Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Evaluating and Refining the Health Equity via Anti-Racist Teaching (HEART) training Paul Fleming Public Health Melissa Creary Public Health $10000.00 |
The “Health Equity via Anti-Racist Teaching”, or HEART project is aiming to transform the way that Public Health and allied health sciences is taught so that future health professionals will learn in an anti-racist environment and have an anti-racist toolkit to address inequities. The HEART project is an online course to train health instructors (including graduate student instructors) on how to implement anti-racist teaching principles and reduce barriers to anti-racist teaching methods. The curriculum is already created and includes six different modules with readings and about 10 hours of new recorded video content (e.g. a combination of video lectures and montages of anti-racist teaching experts). The initial build of this training program has been funded by Poverty Solutions and the School of Public Health. To further the powerful potential impact of this project, the creators would like to use $10,000 for mixed-methods evaluation to refine the effectiveness of this training and create an implementation guide for health training programs to utilize this training content for a group of instructors (i.e. GSI training or faculty professional development). The evaluation money would be used for conducting focus groups of faculty and GSI that will go through the curriculum. In response to this evaluation, the curriculum can be revised and refined, preparing it to be further implemented and distributed to Schools of Public Health, Nursing, Social Work, and beyond. |
| Musical Theatre Wellness Initiative Catherine A. Walker Music, Theatre & Dance $10000.00 |
The Musical Theatre Department is strongly committed to the health and well-being of our student and faculty community. This 3-tiered initiative is designed to enhance the wellness of the musical theatre students and provide professional development for faculty. This collaborative, multidimensional proposal involves 90 students and 18 faculty and includes Physical Assessments for Injury Prevention; Vocal Health & Pedagogy; Somatic Training in the Art of Conscious Breathing. As a direct result of the pandemic, e-learning became common practice and the hours of use of electronic devices increased substantially. Studies have linked this increased device usage to diminished physical and emotional health in both students and faculty. There has been a noticeable change in the student's connection to their bodies, breathing, posture, and alignment as well as diminished concentration, anxiety, digestive health, and quality sleep. This type of training will enrich the curriculum and teach awareness, the practice of self-care, and wellness, which will serve our students as they enter this demanding profession. This Wellness Initiative will support the physical, vocal, and emotional health of both our students and faculty. The health of an individual directly impacts the health of the community writ large. Since musical theatre requires collaboration and engagement in group activities, this wellness initiative will have an impact on the health of both the individual and the collective community. This proposal is in alignment with the University of Michigan’s commitment to a campus-wide Well-being Collective to make our campus a better place to live, work, and learn. |
| Supported Study Groups in Key Second Year STEM Courses Nina White LSA - Mathematics Greg Bodwin Engineering - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Engineering - Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Kolby Gadd Education $10000.00 |
Inspired by programs such as Treisman’s Emerging Scholars Program, this project will create, support, and refine models for out-of-class study groups in the specific context of key second-year courses for Math, Computer Science, and Statistics majors at our institution. The goals of these groups include building students’ content knowledge, self-sufficient collaborative learning skills, and sense of belonging in the discipline. This proposal aims, specifically, to evaluate and compare distinct models for out-of-class study groups. The models range from intensive support (with graduate student “guides”, extra faculty office hours, and more) to less supported (reflection assignments). There are two primary undergraduate populations these groups are serving: first is MaCSS scholars---a recently funded scholarship program for low-income math, stats, and computer science majors; second is students, more generally, in Math 214, Math 215, and EECS 203. Best practices for supporting these study groups that learn from this implementation and evaluation will be shared broadly with instructors and coordinators of mathematics, statistics, and computer science courses at the University. |
| Format, Sources, Framework: A Three-Fold Redesign of a Survey of Early Christianity $6000.00 |
This grant would support the redesign of a historical survey of early Christianity on three fronts. The instructor and two graduate students involved will explore potential changes to the traditional lecture format and select a model to run in Winter 2024; they will generate a broader range of historical sources for students to work with in the course than has been used in the past, part of which will comprise the development of assorted research dossiers to support a mid-term group project; and they will consult with other instructors of the survey on its framework, specifically to break away from the traditional chronological presentation of material. The work will take place over two summers: Summer 2023, when the consultation, planning, and research for the initial iteration of the redesigned course in Winter 2024 will take place, and Summer 2024, when evaluation of the new course and new adjustments will be made. |
| Worldbuilding Game Alina Nazmeeva Architecture and Urban Planning $5991.58 |
This proposal seeks funding to create, test and evaluate an advanced prototype of a creative game, titled Worldbuilding Game that facilitates and structures interdisciplinary and collaborative learning in design. The continuous development of the Worldbuilding Game as a method of teaching and learning serves two major goals that improve the existing teaching practices in design disciplines and beyond. First, as an educator in the design field I am particularly interested in implementing gamified learning practices in my classes as a way to introduce inclusive and collaborative learning. Worldbuilding Game is a departure from the existing design studio teaching practice that often excessively focuses on individual work. As a method of inclusive learning, and a part of anti-racist and inclusive pedagogy, Worldbuilding Game has a capacity to incorporate interests, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, creative proposals, and ideas from all students in a gamified, playful context. Second, gamification methods – using game elements in non-game contexts – are utilized to promote change and challenge both disciplinary epistemic brackets and siloed knowledge. In the design studio classroom context, worldbuilding aids in crafting a rigorous contextual framework that supersedes singular imaginations, contingent on individual experiences, positions and affinities. Going beyond thinking as an urban designer or an architect, during this exercise students engage in role-playing actors, with perspectives, affinities and positions that may differ or oppose their own. |
| Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair Modules Sarah Oliver Music, Theatre & Dance $9999.90 |
Far too long traditional modes of teaching theatrical makeup within university training programs have privileged Caucasian skin tones and hair texture; however, the pandemic has afforded the Design & Production (D&P) program in the Department of Theatre & Drama, in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) the time to examine and reflect on our own delivery of courses in stage makeup and methods of creating more equitable and inclusive delivering of training in theatrical makeup to all performance and design students. The goal of this grant is to ensure that all SMTD dance, theatre, musical theatre, and opera students are training in makeup and hair skills that reflect the diverse community in which they will be working and performing. By creating a series of online theatrical makeup module courses that train our students and performers not only how to apply makeup in the dressing room but guide them through the process of how to adjust and refine makeup for all skin and hair types in each of SMTD’s three main performance spaces we strive for a more equitable and unified way to teach stage makeup and hair to all design and performance majors, at SMTD. We evaluated lessons learned during the pandemic about leveraging a hybrid approach to course delivery content and how that can be a more powerful and equitable approach to capitalize on creating a sustainable teaching module to educate the entire department and beyond. |
| Michigan Difficult IntraVenous Access (Mi-DIVA) Simulation Model Ivan Co Medical School Brendan Munzer Medical School Cindy Hsu Medical School $10000.00 |
“Without studying, preparation, and practice, you’re leaving the outcome to fate” - Kobe Bryant (1978-2020) Vascular access is a life-saving procedure for critically ill patients. Its scope encompasses commonly performed peripheral intravenous access to rarer central venous cannulations for vasopressor administration, hemodynamic monitoring, and mechanical support. Training clinicians to achieve mastery in central venous access has largely relied on task trainers to simulate cannulating normal vessels under ultrasound guidance. However, the commercially available task trainers are costly and unable to simulate patients with difficult vascular access that are common in real-life clinical scenarios. As such, learners cannot consistently achieve procedural competency in situations where prompt central venous access is critical for patient care. To solve this problem, we will create a novel, high-fidelity, and low-cost simulation model for difficult central venous access called the Michigan Difficult IntraVenous Access (Mi-DIVA). We will then demonstrate Mi-DIVA’s impact on emergency medicine learners’ central venous access procedural competency with a mixed method approach. |
| The M-COPE Curriculum Series for Pediatric Cardiology Fellows – Promoting Mental Health in both our Patients and Physicians Amanda McCormick Medical School Melissa Cousino Medical School Sonal Owens Medical School Carolyn Vitale Medical School Heang Lim Medical School $5921.00 |
Aim: To design, implement and rigorously study a curriculum aimed at patient mental health in children with congenital heart disease as well as physician well-being for pediatric cardiology trainees. Background: Through limited studies, it is known that children with congenital heart disease have increased incidence of mental health disorders than their peers, yet are underrecognized. Mental health disorders are associated with poor outcomes in adults with congenital heart disease. Currently, no formal training exists for pediatric cardiology fellows in mental health. Additionally, physician and fellow physician burnout and mental health is known to result in poor patient care as well as increased rates of physician suicide. Approach: Design of a holistic and interdisciplinary led 8-12 month didactic based train-the-trainer model curriculum, integrating mental health topics directed at both the mental health of the patient and the physician. Pediatric cardiology trainees will learn to screen their patients for mental health disorders and facilitate referral, as well as participate in self screening for burnout and specific anxieties related to fellowship, and learn strategies to increase resilience and self-care. Future Directions: If successful, this curriculum may be reproducible to other subspecialties and/or other centers for collaboration in larger multi-center studies. |
| Equity in Architectural Education: Stacked Mentorship Program Irene Hwang Architecture and Urban Planning $10000.00 |
The Equity in Architectural Education Consortium (EAEC) is an ongoing initiative at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning aimed to reduce inequities for students of color and other underrepresented minorities in professional architecture programs. By building a series of strategic partnerships and programs outside the predefined curricular frameworks, the EAEC Stacked Mentorship Program will foreground the experiences, perspectives, and expertise from a diverse group of professionals and scholars from historically underrepresented minorities in order to enrich, transform, and evolve our collective understanding of what is to shape architectural education as an agent of societal change. We plan to use those new understandings to: 1) inform curricular change; 2) deliver new educational experiences to our students; and 3) to provide unique opportunities for faculty professional development through collaborative exchange. |
| Urology Surgical Collaborative Resident Education Curriculum (SCoRE Curriculum) Yooni Yi Medical School $6000.00 |
Urology Surgical Collaborative Resident Education Curriculum (SCoRE Curriculum) – A solution to the challenges of the rapidly evolving landscape of urology residency The field of urology is a rapidly expanding field and research has suggested that recently graduated urology residents do not feel ready for independent practice. Currently, a dedicated surgical curriculum outside the OR is absent. This presents an opportunity to modify surgical training to better meet the operative needs of trainees. In light of this gap, we sought to create a dedicated surgical curriculum incorporating video-based review. This curriculum would incorporate index cases – initially robotic and laparoscopic cases. Two faculty members from two different institutions would serve as panelist to display expert videos with annotation. This would then be followed by review of two trainee videos to provide constructive feedback and advice. A library of videos and video reviews will be created on a secure website for further review. We anticipate this curriculum will increase the trainee level of confidence, increase autonomy, and ultimately improve surgical education. |
| Faculty Empowerment Michael McElroy Music, Theatre & Dance $10000.00 |
Faculty Empowerment, created and facilitated by Michael Thornhill and Karen Olivo, is a series of workshops designed to investigate the ways in which tradition, culture, race, identity, and trauma inform artistic training. Through listening sessions and in person workshops, faculty develop applicable tools to build culturally inclusive pedagogies, equity forward teaching strategies, and community building structures to dismantle and innovate training for today’s young artist. Faculty Empowerment recognizes the individual and community trauma experienced as a result of the pandemic, taking of Black lives and subsequent protests that erupted across our nation during mandatory remote learning. As musical theatre training requires students to utilize the full self, a shift in training is needed to encompass the trauma that we all now hold. While building a specially designed program to help us meet the present moment, Faculty Empowerment will partner with University of Michigan’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office as well as Counseling and Psychological Services to create a framework that addresses the whole person in artistic training practice. By teaching alternative classroom culture structures, principled disagreement strategies, and somatic mindfulness, Faculty Empowerment will provide skills and tools for faculty to engaged today’s young artists as we navigate our new normal in the Department of Musical Theatre. |
| A UM Student Facilitated Digital Wellness Conference for K-12 Students and Caregivers Elizabeth Keren-Kolb Education Kristin Fontichiaro Information $5935.00 |
Prior to COVID, pre-teenagers (age 11-13) primarily developed their independence in their physical school settings, engaging with peers in-person through academic and non-academic spaces. The COVID pandemic changed this developmental norm; remote learning led many pre-teens to be isolated and forced to replace their in-person growth with socializing on digital devices. While it was not uncommon pre-COVID for adolescents to use digital tools, pre-teens engaged in them earlier in their development and more often than did their pre-COVID counterparts. Often, digital communications were the tweens’ only way to socialize with peers. As a result, caregivers were challenged to quickly create digital tool parameters for their children. This rapid adoption was not universally embraced: caregivers struggled with the amount of screen time and number of applications their pre-teens were engaging in. Furthermore, both the tweens and caregivers were often unaware of the implications of what the tweens were and still are doing in their digital world, most critically, mental health. Thus, the need for both to better understand the implications of engaging with digital applications. Further, UM SOE teaching interns are preparing to teach national standards on digital wellness to K-12 students and need clinical experiences working with pre-teens. The UM Digital Wellness Conference will bring together caregivers, pre-teens, UM teaching interns, and experts on digital wellness to engage in active discussion and community building. Participants would spend time on campus discussing their experiences and developing strategies for their personal digital wellness, with activities facilitated by experts and UM teaching interns. |
| Utilizing Improvisation in Wind Band Curriculum Courtney Snyder Music, Theatre & Dance $4900.00 |
Though improvisation was a valued musical skill hundreds of years ago in the European tradition, the art of musical improvisation has been lost in the Euro-centric musical conservatory setting. The written note reigns supreme in academy of “classical” music. Though improvisation is valued in the traditions of Jazz, Black American music, Indian music and in music of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, most students in the American conservatory have little to no experience with these music types. When students are given opportunities to improvise in an academic, concert band ensemble, many students do not even attempt it. They judge their work as inferior before they even try. They want to know how, but they are scared of sounding “bad.” By learning new methods to teach improvisation and engaging students in the art of improvisation as part of the concert band curriculum, students will recognize that they not only have the capacity to improvise, but that their ideas are worthy of performance. They can gain a new-found sense of musical creativity, contribution, and purpose. They can engage with their colleagues in new and unique ways. As orchestral positions (those positions which do not require improvisational skills) are declining, the more versatile the player, the more employable they are. As our culture becomes more heterogenous and values “non-white” music-making, this will bring with it more improvisatory music-making as well. The professional music world is changing. The curriculum needs to provide more improvisatory opportunities to increase students’ versatility. |
| Advancing Equity through Teaching with the Arts Katrin Robertson Education $9595.00 |
Advancing Equity through Teaching with the Arts will help beginning teachers learn how to combat systemic racism and structural inequality by using visual art in their teaching. U-M Museum of Art (UMMA) and School of Education (SOE) will collaborate to redesign a key unit in a course for elementary teacher candidates to focus on teaching for equity with visual art. CRLT funds will support this redesign of this course to be launched in Fall, 2022, as well as robust evaluation of the course. The Fall 2022 course will also inform the development of a campus-wide collaborative learning experience on Teaching with Art for Equity aimed to launch Winter 2025, and is open to any U-M student across all units. |
| Case Studies: Taking them outside the box Maria Dorantes LSA - Romance Languages and Literatures $2100.00 |
Offering students in the Spanish for the professions (medical) class case studies that are simulations, enriches the students’ ability to look at the patient experience, take their medical history and even select a diagnosis, among other training. From the instructor’s perspective, I can add issues of justice, equity and access to each of the cases, but from perspectives of different Spanish speaking countries so that the students are producing results in Spanish as well. With these cases, students will be able to follow different patients, reflect on their own perspectives and thoughts, while also addressing cultural tendencies. This program would be offered in addition to the partner exchanges that students currently with a university in Colombia. |
| Empowering Educators: The MENTOR Series Daniel Cronin Medical School Michelle Daniel Medical School Seetha Monrad Medical School Gurjit Sandhu Medical School Vineet Chopra Medical School Robert Dickson Medical School Medical School Amit Gupta Medical School Nathan Houchens Medical School Sanjay Saint Medical School Jakob McSparron Medical School Janet Biermann Medical School Medical School Medical School Patricia Mullan Medical School Michael Englesbe Medical School $6500.00 |
Historically, medical students at the U-M Medical School have had limited educator preparedness training. This is unfortunate as once medical students graduate they have significant responsibilities teaching co-residents and the next generation of medical students. Although a teaching elective does exist within the medical school, it is not scalable and not suited to practice clinical teaching. This grant team seeks to create a new “Clinical Teaching Elective” which will be scalable and flexible, allowing senior medical students to learn core teaching principles and skills while simultaneously being immersed in clinical practice. To accomplish this, our grant team is developing a central repository of best teaching practices that can be used as a curricular tool and on-demand teacher’s guide, the Medical Educators Novel Teaching On-demand Resource (MENTOR) Series, which is comprised of primarily concise educational videos supplemented by summary infographics. Importantly, select videos will also be used futuristically to fill gaps in other areas of the medical school curriculum. The creation team is composed of a diverse group of education experts from various departments and divisions, who are involved in content creation, design, evaluation and implementation. To ensure that our resource is optimally created for a variety of learning styles and preferences, we will be obtaining iterative feedback from medical student group interviews. The grant money will be used to fund food for medical student group interviews, as well as costs of video and infographic production including editing videos, script styles, animations and graphics based off medical student feedback. |
