Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Cyanotype Prints at Matthei Botanical Garden Rebekah Modrak Art & Design $189.00 |
With the approval of this grant, I will purchase 120 large sheets of cyanotype paper, which is sensitized to UV light. When objects are placed on the paper, and the paper is exposed to sunlight and developed, students can create beautiful deep blue-toned prints. I would use the grant funds to take the students to the Matthei Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens staff has offered to save clippings of plants and to allow the students to print with them in the greenhouse. Printing cyanotypes at the Botanical Gardens would be a remarkable experience for the students, exposing them to unusual forms of plant specimens and allowing them to document them through sun-printing. The effect of the cyanotype process is to create mesmerizing impressions of the plants, true-to-size silhouettes with rich detail showing each plant's texture, contour and translucency in deep, complex blues. This visit would expose students to unique plant forms and help them to better understand the connections between art and science. |
| Public Health WORKS: A searchable, web-based collection of documents for teaching, professional development, and student recruitment Ella August Public Health Olivia Anderson Public Health $500.00 |
There is an enormous need to improve writing instruction in public health and UM is no exception. A key principle of developing effective writing assignments is asking students to write in disciplinary rather than more generic formats. Public Health Works will be a searchable, web-based collection of documents from all areas of public health practice that can be used for teaching undergraduate students or graduate students in any department in public health. Instructors can use documents as models for assigning disciplinary writing, and to support informal reflective writing assignments that connect to the activities, roles, values and context of public health. Current public health students will find the information helpful when looking for career options because documents in the collection include background information about the person who created the document, such as their job title (e.g. state epidemiologist), employer (Texas Department of Public Health) and specific activities that led to the creation of the document (e.g., infectious disease surveillance). Prospective students will be able to browse the collection to gain an understanding of what we do in public health. This project builds on a previous grant funded by CRLT which supported development of a collection of workplace writing samples from the public health sub-discipline of epidemiology. The current collection is limited because: (1) the documents are only authored by epidemiologists; (2) the collection is stored on MBox and not easily browsed or searched; (2) the collection has limited representation from minority health professionals. |
| Bits and Atoms Project Archive Sophia Brueckner Art & Design $500.00 |
The project involves creating an archive of all previous projects from Bits and Atoms and finalizing a project documentation format so the future work of students can be immediately incorporated into the archive. This allows new students to browse previous projects for inspiration as well as to learn about materials and technologies that might be well suited to a project or might be problematic, and it also raises awareness of safety considerations. Most importantly, students themselves are building new knowledge as they experiment with new materials and processes, which then gets incorporated into future courses. This archive will be made available to all students using Stamps' digital fabrication studio and possibly the rest of the university. |
| Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program Course: Reading Materials Becca Pickus LSA $479.40 |
The Inside-Out (I-O) Prison Exchange Program brings together equal numbers of "inside" (incarcerated) and "outside" (University-based) students for bi-directional, dialogic learning. In the Winter 2019 semester, I'm teaching an I-O course at Macomb Correctional Facility entitled, "Mass Incarceration and Conscientization: Critical Pedagogy as Resistance." Because inside students’ earn less than $40/month – and because the prison does not allow outside students to bring any materials into the prison for our class sessions – I need to purchase the course texts and have them sent directly to the prison. The books will remain at the prison between semesters and, thus, will support rigorous in-class discussions as well as equitable access to learning for inside and outside students not only during this semester but in future iterations of this course. |
| The Nicaragua Solidarity Caravan: A Roundtable Discussion with Grassroots Activists $500.00 |
Nicaragua is currently facing the worst political crisis it has seen in decades. In April 2018, state repression of citizens protesting social security reforms unleashed a decade of accumulated grievances against the Ortega-Murillo government. Citizens from across all sectors of Nicaraguan society took to the streets to protest state violence and authoritarianism. In response, the state has killed as many as five hundred people. Thousands of citizens have been injured, hundreds have been illegally detained, and tens of thousands have fled the country for Costa Rica or the United States. A new generation of Nicaraguan activists are leading this popular movement for justice. This project includes two class visits (Spanish) at the Residential College and one lunch table visit in which students will be able establish contact and speak with three of these activists on the historical origins of the crisis, movement actors and demands, and the current state of human rights in Nicaragua. Moreover, they will give an on campus public talk addressing these issues in regards to Nicaragua’s current context. |
| M2ENTOR Video Series Daniel Cronin Medical School $500.00 |
Physicians are rarely taught how to teach, and unfortunately medical students, residents, and faculty have limited time to learn how to teach. This has downstream consequences in the quality of medical education for students and residents. We aim to create an easy-access, no-barrier, on-demand, concise, high-yield and engaging video series which teaches skills and theory for medical education. It is meant to serve as a repository of teaching best practices in medical education for UME, GME and faculty development. It is broken down into multiple different mini-series, with each mini-series focusing on a core topic in medical education (i.e. effective feedback, chalk talks/teaching scripts, presentation best practices, clinical preceptorship, etc.). It is different than a traditional platform-based MOOC (though we may also house it within Canvas for assessment and tracking purposes) which has barriers in being used as a repository of best practices. Each mini-series is broken down into multiple 2-10 minute videos using technological/film best practices to promote learner engagement and recall. The intended outcome is to provide brief, on-demand knowledge-transfer of best teaching practices to busy clinicians, prior to real-world application. This solves the “limited time” problem for these learners. A portion of this content (Effective Feedback) will be piloted with separate groups of learners: students, residents, and faculty with pre/post self-assessment and focus groups to assess efficacy of the video series. Feedback from this assessment will inform future videos. |
| Facilitating the Publication of a Review Paper written by the MCDB 401 Class $500.00 |
The goal is to publish a review based off the content of a new course I recently developed called MCDB 401 - Building the Synthetic Cell. The journal ChemBioChem has solicited for a Special Issue on Bottom-up Synthetic Biology. The editors agree that their special issue is perfect for a review paper based off this class. The main thrust of the proposed review is to provide an up-to-date report on the most exciting and most recent advances towards the ultimate goal of building a human-made cell. The review will be titled “Building the Synthetic Cell – A Progress Report”. Please find below a an outline of the review. 1. Introduction 2. Genesis - How the first cell was made 3. Confinement - Making the cellular container 4. Division - Splitting the container into two 5. Organization - Partitioning cellular components 6. Central Dogma - Replication, transcription, translation 7. Metabolism - Build, Breakdown, Recycle and Waste disposal 8. Blueprints - Minimal genomes 9. Re-Genesis - How far are we & should we? For the final assignment of MCDB 401, students are responsible for writing one of the sections above. It is very likely that the writing style will vary from section to section. For this reason, I request funds to defray the cost for professional editing services on a near-final draft of the review prior to me submitting it for peer review and hopefully publication. |
| Incorporating Interdisciplinary Perspectives in an Interdisciplinary Graduate Program: Leveraging Expertise in Education and Engineering in the Development of an Engineering Education Graduate Course on Theoretical Frameworks Shanna Daly Engineering Erika Mosyjowski Education $500.00 |
EER 602, Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks in Engineering Education Research, is a course being developed this year as part of the new Engineering Education graduate program. The course will be taught in a seminar style, with weekly theoretical and empirical readings and a facilitated discussion on those readings each week. This course provides graduate students interested in engineering education with a grounding in the educational frameworks and literature commonly employed in the field, with the ultimate goal of preparing students to be informed consumers and creators of engineering education research. More specifically, we aim for the course to provide students with a foundational understanding of a number of core theories used in the field and the ways they have been and might be applied in the field of engineering education. As engineering education research draws on frameworks from a range of disciplines, including those in social science and education, we aim to incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives into the development of the course. We propose to support the efforts of an advanced doctoral student in higher education to aid with course development, as she has taken extensive coursework in educational theory and is familiar with these theories as applied in the field of engineering education (through her own research and reading that of others). In addition to the contribution of this graduate student’s perspective to the course, the opportunity to work closely with faculty to develop an entirely new course serves as a valuable learning experience and professional development opportunity for her. |
| Invisible citizens feed the world: Implications of structural inequalities on the livelihood of farmworkers Amber Williams Social Work $400.00 |
Guest speaker Raul Gamez will lead a three-hour interactive workshop titled “Invisible citizens feed the world: Implications of structural inequalities on the livelihood of farmworkers”. The session will explore the invisible conditions endured by undocumented and migrant workers in the agricultural industry and the leading institutional, cultural, and legal forces that shape exploitative labor practices, and broader systemic inequality. As a part of the workshop, the speaker will ship a community empowerment mural project developed youth group in North Carolina. The mural was created by Student Action with Farmworkers’ youth group, Levante Leadership Institute (LLI), in collaboration with the Beehive Collective. The mural will serve as a tool to learn about the history of farmworkers, and to frame and unpack the struggles and structural barriers that farmworkers in the United States have endured in their fight for justice and equity. The interactive discussion and activities that will couple the mural will allow masters of social work students to examine how grassroots organizations engage in change making processes through community centered practice methods. |
| Visiting Lecturer to Class $375.00 |
The purpose of the project is to enable students not only to learn from a professional in the field about investigating terrorism, but to be able to ask questions of the person directly. This part of the project has a value and an interest for students I rarely see in other classes. The issue of terrorism is contemporary and will be part of the students lives long after they leave the university. I know how much this kind of lecture can have on students because in some instances it has inspired students to look into a career in the FBI. |
| Tester Certification for the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Soyeon Kim LSA $500.00 |
The purpose of the project is to obtain the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester Certification granted by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Accurate assessment of the learner's proficiency level is an integral part of language teaching. For the Korean language, OPI is the only standardized test with a speaking component and is thus widely accepted as official proof of Korean oral proficiency. With the tester certification, I would be able to provide OPI ratings for the students who are taking Korean at U of M, revise the curricula of the UM Korean Language Program to meet the OPI standards, and contribute to the training of language faculty on consistent and reliable oral proficiency assessment. This grant will support the first step of the certification process, which is to attend a 4-day OPI Assessment Workshop. |
| Improving the Gameful Learning Experience in Public Health Students Olivia Anderson Public Health Dave Bridges Public Health $500.00 |
Gameful Learning, a pedagogical approach that was developed based off elements of the Self-Determination Theory1 that leverages student autonomy, abilities, and interests to produce intrinsic motivation when engaging in course assessments. It was implemented into NUTR 630: Principles of Nutritional Sciences in Fall 2017, a first year, first semester and required course for Nutritional Sciences (NS) Master of Public Health (MPH) students. Although the first year of implementation was successful as evidenced by course evaluations, we have much room for improvement with the overarching goal to support student learning outcomes in the most effective way possible with this innovative pedagogy that fosters student autonomy. For this proposal we have two key objectives: 1) Learn from other instructors - how they developed, implemented and revised their Gameful Learning experiences in order for their students to achieve their learning outcomes. 2) Gain student insight pertaining to “what worked well” or “needed improvement” -specifically after going from this to the next course in the series (NUTR 631) as well as other required courses in the program. |
| The Early Hispanic Harp as an Accompaniment Instrument Louise Stein Music, Theatre & Dance $250.00 |
In Hispanic baroque music of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, throughout Spain, colonial Mexico, and Latin America, the harp was the principal accompaniment instrument. This fact is not well enough known to many music scholars or even to players of baroque music who think first of the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument, as the heart of all basso continuo ensembles. An outstanding expert in early harps, Christa Patton (Queen's College CUNY) will be in Ann Arbor for public concerts with the Piffaro ensemble. She is one of a mere handful of professional players of baroque harps and the arpa doble in North America. Her visit offers a unique opportunity for students in my two baroque music courses this term to hear, see, and participate in live demonstrations of how early harpists improvised accompaniments and basso continuo parts on the harp as the center of the early Hispanic instrumental ensemble and as accompaniments to singers. In the course of my own research, I have identified (and photographed) rare examples of songs with notated accompaniments for double harp from seventeenth-century Spanish and New World manuscripts. Modern harpists do not tend to attempt this repertory because their modern instruments do not replicate the stringing and tuning of early harps. There is no substitute for hearing and singing with early instruments in an intimate setting to enhance understanding of early Hispanic music and historically-informed performance. Students in Prof Gascho's early music performance courses will join my classes for the March 15 visits. |
| Balinese Puppetry and Japanese Butoh Practice as Research Workshops Emily Wilcox LSA $500.00 |
I seek funding to cover honoraria so that two scholars of Asian performance who will be visiting campus this semester to give talks at the International Institute can also visit my classes and give specialized, experience-based workshops to my students on topics we are covering directly in the classes. Practice as Research is an important component of performance and dance studies that both visiting scholars themselves use. The workshops will allow students to learn about the materials we are covering in class through kinesthetic, auditory, and visual engagement and to learn about how scholars integrate art practice into their research. Dr. Jennifer Goodlander, a scholar of Southeast Asian theater, will give a Balinese puppetry demonstration and discuss her research methods in my graduate seminar "ASIAN 546: Critical Studies in Asian Performance." In preparation for the visit, students will read Dr. Goodlander's book Women in the Shadows: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali. Dr. Rosemary Candelario, a scholar of Japanese dance studies, will teach a Butoh workshop in my advanced undergraduate seminar "ASIAN 480: Dance in Modern Asia." In preparation for the visit, students have already learned about the history and theory of butoh through readings and film viewings. |
| IEDP Senegal: Application for the Instructional Development Fund (IDF) Grant Shobita Parthasarathy Public Policy $500.00 |
We are requesting $500 in grant funding from CRLT, to help defray the costs of a field research trip to Senegal during winter break 2018. This will be used to help pay for ground transportation for the 20 graduate students who are participating in the trip. The students need ground transportation throughout the 9-day trip so that they can conduct interviews with policymakers and stakeholders across the city of Dakar, Senegal's capital. These interviews will be analyzed and used to inform policy research projects focused on youth unemployment, climate change, infectious disease, and children's rights in Senegal. Overall, the course is designed to teach students how to conduct country case study analysis to inform policy, and how to conduct qualitative research in service of this goal. Upon their return to Ann Arbor, students will give public presentations and write reports summarizing their findings. |
| Gender and Health in Literature Course Debotri Dhar LSA $70.00 |
This IDF grant application requests support for a new course I am developing now and during the summer, and which I will teach in the academic year 2018-19 (Fall-Winter.) The approved course Gender and Health in Literature (WS 313: Topics in Gender and Humanities) will address the Women’s Studies’ program’s Gender and Health Concentration through a humanities perspective.Using a transnational, interdisciplinary feminist lens, this course will examine literary articulations of the complex relationship between gender and health, including physical, mental, sexual and reproductive well-being. We will read key literary works across genres - novels, short stories, essays, poetry, memoir – focusing on themes including, but not limited to, themes include, but are not limited to, the impact of gender role expectations on emotional and mental health; gender stereotypes and psychiatric diagnoses; immigrant well-being; racial, sexual, and transgender violence; eating disorders and holistic approaches to health. While I have bought, or borrowed, the bulk of the books needed for course development and use, grant support is requested to purchase the remaining few books. |
| Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement Donald Peurach Education $500.00 |
This project is a collaborative effort between the School of Education and the Office of Academic Innovation aimed at leveraging the SOE’s new Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement MicroMasters program to catalyze a world-wide community of professionals committed to engaging educational innovation and improvement as a field of study and a domain of practice. In Winter 2018, we are leading a global cohort of 100 learners in completing curated versions of the two courses that comprise the core of MicroMasters: LeadEd502x -- Designing and Leading Learning Systems and LeadEd503x -- Improvement Science in Education. All courses in the Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement MicroMasters program use an instructional approach developed within the SOE that we call “Self-Directed/Community Supported Learning”. This approach combines video presentations, web-based enrichment activities, scenario-based team practice exercises, and community-wide discussion, with the aim of drawing diverse learners in the US and around the world into a community of discourse and practice. In Winter 2018, for the curated versions of LeadEd502x and LeadEd503x, we are complementing the existing online resources with supplemental instructional guidance, online office hours, guest webinars, and blogging opportunities to enrich learners’ experiences, support their success, and achieve these aims. The goals of this initiative include: (a) supporting learners in developing foundational understandings of the theory and practice that underlie cutting-edge contemporary educational reform initiatives, (b) supporting practicing educators in introducing new visions for innovation and improvement in their schools and systems, and (c) supporting graduate students and faculty members in exploring the design and use of open access instructional resources. |
| Incorporating Digital Technology in the Architecture Classroom Ashley Bigham Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
In Architecture, as in many other fields, digital processes have quickly overtaken analog techniques. Students are now working entirely digital, from early sketch formations to the final drawings completed in an architectural studio course. However, the intellectual transfer of knowledge from faculty member to student still flows best as a series of hand sketches and notes overlaid on digital drawings. This feedback loop often happens in real-time in the classroom, but can also happen through email as a series of back-and-forth sketches. This type of live sketching demonstration can be used in a lecture class where sketching tutorials are projected digitally to benefit all students. To encourage this type of fluid communication between myself and my students, I propose to purchase an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. This technology would allow me to receive drawings from students and offer quick, immediate feedback so that they can continue working through their projects. I plan to use the tablet when I meet with students one-on-one or in small group settings where students can gather together and watch me sketch over their drawings. I can then share the sketches with students digitally, eliminating the costly (and environmentally wasteful) amount of printing required by most architecture studio courses. With this digital tool, I will be able to show students how to create more seamless workflows, work between digital technology and analog techniques, and prepare them with visual communication skills which are required in the architectural profession. |
| Visiting Artist Residency in LHSP 230, "Writing in Motion: Composing with Bodies, Words, and Other Media” Naomi Silver LSA $500.00 |
This grant supports a short residency by Jennifer Harge, a Detroit-based dancer and dance-maker, in my Winter 2018 section of LHSP 230. Titled "Writing in Motion: Composing with Bodies, Words, and Other Media,” the class explores multimodal and multimedia composition processes to ask how dance, video, or other non-alphabetic compositions share similarities with text-based written forms, and how the study and production of these modes and media allow us to broaden our conceptions of what “counts” as writing and to develop our capacities as writers in multiple forms. Students will engage in a range of movement- and text-focused activities designed to help them think about how dances make arguments and tell stories, how texts can provide directions or “scores” for movement, and how working across different modes and media can generate new possibilities for discovery and insight about important contemporary issues and our personal engagements with them, and particularly, texts that ask how composers in various modes and media engage social justice. During the days she is in residence with my class, Jennifer Harge will address these aims by leading activities focused on dance as protest, including teaching students sections of her own composition mourn and never tire, "a movement installation created in response to the U.S. police killings against black bodies. It is a study on labor, lamentation, and protest.” Students will learn about Harge’s own composition processes, and will complete this section of the course by composing a short movement score of their own. |
| Transgender Writers / Artist Talks: English / Women's Studies 314 Cass Adair LSA $500.00 |
My course, "What is Transgender Literature?" invites students to interrogate the relationship between minority gender identities and artistic forms. The course is based around engaging work by contemporary poets, novelists, graphic artists, and video game designers, all in an attempt to determine who, and what, counts as transgender literature today. As part of this activity, many of the most prominent transgender artists and writers have been invited to join my class for artists' talks using BlueJeans, the videoconferencing software. Towards the end of the course, I intend to capstone these talks with videoconference artist workshops with Kai Cheng Thom, a Chinese-Canadian trans woman novelist, social worker, and poet; Joy Ladin, a trans woman religious scholar, poet, and memoirist at Yeshiva University; and Annie Mok, an Irish-Chinese-Columbian trans woman comic book artist. Both of these artists are producing groundbreaking work in the field, and have agreed to join the course in exchange for a small honorarium. |
| Resident Sialoendoscopy Training Workshop Paul Hoff Medical School Kevin Kovatch Medical School John Hanks Medical School Kelly Sayre Medical School Jeffrey Stanley Medical School $500.00 |
The field of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery has many cutting-edge techniques that residents will need to learn before entering independent practice. Sialoendoscopy is a relatively recently developed practice that allows treatment of salivary gland stones or other pathologies using safe and minimally-invasive techniques with endoscopes. As a leader in the field of Otolaryngology, The University of Michigan adopted this technique early. Still, residents may not be comprehensively trained in this procedure due to a steep learning curve and limited exposure. We are developing a course for residents and medical students, including a series of lectures followed by hands on practice on high-fidelity models and cadaveric heads. The goal of this intervention is to provide accelerated competency, better preparation for operative experiences, and a strong foundation for independent practice following residency. |
