Past Projects

BeArS@Home, A Choose Your Own Adventure Online Laboratory Platform

Chemistry Project: “BeArS@Home(link sends e-mail), A Choose Your Own Adventure Online Laboratory Platform” Cohort 2020-2021

BeArS@home(link sends e-mail) brings resilience to UC Berkeley's chemistry curriculum by creating a versatile digital platform for our unique laboratory coursework. Our team of teaching faculty, graduate student researchers, and instructional support staff...

Scaffolded Learning for Code Writing Exercises

“Scaffolded Learning for Code Writing Exercises” Michael Ball, Akshit Dewan, Pamela Fox, Tommy Joseph, Anirudh Kothapalli, Roy Zhou (Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences) Cohort 2021-2022

CS61A is the first required class in the CS major at Berkeley, and students often have a hard time coming up with a correct solution for the code writing exercises. To scaffold the learning journey and help students be more successful in code writing, we integrated Faded Parsons Problems into the labs and homework this semester. Faded Parsons Problems give students a way to...

Technology for Musicianship Curriculum Enhancement

Music Department Project: “Technology for Musicianship Curriculum Enhancement" Cohort 2019-2020

A team from the Music Department will review creative music outcomes from musicianship courses 20A, 52A, 52B, 152A and 152B, in order to create an online database of musicianship resources and utilize them to enhance student learning. Fall 2019 offerings of these courses will incorporate new or technology-enhanced projects involving: 1) online engagement with materials available on this site, and 2) contributing new work to the site. Resulting accrual of creative examples will provide new...

Teaching Dance Under Covid-19 as a Practice of Community, Social Justice, and Wellness

Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies Project: “Teaching Dance Under Covid-19 as a Practice of Community, Social Justice, and Wellness” Cohort 2020-2021

TDPS Dance faculty members Katie Faulkner, James Graham, SanSan Kwan, and Latanya Tigner centered their PCF project around the cultivation of wellness, community, and social justice within the remote dance classroom. Dance practice classes, and the essential in-person demands of learning embodied skills, have been uniquely impacted by the pandemic. Our team has collaborated on developing pedagogical strategies that not only continue high...

Self-Paced Videos for Improving Access in an Introductory Music Course

Music Project: "Self-Paced Videos for Improving Access in an Introductory Music Course" Cohort 2020-2021

Music has always presented an exceptional set of challenges to the classroom instructor. Studying music involves being guided repeatedly through works or performances in real time—sonic experiences that, in turn, stand in a complex relation to the various technologies and visual props that capture and mediate them. Funding from the Resilience Grant Program has allowed us to create initial components of digital tools that place students in active dialogue with musical works and concepts...

Resilience in Geospatial Learning

Geography Project: "Resilience in Geospatial Learning" Cohort 2020-2021

This talk discusses the promises and pitfalls of teaching geospatial courses remotely, from the technical to the theoretical. It reflects on a suite of educational research investigating the outcomes of a small survey of students who participated in remote geospatial courses in Fall 2020; the format of available geospatial software and tools; and, best practice in online-only delivered geospatial courses from across the US. Finally, it argues that preemptive course design, underpinned by active technical and...

Enhancing Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Physics Using Data Science Techniques for Data Analysis and Simulation

Physics Project: "Enhancing Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Physics Using Data Science Techniques for Data Analysis and Simulation" Cohort 2019-2020

Physics Department aims to increase student participation in Discovery Learning and Experience by adding new data science components to the curriculum. Elements of the proposal are: 1) Development of data enabled homework assignments for two upper division classes. Assignments for Physics 129 will highlight strategies and techniques for data analysis. Assignments for Physics 112, a core course requirement for Physics majors, will...

Enhancing Equity in Molecular & Cellular Physiology by Enriching Upper-Division Courses with Active Learning & Low-Stakes Assessments

“Enhancing Equity in Molecular & Cellular Physiology by Enriching Upper-Division Courses with Active Learning & Low-Stakes Assessments” Madeline Arnold, Diana Bautista, Polina Lishko, Ellen Lumpkin, Danielle Spitzer (Molecular Cell Biology) Cohort 2021-2022

The goal of this project is to overhaul the design of two, upper-division MCB courses in order to close the learning gap between students from historically underrepresented and majority groups in STEM, and to benefit all students by increasing science identity and sense of belonging. The Fellows worked to develop...

Comprehensive Revision of Core Courses for Microbiology Biology Majors Incorporating Discovery Experiences and Active Learning

Plant & Microbial Biology Project: “Comprehensive Revision of Core Courses for Microbiology Biology Majors Incorporating Discovery Experiences and Active Learning.” Cohort 2019-2020

Faculty from Plant & Microbial Biology will comprehensively redesign the core curriculum for Microbial Biology undergraduate majors to highlight Discovery Learning. The lab course, PMB/MCB C112L, will be converted to a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience, while active learning methods will be implemented throughout two lecture courses, PMB/MCB C112 and C148. Learning goals for all...

Collaborative Innovation: Underpinning Frameworks for Creating Interdisciplinary Discovery Experiences

Haas Business School & Theater, Dance & Performance Studies

Project: "Collaborative Innovation: Underpinning Frameworks for Creating Interdisciplinary Discovery Experiences"

Cohort 2019-2020

The collaborative curriculum project between Business and TDPS explores the underpinnings of discovery and learning and how they might be leveraged to create a variety of interdisciplinary experiences for undergraduate students. It identifies the learning outcomes associated with framing and solving problems, developing inner, other and outer focus...