Engaging Undergraduates in STEM Laboratories Using Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning

Adam Ward, Department of Geoscience; Art Bettis, Department of Geoscience; and Anthony Castronovo, School of Art & Art History; received $36,827. Undergraduate students are required to take general education courses that include a laboratory experience but are commonly hesitant to engage with STEM discipline materials. Current laboratory exercises are organized in a traditional format (introductory lecture, hypothesis, experiment, conclusions), emphasizing results as an end-product rather than helping students engage with the material. This project will address a critical need to facilitate students' engagement with STEM content in this course.

Making Algorithmic Thinking Concrete via Collaboration with the Performing Arts

Alberto Segre, Department of Computer Science, and George De La Pena, Department of Dance, received $15,000 to purchase five programmable NAO robots to support interdisciplinary collaborative learning in Computer Science. The primary use for these robots will be to support a new class, jointly offered with the Dance Department, exploring "algorithmic thinking in the performing arts." This new project-based course will team equal numbers of performing arts (with an emphasis on dance) majors with computer science and informatics majors to design, choreograph, direct, and produce a robotic dance performance while teaching core computational concepts.

Muscle and Anatomy Analysis in Dance Instruction and Innovative Creative Research with Digital Technology

George De La Pena, Department of Dance, was awarded $11,700 to ....

Mobile App for the Phonetics: The Sounds of Spoken Language Website

Jerald Moon, Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, received $6,450. The Phonetics: The Sounds of Spoken Language website was created in 2001 using University of Iowa Instructional Improvement Award funds. The website includes animated libraries of the phonetic sounds of English, Spanish, and German. The technologies used to create the original website have not been updated since its inception. Given the rising popularity of tablet computers and smartphone apps, the logical next step in the evolution of this website and its use in enhancing student learning is the development of a mobile app.

Problem-Solving with Transnational Feminism

Meena Khandelwal; Department of Anthropology, Jerry Anthony, School of Urban & Regional Planning; H. S. Udaykumar, Department of Mechanical Engineering; received $1,500 for a course that challenges students to critically analyze liberal feminist stances on key issues. Students will research an authentic problem, with the possibility of implementing solutions through the ongoing UI Indian Winterim program. The classroom project reflects the complexity of the actual problem such that solving it necessitates collaboration. Students will “own” the problem and work together with faculty to solve it.

The University of Iowa Museum of Art Mapping Project: Art and Life in Africa

Catherine Hale, Stanley Museum of Art, and Christopher Roy, School of Art & Art History, were awarded $10,000 to support the development of the University of Iowa Museum of Art Mapping Project, which will be a digital map that integrates the objects in our collections with a wide range of historical, cultural, environmental, and other data. This online, publicly accessible map promises to be a rich research resource and teaching tool for faculty across the university and beyond.

As the custodians of the University of Iowa’s world-class collections, one of our key priorities at the Museum of Art (UIMA) is to determine how we can best serve the research, teaching and learning objectives of the faculty and students across the university. In our current configuration (without a physical building) we are unable to make large numbers of objects available for viewing and study; however, we want to ensure that students and professors can continue to work with our extensive collections in ways that enhance their studies and open up new paths of inquiry and interdisciplinary exchange.

Web-Based and Mobile Device Supported Intermediate Chinese Reading Learning Website for Intermediate Classes

Xiaoyuan Zhao, Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, received $1,216 to build a computer (both Mac and PC) compatible and mobile-device-friendly website to accompany reading lessons of the Intermediate Chinese Reader textbook.

Phase II: Cell Printing Platform for Interactive Biomanufacturing in Engineering Curriculum

Ibrahim Ozbolat, Department of Industrial Engineering, received $20,940 for the second phase of this educational innovation project. It builds upon a previous ITS funded project in development of a remotely controlled bioprinting platform for engineering undergraduate curriculum and aims at class-integration, large-scale deployment and refinement of a web-access interactive cell printing platform for effective teaching in biomanufacturing. If successful, this project will further maneuver the efforts towards integration of new technology and development in science into interactive teaching.