Fall 2008 Teaching Support Grant awards
Schreyer Institute Teaching Support Grants are designed to enhance courses, develop different ways of assessing student learning, assess the quality of degree-granting programs, and implement new teaching strategies by providing faculty, departments and/or campuses with the personnel or financial support needed. Project types vary and collaborations are encouraged.
Innovative teaching methods
- Wei-Fan Chen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State Wilkes-Barre
This project will implement a game-based learning system for the course IST 420: Fundamentals of Systems and Enterprise Integration. The system adopts a role-playing strategy proposed by a digital game-based learning model. It is designed using the educational theory of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, which integrates pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and technological knowledge. By using this system and taking on the roles of various characters, such as a project leader, a system analyst, a system designer, or a programmer, students will better learn about the process of system integration in a team-based environment.
- Deborah Gill, associate professor of Spanish at Penn State DuBois
The goal of this project is to create Virtual Culture Walks to Hispanic countries for use in Spanish basic language courses as well as Spanish culture and civilization courses and First Year Experience courses. Faculty from eight campuses will collaborate to create these culture walks which will be available online and on CD-ROM. Assessment of language and culture knowledge will be done through pre- and post-testing after completion of each Culture Walk. Information will be disseminated within Penn State through workshops and conference presentations and at other teaching and learning conferences to promote the use and continued development of more Culture Walks to the community.
- Michael Gooseff, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State University Park
This project will add two virtual laboratory experiment and design components to the CE 360: Fluid Mechanics course offered by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The virtual labs and design modules will be integrated into the existing curriculum for the course, will facilitate active learning, and will increase student recognition of the relevance of course materials to students' careers. Student evaluation of the course topics, learning and teaching methods, and evaluation of the effectiveness of this project will be assessed in conjunction with Penn State's Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education.
- Barton Pursel, instructional designer in information sciences and technology at Penn State University Park
The goal of this project is to explore the uses of a Live Question Tool used within the framework of a large, 100+ enrollment Information Science and Technology (IST) course. The Live Question Tool is a website where students can input questions as well as answer one another’s questions during a class session. What makes the tool interesting is that students can also vote on questions throughout the course period. At the end of each class session, the instructor can then review the questions submitted throughout the class, see which questions accumulated the most votes, and address any issues that arise based on student input. The tool can also be used to guide the flow of a lecture based on real-time input from students.
Developing learning material
- Gail Boldt, associate professor of education and women’s studies at Penn State University Park
This project will work with the Exemplary Digital Teaching Archive Project (EDTAP), an interdisciplinary and multi-campus initiative, to create video learning materials for use in our teacher education program. Closely related to the College of Education's one-to-one laptop initiative, EDTAP will provide teacher education students with scenes of teaching and learning in local kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms. Participating classrooms have been selected for their exemplary uses of digital technology. These web-based video vignettes, with their accompanying commentary by teachers, children and teacher education faculty, along with other interactive features, will improve our students' understanding of innovative instructional methods facilitated by digital technology in teaching.
- Yvonne Glanville, associate professor of physics at Penn State Worthington Scranton
This grant will provide funding to purchase demonstration materials for EGEE 101: Energy and Environment, a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields based course. The objective of the course is to teach students about the environmental factors related to energy production as well as introducing them to new technologies that will someday replace conventional energy production methods. Hands-on physical demonstrations have been shown to make physical concepts more concrete and allow students to correct physical misperceptions. Each student's knowledge base will be assessed at the beginning of the course and then at the end of the semester using questionnaires administered in ANGEL.
- James Hamilton, assistant professor of liberal arts at Penn State Mont Alto
This project seeks to design and implement a system to promote and coordinate sustainability-based pedagogy, both across the curriculum and across locations, by establishing an initial program at the fourteen campuses of the University College. The effort will employ campus Environmental Stewardship Key Initiative "Environmental Champions" to identify a core group of interested faculty at each campus and they, along with the environmental champions, will be invited to form a group or committee to promote sustainable pedagogy. To assist the effort, an ANGEL website dedicated to promoting, sharing, and experimenting with sustainability pedagogy across disciplines and locations will be set up at each campus. The project will be modeled on the current Penn State Mont Alto campus initiative, which links faculty, Business Services, Food Service and Housing, Maintenance, and Police Services pedagogically. The project will provide faculty with forums to share sustainable pedagogy on a particular campus, across campuses, across disciplines, and ultimately, through the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, with the world. Penn State faculty teach thousands of students daily. The multiplicative effect of this project is enormous. Additionally, the project supports goal six of Penn State's Strategic Plan, to "conduct business in a manner that demonstrates a commitment to environmental stewardship and continues to move the University toward sustainable practices."
- Bernard Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State University Park
This project addresses the issue of recruiting students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields by developing materials for an interdisciplinary course in the online advertising domain that leverages STEM-subject areas. The outcome will be a set of course materials that use STEM subjects inherent in online advertising (e.g., online auctions, geo-targeting, traffic estimation, cost-benefit analysis, etc.) to offer a cross-listed course which has appeal to students across multiple colleges, including the College of Information Sciences and Technology, the Smeal College of Business, and the College of Communications.
- Barbara Konopka, instructor of nursing at Penn State Worthington Scranton
This project addresses student concerns regarding the difficulty of integrating pharmacology and pathophysiology concepts into actual client care. A non-credit, free, optional class will be available for students who wish to attend. Case studies will be developed encompassing actual client interactions, clinical findings and therapies that a nurse must be able to integrate in order to provide knowledgeable care in the real world. The goal is to reinforce theoretical classroom information in a non-threatening modality, through the implementation of gaming techniques and case studies. Student evaluations, comments and grade comparisons of participating and non-participating students will be used to assess effectiveness.
- Rebecca Lundin, graduate student in English at Penn State University Park
This grant will support the development of mentoring relationships between undergraduate interns and their faculty and graduate student contacts. Historically, interns have worked directly with faculty members and have not had significant contact with graduate students. However, graduate students are ideally positioned to provide mentoring related to their own experiences as recent college graduates. The project has two components: first, to formalize a model of graduate student/intern mentoring and second, to describe that model and how to implement it in a handbook to be made available on the College of the Liberal Arts website.
- Kathleen Noce, lecturer in MIS at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
The goal of this project is to redesign SCM 465: Ebusiness, an elective course for business students, to emphasize the technology tools used in Business-to-Business (B2B) strategies, which typically cross many functions throughout the value chain. This course is part of the SAP Certification program offered by the Sam and Irene Black School of Business. SAP is an enterprise resource planning software company that is used by companies world wide. The new SCM 465 will engage students and involve practical applications using real world cases and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Success will be measured using a variety of indicators, including the course curriculum materials, student examinations, case-based projects, student assignments, and student attitudes.
- Rosalie Ocker, professor of practice in information sciences and technology at Penn State University Park
This grant will help fund a pilot study to develop materials for the "Teamwork Across the IST Curriculum" program. The pilot study will develop student learning and faculty support materials and assessment tools to evaluate the success of the teamwork curriculum. "Teamwork Across the IST Curriculum" is a comprehensive program for students to learn teamwork at three key points in the undergraduate curriculum. Point 1 provides orientation and training in planning and communication skills, using small team projects in the required 100-level introductory course. Point 2 provides additional training in group idea generation and evaluation techniques, conflict resolution, and assessment using a large team project in a required 200-level course on networking. Point 3 provides training in team interaction processes in distributed teams across states and countries, with a 4-week project on teaming across distances in a required 300-level course on information and organizations.
- Dan Sykes, director of physical chemistry at Penn State University Park
The goal of this project is to develop, implement, and assess laboratory instructional exercises for three instruments designed and built by students: the Fluorimeter, the cyclic voltammeter, and the Karl-Fisher apparatus. These instruments will be rugged, lightweight, portable and inexpensive. Students in the Chem 423: Chemical Spectroscopy and Chem 425: Chromatography and Electrochemistry courses will build the instruments to be used by their younger peers. As the younger peers advance through the curriculum, they will eventually be able to construct and perhaps improve the design of the instruments. The use of student-built instrumentation enhances student competency in the sciences and engineering, and the co-curricular exposure fosters student ownership of their program's curriculum.
- James Symmons, instructor of liberal arts at Penn State Brandywine
This grant will support the expansion of the current Theater 208 course in the International Studies Abroad program at Penn State Brandywine. This project comprises the international component of the course, and seeks to broaden students comprehension and participation in theater abroad by focusing on one particular playwright and contemporary theater in the playwright’s country. Specifically, the grant will support Professor Symmon’s preliminary trip to Berlin to research and establish itinerary settings for students who will travel to Berlin in May, 2009. At the center of the research/study will be the social, cultural and the classical nature of selected plays by Bertold Brecht.
Student learning assessment
- Youb Kim, assistant professor of education at Penn State University Park
This study will investigate the effectiveness of course-assigned readings, class discussions, and fieldwork as instructional strategies in two or three sections of the fall 2009 course CI 280: Introduction to Teaching English to English Language Learners, which prepares pre-service teachers to educate English language learners. The strategies will be fully implemented in fall 2010. CI 280 will be mandatory for undergraduates in teacher education programs beginning with students entering the program in fall 2009. The course will satisfy the Pennsylvania Department of Education's requirement for all pre-service teachers to complete a 3-credit course or 90 hours of experience focusing on English language learners, families, language, learning processes, culture, effective instructional methods, and assessment strategies.
- Khanjan Mehta, instructor in electronic and computer services at Penn State University Park
The objective of this project is to assess the Eplum model and program, which has been developed to engage students and faculty who will participate in three humanitarian, engineering and social entrepreneurial ventures being undertaken in Kenya beginning in spring 2009. The Kenya ventures objective is the convergence of disciplines, concepts, cultures, and countries towards a freer, friendlier, fairer and more sustainable planet, and requires skills and knowledge from various disciplines across campus. The Eplum model is designed to engage students and faculty in various formal and informal ways from the sub-credit to multi-credit level, specifically to understand how different forms and levels of engagement in these ventures leads to the internationalization, public scholarship and better multidisciplinary teamwork outcomes at various levels.
- Deborah Sillman, instructor in science at Penn State New Kensington
This project will use the Interwrite Student Response System ("clickers") to actively engage students in review activities. The review activities will be structured to help students honestly assess their grasp of specific content areas, as students often do not realize that they have not mastered course content until they receive a poor score on an exam. All too often, faculty hear students insist that they 'studied really hard' for an exam and still performed poorly on the test. Ideally, students will have time to correct deficiencies in understanding prior to the scheduled exam.
Faculty development
- Doris Malkmus, University Libraries archivist at Penn State University Park
This qualitative research project follows up on an online survey of 627 history faculty regarding their use of primary sources to teach undergraduates. Online primary sources and archival materials enhance the ability of faculty to incorporate diverse, multi-vocal, and challenging primary sources to their curriculum. The project consists of interviews, focus groups, and online chat sessions to assess how faculty find and use online primary sources and what kinds of archival assignments are effective in various undergraduate courses.
- Ute Poerschke, associate professor of architecture at Penn State University Park
Co-investigators are Lisa Iulo, assistant professor of architecture; Malcolm Woollen, instructor of architecture; Loukas Kalisperis, professor of architecture; Charles Cox, instructor of architecture;and Denson Gronendaal, instructor of architecture. This project will fund a symposium for the fall of 2009 on the topic of teaching sustainability in architectural design, featuring speakers from institutions that have been pioneers in sustainable teaching and learning. In response to climate change, an increasing number of architecture departments are revising their curricula in order to define environmentally conscious design as a major priority. In 2008, Penn State's Department of Architecture formed the Committee for Environmentally Conscious Architecture (CECA) to assist in shaping the undergraduate and graduate curricula, research agendas, and outreach efforts which address sustainability and environmentally conscious design. As part of this effort, CECA has determined that knowledge of how other institutions have integrated ethical, aesthetic, and technical aspects of sustainability is a critical part in enhancing the program. The symposium will be one step in this direction. For more information please contact ceca@psu.edu.
- Samuel Richards, senior lecturer in sociology at Penn State University Park
The objective of this project is to compile video footage from fourteen weeks of SOC 119: Race and Ethnic Relations, and one-on-one interviews with students, staff and participants of the Race Relations Project (RRP). From this footage, Dr. Richards will develop teaching and training modules that can then be used by himself and other professionals, including diversity facilitators within and outside of academia who are addressing similar issues. The video-based modules, both short (five minutes) and long (fifteen minutes), will be built around a range of issues and problems related to race and ethnic relations. Commentary for critical reflection and review will also be included.