Jonathan Warnock
Department: Geography, Geology, Environment, and Planning
Award: Innovation
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: A new approach to the “Big Project” in Geology: Rethinking the outcrop as default
Abstract: Often the final project in a geology class involves an outcrop visit during class time or over a weekend. This style of project is very familiar to students and can be heavily impacted by accessibility issues. In order to overcome these issues and provide students a novel experience, I have replaced the traditional outcrop visit in GEOS 355 - Sedimentology with a forensic problem. Using evidence I provide, students are expected to solve a murder. The exercise requires students to collect and analyze all the data types they've been using all semester. However, it requires them to think and communicate about this data in novel ways. While applied to a forensic problem, the data students collect, analyze, and communicate about consist of the types of data they are likely to work with in a huge variety of professions. Providing this novel experience increases student engagement and retention by expanding the curriculum, demonstrating novel data applications to students and capturing popular interest.
Sudipta Majumdar
Department: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, and Engineering
Award: Content Pedagogy
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: Integration of individualized research into biochemistry laboratory
Abstract: A research-based biochemistry laboratory curriculum was designed to provide students with the experience of engaging in original research while introducing fundamental biochemistry laboratory techniques. Ownership of a research question and connection to the research community encourages students to continue in their STEM education. Engagement in the hands-on, biochemical challenges presented by authentic research prepares the students for progressively more complex problem solving and motivates them as they navigate through their science courses and prepare for careers in STEM.
Dana Driscoll
Department: English, Writing Center
Award: Mentoring
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: Mentoring Teaching Excellence Award
Abstract: Dana Driscoll, professor of English and director of the Jones White Writing Center, deeply weaves mentoring into her roles as a faculty member in the Composition and Applied Linguistics doctoral program and in the Writing Center. Through her work of co-publishing and presenting with graduate students, she offers students the opportunity to be socially apprenticed into the discipline with careful mentoring through research design, data collection, analysis, writing, revision, and managing the peer-review process. Of her 18 peer-reviewed articles published since she arrived at IUP in 2015, 50 percent of them have been co-authored with graduate student collaborators. Through the Jones White Writing Center, Driscoll invites her student tutors—undergraduate and graduate—to participate in various aspects of our writing center, including developing new programming, writing center assessment, and community service. For example, she has mentored multiple student tutor collaborators to spearhead our new community writing center initiative, creating opportunities for over half of the writing center staff to gain experience in tutoring and leading workshops in the greater Indiana Community. As a second example, she mentored two graduate student collaborators in designing, leading, and assessing the graduate writing groups, an initiative that supports over 150 IUP students each year as they make progress on their dissertations. These mentoring relationships not only impact the students directly involved but have a broader impact both at IUP and beyond.
Alexandra Krasova
Department: English
Award: Teaching Associate
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: Digital Composition, Storytelling, and Multimodal Literacy: Teaching Writing with Technology
Abstract: My application aims to demonstrate that the skills students acquire in a composition class are practical and applicable outside the classroom. I divided a 16-week course into four units each leading to a major project. The main purpose of the designed course is to leverage students’ digital writing skills along with encouraging their critical thinking. All of the projects aim to develop various skills, namely, digital narrative, collaboration in a global space, multimodal digital writing, and reflexivity. Moreover, throughout the course, students gained other valuable knowledge, such as the importance of peer review, proofreading, and the significance of academic writing. I introduced students to the IUP Writing Center, and we attended several workshops to leverage students’ knowledge on clarity and conciseness in writing and various styles of writing research papers.
As for the accomplishments, students’ feedback, presented in the application, confirmed the usefulness of the course by demonstrating that writing can and should be meaningful. All students attended the course on a regular basis successfully completed the final project, which proves the effectiveness of my pedagogical approach. In addition, students gained new digital writing skills, enhanced their literacy experiences, and learned to write in different genres. The student’s final project sample demonstrates the significance and potential of my course. Finally, I received a positive and encouraging observation feedback from my mentor, who provided a letter of recommendation for my application.
Alfred Dahma and Timothy Flowers
Pictured: Dahma (left) and Flowers (right)
Department: Mathematical and Computer Sciences
Award: Open Educational Resources (OER)
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: Integrating WeBWorK and GeoGebra to Create Technology Based OER for MATH 108
Abstract: This application addresses the work done by Drs. Alfred Dahma and Timothy Flowers in creating open educational resources for MATH 108 (Applications of Business Mathematics). The result of the project was the creation of approximately 100 problems used for 14 weekly technology assignments in MATH 108 in which GeoGebra applets were embedded within the open source homework platform WeBWorK. Each of these problems contains a dynamic GeoGebra applet integrated within a WeBWorK question to allow for graphical and numerical explorations of content taught in the co-requisite MATH 107 course. These questions can be randomized for each student and provide immediate feedback to students about their responses. With these assignments completed, we have removed the need to return to commercial textbooks for both MATH 108 and its co-requisite MATH 107.
Andrea Palmiotto
Department: Anthropology
Award: Open Educational Resources (OER)
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: Introduction to Anthropology - OER
Abstract: IUP’s Introduction to Anthropology: A Holistic and Applied Approach to Being Human is an original OER created by the Department of Anthropology. This free resource is peer-reviewed and includes a robust offering of 20 modules that cover topics relevant to any introductory anthropology course. With an excellent array of supplementary materials, including review assessments, discussion prompts, activities, and videos, faculty have the flexibility to modify the course for their needs and students can dive further into the topics no matter their preferred method of learning.
This OER arose from a commitment to provide high-quality resources to all students and reduce the barriers students face to attend college—including high textbook costs. Enrolling approximately 900 IUP students per year, this class serves IUP as a social science elective within the Liberal Studies curriculum and as a requirement for the Cultural Competencies certificate. At its core, anthropology is committed to improved diversity, equitability, inclusion, and accessibility by helping students realize that despite cultural differences, we are all humans. This resource is designed to help students understand how they can apply anthropological perspectives to their lives. Combining the best aspects of our introductory courses, teaching, and applied experiences, this OER provides multiple lenses to tackle common introductory topics while showing students the myriad of possibilities of what it looks like to be an anthropologist. It is Attribution-ShareAlike licensed (CC BY SA), allowing others to modify the content for their needs, so long as they cite the original source. Led by Andrea Palmiotto, the Anthropology Department is proud to present this OER to IUP and all other institutions that teach introductory anthropology courses.
Marissa Sweeny
Photo unavailable at this time.
Department: Art and Design
Award: Experiential Education
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: SQUAD Art Studio
Abstract: I founded SQUAD Art Studio as an inclusive, alternative Saturday Art School program for children ages 0–8 and a caregiver. SQUAD serves IUP preservice art educators and families with young children in our rural region. Additionally, SQUAD serves as an IRB-approved research site for art education faculty working with digital technologies, STEAM curriculum, and critical disability studies. For young children and pre-service art educators, SQUAD experiences emphasize negotiated curriculum, process-based art and media exploration, Universal Design in Learning, diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, sustainability, family/child intergenerational co-education, and the use of digital technologies as new media art. Currently in its sixth full year of operation, SQUAD has served every IUP art education preservice educator since 2017 and hundreds of community children. From 2018 to 2020, I initiated additional community-based collaborations between SQUAD and the Indiana County Farmer’s Market, Commonplace Coffee, and Downtown Indiana. In 2021, SQUAD expanded its reach through additional collaborations with two local preschools and Indiana Head Start. In fall 2023, SQUAD will serve 16 pre-service educators and 53 local children through courses held at the Artist’s Hand Gallery and Keys Montessori School. SQUAD has been featured in the Indiana Gazette three times. Most recently, SQUAD’s collaborative exhibition with Keys Montessori School, held at IUP’s Kipp Gallery in May 2022, was featured on the paper’s cover. Saturday art lab schools have historically served as sites for experiential art education in which preservice educators negotiate relationships between theory and practice under faculty guidance (Thompson, 1985; Lackey, 2008). Specific outcomes of SQUAD at IUP include: Creating a community-based art studio for young children; nurturing meaningful relationships between preservice educators and young children; activating interactive natural, ecological and digital materials and spaces; integrating digital and traditional art tools; and creating a multi-media production studio and channels for caregivers at home.
Deborah Kane
Department: Management
Award: Temporary Faculty
Proposal Title and Abstract
Title: Teaching Excellence Temporary Faculty SCM MBA Quality
Abstract: I am Deborah Kennedy Kane, a temporary assistant professor, in the Department of Management and a member of the first IUP Business PhD Cohort. I am so excited to be given the opportunity to teach Industrial Quality, a course in the IUP Supply Chain Management, MBA program. This is the third course I taught for IUP and the first in this program. I am not new to teaching; I am a professor at Butler County Community College. Prior to teaching, I worked in the private sector as an engineer for Corning Glass Works and Kennametal Incorporated and as a supply manager for Nova Chemicals Incorporated. In addition to teaching, I am a partner of a medical device distributor. I highlight my experience for several reasons. I am grateful to the faculty, administrators, and staff at IUP for developing the Business PhD program for working professionals. The program has allowed me to teach at a level where I feel I can have a significant impact on my students’ careers.
The course I am teaching this semester is Industrial Quality: Statistical Tools and Management. Though the title may seem “dry,” the topic is quite interesting. Quality means meeting the customer’s expectations. Each functional area of a business must work in harmony to make that happen. Supply chain management is a field that many people were not aware of until the pandemic. Now it is at the forefront of peoples’ minds when the items they took for granted are no longer available or on a more positive note, the items can be delivered to their homes the next day! The “magic” behind the scenes is the focus of the course.