Project description

EOS223S is an open, interdisciplinary elective in Nicholas School which satisfies a seminar requirement of Trinity undergrads; it includes topics in geology, engineering, energy, environment, and policy. The course focused on the actual conditions and plans for a US national high-level nuclear waste deposit in Yucca Mountain, Nevada, through a guided field trip to the Yucca Mountain site. Pre-field trip classes included lectures on Yucca Mountain geology and student-prepared seminars/posters on specific aspects of Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste disposal. Geology requires students to visualize both scales and complex three dimensional relationships from 2 dimensional maps, which is particularly difficult for non-majors. The Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE Tank) provided three dimensional visualization of the geology and subsurface engineering, and an interactive way to explore the scale of the field site.

By the end of the course, students stated that the use of the 3-D Visualization before the field trip helped to frame the spatial relationships between sediment layers, faults, and topography. The students were asked write a position paper on the integrated geological, economic, and social aspects of the proposed site and state their position on its licensing using the graphical evidence. Their papers showed that they achieved most of the following goals: they referenced appropriate data bases of existing documents, and related these materials to the actual scales lengths, including time, space, economic, social, and political dimensions associated with the potential site and its use.

Project start date: May 26, 2006
Funding awarded: $5,000

Project description
This introductory undergraduate course (BAA 120) used a multidisciplinary approach to explore the role of food in primate (including humans) evolution. The goals were: 1) to highlight different types of animal foraging patterns, with an emphasis on non-human primates and humans; 2) discuss the emergence of major dietary changes in evolution and throughout recent history; 3) evaluate the “facts” and “myths” surrounding foods (example: feed a cold and starve a fever), and 4) introduce students to the complex and often subtle ways in which an organism’s diet influences everything from physiology and intelligence to health and genetic differences. The approach used is a diverse perspective including ecological, archaeological, economic, demographic, historic, and cultural. This approach provides a comprehensive view of primate diets and how food has shaped and continues to shaped human cultures and values. Students collected and analyzed their daily food intake, calculated their metabolic rates and predicted the impact of a change in their diet by comparing their current diet with the changed diet. They also evaluated short popular press articles and food myths and discussed articles in class.

Students showed a consistent improvement and comfort level in the written work and class discussions as the semester progressed. Most of the class members said that they now have a different view their own diet and no longer accept any dietary statement without applying some or all of the litmus tests they learned in class.

This project was presented at the 2007 Center for Instructional Technology Showcase as “Food and Technology: You are What You Eat”

Project start date: May 26, 2006
Funding awarded: $5,000

Project description

The course NEUROBIO95FCS.01 covered the structural and functional organization of the brain, strengths and limitations of techniques in neuroscience, how concepts from economics are being introduced into neuroscience, and how results from neuroscience are changing economics models. Neuroanatomy was taught using a novel approach. First, instructors lectured using two-dimensional graphics. Then, students manipulated brain models in small-group workshops. Finally, the students were led on a “guided tour” of neuroanatomy, in a three-dimensional (virtual) brain models within the Duke immersive visualization environment (DIVE). Students walked through realistic, high-resolution brains with their instructor. This allowed them to learn how different brain parts are organized spatially. They later returned to the DIVE to practice in small groups without their instructor.

We know that students did learn the required neuroanatomy because of their exceptional performance on their mid-term neuroanatomy exam. Our students all completed practical exams in the DIVE, and both instructors were impressed with their facility with the neuroanatomy. We also gave a very challenging, graduate-level written examination. With only 2-3 exceptions in a class of 16, the students’ performance was outstanding. Their knowledge of neuroanatomy – as estimated from the performance on the test – was roughly equivalent to that of graduate students in the cognitive neuroscience program.

This project was presented at the 2007 Center for Instructional Technology Showcase on “Helping Students Visualize Science in Three Dimensions Using Virtual Reality”

Project start date: May 26, 2006
Funding awarded: $5,000

Project Description

William Noland redesigned his photography course in order to improve methods for introducing students with varying levels of experience to the basic concepts of documentary photography and image authenticity, and integrate the use of image manipulation tools in the course.

In Noland’s course, students learned about the history of documentary photography and applied methods learned to creating their own digital photographs; students used the images to create their own photography book using iPhoto and other tools. Noland addressed issues such as the authenticity of photographs by having students examine and discuss images, including examples from Flickr. Noland designed group activities to allow students who had taken photography courses in the past to help new students get familiar with concepts. CIT provided support by consulting on possible classroom activities, pointing to copyight and Fair Use resources, and helping plan training for the students on software used in the book project.

The redesigned course was taught in Spring 2007. Noland felt that the students were successful in the activities, including gaining a better understanding of documentary photography concepts, and that the book project was better organized [better organized than in prior semesters? better organized than it would have been if CIT hadn't been involved?] and a good learning experience for the students.

Project start date: 5/2006
Funding awarded: $5,000

Students in the new course “Preparing the Portfolio for Preliminary Certification” author and publish web based electronic portfolios. This course supports an innovation in the history department’s approach to preliminary certification of PhD candidates. In place of the conventional written or oral exam, students are required to submit portfolios of work that display the student’s engagement with their three or four fields of specialization as well as their teaching expertise; the portfolio is modeled on the tenure dossier. This course is optional in this, its first year, but it will be required of all graduate students in either their second or third year. The objectives for the course are for students to:

• learn how to write a dissertation prospectus and/or grant proposal
• learn how to revise papers produced in classes and independent studies for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
• learn how to display their work in a web-based portfolio format

A CIT consultant worked closely with Thorne to develop a portfolio template and to provide training for students in web authoring.

Project start date: 5/10/2006
Funding awarded: $5,000

Project description

Teaching a Freshman Focus course for the first time, Amy Laura Hall received a CIT Course Design Grant to design class activities that would introduce the students to collaboratively researching and analyzing images and would allow her to integrate her research with teaching.

Students in the course investigate the development of views about ethics and science and how they are reflected in popular culture. Hall wanted students to learn how to research and analyze images from magazines, advertisements and other sources and wanted students to share images for class discussions and use in papers and other projects. Hall explored how she could best organize and present the student images and projects using blog, wiki and discussion board tools in Blackboard, and located resources students could use through the Library to find and scan images.

Hall had mixed results in using Blackboard for the activities, since the software is not designed for easily sharing and sorting images for student use. She continued refining the syllabus and activities, eliminating aspects of the course where the students assembled metadata concerning the images and the redesigned course was taught in Fall 2007.

Project start date: 4/2006
Funding awarded: $5,000