Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Workshops in Chinese Medicine and Chinese Opera for First-Year Seminar "China in Ten Words" Emily Wilcox LSA - Asian Languages and Cultures $500.00 |
I am applying for funding to offer two guest workshops – one in Chinese medicine and one in Chinese opera – for my freshman seminar course ASIAN 251 First Year Seminar "China in Ten Words: Foundational Ideas in Chinese Culture." The course teaches students to apply key concepts from early Chinese philosophy to understanding Chinese culture today. Students read primary philosophical texts in translation and study secondary sources that explain these texts. In addition, students conduct research on the connections between these philosophical ideas and modern Chinese culture. By holding these workshops, I hope to give students a chance to engage hands-on with two important aspects of modern Chinese culture – medicine and opera – in an experiential learning session that is guided by professionals working in each field. As professionals in these fields, the guest speakers will be able to introduce students to techniques and specialized vocabulary that is outside the scope of the readings and class discussions. For example, the doctors will demonstrate pulse-taking, acupuncture, and cupping methods from Chinese medicine. In addition, they will explain how these treatment methods connect directly to the ideas of "qi" and "yinyang," the two key works covered in the first unit. The Chinese opera practitioners will perform a piece of opera and teach student to enact basic singing and movement techniques. In addition, they will explain how opera performance engages the aesthetic concepts of "yun" (rhyme) and "xiang" (image), which are the keywords for that unit. |
| Breaking Down the Academy Walls Mark Clague Music, Theatre & Dance $500.00 |
Through "Breaking Down the Academy Walls" I connect students in my musicology courses with informants from outside the University to make their learning real. A primary goal of this project is to spark my students' imaginations about the role of art making in American society and to offer models of real-world musicians who are making a difference in American cultural life. An Instructional Development Fund award would assist in covering the modest but still required expenses necessary to provide for three visitors this term. |
| Guest Participants in "Medical Humanities and Jewish Studies" (JUDAIC 318/517) $500.00 |
For my new workshop course, Medical Humanities and Judaic Studies (JUDAIC 318/517), I am bringing in a variety of people who are involved in healthcare to sit side-by-side with students and participate in class discussion. By bringing guests into selected class meetings, I am offering students the opportunity to discuss texts with those who can offer real-world perspectives on what it is to witness/experience suffering, make complex end-of-life decisions, and nurture clinician-patient relations. Moreover, as many of the guests are extraordinarily accomplished healthcare professionals, they model an appreciation of the Humanities for students. |
| Corsica Project (7-12 November) Martin Walsh LSA $490.00 |
Research, rehearsal, and performance of two plays, La Moralite de l'aveugle et du boiteux (1496) by Andrieu de la Vigne and Rough for Theatre 1 by Samuel Beckett for the festival: San Martinu in Patrimonio: Festivale d'autumnu di a ruralita in Corsica, 7-12 November 2013. |
| Video Game Music Industry Expert Interview Honoraria Matthew Thompson Music, Theatre & Dance $400.00 |
I write to request 400 dollars to conduct four virtual (Skype) interviews with various top-level industry professionals throughout the semester as part of classroom activities. Through work on my game music blog, videogamemusicnerd.blogspot.com, I've made connections with guest speakers: Karen Collins (Associate Professor, University of Waterloo) who is the leading game audio scholar in the western world; Brian Schmidt (founding member of the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG)) who is a composer, audio programmer, game audio consultant, and creator of GameSoundCon; and George Sanger, author of The Fat Guide to Game Audio, game audio think-tank guru, and well respected composer, and Damian Kastbauer, audio implementor and co-creator of gameaudiopodcast. Each conversation will be timed to coincide with and reinforce classroom discussions of similar topics. For instance, the interview with Damian Kastbauer will take place during the section of the class when we're discussing audio implementation and the conversation with George Sanger will be concurrent with beginning our Composition Quest! In these interactive conversations, I'll act as moderator and give the students the chance to speak directly to professional experts, fleshing out class readings and discussions. As a way to extend the function of these interviews, I plan to record these video conversations for re-use and would also like to make these recorded interviews available via the UM-library for access by the community. |
| Investigating Student Learning Outcomes in the Arabic Program at the University of Michigan $500.00 |
Our project seeks to document learning outcomes of Arabic students at the University of Michigan. We plan to use this research to enhance our Arabic language teaching strategies and to define and refine our program goals and methods. Additionally, our program can serve as a model for other language programs across the University and will provide an opportunity for inter-departmental collaboration and innovation. |
| Non-governmentality: Designs, Cultures, Politics Andrew Herscher Architecture and Urban Planning $500.00 |
Slavic 471/Arch 603 "Non-governmentality: Designs, Cultures, Politics" will be a seminar taught concurrently at the University of Michigan, by Associate Prof. Andrew Herscher, and at Syracuse University, by Assistant Professor Yutaka Sho. The course will explore a new model of co-teaching; instead of a team of teachers teaching a lecture class, as in the conventional co-teaching model, we will teach the same seminar at different universities. Staging a co-taught course as a seminar in separate locations, our model combines the pedagogical benefits of multiple teachers with those of a limited-enrollment seminar. Our model also has a particular relationship to non-governmentality, the subject of our course, as the form of co-teaching we are exploring is based not upon top-down administrative decisions but peer-to-peer initiatives between course faculty and students. We will establish two links between the seminars at Michigan and Syracuse: one, web-based video conferencing and blogging that will connect the seminars during and between class meeting and, two, two field trips during the semester that will allow the seminars to physically meet. |
| Holocaust Memorial Center Field Trip $350.00 |
I am hereby submitting an application for the funding of a field trip to the Farmington Hills Holocaust Memorial Center. I am teaching a senior seminar this coming fall for the Program of International and Comparative Studies (PICS) that discusses genocides of the 20th century from a comparative angle. The study of genocide and the possibility to compare one atrocity to another is not uncontroversial. This course by no means seeks to determine which genocide was the worse nor judge the degree of horrors based on a pornography of pain. Instead the goal is—through a variety of primary and interdisciplinary scholarly works, literature, oral histories, court cases, film and material culture—to dive into a critical comparative analysis while at the same time preserving the historic specificity of the various genocides. Questions we will ask are: How do genocides come about? What motivates people to partake or oppose the violence? How is genocide remembered, forgotten, and taught? The field trip to the memorial center will be a hands on experience for students to work out how the holocaust is remembered, taught and represented in Michigan, and they will have an opportunity to discuss it in comparison to the cultural memory of the holocaust in Germany and Poland, as well as with the commemorative practices of the Rwandan genocide. |
| Student Focus Groups In Conjunction with Revamping NES Curriculum $500.00 |
The Curriculum Committee of the Department of Near Eastern Studies has identified the critical need for detailed student input and feedback, in the form of two Student Focus Groups consisting of NES majors and other active and engaged students in the department, while we are in the process of conducting a major re-vamping and overhaul of the Curriculum of Near Eastern Studies, ranging from re-designing the major, designing and integrating a range of large course initiatives into the new configuration, re-shaping the way we 'appear' to students and their interface with our departmental listings, our visibility, advising, and more. As a committee we have been consulting and generating innovative ideas, but feel we are lacking the 'student-eye-view' of all this, and that we need that at this juncture. We would like to conduct one Focus Group of graduating seniors before the end of the Winter 2013 term, and another one in the Fall of 2013. Having learned from the CRLT staff we consulted with that it is common practice and necessary to 'incentivize' student participation in such Focus groups (in the form of $25 gift cards or food/meals) we are applying for $500 for this purpose, $250 for each group of 10 students in the two focus groups. |
| New Course on Film Translation $500.00 |
I am developing a new course on film translation, the subject of one of my books. Inspired by both the LSA theme semester on translation and last semester's conference on the place of the liberal arts in the research university, I will offer a course that combines theory and practice of subtitling and dubbing. We will start the course by reading theoretical work, along with descriptions of the history of film translation. The latter two thirds of the book will be split between actual subtitling and dubbing projects, the latter involving voice actors performing in the North Quad studios. This grant will provide for student workers that will help design the technical side of the class, from software selection to workflow design to troubleshooting. One student will work with the subtitling component, the other on dubbing. |
| Photographic and Encaustic Processes Workshop Lisa Steichmann Art & Design $500.00 |
I propose to attend a four day workshop at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, in Woodstock, NY, from June 21 through June 24, 2014. The workshop is Photographic & Encaustic Processes. I teach Digital Photography at the Stamps School of Art, and I am always seeking to expand the methods and processes that are used in manipulating digital negatives. My teaching in the Stamps School is centered on the use of tools, materials, and processes. I have incorporated alternative processes in ARTDES 121 and ARTDES 300 courses I have taught, and in the ARTDES 173 courses I currently teach. What I learn in this workshop, I will directly transfer to students as I work one-on-one and in groups with students seeking solutions to the design and composition problems they encounter in my assignments. Encaustic is a wax-based process that allows the artist to enhance the dimensionality of an image, giving the illusion of three dimensions, the illusion of space, adding translucent layers, adding to the body and substance of the image. This is an interdisciplinary workshop that will afford me the opportunity to create new work and experiment with alternative processes. The workshop also covers archival processes, methods of presentation, and basic safety. All of this will directly impact my current classes, as I am continuously revising my course to bring additional methods for students to attempt. This increases their vocabulary in terms of the visual language they use to communicate in creatively solving art and design problems. |
| Teaching ME 211 using a tablet computer Liu Allen Engineering $500.00 |
I am planning to teach Introduction to Solid Mechanics using a tablet computer. The ability to include more sophisticated drawings will allow me to describe the concepts better. It will also enable to write to the project while facing the student, even as I walk about the room. I believe the utility of this technique will increase my teaching effectiveness and maximize student learning. |
| Using a tablet computer to teach BME 418 Ariella Shikanov Engineering $500.00 |
I am planning to teach BME 418, which is a math intense biological course for biomedical engineerings, using a tablet computer. The ability to solve and derive complicated equations combined with biological concepts and images in power point will allow me to describe the concepts better. Additionally, several athletes in this class cannot attend the lectures, which requires recording. I believe using this technology will maximize my interactions with the students and greatly improve the quality of the recorded lectures, which can be viewed by all the students for the review purposes. |
| Rocket Science 101 Dorm Room Lab Mark Moldwin Engineering $279.00 |
Develop a rocket launching activity for student teams to compete in designing, building and launching a soda straw rocket using a simple air powered launcher. The activity is designed to help students observe the impact of different design decisions on the aerodynamics (as measured by distance a rocket travels). The Dorm Room Lab will be implemented in AOSS 101 (Introduction to Rocket Science and Engineering) that currently has 200 students enrolled with a wait-list. |
| Promoting Transition to Professional Practice of Senior Nursing Students through the Use of Pagers in the Clinical Setting Deborah Price Nursing Elizabeth Brough Nursing $500.00 |
The preparation of baccalaureate graduate nurses in becoming confident, competent practitioners as they enter professional practice is challenged by increasingly complex health care delivery systems that consist of high patient acuity and increased nursing workload. One aspect of professional role development includes efficient and effective patient and interdisciplinary communication. Nurses use pagers in the University of Michigan Health Care System to communicate with patients and other health care team members. The student is left out of the loop of communication when they do not have the ability to receive pages from the patient, or other disciplines. They also do not experience prioritization of immediate demands communicated through the pager system, respond promptly to patient care needs or experience typical competing demands placed on the nurse. In short, they are not being socialized to the entire role of the professional nurse, which may contribute to decreased confidence and/or ‘readiness to practice' upon graduation. Senior nursing students experience clinical immersion in N457/459 which is an apprenticeship-type course designed to promote transition of the student to professional nursing practice. It is proposed that students placed on UMHS moderate or general care units be provided with pagers during this clinical immersion course. Positive student outcomes should include increased communication, autonomy, prioritization, delegation and confidence in their nursing role. Implementation of this innovation will occur in the winter, 2013 semester, and again in the fall 2013 semester. Evaluation will occur through survey feedback from nurse mentors and students following implementation. |
| Living with diabetes: a student experience to enhance knowledge and assess attitudes Barbara Freeland Nursing Cynthia Fenske Nursing Deborah Price Nursing $500.00 |
Diabetes prevalence has been increasing rapidly in the United States and worldwide. It is estimated that more than 26 million Americans are affected. This chronic disease when uncontrolled can lead to devastating complications and costs billions in health care dollars. For those living with diabetes, the disease requires continuous self-management, touching every aspect of life. Students will encounter people with diabetes in every clinical setting as well as their personal life and throughout their career. Having an understanding of living with chronic disease through the life cycle is imperative. Our aim is to provide students with a ‘lived experience' of diabetes in addition to the standard didactic content. They will take on a persona of a person with diabetes and practice self-management skills within the confines of a simulated environment. Faculty will provide sample challenges via text messaging to simulate various situations encountered by someone living with diabetes, for example: challenges with food intake, medications, and fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Students will be asked to problem solve the situation as if they were living with diabetes. There will be no actual use of medication or injection of any kind. Students will journal about their experiences and will be tested pre and post experience about diabetes knowledge and attitudes using previously validated tests. |
| Evaluating teaching strategies in an online course, BIT 330 Scott Moore Business $400.00 |
I teach BIT330 "Web-based Information Resources" to approximately 30 University of Michigan undergraduates (primarily business students). It is primarily an online class. I created a Drupal Web site to support the class (at http://bk4a.com/bit330f2012/) along with 43 instructional YouTube videos (under the username drsamoore). Through a survey and two focus groups, this project investigates the effectiveness teaching strategies implemented in this class, especially the highly interactive online components and their impacts on student motivation and learning. |
| Free Women of Color in Africa and Its Diaspora. A Roundtable in Conjunction with DAAS/History/Women’s Studies 336 (African American Women’s History, Part I.) Fall 2012 Martha Jones LSA $500.00 |
In fall 2012 DAAS/History/Women's Studies 336 will organize and host a public roundtable discussion on free women on color in African and its Diaspora. The roundtable will bring to our campus community a discussion begun in June 2012 at an international symposium held in the city of Saint-Louis in Senegal: Colloques internationaux Saint-Louis du Sénégal et La Nouvelle-Orléans : Histoire comparée et croisée de deux cités portuaires de part et d'autre de l'Atlantique du XVIIe au XXe siècle [An international colloquium on Saint-Louis, Senegal and New Orleans: Historical comparisons and connections between two Atlantic world port cities, 17th to 20th centuries.] Speakers will discuss free women of color and entrepreneurship, sexuality, and politics across the Diaspora.Professor Emily Clark (Tulane University) on free women of color in New Orleans, Louisiana; Professor Jean Hébrard (EHESS, Paris and visitor at the University of Michigan) on free women of color in colonial Saint-Domingue; and, Professor Hilary Jones (University of Maryland) on free women of color in Saint-Louis due Senegal. We are especially excited to bring back to campus Hilary Jones, who was a DuBois-Mandela-Rodney postdoctoral fellow in CAAS some years ago. DAAS/History/Women's Studies 336 devotes 60 perxent of its class time to study of free women of color in the United States, in both slave and post-emancipation societies. This roundtable will expand and provide broader context for our in-class discussions and will encourage students to think comparatively across DAAS's three geographic areas of interest: the U.S., the Caribbean and Africa. |
| Field Trip to Detroit to see Fela Musical/Class visits by Choreographer/Artistic Director and Selected Cast Members Kwasi Ampene LSA $500.00 |
My undergrad seminar, Performing Arts and Power in Africa, interrogates the interconnections between performing arts, culture, and society by asking specifically how the arts constitute potent means of maintaining, contesting, and negotiating power. Fela Kuti, the Nigerian and African music icon, is well noted for using his music to challenge the shortcomings of successive governments in postcolonial Nigeria and, by extension, African states. To coincide with the broadway musical in Detroit, I have assigned students in my seminar a project from February 1-28, based on our class discusses, readings, and our field trip to Detroit to watch the musical. Additionally, I am working with the producer to bring selected members of the cast to my class at U-M for the students to engage in conversations with them about their experiences in the musical. All these activities will result in a seminar paper that is due on February 28. |
| Lecture to class $400.00 |
This funding will be used to support a visiting speaker (Lorry Fenner, a U-M Ph.D.) from Washington who served on the staff of the 9/11 Commission. The class in which she will speak is History 360, "September 11 and its Consequences." |
| Promoting Collaborative and Active Learning in GSI Instruction Lisa Disch LSA $486.00 |
We propose to fund a graduate student (currently the GSM or Graduate Student Mentor for our GSI training course) to develop curriculum and instructional materials for consolidation and reorganization of our professional development sequence. These funds will go exclusively to support the development of curriculum and instructional materials by the Graduate Student Mentor who has been teaching 993 for the past 3 years, and who will be teaching it again this Fall and Winter in the new version. The Department will provide matching funding as needed for copying and purchase of instructional materials. |
| Bebkaan Nd'enwemi:Conversation Comparisons $500.00 |
Bebkaan Nd'enwemi:Conversation Comparisons Anishinaabemowin is the language of three distinct ethnic groups: the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Odawa. It is spoken on over 200 reservations and first nations in the United States and Canada but it is an endangered language today. Anishinaabemowin classes at the University of Michigan have reached well beyond this campus and the state and have the potential to not only contribute to reversing the loss of the language, but also to contribute to sociolinguistic research across dialects. This project would archive contemporary conversations and dramatic narrative across genders, generations and geography. Conversations will be collected by Howard Kimewon as he visits communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. These conversations will then be posted on the Noongwa Anishinaabemjig website (www.ojibwe.net) and incorporated into the second and third year Ojibwe courses AmCult 322, AmCult 323, AmCult 422 and AmCult 423. Conversations will be preserved and mined for verb use, sentence structure and pronunciation variation to be added to the second year courses. Narrative samples, often presented as dramatic retellings of events and traditional tales will be saved and used in the third year classes where they will be part of additional critical comparisons and translation assignments added to that course. |
