Teaching Innovation Grants Recipients 2024

Innovation in teaching and learning continues to flourish at WPI! The Educational Development Council, Academic Technology Center, Morgan Teaching and Learning Center, and Undergraduate Studies are pleased to announce over $153,000 in Teaching Innovation Grants for 2024, awarded to 27 projects involving 42 faculty and staff. This year’s grantees will be exploring the affordances of AI and other technologies for teaching and learning; implementing and assessing course innovations that enhance diversity, inclusivity, and belonging, with potential for broad impact; examining the intersections of learning and pedagogy, grading practices, equity, and well-being; and much more. Recipients of the three different types of grants— Professional Learning Communities, Course and Program Projects, and Summer Sandbox Grants — are listed below. Congratulations to all the grant winners! Please visit this webpage to learn more about their projects

Professional Learning Communities

Generative AI in Teaching and Learning

Participants in this PLC will develop their critical AI literacy and pedagogy through such activities as creating or modifying assignments that include critical thinking and ethics of generative AI, or developing resources for students and colleagues. Valerie Smedile-Rifkin (Instructional Designer, ATC) will be the group facilitator, and Gillian Smith (CS, IMGD) and Yunus Telliel (HUA) will serve as peer mentors, providing continuity with this year’s PLC.

Teaching Genre Literacy Through Generative AI in the Language Classroom

Gizem Arslan (Yunt), HUA

AI Ethics in the Theatrical Sphere: Analyzing and Employing Generative AI

Sarah Lucie, HUA
 

OpenSynthAI for Project-Based Learning: Initial Testing and Development of an Instructor Toolbox to Promote Open Science in the Era of Generative AI

Richard Lopez, SSPS

Constructive Application of AI Tools for Skills Development in a Non-Majors Environmental Biology Course

Lauren Matthews, BBT

Building a Toolbox for Using AI in Academic Research

Laura Roberts, DIGS

Using AI to Provide an Equitable Approach for Teaching Large Introductory Physics Courses

Izabela Stroe, PH
 

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Alternative Grading

Members of this PLC will consider four pillars for growth-based grading (Clark & Talbert, 2023) as they refine, implement, and reflect on alternative grading practices. Caitlin Keller (Senior Instructional Designer, ATC) will facilitate the group, and Sarah Riddick (HUA) will serve as a peer mentor.

Examining the Care-Work of Ungrading

Melissa Kagen, IMGD

Growing Together: Alternative Grading for Team Projects

Courtney Kurlanska, DIGS

Alternative Grading to Better Reflect Students' Learning

Ye Lu, AE
 

Adapting Flexible Deadlines for Student Success

Jennifer Mortensen, CS 

Standard-Based and Specification-Based Grading in Economics Courses

Gbeton Somasse, SSPS

Applying Alternative Grading to Mathematics-Based Courses

Carly Siegel Thorp, MA
 

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Course and Program Projects

Pedagogical Comics for Programming Language Design Instruction 

Rose Bohrer, CS

Developing an Inclusive Introductory Music Curriculum

Lucy Caplan, HUA (PI)
VJ Manzo, HUA

Developing Civic Engagement Modules for Courses and Programs

Corey Denenberg Dehner, DIGS (PI) 
Marja Bakermans, DIGS
Katherine Foo, DIGS
Derren Rosbach, DIGS

GPThermo: An In-House GenAI Tutor for Thermodynamics 

Alireza Ebadi, MME (co-funded by Undergraduate Studies)
 

Creating a More Authentic Collaborative Environment to Teach Discrete Event Simulation Fundamentals

Renata Konrad, BUS

Revive the Legacy of Drawing at WPI in the Era of AI

Shichao Liu, AREN (PI)
Marie Keller, HUA
Soroush Farzin, AREN
Navneet Anand, AREN

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Summer Sandbox Grants

Post-IQP Academic Publishing

John-Michael Davis, DIGS

Afro and Indigenous Voices in Latin America

Lina Munoz-Marquez, HUA

Social and Political Philosophy

Geoffrey Pfeifer, DIGS

Topics in Modern Physics: A Roadmap of Women's Contributions

Izabela Stroe, PH

NeuroPhysics of Yoga

Snehalata Kadam, PH (PI), Jagan Srinivasan, BBT

Hey, AI! Is That A Scarlet Tanager in My Yard?

Marja Bakermans, BBT

AI for Agency and Identity

Thomas Patrick Noviello, PH

GPThermo: An In-House GenAI Tutor for Thermodynamics

Alireza Ebadi, MME (co-funded by the EDC)

Beyond Boundaries: Expanding Access to Chemistry Education Through Virtual Reality Technologies in First-Year Labs

Raúl Orduña Picón, CBC (PI), Robert Dempski, CBC