Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Assessing Integrative and Lifelong Learning through Mportfolios Melissa Peet Administration $10000.00 |
The Integrative Learning and Mportfolio Initiative is a campus‐wide effort aimed at supporting a wide array of units to use ePortfolio tools along with integrative teaching and assessment methods to improve students' learning. 15 pilot sites with over 1300 students have participated in the Mportfolio pilot thus far, and many more units are requesting participation. The Mportfolio Research team has developed an Integrative and Lifelong learning (IL) Assessment Module that is currently being tested with over 500 Mportfolio students in a range of disciplines/units. Whitaker funds would be used to further develop and refine this module in order to: 1. develop a data model that would allow researchers to compare the development of integrative learning in students from different disciplines/units and at various levels of learning; and, 2. identify and disseminate a series of assessment and teaching‐related best practices for facilitating and capturing integrative learning across a variety of units. |
| Engineering Lectures in the Vocabulary of Graphic Design: Improving Student Comprehension and Retention in Engineering Lectures Steven Yalisove Engineering Francis Nunoo-Quarcoo Art & Design $10000.00 |
Graphic designers are experts at communicating with imagery. Engineering lectures are not prepared by graphic designers but by engineering faculty. This proposal is an attempt to infuse the best practices of graphic design into engineering lecture design by developing a set of graphic grids and iconic images for a set of typical lecture activities. Central to the approach is a focus on the active learning needs of a student during a lecture. This includes separating computer generated material from handwritten chalkboard material. These graphic grids and iconic images will provide a pathway for enhanced comprehension during lecture and retention afterwards. Assessment of comprehension and retention will be performed. Attention will also be given to developing methodologies for rapid acquisition of graphic design skills for engineering faculty. |
| Investigating the Efficacy of Screencasts as Learning Tools in College of Engineering Courses Joanna Millunchick Engineering $10000.00 |
University lecturing is changing as a result of increasing student populations, student diversity, and transformative technologies. One of the newest technological developments is the availability of screencasts, recordings that captures audio narration along with video images. Many instructors have adopted this approach in their courses, but we still need to take a closer look at what kind of screencasts impact student learning, and how students and instructors use those screencasts. This proposal requests funds to examine how this new learning technology is used in various settings and determine whether it impacts student learning. Specifically, we will conduct focus groups with students in classes that use screencasts and interviews with instructors to examine attitudes towards these new resources and effects of their availability on the "learning workflow." The results of these focus groups and interviews will also form the basis of more rigorous studies on their impact on student learning. |
| Use and Usefulness: Assessing Learning Resources in Large Lecture Science Classes $9885.00 |
We have developed and tested a new assessment survey, called "Use and Usefulness," which is both easy to administer and provides a wealth of information about how students are engaging class resources. In the proposed project, we wish to expand the scope of our study, which was developed in the organic chemistry teaching program, to include the other major introductory LSA science courses in physics, EEB, and MCDB. We hypothesize that this cross-disciplinary comparison will produce a unique profile on how introductory science classes at the University of Michigan encourage self-regulated learning practices. |
| Institutionalizing Assessment as Part of Introductory Course Reform in Physics $9720.00 |
The Department of Physics is undertaking significant reform of all of its large introductory physics courses. These reforms include modernization of content and major changes in the structure of the classes. This Whitaker proposal seeks funds to establish a solid framework for assessment in advance of these reforms, and to utilize these assessment tools during the next two years. In the long term, we will use these tools to continuously monitor change in the effect of our courses on students, building more substantive and quantitative assessment in to the fabric of the Department's teaching. |
| Assessing the LSA Upper-Level Writing Requirement Naomi Silver LSA $10000.00 |
The Sweetland Writing Center plans to undertake a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the Upper-Level Writing Requirement (ULWR). To enhance the coordination and support offered to students and instructors who participate in LSA's Upper-Level Writing Requirement, we propose a multi-pronged approach that will (i) collect data on the current state of the ULWR and visions for its future; (ii) revise institutional guidelines and application materials to direct faculty proposing or renewing ULWR courses; and (iii) develop instructional materials, workshops, and other forms of faculty and GSI support to promote best practices and excellent writing instruction in all departments. |
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Learning with Sustʻāinable Molokaʻi’s Land back and Food Sovereignty Project $1000.00 |
Through a 3-week collaborative project with Sustʻāinable Molokaʻi, I will participate in an ongoing community-engaged pedagogy effort supporting land back processes and food sovereignty on the Island of Molokai. Sustʻāinable Molokaʻi’s efforts are an excellent example of how Indigenous-led collaborations can facilitate the multi-year work of land back and the related challenges of ongoing care and restoration of that land. My participation will support the development of future SEAS master's projects supporting the land back and co-management processes. Furthermore, it will serve as a foundation for case studies to be integrated into graduate and undergraduate courses focusing on environmental justice, food justice, and food sovereignty. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Guided tour of Ypsilanti Melissa Stull Education Kathleen Fortini Education Jill Coultas Education $493.20 |
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. |
| Sensors in Pharmacy and Medicine – demonstration tools Gergely Lautner Pharmacy $475.00 |
I would like to apply for IDF support for my Sensors in Pharmacy and Medicine class (PharmSci 407, 2 credit). This course introduces the principles of modern physical-, chemical- and biosensors that are used in pharmacy and medicine, and have critical roles in pharmaceutical preparations, point-of-care diagnostics, and patient monitoring. I wish to use this fund to supplement my effort to build a collection of sensors that are discussed during the class for demonstration purposes. I contacted several sensor manufacturers to request demo sensors. However, some sensors are not available this way. I purchased some low-cost sensors using personal funds, but this practice is cost-prohibitive for the more expensive sensors. Students responded positively to the opportunity taking these devices into their hands. Seeing and touching these devices helped them to better understand how these sensors work, supported the concepts discussed and enhanced their interest in the subject matter. |
