Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Social Justice Ling 101 Savithry Namboodiripad LSA - Linguistics $500.00 |
Language is an integral part of social justice initiatives. Not only does it inform how we approach and frame issues, language and accent are the basis of discrimination in housing, the courts, and the classroom, and it can contribute to other forms of identity-based discrimination. In every iteration of Language & Discrimination (LING 370), students discuss not only the issues the course deals with with but also what they can do to address issues of linguistic prejudice and discrimination, often from a social justice-oriented standpoint. This grant will support two proximal goals: 1) compiling and cataloging relevant materials to support GSIs as they teach sections and the summer version of the course 2) collecting syllabi and materials from other iterations of this type of course to support planned expansions of LING 370 and facilitate the integration of linguistic discrimination topics in other courses. |
| PROPOSAL TO PRESENT AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATORS $500.00 |
A teacher of an engaged–learning course at the Residential College, Empowering Community Through The Arts, has been invited, to present an interactive workshop at The International Conference for the Association of Experiential Educators in Orlando, Florida in November 2018. The teacher is also the founding director of Telling It (lsa.umich.edu/tellingit), a community-based resiliency and trauma-informed program for youth. As part of the Empowering Community class, U-M students intern at one of the Telling It sites with youth in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor where they experience and are trained to implement an arts-based engaged-learning pedagogy. This request to the IDF is to help fund this lecturer’s participation in the conference where she will lead a workshop that will scaffold the engaged-learning pedagogy she employs to teach university students and school-aged youth, and which interrogates teaching methods that incorporate the expressive arts as a teaching tool across subjects and for healing trauma. The lecturer will return from this conference having collaborated with colleagues in examining this pedagogical approach to teaching, learning and healing and with new ideas and innovative strategies that are used by educators around the world. |
| Design of Reflection-based assignments to enhance Self-Authorship in Engineering 110 (Design Your Engineering Experience) Frank Marsik Engineering $500.00 |
Self-authorship has been defined as “the internal capacity to define one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations” (Baxter Magolda 2008). Cultivating a student’s sense of self-authorship is a major focus of the College of Engineering’s (CoE) elective, first year course “Engineering 110: Design Your Engineering Experience”. Through reflective assignments, the course seeks to assist students in the design of a plan for their time within the CoE: (a) which highlights academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that are consistent with their personal identities, values and goals, and (b) which will allow them to achieve their personal and professional goals. End-of-term course evaluations, as well as personal conversations with students, suggest that while students see value in individual reflective assignments, they fail to see how these assignments combine to support their decision making. This proposal seeks funding to support a review of the reflective assignments associated with Engineering 110 to determine how their content, delivery and assessment (that is, instructor feedback to students) can better support the learning goals of this course. The funding sought will provide salary support for Kevin Jiang, who will be reviewing these assignments through the lens of his direct experience as a former Departmental Ambassador (teaching assistant) for Engineering 110. His work will result in the redesign of both the content and delivery of existing, and potentially new assignments, during the upcoming Fall Term 2018 offering of the course. Magolda, M. B. (2008). Three Elements of Self-Authorship. Journal of College Student Development, 49(4), 269-284. doi:10.1353/csd.0.0016 |
| Gamefully Connecting Students with Mentors for Exploration of the Engineering Discipline Fred Terry Engineering $500.00 |
According to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, “In the realm of science and engineering, we might say that a good mentor seeks to help the student optimize an educational experience, to assist the student's socialization into the disciplinary culture, and to help the student find suitable employment.” Engineering 110 “Design Your Engineering Experience” currently uses a two-pronged approach for mentoring first semester engineering students, through mandatory office hours with faculty and weekly discussion sections guided by junior and senior engineering student peer mentors. We will leverage initial successes in both areas by exploring frameworks to further this intentional approach toward connecting first-year engineering students with mentors. For this proposal, we have three key objectives: 1) Develop a sustainable structure for faculty engagement in mentorship, with a goal of focusing on the exploration of the discipline and the development of the engineering experience plan. 2) Explore models to enhance peer mentor, while giving students agency in determining which peer mentors to engage in various parts of their exploration and design process. 3) Explore opportunities for alumni mentorship, to better connect the exploration of the discipline with career opportunities. Additionally, we will reevaluate the grading rubric for the course to incorporate these mentorship opportunities using a gameful learning approach. |
| webZyme - a tool for teaching kinetics Bruce Palfey Medical School $500.00 |
Kinetics is vital in many disciplines, and is taught at all levels. A lot of math is at the core of kinetics, which is easy for an instructor to lecture about - leaving students bored, intimidated, and missing the point. The real power of kinetics lies in interpreting experimental data, building models from it of the molecular details of reactions, and testing the hypotheses by designing and performing new experiments. Kinetics isn’t a spectator’s sport and can’t be learned without participating. We’ve developed webZyme, which delivers the intellectual challenges of investigating a system by kinetics without the huge expenses of lab classes. With webZyme, the instructor defines a reaction mechanism for each student. It is up to the student to solve the puzzle by designing, executing, and analyzing virtual experiments. This engages students as they apply concepts from lectures in a meaningful way. Because these virtual experiments are delivered through a web-browser, there are no expensive instruments, no TAs, no chemicals, no training in unfamiliar techniques, no lab-space, no schedule-restrictions. The realism and flexibility of webZyme are demonstrated when students occasionally consider hypotheses never imagined by the instructor and then design and perform experiments to test them. Thus webZyme succeeds in fostering creative and critical thinking. IDF funding will support the efforts of new programmers as they test and debug the new version of webZyme and create a new user-friendly interface. |
| Psychological Development Through Children's Literature Shelly Schreier LSA - Psychology $500.00 |
This grant will help fund a revision of a special topics and first year seminar course Psychological Development Through Children’s Literature I will be teaching fall term 2018. Funds will help purchase additional books to enhance the educational experience for my students. I am looking to include books that promote empathy and moral development as well as update the picture books that are read in each class about physical and emotional development. Materials purchased will help expand on the young adult novels that students will be reading about resilience, diversity, and social justice. In addition the grant will provide resources expanding active learning activities by adding to my biography collection to include a broader representation of historical and contemporary figures. Finally, the grant will purchase books for a class known as Berenstain Bears Day, where students critically evaluate content in a broad selection of these classic children’s books. |
| Fabrication in the Fiber Arts Christianne Myers Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
As a costume designer and theatre artist my design aesthetic has been informed by my long history with the textile arts. I often infuse my choices with unique, manipulated textiles. Whether it’s marker and ribbon plaids, aging and distressing, or simply not settling for the original color of the fabric, as resources allow, I do not feel tethered to what is available in the store; all fabric is a blank canvas. This creative practice should be conveyed to students in out theatre technology courses. In the past fifteen years, the tools and materials available to fiber artists have changed. More options are available and some have been phased out. I will develop a series of teaching textile samples that incorporate surface treatment as well as new fabrication techniques. I hope to discover new techniques that will be integrated into practice and develop new instructional modules for our costume technology courses. |
| Adding Soil Science to the Urban Planning Students’ Toolkit Larissa Larsen Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
Urban planners help shape the built environment. This means that they are frequently asked to evaluate specific sites for their development or redevelopment potential. Increasingly, urban renewal is occurring upon previously developed sites for a variety of industrial and commercial purposes. The rise of urban agriculture in cities such as Detroit requires knowledge of each site’s soil quality. This includes the chemistry and toxin level, the physical aspects of the soil profiles, and the biology of an urban site. The majority of urban planning graduate students have little to no background in the natural sciences. Therefore, they lack the technical ability to understand why soil is so critical from an environmental and public health perspective. Creating a series of applied modules could supplement the urban planning student’s course work and improve his/her ability to identify key questions that must be answered as part of a site analysis. Training more competent planners will increase the health and resilience of all members of a city. In order for urban planning students to critically assess the soil beneath their feet, we propose to blend active, place-based learning with traditional lectures. The soil component will include five twenty-minute modules that cover basic areas of soil science and how to analyze soil. These modules would combine short lectures with video clips from the field and each module would end with a list of key learning takeaways. The video portions of the modules are important so students understand how to conduct basic soil sampling, how to interpret the results, and ‘see’ different soil horizons. Peter Pellitier, a PhD student in SNRE and a teaching assistant for the Soil Ecology class will offer the technical knowledge and demonstrate the basic field skills. Larissa Larsen will ensure the content is applied in nature and relevant to both greenfield and brownfield situations. Students will collect soil samples in conjunction with the modules. |
| IllumiNation: New American Works Recording Project: Recording Project featuring SMTD students and soloist Nancy Ambrose King Nancy King Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
I propose a recording project that will result in a recording of four (4) new works for oboe and orchestra or chamber ensemble, written by American composers, each of which represents a similar style of descriptive, picturesque, illuminating and extremely accessible music with a popular flair. Oboe performance majors at SMTD, of which there are 18 will actively participate in the preparation and recording process, by studying the scores to these new works, learning the techniques involved in performing the music, and being present at the recording sessions. The students will learn how to make a professional CD recording, and will be present at the sessions to observe and learn. The orchestra will consists of UM-SMTD graduate students and alumni, adding another dimension to the project as they interact with both their peers and professors. |
| Incorporating CRISPR-Cas9 Technology Into MCDB 429 $500.00 |
The long-term project goal is to bring an advanced, cutting edge research laboratory method into MCDB 429, the Cell and Molecular Biology Lab I have taught since 2002. It contains advanced methods, but a few can be replaced with others that will more adequately prepare students for strong research careers in the Biological sciences. The short term goal of the present application is to bring a new and advanced gene modification protocol using the CRISPR-Cas 9 system into the lab. This project includes the Instructors of the companion Cell and Molecular Biology lecture courses (MCDB 427 and 428) who will act as advisors on the project and who have extensive research experience in these areas: Dr. John Schiefelbein, Dr. Anuj Kumar, Dr. Janine Maddock, Dr Amy Chang, Dr Steven Clark and Dr. Ann Miller. The CRISPR- Cas9 system has exceptional power as a new research and clinical tool for almost an unlimited body of work on genes and DNA modifications leading to disease, and for genetic manipulations producing new molecular biology tools for the lab. Funds will be used to develop the two essential components of the system: two plasmids that cut DNA specifically and then guide RNA to produce a modified protein. The candidate genes for IQGAP proteins and for the cyclin B regular Aurora have been selected as initial targets. The addition of the CRISPR-Cas9 system, which has only been made possible very recently, will add an exciting and cutting edge technology to the syllabus for our students. |
| Development of an online novel for Japanese language learners at the novice level Yuta Mori LSA $500.00 |
Reading is one of the four main skills that is necessary to be continually developed when learning and using a language for effective communication, but reading skills tend to be less focused on than the other three skills at the novice level because of the difficulty to create texts on various topics due to the students’ limited vocabulary and grammar expressions. This project’s goal is to develop a visual novel that students (even at the novice level) can use to read Japanese for fun, practice grammar expressions, and learn Japanese culture at the same time. Visual novels are text heavy, but they usually have music and stills of characters to help you get absorbed into the story. The title of the novel is “Hello, Japan” from which students can read one chapter after they complete each lesson. The main character is a UM student who is now studying abroad in Tokyo. Along with reading, students are asked to answer multiple choice and typing questions for vocabulary and grammar review. Various cultural content such as how the college social life works in Japan and realistic situations that students studying abroad in Japan would encounter are incorporated into the novel at length, and I am confident that this novel will become a very useful material, mainly for reading practice and cultural understanding. |
| Filming the Future of Detroit (Markus Schmidt visit) $500.00 |
I am applying for CRLT funds to have Markus Schmidt, an award winning Berlin-based film director and film editor, come to my course to help my students learn the dynamics of dramaturgy and film editing in preparation for the production of their final film projects for the cultural anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies course, "Filming the Future of Detroit." In short, the course as a whole is an opportunity for students with no prior experience with filmmaking to learn to use film to engage Detroit and its future from personal, political, and historical perspectives. Over one semester, we simultaneously think, learn, and imagine Detroit through music, dance, anthropology, art, theater, architecture, literature, history, night life, day life, school life, social life, and life after school. The project is based on a model of community engagement that is the result of my ongoing research in Berlin on youth movements, migrant and post-migrant politics, and social change. Participants learn how to use the camera, how to edit, how to plan a shoot, and how to publicize. On December 16 and 17, we will screen the films in Detroit and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. |
| Practical Strategies and Ethical Reflections for Teaching about Detroit - an Interdisciplinary Faculty Discussion about Engaging Detroit in University Learning 2.0 $500.00 |
Detroit is often seen as an iconic example of urban decline, but how does one teach developing minds to grapple with Detroit in ways that capture its unique past, present, and future? To answer this question, and to explore the diverse ways that U-M faculty bring Detroit into their classrooms -- and the ways they take their classrooms into Detroit -- the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop Detroit Research Group has convened a panel discussion entitled "Teaching Detroit," which will take place at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Moderated by Associate Dean Angela Dillard, and with panelists including Stephen Ward (U-M Semester in Detroit), Ren Farley (U-M Sociology), Damani Partridge (U-M Anthropology), and Carolyn Loh (Urban Studies at Wayne State University), participants will discuss the specific learning objectives, learning outcomes and learning assessment tools they use to teach about Detroit. The conversation will also engage best practices for navigating ethical concerns that arise in these learning environments, especially with engaged and community-based learning strategies. Panel discussion will also serve as a resource for faculty and graduate students who want to bring Detroit into their classrooms in the future. |
| Large Course Evaluation and Practicum for Future Faculty Christi-Anne Castro Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
This project will evaluate new and extensive Canvas resources to be initiated in a large, core lecture course required for undergraduate SMTD music students and optional for LSA music majors/minors (Musicology 139, Fall 16). The modules of the Canvas site and the evaluation garnered from student activity and feedback will then be presented to future musicology faculty as part of the Winter 17 course on world/global music pedagogy. These doctoral students will be required to not only discuss the materials and the findings, but also to think about incorporating similar exercises and technology into the syllabi for world music courses they must create as part of their final projects. |
| Editing Hard Drive for Video Teaching $500.00 |
Editing is one of the most important processes in the production of any finished work. I teach Movie and Television Production, and for these media, editing is a process mediated heavily by hardware and software. In my classes I teach students how to take advantage of the software editing tools to construct and communicate the intellectual, emotional and conceptual takeaways of the work they are striving to produce. This past summer, LSA transitioned from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro as the primary editing software. Since I teach the software along with the conceptual knowledge necessary to successful editing, I need to have deep and thorough experience, and mastery, of the editing software. My Department, Screen Arts and Cultures, has purchased for me a new computer adequate to the demands of this new editing program. However, video editing requires an external hard drive to handle the massive data stream produced by the video cameras we use in my classes. Without a matched external hard drive, a computer will fight itself, simultaneously reading and writing video data, and will grind to a halt. I need an external hard drive matched to the new computer to take full advantage of my own research in learning the intricacies of the editing program. A fully compatible External Hard Drive is available (U of M Educational price) for slightly over $500. I am requesting $500 from this IDF grant and will make up the remainder from my RESIN funds to purchase this drive. |
| International Economic Development Program Alan Deardorff Public Policy $500.00 |
The IEDP, which is a 2-month course plus a 1-week trip that focuses on a different country each year, will go to Greece this year. After studying Greece’s policy issues through January and February in the course, we will travel there during the Spring Break, Feb 25-Mar 5. I last taught the course myself in 2013, with focus on Cape Verde. Because the course deals with a different country each year, the course material is new each year, as are the logistical details of traveling there and arranging a week of meetings with policy contacts in government, institutions, NGOs, and the private sector. The course is costly to undertake and while it is supported substantially by the Ford School and by a small charge to the participating students, it relies heavily on students and faculty doing fundraising from outside the Ford School. My request here is for the maximum $500 that the Instructional Development Fund might provide to contribute toward that need. The course will require substantial effort on the part of both the instructor and the students to assemble the course materials and attract knowledgeable speakers to the 2-month course. However, I don’t expect that either of those components will require funding, as there is a wealth of expertise about Greece on campus. The funding will therefore go into the budget for travel to Athens, for housing expenses there, and for transportation within the city as we attend meetings in various government and other offices. |
| "Agents of Change" Screening and Panel Discussion $400.00 |
This project involves a campus screening and panel discussion of _Agents of Change_, a new documentary that focuses on late 1960s campus activism around the formation of black and ethnic studies programs. _Agents of Change_ includes brief coverage of the Black Action Movement at the University of Michigan, and it draws explicit connections with contemporary activism related to race on college campuses. The panel discussion of the film will include students, staff, faculty, Co-Producer and Co-Director Abby Ginzberg, and a Detroit attorney who was a student activist at Cornell during the period featured in the film. The goals for the project are to: 1) deepen students’ knowledge of the history of campus-led efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; 2) enable students to make informed connections between earlier historical periods and current efforts to seek diversity, equity, and inclusion on college campuses; 3) create a space for dialogue about such issues among viewers from the university, the broader community, various disciplines, and different generations; 4) make the film part of the Askwith Media Center’s permanent collection; and 5) offer students enrolled in AAS 268 (“Community Collaborations: Race, Social Justice, and Engaged Learning”) an opportunity to organize a course-related campus event and to create an artistic response to the event that will be exhibited in GalleryDAAS during Winter term. The project is supported by the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, the Institute for the Humanities, the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Department of English. |
| Enrichment through Experience: Teaching Music to Students in Under-Resourced Contexts Kate Fitzpatrick Music, Theatre & Dance $497.00 |
This grant will provide students enrolled in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance course entitled “Teaching Music to Underserved Students” with opportunities for engaged experiential learning within urban settings. This course will explore the complexities of teaching music in underserved contexts, and include topics such as the complex constructs of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culturally responsive pedagogy, and reciprocal community engagement. In addition to scholarly readings and discussions on these important topics, students will engage directly with underserved music programs and urban communities. The two major experiences that will be funded include a poverty simulation workshop and a field trip to Detroit. |
| Name That Scenario Expansion $495.00 |
A critical skill for students in introductory statistics courses is the ability to select the appropriate statistical test for a given scenario. Historically, the Stats 250 course, like similar courses on other campuses, has assessed this skill using a standard pen-and-paper matching exercise. However, there has been little guidance for students to develop this skill set. Over the last several years, an online tool entitled “Name That Scenario” has been created to aide students in practicing this skill. As the applet requires a database of scenarios in order to generate a student question, this tool has also created opportunities for students to generate content - an important step in the learning process. This funding will be used for two related projects. The first is to employ a graduate or experienced undergraduate student to curate the content of the applet. This will include reviewing the existing scenarios for clarity and biases, providing detailed solutions to facilitate student learning from incorrect responses, and generation of new and topical content. The second project is making the applet openly available for anyone to use. The applet is currently hosted behind a login to the ECoach system. A version will remain here for use by enrolled students in Stats 250, as it can track progress and avoid repeat questions here. The new version will be formatted for easy access on mobile devices and by differently-abled users. |
| Cooking a Moderate-cost, Healthy, Culturally-appropriate meal for the families at the Ronald McDonald House Margot Finn LSA $420.00 |
What does it take to prepare a healthy, culturally-appropriate meal on a budget? In this activity, students will work in teams to create a menu, get the ingredients, and prepare dinner for the residents of the Ronald McDonald house of Ann Arbor. They will have to decide what a “culturally appropriate” meal for a group of families they know nothing about might look like and what counts as a “healthy” meal. They'll have to figure out what they have the knowledge and skill to cook competently. They may have to choose between convenience and cost when it comes to ready-prepared ingredients. And they'll have to work together to execute their meal plan. This activity will enrich our discussions about kitchen labor and give students a greater sense of the complexity involved in creating policies that attempt to get Americans to cook more or assume that doing so will make them healthier or improve their lives. |
| Bedside Ultrasound for the Pediatric Intensivist Kevin Kuo Medical School $405.00 |
Bedside ultrasound improves diagnostic ability and leads to changes in patient management. Adult emergency and critical care physicians have recognized the utility of bedside ultrasound and issued guidelines regarding bedside ultrasound training and utilization. Despite recognizing its utility, formal bedside ultrasound training is limited for pediatric intensive care physicians. The pediatric critical care fellowship is designing and implementing a curriculum in bedside ultrasound for its fellows. Our program consists of an introductory course followed by actual bedside ultrasound during routine practice. The introductory course includes both didactic and hands-on training sessions covering US basics, “knobology,” and focused clinical applications. After completing this course, fellows would perform bedside ultrasound during routine clinical practice and securely save the images and their interpretations for the purposes of quality assurance, expert review, feedback, teaching, and ultimately, institutional credentialing. Periodic guided training sessions led by interdisciplinary faculty trained in bedside ultrasound would provide opportunities to develop expertise using the principles of deliberate practice. A program of learner assessment includes pre/post-tests, hands on testing stations, image and interpretation review, and learner assessment during follow-up training sessions. We will assess fellow progress in performing bedside ultrasound (number of studies performed), the quality of their images and interpretations (via evaluation template), and the number of studies that changed patient management and/or outcomes (retrospective review). |
| Short Resource Guide for Audiovisual Essays $500.00 |
Compilation of a short resource guide that will introduce students to the concept of an audiovisual essay while outlining several different possible models (along with corresponding examples of each) they might choose to employ in creating audiovisual essays. While designed for use in SAC 236 (which currently asks students create a short audiovisual essay that makes an original argument about one of the films screened for the course, using audiovisual evidence to support their arguments), I anticipate that this resource guide might prove useful to students in other SAC courses as well as to students in related disciplines. We plan to place it online once it has been completed. |
| Transdisiplinary focus- Research opportunities in Dance and Science Amy Chavasse Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
One-week residency by Beth Graczyk for teaching, talks, performances, symposia and conversations interrogating the creative process in art and science through a feminist lens, shaped by inter and trans-disciplinary experiences. Many of our Dance BFA students are dual majors, and the sciences are one area that many dance students choose to work in alongside their performing and technical training in dance. With this proposal, I will seek ways to illuminate the benefits of cross-pollination – how research methods and inquiry into the creative process in various disciplines apply widely and vibrantly. In making professional and pedagogical connections to Graczyk and her work, I’ll also benefit from locating language and methods to spark curiosity in my students. I’ll be able to offer pragmatic advice and perspectives on how inter and trans-disciplinary research and professions proliferate in 21st century callings. My network of connections outside the U-M community, formed through years of teaching, performing and working as a guest artist internationally, grows and accrues back to my work in the classroom through initiatives like this. Additionally, it is important to address the gender inequities that many of our students will face in both the professional dance world and in the sciences. |
| Creativity and Cognition Marianetta Porter Art & Design Elizabeth Hay Art & Design $500.00 |
IDF Project Summary Title: Creativity and Cognition The Creativity and Cognition proposal seeks support in the amount of $500 for the engagement of Robert Root-Bernstein, Professor of Physiology and noted expert in the field of creativity and cognition, to visit the Stamps Senior Integrative Projects Studio on Thurs., October 6, 2016. His highly-regarded book, Sparks of Genius: 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, examines the common “thinking tools” of creative geniuses across a range of disciplines revealing the links between internal imagination and external experience. The 13 “thinking tools” he outlines—observing, imaging, abstracting, recognizing patterns, forming patterns, analogizing, body thinking, empathizing, dimensional thinking, modeling, playing, transforming, and synthesizing—form the bedrock of the Integrative Projects Studio experience. Dr. Root-Bernstein’s insights about the roles these cognitive processes play in the creative enterprise will expose students to a varied range of mental and physical tools for their use in envisioning imaginative approaches and innovative solutions in their art and design practices. |
