The Educational Development Program (EDP) sub-committee of the Curriculum Committee has awarded EDP grants to the following UMM faculty for summer 2012.

FACULTY, TITLE AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EDP PROJECT

Tisha Turk, English

Jayne Blodgett, Briggs Library

Information Literacy and First Year Composition

In keeping with the Curriculum Committee’s stated goals of including information literacy skills in the proposed Writing for the Liberal Arts general education requirement, this project aims to better integrate library instruction and information literacy skills into UMM’s first-year writing courses and to experiment with how mobile technologies (including phones, laptops, and tablets) might support that integration. Though current College Writing sections do require research and many include an hour of hands-on library instruction, such minimal instruction is inadequate for the research challenges our students now face. Our goal is to rebuild significant portions of the course around the development of information literacy. We will first identify and evaluate potential models and then substantially revise the current composition syllabus to include new assignments, activities, and resources.

Ed Brands, Environmental Studies

Course Development: Industrial Ecology

The project will result in the creation of a new upper level course offering on Industrial Ecology, which will give students an opportunity to apply systems thinking to industrial cycles, in particular examining the flows of energy and materials. A rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, industrial ecology integrates numerous disciplines, including economics, environmental studies, biology, geology, and statistics. The project will consist of three steps: 1) constructing a syllabus and reading list; 2) selecting and/or designing homework problem sets and assignments; 3) selecting and becoming conversant with appropriate software (for life cycle assessment, material flow analysis, or other analytical methods), which students will use to perform analyses of products or processes of their own choosing. The course provides students with powerful tools for evaluating and possibly improving the sustainability of products (e.g., air conditioners) and processes (e.g., meat production) that are integral parts of contemporary society.

Nancy Carpenter, Chemistry

Hybrid Course Development: Development of a Flipped, Hybrid Organic Chemistry Lecture

The chemistry discipline currently offers two sections of organic chemistry lecture. This project would convert a section to a flipped/hybrid offering consisting of online instruction delivered via a Moodle page (or similar) plus required in-class discussion and assessment. The in-class time would be for working problems and assessment purposes only‑ no lecture (in the popular lexicon, a “flipped” class). The project would begin with a review of the current state-of-the-art in hybrid technology globally and in the U of MN, specifically on the Morris campus. Work would result in determining the best method of recording content and delivery of content on-line. The target date for the first offering of this flipped/hybrid course (Chem 2301-2302) would be academic year 2013-14.

Michael Lackey, English

Honors Course Development: In Search of Nietzsche

During the course of his life, Friedrich Nietzsche lived in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy, and his writings have been alternately categorized as philosophy, literature, philology, and linguistics. Not surprisingly, Nietzsche’s works invite analysis from a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural perspective, and in the fall, I will take a journey with my students In Search of Nietzsche. In my course, students will read five books by Nietzsche and five novels which either feature Nietzsche as a character or incorporate his ideas into the work. Over the summer, I will prepare for the course by reading works about Nietzsche from numerous perspectives so that I can make Nietzsche alive for students in a wide variety of disciplines. Lance Olsen’s novel, Nietzsche’s Kisses, is one of the works students will read. The Honors Program Lecture Committee has chosen Olsen to be a featured speaker next year, and it is my hope to use Olsen’s novel as a way of generating excitement about Nietzsche’s work but also clarifying precisely why Nietzsche continues to inspire and influence people today. One of my primary goals is to indicate how Nietzsche effectively deconstructs strict disciplinary boundaries. My initial goal is to teach students how to read Nietzsche through a specific disciplinary lens. But what I want to achieve by the end of the semester is to show them why synthesizing disciplines is crucial for understanding Nietzsche’s works. Because novelists make use of ideas from a wide variety of disciplines, I will demonstrate why the novel is one of the most effective mediums for engaging Nietzsche, the intellectual, as well as Nietzsche, the person.

Barry McQuarrie, Mathematics

Online Course Development: Precalculus Math 1012/1013 Online Materials

During summer 2010, the Project Director received an Achieve Grant ($6000) to create materials for the completely online course Math 1014 Intensive Precalculus (4cr). For each topic, materials created were: instructor lecture notes (pdf), practice homework problems with solutions (pdf), guided examples (videos hosted on Media Mill), and introductory video for some topics. Math 1014 is targeted to PSEO students. UMM students are offered two face-to-face precalculus courses, Math 1012 Precalculus I Function (4cr) and Math 1013 Precalculus II Trig (2cr). Much of the materials created for Math 1014 will be used in these two courses, but some topics from Math 1012/1013 are not included in Math 1014. There are eight topics in Math 1012/1013 that do not have these substantial online resources. This EDP Project proposes to construct the online materials listed above for these eight topics in Math 1012/1013. Although this would allow Math 1012 and Math 1013 to be offered completely online in the future if desired, the Project Director sees the principle benefit of providing more resources for students in a face-to-face setting.

Anthony Ocaña, Communication, Media, and Rhetoric

IC Course Development: CMR 1XXX: Interpersonal and Intercultural Conflict Communication

The purpose of this project is to develop an IC course that appeals to students with an interest in intercultural topics and conflict management skills. Effective conflict management is difficult between members of the same culture, and this challenge is often compounded by intercultural misperceptions, differences in valued conflict styles, and ethnocentrism. Developing an IC course in conflict communication will help students come to understand common sources of conflict, the role of culture in the perceptions of interpersonal conflict, and more successful approaches to addressing conflict in order to sustain valued interpersonal and professional relationships with members of diverse cultures.

Heather Waye, Biology

IC Course Development: The Animals Around Us: Wildlife of Minnesota

This project will result in the creation of a new, four-credit Intellectual Community (IC) course for fall 2012. The course will present basic biological concepts in the context of Minnesota’s wildlife, using lecture and laboratory exercises and discussion. Students will be asked to research and discuss various topics of controversy in wildlife management and explore the differing points of view on these topics. Laboratory and field exercises will teach students how to identify local species and the characteristics we use to categorize different groups of animals. This grant will allow the faculty member to spend time researching topics in wildlife management in Minnesota, arrange guest lectures, develop discussion-based activities, and identify suitable locations for field trips.