The Educational Development Program (EDP) sub-committee of the Curriculum Committee has awarded EDP grants to the following UMM faculty for summer 2011.

FACULTY, TITLE AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EDP PROJECT

Tammy Berberi, Honors Program

Honors Course Development: Traditions in Human Thought

The project will result in a 2 credit gateway course for the UMM Honors Program, Traditions in Human Thought. The focus of the course will be the human body, which we will study in various disciplines and contexts throughout human history from ancient civilizations through the Human Genome Project and other contemporary issues (the body and classical aesthetics, in the Bible and other sacred texts, Vesalius and early dissections, the body and the body politic, the rise of the sciences and technologies of seeing, Darwin and theories of degeneration, the body in various political/philosophical movements, etc.). Course content will thus give students a broad overview of the history of ideas while offering the chance to think critically about the body’s relationship to notions of personhood, agency, the self, and others.

Siobhan Bremer, Theatre

IC Course Development: Myth: From the Page to the Stage

Myth: From the Page to the Stage will be a 2 credit Humanities intellectual community course that has been approved by the Humanities division to be offered spring 2012. The course will focus on the study of myths from around the world. After studying a variety of myths the class will take part in theatrical activities focusing on aspects of several stories. Throughout the semester the students will write/create an original myth based on an actual myth in history and then perform the created myth for the public. This grant will allow the faculty member to spend time researching myths and designing a 2 credit course with many hands-on theatrical experiences.

Siobhan Bremer, Theatre

Course Development: Radio Theatre

Radio Theatre is an area within the theatre discipline which requires skills beyond stage performing. A 1 credit provisional course is currently being offered which focuses on performing radio scripts. UMM has no course to teach radio theatre history or development. In response, a new course focused on researching, listening to and writing radio scripts as well as performing them on live radio will be offered in spring 2012. This grant will allow the faculty member to spend time improving the depth of her understanding of the field, researching scripts, and designing a 2 credit course with many hands-on project experiences.

Barbara Ruth Burke, Communication, Media & Rhetoric

Course Development: CMR 4341: New Media Technologies

The project will result in the development of an advanced CMR course to respond to student interests and to address social concerns regarding ways we may learn to understand new media use, users, and consequences. Within communication and media studies, analysis and criticism of communication technologies has long been considered a vital endeavor; due to the increased use of new media technologies a new body of research is emerging which should be integrated into the field. Knowledge of contemporary research questions and methods of study, as well as an introduction to the breadth of writing on this subject, will be increasingly important for students in the 21st century.

Mark Collier, Philosophy

Honors Course Development: Moral Sentimentalism

This project will result in the creation of a new, 4 credit, interdisciplinary, honors course for fall 2012. The project has two main components. The first involves a revision of the content of the course so that it will be fully accessible to students from a variety of disciplines without previous training in philosophy. The second involves the recruitment of faculty from a variety of disciplines (and divisions) across campus to provide guest lectures on areas of their expertise, including game theory, evolution of cooperation, altruism, moral emotions, and others.

Stephen Gross, History

Honors Course Development: Understanding the Local and the Power of Place

This new honors course will be built around the exploration of local life in West Central Minnesota. In bringing together a number of discrete disciplines and approaches―history, political science, environmental studies, literature, geography, economics―the course examines how larger trends in American life play out in a specific locale. Through reading, lecture and discussion students will examine their surroundings in new ways, will come to appreciate the specialness of place and at the same time gain a greater understanding of the implications of global processes of change. These funds will support the development of a syllabus, the construction of reading lists, the recruitment of faculty from other disciplines and interested parties from the community.

Seung-Ho Joo, Political Science

IC Course Revision: Pol 1811: War and Terrorism

The purpose of this project is to incorporate a multimedia component to Pol 1811: War and Terrorism. As a group project, students will be required to produce a multimedia file, including video clips, Power Point slides, and narrations, on a war or terrorism. This component is intended to allow students to deepen their interest and understanding of international conflicts, while engaging in creative activities. For this project, students will use a Web camera and Camtasia (video editing software). This EDP grant will provide the funding to purchase the software and computer equipment.

Chrissy Kolaya, English

Honors Course Development: Representations of Writers and Artists

Funding will support the development of a new honors course using an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the varied ways writers and artists are represented in books, television, film, and other media. Students will compare these representations with the lives and experiences of contemporary working writers and artists. Funding will support work time to review course materials, arrange guest lectures and interviews with a variety of working writers and artists to enhance the interdisciplinary elements of the course, and to develop the syllabus.

Gordon McIntosh, Physics

IC Course Revision: High Altitude Balloon Activities

This purpose of this project is to develop lab activities to be incorporated into several physics courses, including the IC course, Phys 1064: High Altitude Ballooning. The activities will be based on measurements of temperature, pressure, light, ionizing radiation and the motion of the equipment taken during high altitude balloon flights. These balloon flights can carry experiments to an altitude of 80,000 to 100,000 feet, above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere, and provide access to a unique “laboratory” for our students.

Dennis Stewart, Psychology

Course Development: Consumer Psychology

This proposal is a request to fund the development of a new course in consumer psychology (offered for the first time in spring 2011). Consumer Psychology is an area of psychology that deals with how cognitive, social and affective processes impact upon both consumer behaviors and attitudes. Additionally, this course will have a component that deals with environmental/green marketing (i.e., how to make consumers want to buy and to continue to use eco-friendly products. This is a psychology course, but it is also listed as an elective in management.

Tisha Turk, English

Course Development: Perspectives on Literacy

The purpose of this project is to design a 4000-level English research seminar that introduces students to literacy studies, a subset of composition studies that has been energized in the last fifteen years by the emergence of scholarship on digital and multimedia literacies. Specific tasks include choosing topics and reading appropriate for advanced undergraduates and planning writing assignments leading up to the seminar research project.