Category: Level I

  • Proposal to add experiential component to ASIAN 258: Food and Drink of Asia (WN 2018)

    Grants, Level I

    ASIAN 258 examines the past and present of foodways in Asia. It begins with an examination of the foods and drinks that have united peoples across Eurasia, including tea, pancakes, flatbreads, dumplings, soy products, cheese, and noodles. It then moves to foods and drinks that have historically divided peoples along ethnic, class, and religious lines: dog meat, pork, beef, and MSG. The final part of the class investigates foods that define people as members of national or ethnic groups: curry, sushi, pad thai, and spring rolls. Through a rigorous examination of the history of Asian cuisines, students acquire a better understanding not only of the different regions of Asia, but also the connections between various Asian cultures and the relationship between Asia and the larger world. The goals of the class are threefold ● To provide a holistic study of the historical, economic, and cultural connections between regions of Asia, on the one hand, and Asia and the world, on the other ● To provide students with a rudimentary understanding of food studies, an emerging field in cultural studies and historical scholarship. ● To give students an introduction to regions of Asia that are less well known, particularly Southeast Asia

  • Using photography and Facebook, in French 100-270, to enhance students’ learning and engage them in the language classroom.

    Grants, Level I

    This project will be developed in all the French classes that I teach this year: Elementary French this fall (Fr 102 and Fr 103), Elementary and upper level French this winter (Fr 232 Comics and Fr 274 Medical), Upper level French this summer in Grenoble (Fr 274 Cross Cultural Comparisons). I would like to be able to document students’ behaviors in the class using the camera, and post them on a class Facebook page weekly. Students will have to react to the pictures and comment on them using the vocabulary and structures studied during that week.

  • Problem Database Update of Physics Content in Problem Roulette

    Grants, Level I

    Problem Roulette (PR) is a study tool used in several large-enrollment classes within the Colleges of LS&A and Engineering. Students access the cloud-based tool via the web or phone. Within a particular course a student can select from a list of topics. The student will be given problems or an entire practice test from a database of prior course exam problems. The original tool and measures of its effectiveness have been described in Evrard et al., Am J Phys, 83, 76 (2015). As part of a service update supported by the Digital Innovation Greenhouse in the Office of Academic Innovation, we seek funds to update and expand the database to include problems from exams from the past 3-4 years from all four large courses, and extend the service to include our honors sequence. The database update will provide students with problems which are reflective of the current content of the courses.

  • Team Based Learning Activities for American Culture/Communications 326

    Grants, Level I

    Next I want to do some research on the pedagogical principles of forming teams and devising tasks for them, and to think through how those activities will link to the different configuration of the section work. I am also planning to develop more extensive scaffolding for the students’ work on their research projects for the course—there is some now, but not enough.

  • For Immersion and Inclusion: Using Immersive 360° Video Technology in the Language Classroom

    Grants, Level I

    For the pilot study, we plan to utilize immersive video technology in 1st and 3rd-year Japanese classes. ASIANLAN 125/126 “1st Year Japanese” 5 cr (50 min × 5 days) This course is designed for students with little or no understanding of Japanese. The course focuses on developing students’ proficiency in all four language skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) while simultaneously familiarizing them with aspects of both traditional and modern Japanese culture that are necessary to build language competency. Students will become able to handle daily conversations, and read and write simple passages in hiragana, katakana, and kanji. ASIANLAN 123/124 “1st Year Japanese through Anime and Manga” 5 cr (50 min × 3 days) This course covers the same grammar/vocabulary as ASIANLAN125/126 but meets three times a week. This course takes a flipped-classroom approach. ASIANLAN 335/226: 4 cr (80 min× 3 days ) This course focuses on further cultivating an intermediate level of linguistic, pragmatic, and socio-cultural language competence. Students will work on various projects and discussions to continue to improve proficiency in all four language skills. Students will be able to to use intermediate/advanced-level vocabulary, expressions, and grammar in both speaking and writing. Here are two specific classroom exercises that immersive video technology can enrich. Vocabulary & Grammar Structure Acquisition: Usually, when learning new expressions and grammar structures, students are given grammar pattern tasks that are often rigid and follow a set formula. However, immersive video technology can change these activities into immersive experiences. For example, when students learn adjectives at the beginning of 1st year Japanese, instead of showing images or videos and having students describe Shibuya (Ex. Shibuya is very busy.), 360° video technology will enable students to go to the middle of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing and experience what being in Shibuya is like. We expect that this will stimulate students’ willingness to communicate and positively affect their grammar/vocabulary learning. Cross-Cultural Competence: After students learn about Japanese speech styles from the textbook, we will let students put themselves in Japanese college students’ shoes to engage in real conversations that take place in different settings. They will see if there are any discrepancies between what the textbook taught and what they experienced, and think critically about what factors may cause these discrepancies (Ex. gender, talking to native or non-native speakers of Japanese). Then students will compare the Japanese speech style system with their own country’s speech styles.