Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Online Resources for Piano Literature Matthew Bengtson Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
I plan to create and curate an online collection of educational materials on piano literature. Video presentations, interviews and performances will be taken at the Duderstadt Digital Media Center (DMC) and hosted on the UM SMTD webspace. They will offer a modern, reliable source of information on the piano repertoire, and will be easily accessible and flexible in their use, in accordance with modern interactive learning styles. By focusing on the special interests of our Piano faculty and in collaborating with the Dance department, these presentations will highlight the integration of academic and performance aspects of art we strive to achieve here at Michigan. These materials will increase the School's international reputation as a locus for research on the piano and its culture. The first set of presentations, on Bartok, Szymanowski, and Chopin's mazurkas, will highlight relationships between art music, folk music, and dance. Our ongoing project on the mazurka genre will be the first of its kind, and will become an important resource for an important 19th century genre that is widely known but little understood. These materials will be of interest to all pianists and pedagogues, and will be highly useful for private piano instruction, and for piano literature, musicology, dance, and Slavic studies courses, among others. |
| Data Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History $500.00 |
In order to provide students with the opportunity to collect, analyze and publish robust comparative data sets, students will participate in a “field trip” over spring break (Feb. 27-March 3, 2017) to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where they will collect osteometric data from a large sample (1200 individuals) of primate skeletons. Using linear measurements taken with digital calipers, students will be able to collect data at sufficiently large sample sizes to test functional hypotheses that attempt to explain why humans, apes and monkeys evolved distinctive locomotor and dietary adaptations. Through this field trip, students will have the opportunity to 1) work together to generate and analyze primary data and 2) contribute to a collaborative manuscript. |
| Short Resource Guide for Audiovisual Essays $500.00 |
Compilation of a short resource guide that will introduce students to the concept of an audiovisual essay while outlining several different possible models (along with corresponding examples of each) they might choose to employ in creating audiovisual essays. While designed for use in SAC 236 (which currently asks students create a short audiovisual essay that makes an original argument about one of the films screened for the course, using audiovisual evidence to support their arguments), I anticipate that this resource guide might prove useful to students in other SAC courses as well as to students in related disciplines. We plan to place it online once it has been completed. |
| Developing a workplace writing sample repository for teaching epidemiology students Ella August Public Health $500.00 |
The purpose of this study is to collect and describe the types of writing that professionals with epidemiology degrees use in their workplace. The types of writing that are enacted in a discipline can be a window into the activities, roles, values and context of that discipline. For example, in the field of law, a written legal judicial opinion offers information about the content-- the legal decision made-- but it also provides insight into the role of a judge in wielding this opinion, and the way in which the opinion can be used. A judicial opinion allows us to better understand the legal system’s values about fairness, and provides a sense of how legal professionals communicate, as well as their notion of what counts as legitimate evidence for a particular argument. It also gives us insight into broader systems and processes in that discipline, as well as the context of the writing of and implementing this opinion. Types of disciplinary writing in medicine, law, business, the life sciences, economics, physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering and many other disciplines have been described and analyzed for their connection to a given disciplinary workplace but also to allow their use pedagogically in helping students to gain a deeper understanding of their field of study. continued in project objectives... |
| Using Lego Mindstorms EV3 in ENG 100 Amy Hortop Engineering - Integrative Systems & Design $445.00 |
Many students enter the CoE with previous engineering experience from Project Lead the Way courses or FIRST Robotics experience in high school. In my ENG 100 section of almost 60 students, about a third of those enrolled have had these experiences. I aim to find a way to keep these students engaged and challenged during our design-build-test class project, while not discouraging those with less experience or exposure to engineering. To help blend teams with students having a lot of experience and those very curious, but with minimal engineering experience, I would like to try having a team work with a Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit as part of their design-build-test experience this semester. Projects around the Lego platform might appeal to a mix of engineering disciplines. Those considering Mechanical Engineering may enjoy building physical prototypes quickly, while the large number of students looking to pursue programs in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering could have a chance to easily code and quickly see results. Kits, such as the Lego Mindstorms EV3 afford an opportunity to build first with instructions, where the entire team is at the same level and there is little to no risk of “failure”. continued in Project Objectives |
| Teaching Institute to improve the teaching of Human Development $500.00 |
The proposal is to improve the instructional approach for the Human Development (Psych 250) course that I teach on a yearly basis. This is a large course, enrolling 300 students that include weekly lectures (3 hours) and discussion sections (1 hour) led by four graduate student assistants. In this proposal, I ask for funds to attend a one-day Teaching Institute for instructors in Human Development to be held on April 5, 2017. The Teaching institute is offered bi-annually by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) and is specifically geared to support the teaching in the field of child development, a core component of the Human Development Psych 250 course. The direct outcome of my attending the learning workshop will be improved pedagogical approach for my teaching of the science of child development as pertaining specifically to the Human Development Psych 250 course as well as all aspects of my formal and informal teaching in the field of child development. |
| Filming the Future of Detroit (Markus Schmidt visit) $500.00 |
I am applying for CRLT funds to have Markus Schmidt, an award winning Berlin-based film director and film editor, come to my course to help my students learn the dynamics of dramaturgy and film editing in preparation for the production of their final film projects for the cultural anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies course, "Filming the Future of Detroit." In short, the course as a whole is an opportunity for students with no prior experience with filmmaking to learn to use film to engage Detroit and its future from personal, political, and historical perspectives. Over one semester, we simultaneously think, learn, and imagine Detroit through music, dance, anthropology, art, theater, architecture, literature, history, night life, day life, school life, social life, and life after school. The project is based on a model of community engagement that is the result of my ongoing research in Berlin on youth movements, migrant and post-migrant politics, and social change. Participants learn how to use the camera, how to edit, how to plan a shoot, and how to publicize. On December 16 and 17, we will screen the films in Detroit and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. |
| Incorporating CRISPR-Cas9 Technology Into MCDB 429 $500.00 |
The long-term project goal is to bring an advanced, cutting edge research laboratory method into MCDB 429, the Cell and Molecular Biology Lab I have taught since 2002. It contains advanced methods, but a few can be replaced with others that will more adequately prepare students for strong research careers in the Biological sciences. The short term goal of the present application is to bring a new and advanced gene modification protocol using the CRISPR-Cas 9 system into the lab. This project includes the Instructors of the companion Cell and Molecular Biology lecture courses (MCDB 427 and 428) who will act as advisors on the project and who have extensive research experience in these areas: Dr. John Schiefelbein, Dr. Anuj Kumar, Dr. Janine Maddock, Dr Amy Chang, Dr Steven Clark and Dr. Ann Miller. The CRISPR- Cas9 system has exceptional power as a new research and clinical tool for almost an unlimited body of work on genes and DNA modifications leading to disease, and for genetic manipulations producing new molecular biology tools for the lab. Funds will be used to develop the two essential components of the system: two plasmids that cut DNA specifically and then guide RNA to produce a modified protein. The candidate genes for IQGAP proteins and for the cyclin B regular Aurora have been selected as initial targets. The addition of the CRISPR-Cas9 system, which has only been made possible very recently, will add an exciting and cutting edge technology to the syllabus for our students. |
| Practical Strategies and Ethical Reflections for Teaching about Detroit - an Interdisciplinary Faculty Discussion about Engaging Detroit in University Learning 2.0 $500.00 |
Detroit is often seen as an iconic example of urban decline, but how does one teach developing minds to grapple with Detroit in ways that capture its unique past, present, and future? To answer this question, and to explore the diverse ways that U-M faculty bring Detroit into their classrooms -- and the ways they take their classrooms into Detroit -- the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop Detroit Research Group has convened a panel discussion entitled "Teaching Detroit," which will take place at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Moderated by Associate Dean Angela Dillard, and with panelists including Stephen Ward (U-M Semester in Detroit), Ren Farley (U-M Sociology), Damani Partridge (U-M Anthropology), and Carolyn Loh (Urban Studies at Wayne State University), participants will discuss the specific learning objectives, learning outcomes and learning assessment tools they use to teach about Detroit. The conversation will also engage best practices for navigating ethical concerns that arise in these learning environments, especially with engaged and community-based learning strategies. Panel discussion will also serve as a resource for faculty and graduate students who want to bring Detroit into their classrooms in the future. |
| Hands-on experience in computational genomics Jeffrey Kidd Medical School Jacob Kitzman Medical School $500.00 |
Advances in data generation have revolutionized all aspects of biology. In particular, the advent of affordable high-throughput sequencing has transformed biological research into a data-intensive, quantitative field. There is a large and growing need to train researchers and other professionals in the basic, practical skills necessary to meet this challenge. Toward these ends, we have developed a new course, Human Genetics 551: Computational Genomics, targeted towards graduate (masters and Ph.D level) students without an existing background in computer programming or statistics. This is a population of students that is not well served by existing classes. This audience will benefit immensely from practical, hands-on experience analyzing real-world genomic data sets. We are requesting $500 to facilitate usage of the FLUX computer cluster for course projects focused on analysis of real data. The FLUX system is a campus-wide computing resource and features a pay-as-you-go usage model. We anticipate that most students will utilize FLUX in their own future research endeavors, thus necessitating the incorporation of FLUX into our course design. If awarded, the $500 grant will be used to purchase ‘on-demand’ computing resources for student use during the semester. Please see http://arc-ts.umich.edu/resources/compute-resources/ for more information on the FLUX environment. |
| Digitizing media-rich presentations for Spanish 232 Andrew Noverr LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures $475.00 |
This proposal would allow us to digitize our interactive cultural presentations and make them available in the Canvas site for students who miss class or who simply would like to review the material at their own pace. Furthermore, we hope to have speakers of different regions of the Spanish-speaking world record them so as to allow students the opportunity to hear different accents. |
| Use of Exhibit Museum in teaching EARTH 103, EARTH 125 $500.00 |
In the near future (current schedule: summer-2017), the Exhibit Museum of Natural History will be moving from its current location in Ruthven to the new Biological Sciences Building (BSB; under construction). The Exhibit Museum will be redesigned and many of the items that are currently on display will not be part of the new exhibits. Although the process of designing the new Exhibit Museum is ongoing, these upcoming events will have a significant impact on my teaching of two courses, EARTH 103 (“Dinosaurs and other failures”; enrollments >300) and EARTH 125 (“Extinction and Evolution; enrollments >100). For both courses, I have developed a set of exercises that rely heavily on elements (specimen, dioramas…) that are currently on display in the Exhibit Museum. In EARTH 103, students are expected to complete a self-guided tour focusing on particular exhibits and answer questions related to the latter. This is an important and popular exercise and I fully intend for it to be part of EARTH 103 in the future. In EARTH 125, the use of the Exhibit Museum is even more extensive: anywhere from 3-5 of the discussion sections involve the use of items on exhibit. This project will involve gathering a record (videos, photographs-2D) of all museum exhibits currently used in EARTH 103 and EARTH 125 and exploring the feasibility (money, time…) of capturing these data in 3D to create a Virtual Museum from those exhibits that are to be dismantled and eliminated in the move from Ruthven to BSB. |
| Guest Artist Series for Music of Africa Class Kwasi Ampene LSA $500.00 |
In order to enhance course content and to add experiential learning modules and activities, I designed the Guest Lecture and Artist Series this fall for my to my lecture class, AAS366 Music of Africa. As performers and cultural bearers, our guests will enrich my class with personal insights and experience of the rich and diverse musical expressions in Africa. The artists will be visiting in September 15/17, November 3, and November12. They are Prof. Mark Stone (multi-percussionist), composer, educator), Bernard Woma (virtuoso xylophonist, founder of the Dagara Music Center in Ghana, and Artistic Director of Saakumu Dance Troup), and Alhaji Pap Susso (Jali, virtuoso Kora player, storyteller and director of Koriya Musa Center for Research in Oral Tradition). |
| Field Trip to New York City Anne Berg LSA $500.00 |
For Hist 497: Wastes of War: A Century of Destruction, I seek to take my 10 students to New York City during the week we discuss the War on Terror with the goal to visit the Museum at Ground Zero, Freshkills Landfill from which many of the artifacts displayed have been retrieved, and environmental consultants and representatives from the city government and the United Nations to discuss disaster prevention and clean-up both. We would document and share our experiences through a course blog, tweets, photos, videos and the like and potentially produce a collaborative essay report. I would like to get it published in either the Chronicle of Higher Education, History Teacher, History Today, the Michigan Daily or in any event in an internal publications like the history department's newsletter or college or university equivalent. This might be great publicity not just for history but for our institution in general. Most importantly, this active learning initiative connects pertinently with the University's focus on sustainability and shows that questions of sustainability have deep and complicated histories that are not always visible. Moreover, I think, such undertakings take seriously our institution's emphasis on innovative, experience-based, active learning. Lastly, it also shows that history is of public, contemporary relevance. It would take students out of the classroom but deeper into the issues we study. |
| New Leaders in African-Centered Social Work (NLACSW) Support and Consultation Mechanism Leslie Hollingsworth Social Work Phylicia Allen Social Work $500.00 |
Aiming to enhance the preparation of graduate social work students for culturally-specific practice in African American communities, the New Leaders in African-Centered Social Work (NLACSW) scholars program began in Fall 2015. The program was opened to any incoming student concentrating in interpersonal, community organization, management of human services, or social policy and evaluation practice who was willing to commit to an arrangement of African-centered courses (five credit hours) as part of their curricular plan, and to complete their field instruction placement in an organization serving a majority African American client population. Participants represent advanced standing, 16-month, and 20-month enrollment arrangements. Recognizing that the students are apt to encounter experiences that may be outside of the classroom structure, and in an effort to strengthen their potential for success, the Support and Consultation Mechanism was instituted. This mechanism will provide knowledge-based practical and social support to participating students. Bi-weekly meetings, held over the lunch hour, will alternate between student-led peer consultation and presentations and discussions by invited expert community practitioners and scholars. Small honoraria will provide minimal compensation for the preparation and participation time of presenters. Refreshments will serve both as a source of community-building and as incentive for students who attend. |
| Linking classroom to the Comerica Park Dae Hee Kwak Kinesiology $500.00 |
N/A |
| Author visit to Science Fiction and Philosophy course David Baker LSA $500.00 |
I propose to bring award-winning science fiction author Ted Chiang to Michigan, to discuss his story "Liking What You See: A Documentary" with my students in PHIL 154: Science Fiction and Philosophy. The story examines ethical issues surrounding discrimination on the basis of appearance, or "lookism," by imagining a future in which people can be treated to become blind to the traits we commonly perceive as attractive. A college campus is shaken by debates over whether to make this treatment mandatory for students. Chiang and I plan to lead a Q&A session in which students will examine and criticize his thoughts about lookism, its parallels with other forms of discrimination such as racism and sexism, and also the role of philosophy in his creative process while writing the story. |
| Using the Coach's Eye + Teams application as a tool to provide enhanced conducting video analysis in CONDUCT 315/316 courses. Courtney Snyder Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
Video analysis is crucial to sound conducting pedagogy. Traditional methods of video analysis have been to meet with each student in a class individually, often outside of class time, and watch the video collectively. The primary takeaway is what the student remembers or has written down. With the Coach's Eye application, video analysis has been taken to a whole new level. This application allows me to capture high frame rate HD video recording, provide precise video review with slow motion playback, side-by-side comparison, audio voice over, video telestration tools, and send students video, allowing them to watch the streamed, analyzed video on their own time as often as they like. Coach's Eye has created a new form of the application called "Coach's Eye + Teams." The use of this application in a formal academic setting will be the first of it's kind. This new application allows the same video analysis and dissemination as before, but it is much less time consuming to upload video, contains more storage, and even better, students can now take their own videos and send them to me outside of class time. Instead of taking class time to take a recorded exercise test, they can record the exercise on their own and send it to me. This allows for more instruction time. The flexibility afforded by this video analysis tool will greatly enhance instruction and learning. This grant will allow each student to use the application for one full year. |
| Inclusive and Policy-Relevant Statistical Methods Catherine Hausman Public Policy $500.00 |
With this project, we aim to make a core required Statistics course more responsive to concerns about diversity and inclusion. Given the challenges associated with addressing these issues in a quantitative course, a thoughtful and intentional process is needed. I propose to hire two to three students over the summer to work with me to brainstorm concrete ways to improve the course's approach to diversity and inclusion. |
| Building Blocks: Propositions Studio Dissemination Jonathan Rule Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
The proposal for the Instructional Development Fund, seeks funding for the dissemination of the research and design work produced by twelve students during the 'Building Blocks' design studio during the Winter 2016 semester. Funding will cover the cost of book printing through the University of Michigan Library Print Services as well as partial travel funding for the faculty member to present the work in Copenhagen, Denmark. |
| String Pedagogy at Michigan Music Pre-Conference Michael Hopkins Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
The Michigan Music Conference is an annual event that provides relevant professional development and vibrant musical experiences that support music education for educators and their students. The conference features sessions for in-service and pre-service teachers and professional development clinics. The 2015 attendance included approximately 9,000 teachers, administrators, students, speakers, and guests. I am applying for this grant to help support students from the Department of Music Education to attend an all-day pre-conference session. The session is a 6-hour introduction to the Suzuki Method and Philosophy entitled “Every Child Can! (ECC)” ECC is an introduction to Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy and its application to Suzuki education. The course provides an inspiring, in-depth look at the Suzuki approach to teaching and learning. In addition to exploring the elements of the Suzuki approach and its far-reaching goals, it includes an introduction to learning styles, history of the development of Suzuki education, the role of parents, the importance of Suzuki pedagogical training, and an overview of the SAA’s role in supporting teachers and parents. A fast-paced, engaging and inspiring program, ECC includes video materials and SAA-developed courseware, and provides each participant with useful reference materials (manuals) for later study. For teachers, ECC serves as the first course in the Suzuki Association of the Americas’ Teacher Development Program. |
| Establishing Berlin, Germany, base for MFA Dancers Clare Croft Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
This proposal requests $500 toward the costs of one week in Berlin to begin establishing a base at internationally recognized performance and residency center Dock 11 that would be ideal for U-M MFA graduate dance students conducting their summer thesis research. |
| Hypertext as a Pedagogical Tool in the Teaching of Midrash (and Other Premodern Texts) $500.00 |
One of the most challenging aspects of teaching midrash (early Jewish biblical interpretation) in a university setting is how to make available to students the plethora of intertextual allusions and cultural references necessary to interpret midrash. Most student do not have access to the cultural repertoire necessary to interpret midrashic materials in a historically-situated way. Nor do most undergraduate students possess the technical skills they would need to track down these allusions for themselves. And yet, if an instructor simply presents students with the ‘correct’ references to decode a midrashic text, these students cannot develop a sense for how this ancient genre works because (a) they are thereby denied the experience of struggling to decipher a cryptic midrash for themselves and (b) they are never exposed to the fact that a single midrashic passage can plausibly be interpreted in several competing ways. I proposes that internet hypertext can provide a solution to this pedagogical problem. Specifically, this project will explore the possibility that an instructor can use the basic web capabilities provided by the university’s commercial web hosting partners to create online translations of midrash in which each word in the translation is a hypertext link. Each of these hypertext links, in turn, could be clicked to bring the reader to a page devoted to (a) the diverse possible meanings of the word in the ancient context and (b) a selection of other ancient texts that use the phrase or concept in question. By means of this multi-layered digital texts, students would be given the opportunity to explore midrashic passages for themselves under circumstances that recreate, in a very general way, the cultural and linguistic repertoire that the instructor brings to her own study of midrash. |
