2004-2005 Miller Faculty Fellowships
| Humanizing Science to Improve the Teaching and Learning of Science Content | ||
| Michael P. Clough, Joanne Olson, Jim Colbert, Cinzia Cervato, David Wilson | ||
| Curriculum and Instruction; Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology; Geology and Atmospheric Science; History | ||
| Education and LAS | ||
| One widely accepted long-standing component of scientific literacy is the need for individuals to understand the nature of science. The phrase "nature of science" is often used in referring to issues such as what science is, how it works, the epistemological and ontological foundations of science, how scientists operate as a social group and how society itself both influences and reacts to scientific endeavors. However, science textbooks, common laboratory activities, and most audiovisual materials ignore human influences in research, sanitize processes that eventually result in knowledge, and portray science as a rhetoric of conclusions. These significant misunderstandings that curricular materials convey are particularly damaging to scientific literacy. We will use recently approved Miller funding to create and implement a collection of historical short stories tied seamlessly to fundamental science ideas taught in Biology 201 and 202, and Geology 100. These historical short stories will promote deep understanding of fundamental science concepts while also illustrating the complexities scientists and the scientific community experience in constructing and justifying ideas. These short stories will also be used with prospective science teachers in CI 347, CI 418, CI 419 and CI 417 to illustrate how the history and nature of science can be seamlessly incorporated in secondary school science teaching. Approximately 900 undergraduate students at ISU will be impaceltd by this project. | ||
| Introducing Nanotechnology into the Undergraduate Curriculum: Development of a Scanning Probe Microscopy Course and Module | ||
| Sriram Sundararajan | ||
| Mechanical Engineering | ||
| Engineering | ||
| The objective of this proposal is to develop and implement a novel introductory course on scanning probe microscopy for undergraduates at Iowa State University. The course is intended to expose engineering/science undergraduates to the area of nanotechnology and familiarize them with the basic principles and operation of the scanning probe microscope (SPM) system, a key experimental component of numerous research programs at Iowa State University and across the world. The course will be offered as a junior/senior level technical elective in Mechanical Engineering in Spring 2005. In order to maximize the impact and aid across-the-board integration of the course content into the ISU curriculum, an SPM primer module will also be developed for inclusion in any course in the science and engineering curriculum. The module will be first evaluated in a sophomore design course in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum. Course and module content will feature lectures, lab and project components that emphasize critical thinking and problem-based learning and the use of online and campus library resources. For high-impact delivery of instructional content, lecture and lab material will also include videos and computer models of SPM concepts, operating principles and experiments. This project can potentially help position Iowa State University to become a leading institution in nanotechnology related undergraduate education. | ||
| Innovations in Teaching Spanish Culture: Implementing a Web-Based Thematic Approach in the Spanish Classroom | ||
| Chad M. Gasta | ||
| Foreign Language and Literatures | ||
| LAS | ||
| To keep pace with state-of-the-art learning approaches and technologies as they relate to Spanish language, literature and culture, it is important to enhance curriculum and instructional delivery by employing up-to-date communication tools and methods that reflect this changing trend in student learning. The proposed project furnishes a web-based content module making accessible important audio-visual materials to students of Spanish 321, Civilization and Culture of Spain, and to students participating in two study abroad programs in Spain . Both the civilization course and the orientation sessions share the goals of educating students about various cultural facets of contemporary Spain through the use of information technology, especially when it is not possible for students to have that experience first hand while taking courses on campus. For those going abroad, an objective is to make certain that they have the cultural knowledge and awareness before arriving in Spain . Spanish 321 is a multidisciplinary course incorporating Spanish language and literature with other disciplines in order to examine contemporary cultural topics relevant to Spain today: food, traditions, and past times; travel and tourism; economics and politics; gender roles and the family; television and cinema; youth cultures, and sports; terrorism; immigration; artists and musicians. These are similar to same topics covered in orientation sessions for students studying abroad in Alicante and Cáceres , Spain . In the classroom students view pertinent slides, film and video footage and listen to recorded speeches and music selections. By making these audio-visual materials accessible on the Web, students cultural understanding would flourish. | ||
| Enhancing Student Learning: Integrating E-Porfolios w/ Student-Centered Learning in Natural Resource Courses | ||
| Joe Collette, Jan Thompson, John Tyndall, Robert Grala | ||
| Natural Resource Ecology and Management | ||
| Agriculture | ||
| The Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management will develop and use an E-portfolio Vehicle to enhance student learning, provide data and information for assessment of learning outcome, and guide improvements in undergraduate education. Once develo9ped, assessed and refined, the E-portfolio Vehicle will be applied over 400 Animal Ecology and Forestry majors. We will use the ISU-based e-DOC software and first apply it to four NREM courses - two each at the sophomore and senior levels (total enrollment over 100). Students in these courses during Fall 2004 will develop their E-porfolios and provide feedback related to software use. Additionally, students will be asked to write about the learning and thinking. Faculty will use the E-Portfolio Vehicle to assess learning outcomes and make quality improvements in our curricula. | ||
| Design Science + Design for Society | ||
| Tom Leslie, J. Alread, T.L. Clapp, A. Kyber, J. Miller, J. Muench, L. Paxson, C. Rogers, M. Torres-Antonini | ||
| Architecture; Community and Regional Planning; Landscape Architecture; Art and Design | ||
| Design | ||
| With a Miller Fellowship and matching funds from the CoD, we will develop two courses that are components of the new Core curriculum for the CoD: Design Science, and Design for Society. We will introduce the breadth and relevance of the natural and social sciences to problems in the Design disciplines. Each course will introduce a set of sciences as frameworks through which design questions can be addressed in the context of design inquiry, applying the pedagogy of engagement to existing problems with student learning in the introductory sciences. As in the Core curriculum as a whole, we seek to improve students understanding of the range of shared concerns across the Design disciplines. Over the time period of the project, a faculty team will develop both courses, involving faculty inside and outside the College in a broad-based review process. | ||
| Using Case Studies and Diagnostic Software to Improve Problem Solving Skills of Landscape Horticulture Students | ||
| Ann Marie VanDerZanden | ||
| Horticulture | ||
| Agriculture | ||
| The landscape management segment of the horticulture industry continues to grow. In 2001 approximately 140,000 businesses in the United States reported providing landscaping services, and these companies employed more than 700,000 people. Landscape management is a complex and ever evolving process that requires horticulturists to effectively evaluate the landscape site, integrate information from multiple sources, and then implement a management strategy. The purpose of this project is to enhance the problem solving skills of undergraduate landscape horticulture students at Iowa State University by integrating case studies with problem solving diagnostic software. We will develop a series of four online case studies to be completed by students enrolled in the Landscape Establishment & Maintenance (HORT 342) and Landscape Construction (HORT 444) courses at ISU. Using the Pathfinder software, students in both classes will work on the case studies concurrently. Students in the construction class will make decisions on construction related components of the project. Students in the landscape management class will then integrate these construction decisions into how the landscape will be managed once it is installed. From there the landscape management students will be able to make recommendations back to the construction class on modifications to the construction process. As students gain confidence in problem solving and critical thinking skills the scenarios in the case studies will become progressively more complex. | ||
| Integration of Virtual Engineering Tools into the Undergraduate ME Design Curriculum | ||
| Kenneth Bryden, Don Flugrad, James Oliver | ||
| Mechanical Engineering | ||
| Engineering | ||
| Engineering design and analysis is one of the three core undergraduate curricula provided by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University. Depending on the students' skill of observation and creation, the learning outcomes of the design course are sometimes not met due to the decontextualized, abstract and non-interactive manner in which these courses are traditionally taught. We submit this proposal to request seed funding to support the development of a virtual reality based education system for a set of design courses, i.e., ME270 Mechanical Engineering Design, ME415 Mechanical System Design and ME446 Power Plant Design. This project will introduce a low-cost virtual reality system as an interactive design tool that greatly increases the educational quality in these courses. This project will serve over 350 undergraduate students and 6 college faculty each year. An additional goal of this project is to leverage the virtual reality based engineering design tools to boost the interest of young people by developing a summer design colloquium for high school students. It is easier for prospective students to become interested in Mechanical Engineering as a profession if they understand what engineering design is. By providing challenging and interactive examples of engineering design we hope to interest a higher percentage of women and under-represented minority in Mechanical Engineering. | ||
| Faculty Assessment of Competency-Based Learning and Electronic Portfolios | ||
| Tom Brumm, Brian Steward, Steve Mickelson, Larry Hanneman | ||
| Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering; Engineering Career Services | ||
| Engineering and Agriculture | ||
| The ABE Department has embarked on a journey to transform its curricula through a competency based learning model. Key to this learning model are workplace competencies as demonstrated by student electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) and assessed through OPAL software. The 2003-04 ABE freshmen and a group of ABE sophomores and juniors in an independent study class have begun the process of developing ePortfolios. Through this Miller Faculty Fellowship, we will assess the impact that ePortfolios is having on student learning and their progress towards achieving the programs' student learning outcomes. Focus groups will be used to gather qualitative data from students and faculty. Faculty will assess the initial ePortfolios to: (1) gain understanding of what competency gaps exist in the curricula, (2) better understand how competencies are (or are not) represented in portfolio artifacts, (3) engage faculty in portfolio assessment and inclusion of competency-based learning in their classroom pedagogy. | ||
| Advancing Statistics Education for Future School Teachers | ||
| H. Thompson, G. Johnston, R. Stephenson, T. Pfantz, L. Hogben | ||
| Mathematics, Statistics, and Curriculum and Instruction | ||
| LAS and Education | ||
| Future teachers at the elementary and secondary levels need to be better prepared to teach statistics, data analysis, and probability in our increasingly data driven society. Our proposed project has two goals. The first is to better prepare future teachers to use and teach statistics as a decision making tool. We propose to design investigations and purchase statistical software and equipment which Math 196 and 297 students will use to develop conceptual understanding of statistics and probability. The second goal involves development of special materials to be used in conjunction with the laboratory in Stat 401 taken by students in the Master of School Mathematics Program. These materials will better prepare current and future mathematics teachers to teach Advanced Placement Statistics (AP Stat). | ||
| Continuous Quality Improvement Applied to Food Animal Veterinary Education | ||
| Locke. A. Karriker, Mike Apley, John Carr | ||
| Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine | ||
| Veterinary Medicine | ||
| Continuous Quality Improvement Applied to Food Animal
Veterinary Education The environment in which food animal veterinarians
are practicing today has seen accelerated change in the production
systems employed, the disease threats they are called on to mitigate,
and the diversity of roles that veterinarians are being asked to
serve. This project will (1) fill a void by creating a mechanism
for soliciting practitioner and industry perspectives on the skills
required of new veterinary graduates, (2) incorporate those perspectives
into course content design, (3) create an opportunity for skill assessment
of students, (4) provide feedback to instructors regarding the comprehension
and retention of coursework performed in the first three years of
the curriculum, and (5) eliminate potential redundancies and maximize
the efficiency of time-limited, clinical rotations in the veterinary
curriculum. The initial phase of this project will survey current veterinarians and determine the veterinary skill sets most needed of new graduates. Phase 2 will involve the development of mechanisms to assess pre-course skills and knowledge base. Skills/competencies will then be ranked for address during the course with priority given to the category that includes skills of high relative importance but low student comprehension. Phase 3 will categorize current course content and develop additional instructional tools to address pre-rotation skills assessment results. The final phase of the project will establish a mechanism of continuous feedback from veterinary graduates. The anticipated learning outcomes include enhanced student learning, real-time course content revision, creation of a tangible connection between the University and its constituency, improved efficiency of content delivery, and publication to share the results of the survey of veterinary professionals with stakeholders. |
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| Creating Peer Evaluation of Teaching in Agronomy | ||
| Lee Burras, Mary Wiedenhoeft, Steven Fales, Michelle Cook | ||
| Agronomy | ||
| Agriculture | ||
| Teaching excellence is central to effective student learning. For this project, we will create a rigorous departmental process for peer evaluation of teaching in order to enhance student learning, improve teaching, and document teaching effectiveness. Steps proposed herein include reviewing the literature on best practices in peer evaluation of teaching; identifying and describing characeltristics of similar programs at peer institutions; and assessing the teaching culture and context of the department through surveying and conversations with teaching faculty, administrators, and campus teaching experts. These activities will provide the foundation for the development of a departmental process for peer evaluation of teaching that will have a late 2005 implementation date. | ||
| Service Learning Collaboration to Enhance Learning in Worksite Health Promotion | ||
| Greg Welk | ||
| Health and Human Performance | ||
| Education | ||
| This project will initiate a service-learning component in a professional development course (HS 380 — Worksite Health Promotion) within the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP) at Iowa State University . Students in the Health and Fitness Management option in the undergraduate HHP degree program are required to take this course to be prepared for employment in the health and fitness industry. The primary learning objectives of the course are to build critical thinking skills, expose students to new technology and to enhance communication skills needed for success in the worksite health promotion profession. In this service learning collaboration, students will work in teams with the health promotion coordinator for a large Central Iowa company to deliver the companys health promotion program. Students will gain practical experience in planning, implementing and evaluating worksite health promotion programs and employees of the company will benefit from the expertise and coordination provided by the class. The project will be evaluated using student responses and artifacts as well as by participants and coordinators at the workplace. Student reactions to the class activities and evaluations of learning outcome data will be used to examine the impact on learning. Evaluations by the employees and the director will be used to examine the effectiveness of the programming efforts within the company. The overall project will provide students with more meaningful learning experiences and provide a valuable service to the community. Worksites have been highlighted in national health goals as promising targets for interventions so the service learning collaboration has clinical significance as well as educational relevance. | ||
