CTE Newsletter - Apr/May 2003 (Vol 15, No 4)
TEACH Grants funded for Spring 2003
Earlier this year the CTE invited departments to apply for TEACH grants (emphasizing Transformation, Enhancement, Assessment, Collaboration, and Helping) to enhance teaching and learning at the departmental level. Eleven of sixteen proposals have been funded and the program will be extended to next year.
This year, the one-time TEACH were funded in amounts up to $1000 per department, for projects to be completed by the end of the fiscal year. For the 2003-04 academic year, grants will be offered in amounts up to $1500. The additional funds will be available to departments in lieu of offering a CTE Teaching Scholar position for 2003-04. The programs will be re-evaluated in a year's time.
These are the grant-funded activities planned by departments for the remainder of this fiscal year:
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (Tom Brumm). An "ABE Learning Circle" will be established to increase the number of faculty participating in student learning. The Learning Circle will meet once a week as a one-hour teaching and learning discussion group addressing several topics related to student assessment.
Art & Design (Katherine Hannigan). "Integrating Sustainability in the Products and Processes of Curricula" will help provide instruction and facilitate faculty discussion with experts on sustainability and environmental education. A faculty member will receive training with discipline-specific methodologies and models for integrating sustainability in Art & Design courses and will share these with Art & Design and College of Design faculty.
Botany (Robert Wallace). A retreat on biological sciences teaching and curriculum will help identify key issues of how to deliver biological science courses to undergraduate students and how graduate course offerings relate to needs of departmental and interdepartmental graduate programs. This retreat is in anticipation of two new departments as of July 1, 2003 (Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, and Genetics, Development and Cellular Biology).
College of Design (Kate Schwennsen). A faculty forum on "Envisioning Motion" will address developing student learning outcomes for first year undergraduate design students; developing cross-disciplinary student learning outcomes for graduate design students; developing curricula based on outcomes; and developing courses based on outcomes.
Community and Regional Planning (Tara Lynn Clapp). The department will have a one-day retreat to do collaborative work on curricular alignment in accordance with program learning outcomes.
Economics (Brent Kreider). The department will bring a national expert to campus to present two workshops. The speaker will have expertise in new teaching methods shown to be particularly effective for teaching economic concepts.
English (Neil Nakadate). The department will hold a one-day retreat for interested faculty to develop a teaching seminar series aimed at an undergraduate and general university audience; a semester or year-long series of faculty talks for a general university audience; or other teaching-focused series.
Foreign Languages and Literatures (Dawn Bratsch-Prince and Aili Mu). A faculty series entitled "Effective Use of Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom" will help to integrate technology with the classroom practices of the faculty.
Natural Resource Ecology and Management (Jan Thompson). "Curriculum Design with Learner-Centered Outcomes Assessment in Mind" will include two short workshops during spring semester and an all-day workshop in May. Topics include curriculum design, learner-centered assessment, and learner-centered outcomes assessment as an element of curriculum development.
Political Science and the Greenlee School (Dana Schumacher). National expert Barbara Millis of the US Air Force Academy will visit campus and facilitate a workshop on "Using Interactive Student Focus Groups to Assess and Strengthen Teaching"
Veterinary Pathology (Jared Danielson). A team from Vet Med will attend a one-day workshop on "student assessment-as-learning" at Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI.