Dear Colleagues:
We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 Presidential Chair Fellows Curriculum Enrichment Grant. The program provides provides an opportunity for a team of two or more faculty members from a department to develop, improve, transform, and examine core areas of the undergraduate curriculum.
For the upcoming grant cycle, faculty will engage in intentional design of student learning opportunities that lead to a Discovery Experience for undergraduate majors in academic departments, as well as curricular change that leverages digital technologies and active learning classrooms that scale and improve learning outcomes. Four faculty teams will be developing the following projects:
Sara Beckman, Lisa Wymore, Rachel Dzombak, Angela Marino (TDPS & Business)
"Collaborative Innovation: Underpinning Frameworks for Creating Interdisciplinary Discovery Experiences"
The collaborative curriculum project between Business and TDPS explores the underpinnings of discovery and learning and how they might be leveraged to create a variety of interdisciplinary experiences for undergraduate students. It identifies the learning outcomes associated with framing and solving problems, developing inner, other and outer focus, and teaming and how those outcomes can be achieved across disciplines. With such shared understanding, we aim to develop students who are more able to tackle the complex problems they will face upon graduation, more aware of who they are and how they can contribute, and more competent at collaborating or co-creating with a diverse team of others.
Matthew Hough, Edmund Campion, David Milnes (Music)
“Technology for Musicianship Curriculum Enhancement"
A team from the Music Department will review creative music outcomes from musicianship courses 20A, 52A, 52B, 152A and 152B, in order to create an online database of musicianship resources and utilize them to enhance student learning. Fall 2019 offerings of these courses will incorporate new or technology-enhanced projects involving: 1) online engagement with materials available on this site, and 2) contributing new work to the site. Resulting accrual of creative examples will provide new opportunities for future student discovery experiences and increased exposure for successful outcomes.
Marjorie Shapiro, Armin Jazaeri, Uros Seljak (Physics)
"Enhancing Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Physics Using Data Science Techniques for Data Analysis and Simulation"
The Physics Department aims to increase student participation in Discovery Learning and Experience by adding new data science components to the curriculum. Elements of the proposal are: 1) Development of data enabled homework assignments for two upper division classes. Assignments for Physics 129 will highlight strategies and techniques for data analysis. Assignments for Physics 112, a core course requirement for Physics majors, will demonstrate the use of simulations to model complex phenomena. 2) Incorporation of a data intensive option into the capstone Advanced Experimentation Laboratory. 3) Enhancement of the mentored research experience by developing guidelines for scientific presentations and providing a forum for such presentations.
Kathleen Ryan, Matthew Traxler, Arash Komeili, Steven Brenner, and Michi Taga (Plant & Microbial Biology)
“Comprehensive Revision of Core Courses for Microbiology Biology Majors Incorporating Discovery Experiences and Active Learning”
Faculty from Plant & Microbial Biology will comprehensively redesign the core curriculum for Microbial Biology undergraduate majors to highlight Discovery Learning. The lab course, PMB/MCB C112L, will be converted to a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience, while active learning methods will be implemented throughout two lecture courses, PMB/MCB C112 and C148. Learning goals for all three core courses will be reformulated simultaneously to ensure that they include key knowledge, concepts, and skills that every Microbial Biology major should have, regardless of future career plans. Scientifically supported pedagogical methods will be spread to other PMB courses and faculty throug h a department-based learning community.
We look forward to the development of these projects and to their contributions to the enrichment of the undergraduate curriculum.
Best Regards,
Catherine P. Koshland
Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education
Glynda Hull
Chair, Academic Senate Committee on Teaching
Paul Alivisatos
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
