Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Evaluating and Refining the Health Equity via Anti-Racist Teaching (HEART) training Paul Fleming Public Health Melissa Creary Public Health $10000.00 |
The “Health Equity via Anti-Racist Teaching”, or HEART project is aiming to transform the way that Public Health and allied health sciences is taught so that future health professionals will learn in an anti-racist environment and have an anti-racist toolkit to address inequities. The HEART project is an online course to train health instructors (including graduate student instructors) on how to implement anti-racist teaching principles and reduce barriers to anti-racist teaching methods. The curriculum is already created and includes six different modules with readings and about 10 hours of new recorded video content (e.g. a combination of video lectures and montages of anti-racist teaching experts). The initial build of this training program has been funded by Poverty Solutions and the School of Public Health. To further the powerful potential impact of this project, the creators would like to use $10,000 for mixed-methods evaluation to refine the effectiveness of this training and create an implementation guide for health training programs to utilize this training content for a group of instructors (i.e. GSI training or faculty professional development). The evaluation money would be used for conducting focus groups of faculty and GSI that will go through the curriculum. In response to this evaluation, the curriculum can be revised and refined, preparing it to be further implemented and distributed to Schools of Public Health, Nursing, Social Work, and beyond. |
| Developing and Evaluating a Large Team-Based Learning Organic Chemistry Course $5598.00 |
In Spring 2022, I experimented with moving Chem 215 (generally a traditional lecture/discussion course) to flipped, team-based design. These changes led to some more equitable outcomes as desired (such as a reduced withdraw rate), but further development and evaluation is required to fully understand the impacts. This proposal seeks funds to research and develop: (1) rethinking the discussion section and how it can best be used, since the "lecture" portion of the course generally functions as the discussion section used to; (2) training a new generation of GSIs/UIAs to facilitate group work during, which is training they generally have not previously received; and (3) evaluate the changes to the course on students and instructors. The impacts of this work are potentially quite significant; about 140 students take Chem 215 in Spring semester, but the course serves ~1500 students annually. The Chemistry building is undergoing planning for a renovation, and so the moment is now to consider future team-based classroom needs. Evaluation of the course changes will focus on both undergraduate students, with a particular focus on the development of confidence around learning chemistry and a growth mindset, and the undergraduate and graduate instructors in the course, looking at their sense of a growth mindset, confidence with organic chemistry, persistence, and sense of themselves as a teaching professional. |
| Curriculum development for Language, Disability, and Neurodiversity Jonathan Brennan LSA - Linguistics Natasha Abner LSA - Linguistics $6000.00 |
We propose bring scholarship connected to disability justice and neurodiversity into required "core" Linguistics courses at the 300 level. We develop curricular units that move topics of disability and neurodiversity from the periphery to the center of our curriculum. These units will address topics that are already recognized as key materials for these levels (e.g., reasoning about meaning in discourse, the acquisition of grammar, or processing variability in language perception) but which can be made richer when combined with a disability and neurodiversity lens. With such a lens, we move away from a curriculum that contrasts a binary “typical” with “atypical” language towards one that embraces a fuller range of human language experiences. |
| Inclusive Simulation for Weight Bias Reduction to Prepare Students for Equity-Driven Nursing Practice Melissa Bathish Nursing Jessica Marsack Nursing Susan Wintermeyer-Pingel Nursing $9963.56 |
The obesity epidemic in the U.S. impacts roughly 42% of individuals (CDC, 2021), and a 66% rise in weight discrimination has occurred over the past decade (Fruh et al., 2016). Obesity impacts not only physical health and wellbeing but influences the quality of care that overweight and obese individuals receive. To address this inequity, this project aims to use inclusive simulation strategies to educate nursing students in the care of overweight/obese patients. Currently, all simulation manikins in the School of Nursing represent a thin body type. This inhibits hands-on content for overweight/obese patients in the curriculum. If selected for funding, we aim to improve our existing practice by disrupting the thin body type norm of training equipment. Money from the Faculty Development Fund would aid in purchasing four bariatric obesity simulation suits (Sim U Suit, 2022) that can be weighted and fit over existing manikins or live persons. These suits will allow for more realistic student experiences to enhance the quality of learning in the care of overweight/obese patients. Simulated student experiences with the suits will be created based on the level of clinical development. Students will be invited to complete a survey prior to and immediately after their training or simulation to measure cultural humility, overweight/obesity bias, and the perceived effectiveness of the simulation. This project has the potential to positively influence the readiness of graduating and registered nurses to engage in inclusive practices and reduce weight biases, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes. |
| The M-COPE Curriculum Series for Pediatric Cardiology Fellows – Promoting Mental Health in both our Patients and Physicians Amanda McCormick Medical School Melissa Cousino Medical School Sonal Owens Medical School Carolyn Vitale Medical School Heang Lim Medical School $5921.00 |
Aim: To design, implement and rigorously study a curriculum aimed at patient mental health in children with congenital heart disease as well as physician well-being for pediatric cardiology trainees. Background: Through limited studies, it is known that children with congenital heart disease have increased incidence of mental health disorders than their peers, yet are underrecognized. Mental health disorders are associated with poor outcomes in adults with congenital heart disease. Currently, no formal training exists for pediatric cardiology fellows in mental health. Additionally, physician and fellow physician burnout and mental health is known to result in poor patient care as well as increased rates of physician suicide. Approach: Design of a holistic and interdisciplinary led 8-12 month didactic based train-the-trainer model curriculum, integrating mental health topics directed at both the mental health of the patient and the physician. Pediatric cardiology trainees will learn to screen their patients for mental health disorders and facilitate referral, as well as participate in self screening for burnout and specific anxieties related to fellowship, and learn strategies to increase resilience and self-care. Future Directions: If successful, this curriculum may be reproducible to other subspecialties and/or other centers for collaboration in larger multi-center studies. |
| Utilizing Improvisation in Wind Band Curriculum Courtney Snyder Music, Theatre & Dance $4900.00 |
Though improvisation was a valued musical skill hundreds of years ago in the European tradition, the art of musical improvisation has been lost in the Euro-centric musical conservatory setting. The written note reigns supreme in academy of “classical” music. Though improvisation is valued in the traditions of Jazz, Black American music, Indian music and in music of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, most students in the American conservatory have little to no experience with these music types. When students are given opportunities to improvise in an academic, concert band ensemble, many students do not even attempt it. They judge their work as inferior before they even try. They want to know how, but they are scared of sounding “bad.” By learning new methods to teach improvisation and engaging students in the art of improvisation as part of the concert band curriculum, students will recognize that they not only have the capacity to improvise, but that their ideas are worthy of performance. They can gain a new-found sense of musical creativity, contribution, and purpose. They can engage with their colleagues in new and unique ways. As orchestral positions (those positions which do not require improvisational skills) are declining, the more versatile the player, the more employable they are. As our culture becomes more heterogenous and values “non-white” music-making, this will bring with it more improvisatory music-making as well. The professional music world is changing. The curriculum needs to provide more improvisatory opportunities to increase students’ versatility. |
| Faculty Empowerment Michael McElroy Music, Theatre & Dance $10000.00 |
Faculty Empowerment, created and facilitated by Michael Thornhill and Karen Olivo, is a series of workshops designed to investigate the ways in which tradition, culture, race, identity, and trauma inform artistic training. Through listening sessions and in person workshops, faculty develop applicable tools to build culturally inclusive pedagogies, equity forward teaching strategies, and community building structures to dismantle and innovate training for today’s young artist. Faculty Empowerment recognizes the individual and community trauma experienced as a result of the pandemic, taking of Black lives and subsequent protests that erupted across our nation during mandatory remote learning. As musical theatre training requires students to utilize the full self, a shift in training is needed to encompass the trauma that we all now hold. While building a specially designed program to help us meet the present moment, Faculty Empowerment will partner with University of Michigan’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office as well as Counseling and Psychological Services to create a framework that addresses the whole person in artistic training practice. By teaching alternative classroom culture structures, principled disagreement strategies, and somatic mindfulness, Faculty Empowerment will provide skills and tools for faculty to engaged today’s young artists as we navigate our new normal in the Department of Musical Theatre. |
| Equity in Architectural Education: Stacked Mentorship Program Irene Hwang Architecture and Urban Planning $10000.00 |
The Equity in Architectural Education Consortium (EAEC) is an ongoing initiative at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning aimed to reduce inequities for students of color and other underrepresented minorities in professional architecture programs. By building a series of strategic partnerships and programs outside the predefined curricular frameworks, the EAEC Stacked Mentorship Program will foreground the experiences, perspectives, and expertise from a diverse group of professionals and scholars from historically underrepresented minorities in order to enrich, transform, and evolve our collective understanding of what is to shape architectural education as an agent of societal change. We plan to use those new understandings to: 1) inform curricular change; 2) deliver new educational experiences to our students; and 3) to provide unique opportunities for faculty professional development through collaborative exchange. |
| Case Studies: Taking them outside the box Maria Dorantes LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures $2100.00 |
Offering students in the Spanish for the professions (medical) class case studies that are simulations, enriches the students’ ability to look at the patient experience, take their medical history and even select a diagnosis, among other training. From the instructor’s perspective, I can add issues of justice, equity and access to each of the cases, but from perspectives of different Spanish speaking countries so that the students are producing results in Spanish as well. With these cases, students will be able to follow different patients, reflect on their own perspectives and thoughts, while also addressing cultural tendencies. This program would be offered in addition to the partner exchanges that students currently with a university in Colombia. |
| A UM Student Facilitated Digital Wellness Conference for K-12 Students and Caregivers Elizabeth Keren-Kolb Education Kristin Fontichiaro Information $5935.00 |
Prior to COVID, pre-teenagers (age 11-13) primarily developed their independence in their physical school settings, engaging with peers in-person through academic and non-academic spaces. The COVID pandemic changed this developmental norm; remote learning led many pre-teens to be isolated and forced to replace their in-person growth with socializing on digital devices. While it was not uncommon pre-COVID for adolescents to use digital tools, pre-teens engaged in them earlier in their development and more often than did their pre-COVID counterparts. Often, digital communications were the tweens’ only way to socialize with peers. As a result, caregivers were challenged to quickly create digital tool parameters for their children. This rapid adoption was not universally embraced: caregivers struggled with the amount of screen time and number of applications their pre-teens were engaging in. Furthermore, both the tweens and caregivers were often unaware of the implications of what the tweens were and still are doing in their digital world, most critically, mental health. Thus, the need for both to better understand the implications of engaging with digital applications. Further, UM SOE teaching interns are preparing to teach national standards on digital wellness to K-12 students and need clinical experiences working with pre-teens. The UM Digital Wellness Conference will bring together caregivers, pre-teens, UM teaching interns, and experts on digital wellness to engage in active discussion and community building. Participants would spend time on campus discussing their experiences and developing strategies for their personal digital wellness, with activities facilitated by experts and UM teaching interns. |
| Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair Modules Sarah Oliver Music, Theatre & Dance $9999.90 |
Far too long traditional modes of teaching theatrical makeup within university training programs have privileged Caucasian skin tones and hair texture; however, the pandemic has afforded the Design & Production (D&P) program in the Department of Theatre & Drama, in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) the time to examine and reflect on our own delivery of courses in stage makeup and methods of creating more equitable and inclusive delivering of training in theatrical makeup to all performance and design students. The goal of this grant is to ensure that all SMTD dance, theatre, musical theatre, and opera students are training in makeup and hair skills that reflect the diverse community in which they will be working and performing. By creating a series of online theatrical makeup module courses that train our students and performers not only how to apply makeup in the dressing room but guide them through the process of how to adjust and refine makeup for all skin and hair types in each of SMTD’s three main performance spaces we strive for a more equitable and unified way to teach stage makeup and hair to all design and performance majors, at SMTD. We evaluated lessons learned during the pandemic about leveraging a hybrid approach to course delivery content and how that can be a more powerful and equitable approach to capitalize on creating a sustainable teaching module to educate the entire department and beyond. |
| Urology Surgical Collaborative Resident Education Curriculum (SCoRE Curriculum) Yooni Yi Medical School $6000.00 |
Urology Surgical Collaborative Resident Education Curriculum (SCoRE Curriculum) – A solution to the challenges of the rapidly evolving landscape of urology residency The field of urology is a rapidly expanding field and research has suggested that recently graduated urology residents do not feel ready for independent practice. Currently, a dedicated surgical curriculum outside the OR is absent. This presents an opportunity to modify surgical training to better meet the operative needs of trainees. In light of this gap, we sought to create a dedicated surgical curriculum incorporating video-based review. This curriculum would incorporate index cases – initially robotic and laparoscopic cases. Two faculty members from two different institutions would serve as panelist to display expert videos with annotation. This would then be followed by review of two trainee videos to provide constructive feedback and advice. A library of videos and video reviews will be created on a secure website for further review. We anticipate this curriculum will increase the trainee level of confidence, increase autonomy, and ultimately improve surgical education. |
| Advancing Equity through Teaching with the Arts Katrin Robertson Education $9595.00 |
Advancing Equity through Teaching with the Arts will help beginning teachers learn how to combat systemic racism and structural inequality by using visual art in their teaching. U-M Museum of Art (UMMA) and School of Education (SOE) will collaborate to redesign a key unit in a course for elementary teacher candidates to focus on teaching for equity with visual art. CRLT funds will support this redesign of this course to be launched in Fall, 2022, as well as robust evaluation of the course. The Fall 2022 course will also inform the development of a campus-wide collaborative learning experience on Teaching with Art for Equity aimed to launch Winter 2025, and is open to any U-M student across all units. |
| Michigan Difficult IntraVenous Access (Mi-DIVA) Simulation Model Ivan Co Medical School Brendan Munzer Medical School Cindy Hsu Medical School $10000.00 |
“Without studying, preparation, and practice, you’re leaving the outcome to fate” - Kobe Bryant (1978-2020) Vascular access is a life-saving procedure for critically ill patients. Its scope encompasses commonly performed peripheral intravenous access to rarer central venous cannulations for vasopressor administration, hemodynamic monitoring, and mechanical support. Training clinicians to achieve mastery in central venous access has largely relied on task trainers to simulate cannulating normal vessels under ultrasound guidance. However, the commercially available task trainers are costly and unable to simulate patients with difficult vascular access that are common in real-life clinical scenarios. As such, learners cannot consistently achieve procedural competency in situations where prompt central venous access is critical for patient care. To solve this problem, we will create a novel, high-fidelity, and low-cost simulation model for difficult central venous access called the Michigan Difficult IntraVenous Access (Mi-DIVA). We will then demonstrate Mi-DIVA’s impact on emergency medicine learners’ central venous access procedural competency with a mixed method approach. |
| Coloring Science Vincent Denef LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Nyeema Harris LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Josephine Kurdziel LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Nathan Sadowsky LSA - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology $10000.00 |
A key factor influencing academic and career choices by undergraduate students is the presence of role models. These role models can be the faculty and graduate student instructors that teach them, but also the scientists that are highlighted in the textbooks and lectures. Currently, there is lack of geographic, ethnic, and racial diversity of these potential role models present in course materials. This is due to the combination of historic and current opportunity gaps, bias in selection by publishers that typically stick to the classic examples, and shortfalls in crediting of past scientific contributions by scientists belonging to such underrepresented groups. In this proposal, we aim to develop a resource that can be used in the main introductory gateway classes to the various biology majors, with the goal to increase the diversity of presented role models to approximately 5,500 students per year. This resource will consist of a collection of lecture slides pertaining to the core concepts taught in these classes, highlighting the key work contributed by scientists of color. |
