| Proposer(s) |
Proposal Title |
| Jeffrey Beetham, Thomas Baker, Michael Whiteford |
"Curriculum Development in Global Parasitology" |
| Description: |
The Global Parasitology Program provides a learning experience
centered on the social, economic, and biological aspects of those
parasitic diseases that are globally important to human health and
agriculture, including malaria, trypanosomiasis (e.g., sleeping sickness
of human and cattle), and leishmaniasis. Work described in this proposal
will facilitate the development of a cross-college undergraduate
curriculum (minor) in global parasitology/emerging infectious disease.
Global Parasitology aims to (1) build an interdisciplinary curriculum
that creates new opportunities for undergraduate education in social,
cultural and biologic diversity at the international level, (2) provide
opportunity for undergraduate participation in research at ISU and
foreign institutions, and (3) develop foreign-travel opportunities
allowing visits by undergraduates to developing areas endemic for
globally important parasitic disease. This program will be important
to a broad range of students, including those with interests in cultures
of developing countries, in global cultural/biological diversity,
in careers with international companies or government agencies, or
in pursuing advanced degree programs in professional health-care
or in the biological sciences. |
| Mark Chidister |
"Assessing the Design Exchange" |
| Description: |
Two years ago, a collaboration between Iowa State University's
College of Design and Department of Residence resulted in the creation
of the Design Exchange, a residential learning community for undergraduate
students entering the College of Design. The Design Exchange was
created to improve students' academic performance, retention, satisfaction
with their first year experience, and increase their interaction
with faculty and staff. Over 130 students have participated in this
learning community since its inception and a large body pf assessment
data has been collected. The purpose of this project is to analyze
this data, develop a detailed assessment of the first two years of
the Design Exchange, and generate publications which summarize the
findings. This project also entails an exploration of the relationship
between learning communities and studio pedagogy, student development
theory, and creativity theory for the purpose of creating a map for
future efforts to imrpove learning among design students. |
| Dan Douglas, Cindy Myers, Volker Hegelheimer |
"Integrated Academic Skills for International
Undergraduates: Enhancing Curriculum and Improving Outcomes Assessment" |
| Description: |
We propose to develop a multimedia instructional and assessment
package for English 101. Academic English, to teach and assess
academic listening, reading, and writing ability among international
undergraduates in a number of disciplines across the undergraduate
curriculum. With collaboration from faculty in departments across
campus, we will make videotapes of brief lectures on topics of central
interest in the various disciplines. Faculty will also pride selected
readings to accompany the lectures. For each set of lectures and
readings, learners will be given instructions for a writing task
appropriate for the discipline and topic, integrating the lecture
and reading material. The formative assessment instruments will reflect
the format of the instructional materials and provide feedback for
learners. After piloting and revising, the materials will be placed
on CD-ROM for use in English 101 classes and for self-access by students
in writing labs. |
| Donald Farrar |
"Online and Outreach Presentations in Dendrology" |
| Description: |
Dendrology, Botany 356 (Forestry 356), present the identification,
ecology and importance of North American trees and shrubs. It is
a required course for Forestry majors and satisfies a Botany requirement
in Animal Ecology. Graduates of this curricula are the principal
mangers of our native forest resources Ð this is the course in
their program that emphasizes the natural biology of forests. There
is a constant on-campus market for this course and an unrealized
off-campus market among current public and private land managers,
biology and natural resource teachers, and nature enthusiasts. The
purpose of this project is to develop teaching materials (text, graphics,
study exercises and exams) to both enhance on-campus teaching and
permit off-campus offering of Dendrology. Products of this project
will be deliverable through the World Wide Web and CD-ROM technology
and will permit a virtual tour of the forests of the United States
and Canada. |
| Srinivas Garimella |
"Integrated Undergraduate, Graduate & Professional
Student (Distance Learning) Education in Thermal Systems Design" |
| Description: |
An educational plan in practical thermal systems design that encompasses
design project-oriented teaching of undergraduate, graduate and off-campus
professional students, industry-university collaboration, and in
the long run, community outreach, is proposed. The plan recognizes
that teaching the design of thermal systems requires an integrated
approach that treat thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer
as parts of one interconnected area, in which appropriate solutions
to real-life design problems can be obtained only when all these
aspects are considered simultaneously. Thus the plan proceeds from
the premise that it is not the imparting of more theorectical information,
but a simultaneous presentation of when and how it should be used,
that is needed to transform information to knowledge. Cooperation
between students at various stages of their educational and professioanl
careers is fostered to help maximize the synergy that results from
combining insights gained in industry with those developed in structured
classroom instruction. The plan also uses web-based instruction and
the ICN to complement ongoing efforts in the college to implememnt
a full-fledged distance learning graduate program in Mechanical Engineering.
Avenues for collaboration with local thermal systems related organizations
such as the Iowa Energy Council are also identified, which will provide
inherent mechanisms for technology transfer from course-related projects
to industry and the community. |
| Doug Jacobson |
"Project SUCCESS" |
| Description: |
Project SUCCESS is an outgrowth of the first computer engineering
learning community which provided first year computer engineering
students with an opportunity to participate in two experiemental
courses during the 1998/1999 academic year. Becuase of the student
success in terms of persistence in the program and general satisfaction
with their academic progress, the Computer Engineering faculty decided
to make a major modification in the first year experience. This proposed
project would integrate a required engineering problem solving and
programming course, Freshman Engineering 161, with the two experiemnetal
courses that were created for the learning communities. These newly
enhanced courses will be framed within the context of active learning
to better prepare students for continuation in computer engineering
by increasing their skills in group work and providing essential
life-long learning skills. The courses will allow students to experience
Computer Engineering through interactive projects involving problem
solving and computer programming within a context of promoting interactive
skills. Students will complete their freshman year with a greater
awareness of computer engineering, knowledge and skills for successful
teamwork, enhanced problem solving skills, and experience a quicker
and more satisfying acclimation to the university and college life. |
| Barb Licklider, Claire Andreasen, Robert Findlay, Dorothy Fowles,
Suzanne Hendrich, Mary Huba, Ted Huiatt, Cheryll Reitmeier, Brian
Standley, Wm. G. VanMeter, Denise Vrchota, Wendy Ware |
"Promoting the Scholarship of Teaching Through
Classroom-Based Research" |
| Description: |
Discussions are occurring regularly about the topics of student-centered
learning. Administrators support faculty endeavors to modify instructional
delivery that results in increased student learning, satisfaction,
and retention. Many faculty members attest to the benefits of applying
effective instructional techniques in their classrooms. They struggle
to balance time dedicated to teaching and pedagogical and disciplinary
research while administrators wrestle with the issue of rewarding
the scholarship of teaching. The proposal seeks to establish a way
to aid faculty in the study of learning and teaching within disciplines
and promote the scholarship of teaching. The cross-disciplinary group
of faculty members participating in this project have formed a supportive
community through their involvement in Project LEA/RN. This project
will allow them to conduct research in community as wall as learn
in community. Participants will conduct studies within their own
classrooms, plan and implement studies focused on their use of effective
instructional strategies, generate publishable articles in their
respective educational journals, and present findings at professional
conferences. In addition, they are willing to conduct workshops as
needed at Iowa State University to promote the scholarship of teaching. |
| David Meltzer, Thomas Greenbowe |
"Development of Active Learning Curricular
Materials in Thermodynamics for Physics and Chemistry" |
| Description: |
This is a project to create new curricular materials for the study
of thermodynamics, which would have a direct impact on instruction
both in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Department
of Chemistry. We will utilize educational resources that are uniquely
available at Iowa State University, combining the capabilities of
the Education Research Groups in both Physics and Chemistry. By targeting
the subject of thermodynamics - a field that lies precisely on the
borderline between Physics and Chemistry - we will be able to bring
to bear the extensive experience of both our groups. We will create
new instructional materials of immediate use in Physics courses and
in Chemistry courses. These materials center on "active-learning" worksheets,
consisting of carefully structured and sequenced sets of questions
and exercises. They are designed to elicit common conceptual difficulties,
and then to guide students to confront and resolve these difficulties. |
| John Obrychi, John VanDyk |
"A Virtual Laboratory for Entomology 211
and 200X" |
| Description: |
One of the difficulties with distance education on the world-wide
web is presenting students with the kinds of hands-on learning that
occurs in the laboratory section of a regular class. We are using
new technology to create three-dimensional insect specimens that
can be manipulated on the computer as they would in the laboratory.
These threeÐdimensional insects will offer students in our distance
education course Introduction to Insects and our on-campus course
Insects and Society a hands-on way to appreciate the diversity of
insects (without actually having to touch them!). |
| Hung Pham, Radha Sarma, Palaniappa Molian |
"Implementing a Standard Organized Web
Based Curriculum Resource" |
| Description: |
The Mechanical Engineering Student Advisory Board (MESAB), proposes
to expand on a project that encourages students to take an active
role in the Mechanical Engineering Department in a mutually beneficial
partnership to enhance student learning and facilitate continuous
improvements in the curriculum. Titled the "MESAB Web Project", the
project will involve numerous mechanical engineering faculty members
and students who collaborate on enhancing the course syllabus and
the curriculum, culminating in interactive and dynamic course homepages
on the World Wide Web (WWW). Providing this interactive resource
will directly benefit all the mechanical engineering undergraduate
students. A benefit for the faculty is increased awareness of students'
needs. Composed primarily of undergraduate mechanical engineering
students, this system provides a cost-effective alternative to hiring
staff for maintaining homepages. This project comes at a time when
the Mechanical Engineering Department is restructuring in order to
achieve ABET 2000 requirements and needs positive student involvement. |
| Sue Ravenscroft, Anne Clem |
"Long Term Outcomes of Smaller Class Size
in Introductory Courses" |
| Mary Ann Tetreault |
"The Individual in World Politics" |
| Description: |
World politics is in transition from the international relations
of the Cold War to a new system whose outlines remain elusive, even
to specialists. At the same time, the renewal and acceleration of
globalizing economic trends, first derailed by the Great Depression
and then dampened by the division of the post-World War II world
into barely interacting capitalist and communist spheres, requires
that every citizen be aware of the rapidly developing "planetary
political economy." This is a proposal for reframing a general education
offering both to reflect the state of present knowledge and to attempt
to accommodate the efforts of a diverse student population to find
their place in the world. |
| Doug Yarger, Bill Gallus, Carolina Cruz-Neira |
"Creation of a Virtual Tornadic T-Storm:
Enabling Student-Centered learning about Complex Storm-Scale Atmospheric
Dynamics" |
| Description: |
A rotating tornadic thunderstorm will be created in a virtual
environment through the use of Java-based software to facilitate
improved student understanding of both the atmospheric dynamics involved
and the visual characteristics of such a storm. This project will
result in a new visual tool that will allow student-centered learning
in this challenging area of meteorology. Flexibility in the complexity
of applications of the tool will allow its use in both introductory
courses taken by non-majors and upper-level major meteorology courses. |
