Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Multimodal Storytelling for Social Change Angele Anderfuren LSA - English Language and Literature $1000.00 |
Ginsberg Center’s Assistant Director for Community Partnerships Amanda Healy, Ph.D. and Theresa Krueggeler, JSD recruited me to consult on their program “Storytelling for Social Change,” which they have been developing for the past few years and are looking to grow with faculty professional expertise and integration into curriculum. (The program right now is a May/June experiential learning program with no faculty oversight in which students produce text, video, and other communication products for community partners.) In this vein, the class I develop with this CRLT grant will serve as a pilot course to serve Ginsberg's summer program in which graduate and undergraduate students work with Ginsberg to serve nonprofits in the Ann Arbor community. In this class, students would pick from a list of Ginsberg partners they feel affinity towards and make sample materials with the goal of learning about making multimodal storytelling work at a professional level while emphasizing the academic aspect of applied writing projects in multimedia environments. Students will learn how to write, research and produce written stories, videos, and other visual and written communication products, working with traditional and social publication platforms and go outside the classroom for experiential learning. The goal being that when students finish the course, they have the knowledge and skills necessary to better equip them to be a part of the Ginsberg Storytelling For Social Change program that will directly follow in the Spring, should students be accepted by Ginsberg for their May/June experiential learning program. |
| Patterning Technology Integration with CLO3D Sarah Oliver Music, Theatre & Dance $955.00 |
Fashion and costume designers have moved almost exclusively to working digitally to create their designs in digital rendering programs like Procreate. The companion technology to producing these designs three-dimensionally in patternmaking is utilizing a 3D patterning software like Clo3D. Recognizing that the creation process of garment making can be one of the highest impact points environmentally, I want to find ways to investigate and integrate digital sample creation alongside traditional patternmaking techniques throughout the Design & Production program in Theatre & Drama. Receiving intensive training in 3D patterning software at the United Stated Institute for Technology (USITT) Costume Symposium this summer will allow me to be prepared to directly implement this new maker technology into my coursework and with student makers. |
| Banned Books Through a Developmental Lens Shelly Schreier LSA - Psychology $500.00 |
Across America’s schools, there are recent efforts to ban children’s literature, often related to diversity, equity, social justice, and LGBTQ@+ themes. Research demonstrates the importance of literature for a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development and highlights the benefits of representation across identities in a diverse society. I developed a multi-class module to evaluate the basis for book challenges and bans, and identify the elements related to determining developmentally appropriate reading material/content for children and adolescents. This unit will be included in the curriculum in my first-year seminar on Psychological Development through Children’s Literature and will also be incorporated into my Social Development course related to identity, representation in the media, the diversity of families, and socioemotional learning as a key part of development. This requested $500 grant will fund books and materials to facilitate exposure and access to a variety of banned books for students to apply course concepts. |
| A New Math GSI Training Module, “Creating a Climate of Inclusion from Day 1” Nina White LSA - Mathematics $1000.00 |
Before each fall semester the Department of Mathematics provides an intensive week of training for its new instructors (graduate students and postdocs). This program is improved and updated year-to-year, and over the last several years has had an increased focus on and support of equity-minded teaching: our instructors attend the inclusive teaching session in CRLT’s GSITO, and we have integrated an equity-focus into many of the other sessions we offer. One of several planned changes for our training in Summer 2023 (August 21-25) is a new session on “Creating a Climate of Inclusion from Day 1”, in which instructors will work, in detail, on making first-day plans that will help create a welcoming and inclusive environment. This session will be developed with funding from this grant. It will be offered to all of our new instructors this summer (about 50), and in an ongoing manner for similar numbers of instructors in subsequent years. |
| The Art of Bearing Witness: In Post-Genocide Cambodia and Beyond $750.00 |
Three contemporary artists will speak to students enrolled in my seminar, via Zoom, on the role of the artist as a bearer of witness and/or as an ethnographer in a post-conflict society. These artist talks will help students enrolled in the seminar work towards a key goal of the course: to participate in the organization of a major exhibition that will open at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in February 2024. |
| Implementing Innovative Teaching Strategies in the N372 Undergraduate Nurse Therapies II Course Grace Kanzawa-Lee Nursing $1000.00 |
Nurse Therapies II is a foundational didactic course that undergraduate nursing students take in their third year of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. The course teaches students to apply previously acquired anatomy, pathophysiology, and introductory nursing knowledge and develop clinical decision making to care for individuals with or at risk for various ailments. Historically, the course was taught using a uniform format consisting of weekly quizzes and group case study work for the full duration of class; however, students have reported significant stress associated with the quizzes and shown declining engagement with the uniform weekly class format. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to pilot (a) use of innovative tools (e.g., iClicker Cloud) to provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning through low-stake formative assessments with repeated attempts and (b) invitation of guest nurse speakers who can role model and provide feedback to students while bringing the lectures and case studies to life. Outcomes will be measured based on class metrics and a student post-course survey measuring the acceptability and feasibility of the learning tools. Additionally, findings from this project may be published and will be presented to the School of Nursing leadership to determine if payment for an iClicker subscription should be incorporated into the school budget or projected expenses presented to students. |
| Theatre for Young Audiences Tour: Developing New Work and New Aptitude to Contribute to Communities Through the Arts Shavonne Coleman Music, Theatre & Dance $1000.00 |
This will be my first time teaching the Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) Tour class. The goal is to build this course to be inclusive, accessible, student-centered, and co-created with students' needs in mind. This course will engage an experiential learning philosophy, which will provide the opportunity to 'engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities' (Association for Experiential Education [AEE], 2023). By focusing on improving teaching and learning with students as partners, we have the opportunity to answer questions and challenge traditional models in our field. The course makes space for innovative discoveries that can be applied in future iterations, benefiting the field and making theatre more accessible, while also working to invite a broader demographic into our future community. |
| Class visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts Stefano Mengozzi Music, Theatre & Dance $254.00 |
This term I am offering a graduate seminar on the Virgin Mary, music, and the arts in late-medieval Europe (Musicology 506 sec. 1 / Musicology 641). Four students are taking the class at the 500 level, 3 at the 600 level. A class visit to the DIA would give students an opportunity to experience a number of Marian artworks from the medieval and renaissance eras that are closely related to the ones we have studied in class. Dr. Chassica Kirchhoff, a curator at the DIA, has kindly agreed to give a 2-hr tour of the Marian collection at the DIA on Dec. 2 from 1 to 3pm. I am applying for a small CRLT to cover for lunch at the DIA for the eight participants, plus parking and transportations costs for two cars. |
| A Physical Robot Arm Prototype and Website Design for EECS 467 Autonomous Robotic Design Experience course Xiaoxiao Du Engineering - Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) $950.00 |
This grant will help fund a course development effort for EECS 467: Autonomous Robotics Design Experience course. This course discusses methods and implementation for robot mapping, control, kinematics, and perception, with emphasis on using real-world, physical robots to enhance the students’ understanding and “hands-on” skills in autonomous robotic systems. While the students in this course currently have access to a wheeled mobile robot platform for mapping, control, and perception, an important piece and teaching tool is currently lacking in explaining the kinematics of robotic arms. This proposal aims to fund the necessary supplies and equipment to build an affordable and effective two-degree-of-freedom physical robotic arm prototype to illustrate the concepts of forward and inverse kinematics. The proposal also seeks programming assistance to develop/maintain a course website that will make the course contents more accessible. |
| Orchestral Reading & Recording Project for PAT 202/502 Students Paul Dooley Music, Theatre & Dance $1000.00 |
The project provides our PAT 202/502 (Computer Music & Arranging) students a first-time educational opportunity to hear their music read and recorded by an orchestra. Our goal is to hire 18 SMTD musicians, divided 54432 (5 Violin I., 4 Violin II., 4 Violas, 3 Cellos, 2 Basses) to give the smallest viable orchestral string orchestra sound, plus a student conductor and recording engineer. None of our current PAT 202/502 students have heard their music performed by live orchestral musicians, so the reading/recording session will be an important learning experience for them. Our PAT 202/502 students have diverse musical interests (film scoring, song writing, production and arranging, etc.), and this session is naturally relevant to all those interests. The students plan to wrap their recorded orchestral sounds into their final electronic compositions of the semester, to be featured in our end-of-the-semester public concert, the Computer Music Showcase, December 4 at 7:30pm in the Davis Studio at the SMTD Moore Building. |
| Health and Disabilities P517 Course: Interprofessional Client Experiences $1000.00 |
The Health and Disabilities course will be offered for the fourth time this coming winter semester. It has undergone revision each year it has been offered, and now is a true interprofessional experiential learning offering that incorporates disability cultural awareness by providing health science students the opportunity to interact directly with persons with disabilities to learn of their lived experiences navigating their healthcare needs. During the course, interprofessional teams of students interview a client that has a physical, intellectual, and sensory disability. This coming year we are are scaling up our enrollment in the course and request monies to support these client meetings in terms of providing interpreters for clients that have a sensory (hearing) disability as well as paying clients an honorarium. |
| Workshop: The Pedagogy of Degrowth: Teaching Language and Culture as if People and The Planet Mattered Maria Galvan-Santibanez LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures $500.00 |
We are seeking funds in order to sponsor a workshop on “The Pedagogy of Degrowth: Teaching Language and Culture as if People and The Planet Mattered”, by Professor Prádanos. While the workshop is designed for Romance Languages and Literatures faculty and staff of 5 languages (Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese), it will be opened to other university members, as the topic is appropriate for a diverse audience. This event aims to provide attendees with tools to rethink their teaching practices in the language classroom. “The Pedagogy of Degrowth” core theme has been analyzed and divulged by Professor Prádanos. This approach to teaching states that deep critical discussion can only happen after the students unlearn the concepts that they have acquired throughout their learning and have been ingrained in their lives. This workshop will consist of a lecture and a practical component in which attendees will create an activity, which they will be able to apply and implement in their classrooms, regardless of the language they teach. This initiative is connected to the course Spanish 231 Topics: Ecologia y Activismo, created with the ultimate goal of discussing topics related to ecology and connected with the DEI Strategic plan unfolded at the University of Michigan. |
| Approachable (vol. 1): The Magazine for a Barrier-Free Architectural Pedagogy Julia McMorrough Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
The master of architecture seminar ‘ARCH509 Fresh Access: All Graphics’ operates under an ambition to ‘draw to architecture,’ with the focus on accessibility as both design for disability and the communication of ideas to expanded audiences. The class is organized as a simultaneous research seminar and design workshop focused on the role of graphic design and communication in providing access to greater understanding of design for and about accessibility. The work in the course intertwines graphic design logics set forth a century ago by Otto and Marie Neurath (pioneers of the Isotype and visual education), and a historic understanding of the graphic world that has shaped current understanding of design for accommodation. Neurath’s motto, “words divide, pictures unite,” unifies this course’s efforts to give accessibility a stronger graphic voice within our designed environments, including a re-evaluation and re-design of current graphic standards for accessible design. In a previous offering of the course, students worked together to produce The Fresh Access Guide to Accessible Design, a document created specifically for their classmates within the school of architecture. The book continues to be shared with incoming students to our program. In the current semester, for the final assignment in the class, 20 students are creating the first issue of Approachable, a graphically rich, fun to read, highly engaging, friendly…and approachable…magazine focused on accessibility and design, and covering topics on the history of accessible (and non-accessible) environments, activist trailblazers, and innovative designs that have fostered inclusive practices in society. |
| Field Trip to the National Forest Corporation of Chile in the Andes Mountains Amy Harris Public Policy $500.00 |
This project consists of a field trip to the National Forest Corporation of Chile (Chile’s version of the National Park Service) within Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture. The field trip will be to a field office in the Andes Mountains in the surroundings of Santiago, Chile to learn about Andean conservation policy and related work. The field trip is part of the Ford School’s 2023 International Economic Development Program (IEDP) policy study tour in Chile, which will take place over winter break. The excursion will permit students to learn about the Chilean Government’s policy approach towards environmental conservation, with a focus on the Andes mountain range. Students in this group have a particular policy interest in environmental and conservation policy, and Chile has been globally recognized for their progress in advancing environmental conservation goals. The field trip will allow students to talk with the field office’s environmental policy and education team that focuses on the Andean region. Students will get an up-close-and-personal view of conversation policy from Chile’s government agency responsible for implementing and promoting it, while also experiencing the areas of geological and biodiversity significance that so many are fighting to protect. |
| Summer Online Korean Conversation Club Jiyoung Kim LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures $500.00 |
The purpose of this project is to help current Korean language students maintain and improve their Korean proficiency over the summer break, and ease their transition to a new Korean course in the following year by establishing a weekly online conversation club. During a long break, students rarely use Korean, and often forget what they have learned, making it difficult for them to recall their language skills and speak fluently in the next year. A weekly online conversation club will help students practice their Korean and motivate them to continue learning, while also fostering a sense of community within the Korean program. |
| Guided tour of Ypsilanti Kathleen Fortini Education Melissa Stull Education Jill Coultas Education $230.00 |
We are seeking funds to support a guided tour of Ypsilanti, led by Deborah Meadows of the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County. We will explore historical and current sites significant to Black people’s experiences in Ypsilanti. This tour is for undergraduate students pursuing their elementary teacher certification in the School of Education. The focus on Ypsilanti is intentional and significant, as all of these students currently have a field placement at Perry Early Learning Center and some of them will have future field placements in other Ypsilanti schools as part of the teacher education program. As instructors for many years in the School of Education, we have found that students often hold deficit perspectives of Ypsilanti and do not necessarily see the community’s assets and strengths. We believe that actually exploring the community with a knowledgeable community member has the potential to positively counter the dominant narratives some students hold by humanizing and historically situating the Black communities in Ypsilanti. We intend to use this field trip as a touch point to create further learning opportunities in our courses. For example, in ED 307, the instructors plan to discuss the way these beginning teachers might use the guided tour to further build their understanding of and relationship with students and their families. In ED 392, the instructor plans to capitalize on these beginning teachers’ deepened understanding of Ypsilanti by exploring policy issues, such as redlining and school choice, that have greatly impacted schooling in the community. |
| Problem Solving Initiative: Addressing the Child Care Crisis Tifani Sadek Law $500.00 |
This grant will fund guest speakers for Michigan Law’s Problem Solving Initiative on addressing the child care crisis. This Problem Solving Initiative is a graduate-level multidisciplinary course with students from the schools of law, public policy, public health, and social work. These graduate students are placed in interdisciplinary teams and will apply the “socially engaged design” problem solving framework to come up with policy and program solutions to the child care crisis. At the end of the semester, teams will present their capstone projects to experts in government and policy. This semester, the students have narrowed their focus to creating solutions to attract, retain, and engage child care providers. This grant would provide monetary support to have five current child care providers (directors, lead teachers, and assistant teachers) come speak to the students and share important expertise, background, and opinions on the causes of the child care crisis. This crucial information would form the basis for many of the groups’ capstone projects. Given that the child care providers will have to miss a day of work and are typically paid on an hourly basis, we would like to offer compensation to make the visits a viable option for them. |
| The Zulu Kingdom: History and Representations from Shaka to T'Chaka Raevin Jimenez LSA - History $255.00 |
This grant will provide funding for students to attend a viewing of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) as a final example of the ways representations of the Zulu Kingdom and Shaka Zulu have been subject to repeated inventions. In this class, students explore historical sources from the 19th to 21st century to trace the politics of myth-making and knowledge production surrounding the Zulu and King Shaka. During the colonial and Apartheid eras, the image of Shaka and ideas of Zulu tribalism justified the extension of European powers and imposition of segregation. In more recent times, Shaka has been reimagined as a warrior-hero and symbol of African independence. Towards the end of the semester, students will explore the legacy of Shaka in pop culture, including novels, music, film, and art. Their final set of sources will include the original Black Panther graphic novel series and the 2018 Black Panther film. A viewing of the 2022 film will provide a valuable capstone to consider the ways Zulu imagery and the figure of Shaka continue to appear in popular politics and media. |
| Web-based tool for Formative Assessment tracking in Large Classrooms $350.00 |
We request $350 to cover the costs of the online software poll everywhere which would significantly improve inclusivity and engagement in larger courses in Biomedical Engineering. Literature suggests that the addition of active learning strategies that promote interactive engagement with the subject at hand stimulates student learning and provides real-time feedback to both students and instructors on the knowledge gaps to be addressed. However, introducing active learning in large classrooms can be challenging and add an additional barrier for instructors to positively implement them during lectures. While clickers have been implemented in the past to stimulate participation in large classrooms, the additional costs passed on to students imposed an additional socioeconomic barrier to the learning process, disproportionally discriminating against minority students. Online software like poll everywhere allows for classroom assessment techniques to be seamlessly executed during class time, with live effective feedback on student engagement, sponsoring cooperative learning, while reducing feelings of isolation often present in large classrooms. The multimodal approach to the feedback (i.e. web-based, SMS, or app) allows for the majority of students to participate in the formative assessment process without any added cost. Lastly, the integration with LMS systems such as Canvas, used at UMich, allows for tracking, and grading of student engagement automatically overcoming the hesitancy of instructors to implement such approaches. As a pilot project, this will be implemented in a senior required biomedical engineering course in Fall 2022. |
