reading practice and cultural understanding. |
| Participation in a professional conference on Latin pedagogy Donka Markus LSA $450.00 |
Travel to the 2017 annual convention of the American Classical League (ACL) in Grand Rapids, Michigan June 28-July 1. I will give a paper at a panel that I have organized and preside over two other panels. Keeping abreast of the most recent developments in Latin pedagogy is essential for me, so that my students can benefit from the best practices that exist. Thus, my participation in this professional conference directly impacts every aspect of my teaching and of my students’ learning. |
| Community Based Learning Project on Past and Present Social Movements $500.00 |
I seek funding to support honoraria for social movement activists in southeast Michigan and beyond for my fall 2017 course entitled AAS 262/HST 272: “Modern Civil Rights Era.” This course probes the question: how have activists working for racial justice organized their efforts in the past and present? Through coursework and collaboration with activists from the local area and beyond, students to deepen their understanding of racial justice social movements from World War II towards the present day. In this course, students chart the organizations that have worked for racial equality since World War II and the diverse strategies they employed for change, from litigation and legislation to mass protest, economic self-help and racial separatism. Working in small groups, they will be paired with an activist currently working for racial justice. Over a series of two (1- 1.5 hour) conversational interviews with the activist, students will learn about the challenges and possibilities of activism work, the range of strategies adopted by activists today, and the personal, professional and political journeys that bring activists to their work. Students will then work to produce an end product (issue portfolio, a teach-in, curriculum-design project, or alternative depending on needs of activist) that will support the work of the activist partner. This is an adaptation of an existing successful course (same title). I have redesigned this course to take a community-based learning approach that values community partners as contributors and collaborators, and prioritizes student learning about the past and present through practical engagement with contemporary political issues, movements, and activists. Students are understood as active learners, who bring their own activist experiences and interests to bear on the course material. Through a series of exercises and a final project, students are invited to draw on oral historical accounts, and documentary, archival materials to think about contemporary social movements and issues. The objectives for this course are: 1) Expand students’ knowledge of the history of racial justice movements in the US from World War II towards present times, 2) Draw connections between earlier historical moments and contemporary movements to promote racial equality, 3) Facilitate collaboration and dialogue between students and activists about social movements and strategies for change, 4) Develop and produce an end product (issue portfolio, teach-in, etc) that benefits activist partners and students. This course is supported by the Center for Engaged Academic Learning (CEAL) and the Department of History. |
| Logistics Support for Astro 461, "Ground-Based Observatories" Sally Oey LSA $200.00 |
Astronomy 461, “Ground-Based Observatories” is an immersion course for Astronomy majors and minors that takes place in residence at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Arizona for 4 weeks during the Spring term. It is a 3-credit course that fulfils the elective requirement for majors in both Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Interdisciplinary Astronomy, as well as both corresponding minors. Students carry out science projects with the UM telescopes and see first-hand a variety of scientific instruments and facilities. We also consider the sociopolitical landscape and meet with stakeholders of public research facilities. |
| Assessment of faculty inter-rater agreement for grading in the pre-clinical restorative dentistry simulation course- A pilot study Elizabeth Van Tubergen Dentistry Elisabeta Karl Dentistry Kyriaki Marti Dentistry $497.00 |
Faculty calibration in a dental pre-clinical simulation laboratory is a challenge in academic dentistry and is the number one concern for the first year dental student at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. Our goal is to pilot a study to evaluate inter-rater agreement on class 3 preparations and restorations in the first year clinical foundations course. In order to facilitate this pilot study, we are requesting funds for Drs. Van Tubergen, Karl and Marti to attend an online Faculty Training entitled: "Faculty Calibration: The Next Step”. The course is sponsored by the American Academy for Leadership. This training will allow us to learn the important aspects of planning and implementing a calibration study in our preclinical dental course. Funds will also be used to develop a small pilot study on calibration after the training course. The study will allow us to determine if there are gaps in faculty members inter-rater agreement on grading of students preparations and restorations in the pre-clinical simulation laboratory in order to improve student learning. |
| Video assisted instruction and demonstration of labial salivary gland biopsy Robert Ike Medical School $500.00 |
Labial salivary gland biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure performed at the bedside or clinic to obtain tissue that might support one of several diagnoses, mainly Sjogren's syndrome. Teaching trainees and other interested doctors to do the procedure, and showing students and patients what is involved with the procedure would be enhanced by having a video record of a representative procedure to show such individuals. |
