Garden Grant Recipients, 2022-2023

Project Team: Karen Balcom (PI), Katie Moisse, Cynthia Lokker, Brent McKnight, Kate Whalen, Rodrigo Narro Perez, Dave Heidebrecht, Jay Carter

Project Description: As community-engaged learning expands on our campus, there is increasing need for quality instructional materials in support of this learning, and for tools to measure the outcomes and impact of community-engaged learning. This project addresses the first need through the development, deployment and testing of an instructor guide to promote student reflection that can be adapted for use across CEL classes.

Project Team: Karen Bird (PI), Greg Flynn (PI), Todd Alway, Katherine Boothe, Adrienne Davidson, Peter Graefe, James Ingram, Inder Marwah, Cliff van der Linden, Joanna Massie, Mark Busser, Bruce Newbold, Christina Baade, Sara Binnie

Project Description: This Garden grant will create a partnered learning pathway for understanding contemporary challenges of electoral integrity, democratic participation and civic engagement. The project team will map existing course content and design complementary curriculum to strengthen students’ theoretical understanding and technical expertise in the field, culminating in a proposed interdisciplinary Undergraduate Certificate in Elections and Democratic Vitality. The project will also build experiential learning opportunities through a partnered approach where students work with leaders in electoral management and democratic advocacy.

Project Team: Kristina Durham (PI), Yasmeen Mezil, Joshua Mitchell, Jason Bernard, Lana Amoudi, Varun Coelho, David Klitovchenko, Layla Rahimpour, Sriya Rajyam, Gerald Segovia, Meghna Varambally, Pariya Vejdani, Tracy Wang, Philip Yu

Project Description: Though the objective structured practical exam (OSPE) is an evaluation that is commonly used in both undergraduate and professional graduate anatomy education to assess learner knowledge, comprehension and clinical application using cadaveric specimens, student preparedness is impeded by logistical barriers to the provision of adequate OSPE practice. The project team therefore proposes to develop an OSPE tool to provide students with a personalized, unique, and interactive study opportunity that uses artificial intelligence to provide feedback specific to their written responses.

Project Team: Robert Fleisig (PI), Monica De Paoli, Andrea Hemmerich

Project Description: The goal of this project is to continue the previous work to transfer and adapt existing practices of scholarly teaching, both from experts and the literature, into the practice of teachers at McMaster University. This goal will be accomplished through partnership with international experts, workshops on topics including competency-based interviewing for assessors of teaching, writing critical reflections on teaching, constructing authentic teaching portfolios, and engaging with peers in conversations supported by a teaching portfolio.

Project Team: Cynthia Lokker, Nicole Wagner, Neil Barr, Vincent Maccio, Marg Leyland, Elizabeth Warnick

Project Description: The 2020 IQAP review of the eHealth MSc program at McMaster recommended considering a design focused capstone project as an alternative, complement, or replacement for the scholarly paper as a culminating milestone. The goals of this Garden proposal are to assess the desirability and feasibility of an interdisciplinary capstone project course for course-based students and, if feasible, to co-develop the course and plan for evaluating this potential major curriculum enhancement.

Project Team: Katie Moisse, Shaiya Robinson, Rodrigo Narro Perez, Ana Campos, Ana Tomljenovic-Berube, Sarah Symons, Kevin Diamond, Karen Balcom, Tahmina Shamsheri

Project Description: This project aims to embed critical learning about how underrepresentation and discrimination can negate the presumed hope for neutrality of the scientific process at key curricular touch points across the School of Interdisciplinary Science’s three undergraduate programs. SIS instructors will partner with undergraduate students and community partners to develop learning opportunities that centre equity and inclusion, assessment strategies that cater to diverse student bodies, and flexible learning environments that maximize the success of all students. They will also create a level 3 course with a focus on health disparities that is open to all students in the Faculty of Science and develop a “science and society” pathway in the Life Sciences Program.

Project Team: Catharine Munn, Lynn Armstrong, Emma Bruce, Loa Gordon, Mojan Naisani Samani, Valentina Antonapillai, Jillian Halladay, Emma Apatu, Catherine Connelly, Martin Gibala, Susan Jack, Anna Moro, Gillian Mulvale, Tracy Prowse, Michael Thompson, Andrea Cole, Kate Whalen, Emma Bruce

Project Description: GrowGrads proposes to bring together a diverse range of leaders, faculty, staff, students and post-doctoral fellows to identified strategic priorities to strengthen graduate student: faculty supervisory relationships and outline an educational curricula and training opportunities for graduate students and faculty. Co-design will inform GrowGrads; it is a method and philosophy of engaging stakeholders, ideally suited to this work, which embraces partnerships with users/stakeholders, applies a user-centred lens to solve challenges, and focuses on the human experience.

Project Team: Rodrigo Narro Perez, Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu

Project Description: The Anti-Racism, Inclusion and Equity in the Science Undergraduate Curriculum (ARIE) project is an ambitious, unprecedented initiative that aims to introduce and build anti-racist, inclusive and equitable pedagogies in the Faculty of Science through a suite of interdisciplinary undergraduate courses. The project team will use the Garden Grant funding to fully develop, test, advertise and launch the ARIE suite of courses, including students as equal partners in the development of curricular materials.

Project Team Anne Pottier (PI), Nick Marquis (PI), Gerald Bierling, Kevin Andrews, Joey Ricottone, Tiago De Sousa, Melissa Elliot, Kyle Fletcher, Otto Geiss, Brad Leenstra, Roger Periard, Ted Shaw, Jon Kruithof, Chris Lombardo, John Bator, Neil Kotch, Michael Curwin, John Bell, Jessica Blackwood, Angela Harrison, Bryan Czerneda, Carmalita Larkin, Christa Morrison, Kate Brown

Project Description: The McMaster Hybrid Classroom Standard project team seeks to secure funding to engage with an audio / visual integrator to consult, design, and program a standardized hybrid meeting solution that can be scaled for different classroom / meeting spaces across McMaster campus teaching and meeting spaces. An intentional, collaborative, and iterative approach to designing classroom standards with representation from several key experts across campus will enable McMaster to begin to develop a robust, accessible, and scalable standard for hybrid experiences.

Project Team: Stephanie Springgay, Peter Cockett, Syrus Ware, Adrienne Crossman

Project Description: The iArts action research-creation project will support large-scale curriculum and pedagogical innovation in the new iArts program in the School of the Arts, which launches Fall 2022. The two main objectives of the Garden Grant are to: 1) Implement and evaluate equity, diversity and inclusion in iArts teaching and learning and; 2) Develop and assess arts-based pedagogical models for active and flexible learning spaces.

Project Team: Michael Wong, Stacey Ritz, Jean Wilson, Sarah Symons, Dina Brooks, Brenda Vrkljan, Margaret Secord, Kristina Trim, Meredith Vanstone, Ilana Bayer, Michelle Fattori, Ali Al-Humuzi

Project Description: Since the 1980s, McMaster has emphasized the use of inquiry-based approaches within a variety of Programs and Faculties. This project seeks to understand, enhance, and expand McMaster’s commitment to inquiry-based education by: investigating the uses of inquiry in different undergraduate contexts at McMaster; establishing a community of practice for instructors already using inquiry approaches and those who wish to start; and creating an open access resource (OER) to explain the benefits of inquiry in post-secondary settings and how to implement inquiry in different contexts.