Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Neuroscience Graduate Program Curriculum: From Fundamental Knowledge & Skills to Integrative, Critical Thinking Rachael Seidler Kinesiology Audrey Seasholtz Medical School Edward Stuenkel Medical School $10000.00 |
Several years ago we created and charged our curriculum committee with reviewing our existing Neuroscience didactic classroom approach. In addition to other coursework outside of the program, we have students take a "boot camp" laboratory class during two weeks in August (Neurosci 623), followed by a year-long sequence of courses which survey the current state of knowledge in various areas of Neuroscience (Neurosci 601 (fall), 602 (winter)), accompanied by Neuroanatomy lecture and lab (Neurosci 570, 571) in the winter semester. The curriculum committee came up with a specific plan to reorganize this sequence, with the overall vision of: a) Building upon and taking advantage of best teaching practices, such as problem-based and active learning approaches, and becoming a world-wide leader in graduate Neuroscience education (Neurosci 623). b) Providing our students with an initial foundation of knowledge in the broad, multidisciplinary field of Neuroscience (Neurosci 601, 570, 571). c) Promoting transition to integrative and critical thinking skills which will help students to create and evaluate new knowledge in this rapidly expanding field (Neurosci 602). This will leave them well poised to begin their scientific careers as they settle on their home laboratory at the end of their first year in the program. Achieving this vision required our efforts and attention in three areas: curricular reform, faculty development, and assessment of the effectiveness of our changes. |
| Developing an Integrated Approach to Teaching Legal Writing to Upper-Level Law Students $10000.00 |
This project is an attempt to improve the teaching of legal writing to upper-level law students. The project involved a new clinic for appellate advocacy, offered in the fall of 2013. The course was scheduled to launch under a single clinical professor, and the grant funds were used to add a second professor from the legal practice program. The two professors co-taught the class. This type of collaboration has never occurred at the law school. The project had three specific goals: 1) to create a new learning experience for students utilizing the skills of professors from two distinct departments; 2) to improve the teaching in the clinical law program by learning new techniques on how to teach legal writing to upper level students and 3) to improve the teaching in the legal practice program by providing legal practice professors evidence of how students research and write in the context of actual case work which will inform future developments of the first year legal research and writing curriculum. |
| Course Portals and Automated Problem System Yaoyun Shi Engineering Essl Georg Engineering Don Winsor Engineering $10000.00 |
The objective of this project is to develop a set of elearning technologies that are scalable and extensible, together with two integrated applications of those technologies: Course Portals and Automated Assessment System. The initial focus will be on undergraduate computer science courses, for which there is still much room and a great need for developing such technologies. The design seeks to maximize adoptability, through easy-to-use interfaces and building blocks that are easy to customize and extend. The technologies are expected to be scalable to many other courses, with the benefit of substantial financial savings and significant improvement in instruction quality. Some preliminary work has been done through the KnoAtom Project (KnoAtom.eecs.umich.edu) led by the Director. |
| Estill Voice Training and the Musical Theatre Performer:Integrating the Estill Voice Training System Into the Musical Theatre Curriculum Catherine A. Walker Music, Theatre & Dance $10000.00 |
This project was designed to offer faculty members, exposure and training in the Estill Voice Training System. The Estill Voice System is an innovative and practical instructional strategy that teaches stage performers how to approach a variety of vocal parameters such as: pitch, diction, and voice quality in both singing and speech. It assists them to more fully inhabit their characters through voice. The Estill Voice System codifies explicit terminology to and helps communicate with singers/actors/public speakers as they embody a variety of vocal styles and unique characters in live performance. The Estill Voice System offers specific and practical tactics to allow singers to exercise maximum flexibility in their vocal performance. This system has been thoroughly researched and is scientifically precise. Using these strategies, allows performers to safely explore a diverse spectrum of vocal colors and styles. As we have begun to integrate the Estill Voice Training System into the Musical Theatre Department curriculum, we are able to offer our students additional skills as they enter this highly competitive, rigorous and diverse field. In addition to facilitating a singer/actor's ability to access an array of vocal styles, these precise skills offer coping strategies, which will support their vocal health throughout their career. This project included both departmental and inter-departmental faculty collaboration. Funding from this grant was also used to purchase the equipment necessary for the students to utilize the Estill Voice Print Plus program. |
| Incorporating Technology into Advanced Health Assessment Through the use of a Digital Standardized Patient Nicole Boucher Nursing April Bigelow Nursing Michelle Pardee Nursing $10000.00 |
The ultimate goal of this project is to enhance the advanced health assessment skills of nurse practitioner students using innovative simulated patient technology. Tina, the digital standardized patient allows students to practice communication, advanced assessment, diagnostic reasoning, clinical decision-making, and basic procedural skills on complicated patients that better mimic real-world experience. The digital standardized patient allows the faculty to vary the complexity of information to range from common abnormal findings to rare abnormal anomalies. Additionally, the encounters with Tina facilitates students in developing diagnostic reasoning skills over the term by engaging students in a question and answer session focused on clinical assessment problem-solving and diagnostic reasoning. The digital standardized patient also allows the student time for self-reflection about the interaction. The digital standardized patient program tracks each individual student's progress throughout the term. Additionally, the class as a whole is tracked to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the class. These tracking methods will aid faculty in modifying the classroom and laboratory content to help facilitate students learning. Additionally, the tracking methods can be utilized to facilitate small group discussion during the small group clinical time. |
| Enriching Undergraduate Environmental Science Education in the Rockies Gregory Dick LSA $10000.00 |
Introduction to Environmental Science in the Rockies (EARTH 202) is a new interdisciplinary field course taught for the first time at the Camp Davis Rocky Mountain Field Station in Wyoming in the spring of 2011. This proposal requests support from the Gilbert Whitaker Fund for the Improvement of Teaching to broaden and enrich the curriculum and student participation in EARTH 202 through the acquisition of scientific equipment and media technology for use in team research projects and production of video logs. |
| Revised Elementary French Curriculum Lori Mc Mann LSA $10000.00 |
The primary goals of this project are 1) to prepare for the implementation of a redesigned curriculum in the elementary French program (French 101-232), including new textbooks, 2) to enact a 2nd year curriculum that will be more easily adaptable to UM study abroad courses, 3) to incorporate newer technological trends and fully exploit the capabilities of the enhanced classrooms, and 4) to improve excellence in teaching practices in these multi-sectioned courses. At present, we are conducting a search for a new textbook for French 101, 102, 103 and another textbook for French 231 and 232, which we will implement in the Fall of 2012 and possibly pilot during a spring or summer term (2012). The steps comprising the project for which we are requesting funding are as follows:• survey students during the Winter term of 2012 to establish a point of reference to assess the effectiveness of the revised curriculum at a later date.• redesign course curriculum in the Fall 2012 and Winter 2013 terms.• restructure /reform the elementary French review course, French 103, so that it responds better to students' needs for review. • incorporate and adapt multimedia activities for each course.• offer workshops / training to instructors for the use of new materials and technology.• offer opportunities each term for cultural hands-on, interactive events (food tasting, French games, music, film, etc. ) in order to create excitement about these cultures and to build a greater community of undergraduate learners of French. • survey students again after having used new materials for at least one year to assess results and determine further improvements to be made. |
| Leveraging Technology to Develop Collaborative Communities of Inquiry in Social Work Education Mary Ruffolo Social Work Elizabeth Voshel Social Work $10000.00 |
This innovative initiative will use a range of technologies to offer blended learning opportunities that combine web-based e-learning with periodic in-person class sessions to assess student attainment of professional social work practice behaviors over the course of their program. Using as a guide the Anderson (2008) model of online learning, the initiative will facilitate the development of a community of inquiry that involves students, field instructors and classroom instructors learning together, and will incorporate communication (asynchronous and synchronous), paced collaborative learning, independent development of products and structured learning resources. The innovative initiative builds on the integrative learning and e-portfolio activities already in place at the School of Social Work (SSW). Since 2004, the SSW has piloted optional courses that involved developing e-portfolios focusing on integrative learning (combining classroom learning and field internship learning). In the preliminary evaluations of these courses, it is clear that students who engage in developing e-portfolios that integrate classroom learning with field internship learning are better able to articulate what skills they have demonstrated and how these skills will continue to be enhanced in their emerging professional career. Instructors can view artifacts that students have developed in their portfolios to assess the degree to which students have met core professional practice behaviors. To date, this pilot work has been limited to approximately 60 students a year. The mechanism to assess demonstration of professional practice behaviors and to link these to student-centered outcomes-based program assessments has not been adequately developed yet. The current format for integrative learning requires significant instructor feedback and peer interactions. With the emergence of a range of technologies that can help bring to scale integrative learning and outcome based assessments, the SSW in this proposal is seeking to develop web-based learning tools to help us expand our pilot work and bring integrative learning methods using e-portfolios to scale. To meet this demand, we want to develop and evaluate a blended learning program that guides students through the process of portfolio development using technology to support this initiative. We need to adapt our current classroom-based portfolio pedagogy to a model that leverages new technologies and expands the activities, contexts, and processes in which students engage. Students in the MSW program spend more time out of the classroom than in one, and would benefit from technological tools that allow them to capture learning in the moment and context in which it happens. This program must also facilitate the participation of instructional staff guiding students through this process, including faculty, lecturers and staff in SSW, field instructors in several hundred sites across Southeast Michigan, SSW alumni, and members of the community at large. Technological tools will allow us to connect all of the educators that guide MSW students through the program, and will allow students to connect their field and classroom experiences to each other. |
| Developing a Framework for Hands-On Collaborations between Engineering and Medical Students on Open-Ended Projects Amy Cohn Engineering Michelle Macy Medical School $9700.00 |
We propose to develop and test-pilot a program in which small teams of engineering and medical students, an engineering faculty member, and a clinical member of the medical faculty will work together on hands-on projects within the clinician's practice. The educational goals are to: A) Provide students with improved skills for solving open-ended problems; B) Engage students in learning about the application of engineering tools to improve healthcare delivery; and C) Develop interdisciplinary communication skills between students, with a particular focus on functioning in new environments, reducing barriers caused by technical jargon, and collaborating across fields to identify relevant problems and collectively formulate solution approaches. |
| Faculty Seminar on Critical Issues in the Translation Classroom $10000.00 |
Christi Merrill from the Department of Comparative Literature led a collaborative seminar of 11 UM faculty, 9 of whom taught a translation course in conjunction with the Fall 2012 LSA Theme Semester on Translation (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/theme/upcoming) and expressed interest building a vibrant interdisciplinary undergraduate program in translation. Seminar participants were chosen in university-wide competition; they were asked to meet regularly over the course of the theme semester and to contribute to an online toolkit of materials to be used in the translation classroom. Whitaker funds were used to award research funds of $1000 to each seminar participant. |
| Competency Assessment Tool (CAT) Mustapha Beleh Pharmacy $14960.00 |
This project plans to implement and evaluate a Competency Assessment Tool (CAT) that will be used to track individual student's competency level for each of course outcomes. This tool will allow students to self evaluate their competency level for each course outcome and provide evidence and artifacts that support such evaluation. Instructors can then use the tool to support the students' self evaluation or make changes, providing students with a rationale for the changes. This tool allows for constant evaluation of students' progression and provides them with instant feedback as they progress through the course. The tool may serve as an alternative to examinations and other traditional evaluation methods particularly in case of certain skills such as communication or clinical skills and as a learning tool that allows instant and continuous evaluation of students' competency. The project plans to assess the use of the CAT tool in two courses. In the first course, the CAT will be used as part of a remediation plan for struggling students in the course to track their competency level for course outcomes and provide feedback to help them succeed in the course. In the second course, the CAT will serve as an integral teaching and assessment tool, where the instructor will examine students' self evaluation on the competency scales of the CAT and make changes providing feedback to students. This will continue throughout the semester providing an excellent opportunity for constant assessment and interaction between student and instructor. To assess the usefulness of this CAT tool both students and faculty will be surveyed to explore perspectives, perceptions and usefulness of the tool. The study will also compare individual students' scores in the course with the level of achievement of students regarding outcomes as set by the CAT tool. Conclusions from these comparative studies may help in providing evidence for expanding the role of CAT in student assessment and making changes in how graded tasks are designed. |
| Scarlett Middle School Summer Program for ESL Teaching Interns and Adolescent English Language Learners Debi Khasnabis Education Catherine Reischl Education $10000.00 |
This proposal requested funds to investigate and grow opportunities for learning for graduate students, teacher education faculty, local English as a Second Language teachers, and elementary- and middle-school English Language Learners. Building on a pilot program conducted in summer, 2011, UM faculty worked with Ann Arbor teachers to create an ESL science and social studies curriculum and assessments grounded in culturally relevant pedagogies. The program took place for 4 weeks in July, 2012 and was extended for a second summer in July 2013. Teacher education graduate students who were learning to teach ESL enacted carefully designed practices that support their learning of ESL teaching and completed a performance-based assessment used to evaluate their ability to enact high-leverage ESL teaching practices. Analyses of these efforts have led to refinement of practice-based teacher education pedagogies and have informed larger efforts to reform teacher education. |
| Microsoft Kinect Platform for Game and App Development for Patients with Autism David Chesney Engineering $10000.00 |
The purpose of this proposal is to create an ‘eco-system' in which students can create meaningful computer applications and games for children with autism. Students working on the game and app development are freshman- to senior-level undergraduates in the Computer Science and Engineering Division of the College of Engineering. The overall team for the project is widely collaborative, including the College of Engineering, UM Health Systems, Eastern Michigan University School of Education, and Microsoft Corporation. The underlying objective of this project is to do something meaningful and relevant for children in need, and also to have a significant educational experience while doing so. |
| Longitudinal Musculoskeletal Education for Medical Students Seetha Monrad Medical School Lisa DiPonio Medical School $10000.00 |
The goal of this project is to:1.Develop and maintain multidisciplinary, interactive musculoskeletal educational activities for 3rd and 4th year University of Michigan medical students that provide opportunities for formative assessment and feedback2. Create and administer a validated, reliable musculoskeletal skills assessment for 4th year medical students3. Increase medical students' confidence in their ability to examine and diagnose patients with musculoskeletal disorders. |
| Portable Physiology Computer Lab: Enhancing Student Learning of Physiology and Computational Modeling Elizabeth Rust Medical School Santiago Schnell Medical School $10000.00 |
Mathematical and computational modeling, along with the recording and analysis of physiological signals using computational devices are at the forefront of the biomedical sciences. We are requesting partial support to create a Portable Physiology Computer Laboratory. This lab will be used in the Human Physiology Laboratory and Computational Systems Physiology courses. The lab will provide hands-on experience in computational modeling and analysis tools to biomedical sciences students who otherwise have limited exposure to mathematical modeling and computer science. At the start of the term, our project will assess the level of student knowledge of relevant material from previously taken traditional courses. Data will be collected to monitor student progress throughout the semester and then reassessment will occur at the end of each course. Biological concepts and models are becoming more quantitative, and biological research has become critically dependent on computational approaches. By increasing the students' knowledge of and experience with sophisticated computational modeling and analysis tools, we expect students to be better positioned to contribute to the future discoveries in biomedical research. |
| Assessment of Student Learning in First-Year Writing Requirement Courses Anne Curzan LSA $9994.00 |
This project aims to develop an innovative assessment tool to measure students' achievement of the goals of first-year writing requirement (FYWR) courses. Similar assessment initiatives have often focused on final essay and course grades as a way to measure student achievement, and have aimed to standardize grading and rubrics to make the process a more efficient and effective one. This project adopts a very different approach, using the revised Directed Self-Placement as a model. The FYWR courses aim to hone students' skills at reading critically and at writing academic arguments that put their arguments in conversation with published scholarship. They also aim to develop students' meta-awareness of the rhetorical demands of different kinds of writing situations and genres as well as their awareness of their most effective writing process. Therefore, in order to measure students' achievement of these goals, any assessment tool needs to ask students both to produce written academic argument and to reflect on the reading and the writing they have produced, in terms of genre conventions and rhetorical strategies and in terms of their writing process. This project is financially modest yet pedagogically sweeping: it promises to benefit every year over 4000 undergraduates' experience in our writing classrooms and further the pedagogical development of over 80 GSIs, most of whom plan to pursue careers in education, and over 30 Lecturers. |
| The School of Kinesiology Curriculum Reform Project Patricia VanVolkinburg Kinesiology $9940.00 |
The Curriculum Analysis Project will examine two of the four undergraduate majors in the School of Kinesiology (movement science and sport management) along with the discussion about adding a fifth major. Over the past five years the school has grown tremendously. In addition, several new tenure-line and tenured faculty have been hired in each academic area. As is normal, some faculty have been lost due to retirement (2011) and family relocation. The sizable increase in enrollment in both majors requires that we examine how best to meet the academic needs of our students. In the end, we hope to have answered a few key questions including: • Given the increased enrollment of these programs, how well are we preparing lower-division students for upper level coursework? • Additionally, how well are we preparing upper division students for future careers or graduate study? • How can we best maximize the learning of critical knowledge and skills needed for graduates to work in a global environment? • How will the inclusion of a new major meet the needs of current studnets and new students? |
