May - August, 2004

The 2004 FSI Faculty & Project Summaries

Group Photo - FSI 2004

Angela Tenga, Humanities

I propose to use this institute to explore strategies for integrating computer role-play in college level English (composition and rhetoric) courses. A number of interactive games employ sophisticated narrative strategies to enhance the player's experience. Moreover, many contain educational elements; players must use traditional and electronic libraries, locate references, acquire information, and retain knowledge in order to advance to the next stage of the narrative.

Success often demands analytical skill and attention to detail. My objective is to use the institute to refine the syllabus for a new course to be offered by the Humanities and Communication Department.

Bill Arrasmith, Engineering Systems

My objective is to develop an exportable Remote Learning course template that integrates the PLS paradigm. My goal is to incorporate creative techniques and the Profound Learning Systems (PLS) paradigm into my Intro to Systems Engineering course and evaluate its utility in on campus and remote learning environments. I will be looking at, what tools are required to incorporate the PLS system into the course and integration of the PLS paradigm with my existing Black Board approach.

Clayton Baum, Chemistry

The goal of this project is to enhance the undergraduate experience by developing a new medium for the physical chemistry teaching laboratory. A major objective is to more fully involve the student in the design and execution of each experiment instead of simply presenting a set of instructions. This activity should help capture and sustain the interest of our students. The web manual is being pursued to address a number of pedagogical problems that exist in the physical chemistry laboratory.

Jon Shenker , Biology

This project seeks to develop and employ multimedia techniques that bring field biology and ecology experiences into the classroom. Such an approach will enhance the value of these experiences to students in the field , and to students who are not able to directly participate in the projects. Initial efforts will focus on field marine biology research in Brevard County . Digital video and audio recordings of the activities will be compiled and quickly edited for direct display in class lectures or uploading onto Blackboard. We ultimately seek to develop this concept into a true Distance Learning for Field Biology program where faculty and classes in the field can link in near-real-time to share their experiences with students around the world. Part of this summer 2004 proposal will include identification of suitable technology and source of grant funds to begin this Distance Learning In Field Biology with our Australia Summer Field Program in summer 2005.

Marcia Denius, Humanities and Communication

Because every good scientist must also be a good communicator and every good writer and reader of literature must be knowledgeable about science, an undergraduate course that brings together the two disciplines would be a valuable offering at Florida Tech. Such a course would expose students to different ways of thinking and to different approaches to knowledge, giving students confidence in relation to science, to the arts, and to the connections between them. It would sharpen students' skills of questioning, interpretation, and popularization, all of which are in much too short supply in contemporary technological society. Too, such an interdisciplinary course would provide space for students' reflections on the nature of their particular field and its relation to wider interests.

Nancy Cook , Evans Library

I would like to be able to create easily tutorials illustrating processes that students need to know in order to use the Evans Library's resources. I would like to use software designed for creating tutorials, principles of active learning, and the World Wide Web to create a variety of tutorials that undergraduate students could use to teach themselves how to use library databases, indexes, and other reference materials. The tutorials could be made available through the Evans Library's LINK and through Blackboard.

Ryan Stansifer, Computer Science

A large amount of administrative work goes into the collection and evaluation of student projects, especially computer programming projects. Much of the work can be done over the network and automatically. Transferring files is easy enough, but a general system of submitting student projects would cut down on the mistakes and improve feedback. Coupled with some simple screening, the process of evaluation could focus on the substantive issues. Such a system, if well designed, could be used in additional activities: programming contests for high school students around the state, self-paced independent learning.