CAT Grant Contributes to Remote Learning Success for Physics Labs
In Spring 2019, CAT awarded an Instructional Improvement Major Grant to Professor Katsushi Arisaka, Professor Jay Hauser, and Dr. George Trammell in Physics & Astronomy for a proposal titled “New Development of Hands-on Physics Laboratory for Scientists and Engineers: Revising Physics 4AL and 4BL.”
The proposal was for revisions to the current Physics 4AL and 4BL courses. These courses are amongst the largest lab-based undergraduate education programs at UCLA, offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Through upgrades to Physics 4AL and 4BL, students will be better equipped to:
- Problem solve and build solutions as the next generation of scientists and engineers.
- Understand and apply fundamental principles of physics in the context of rapid technological advancements in daily life.
- Demonstrate mastery of the latest computer hardware and software tools.
The following three specific concepts are emphasized:
- Designing new labs with clear scientific aims, based on well-defined top-down hypotheses.
- Taking full advantage of the latest data collection technology, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
- Data gathering and analysis using modern and mainstream computer programming, such as Python-based JupyterLab.
With the COVID-19 situation and move to remote instruction, the professors and TAs were able to utilize these revised concepts and tools to quickly convert their labs to a remote format.
Read about the Remote Instruction Experience from the lab instructors, TAs, students
OID Awards AY2018-2019 Instructional Improvement Grants
OID provides grant funding to instructors and departments to support curricular experimentation and development that improves undergraduate instruction across campus. There are two types of grants available:
- Instructional Improvement Grants (also known as Major Grants): These support large-scale faculty, department, and College or School initiated projects.
- Mini-Grants: These support small-scale projects that enhance instruction, such as buying media, honoraria, and field trips.
Instructional Improvement Major Grants support innovation, experimentation, and development of undergraduate curricula and pedagogy. The program goal is to improve the quality of undergraduate education through pedagogical experimentation in areas such as student-centered learning, course design, diversity and inclusion in the classroom, and instructional technologies. The program especially values innovations that will have a lasting impact on undergraduate education.
There are two grant cycles per academic year, in Fall and Spring quarters, announced via campuswide calls for proposals. The AY2018-19 IIP Major Grant recipients and their respective proposal titles are these:
| DEPARTMENT | PROPOSAL TITLE | PI(S) |
|---|---|---|
| Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences | Increasing Undergraduate Comprehension of Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluids via Rotating Tank Experiments | Andrew Stewart & Gang Chen |
| Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences | Data Analysis for Climate Science | Neil Berg |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Artificially Intelligent Assessment and Learning System for Chem 17 “Preparation for General Chemistry” | Zhao Li & Yung-Ya Lin |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Evaluating the impact of learning assistants in an introductory organic chemistry sequence for life science majors | Rachel Prado & Roshini Ramachandran |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Assessment of Teaching Practices in Chemistry 153L: A laboratory course on Introduction to Protein Science – What are reasons for the performance gap in the course? Which interventions will help to reduce this gap? | Anne Hong-Hermesdorf |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Machine Learning for every chemistry professional | Anastassia Alexandrova |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Creating valid, reliable pre- and post-assessment tools to assess students’ abilities to retain, transfer, and apply acid-base chemistry concepts in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry | Jennifer Casey, Heather Tienson-Tseng, Al Courey |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Utilizing application-based science education videos in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory course for life science majors | Roshini Ramachandran & Jennifer Casey |
| Communication Studies | TV News Archive User Interface Improvement | Francis Steen & Tim Groeling |
| Comparative Literature | Classroom Coding for the Humanities | David MacFadyen |
| Design | p5.js: Developing a Tool for Making Art and Design with Code | Lauren McCarthy |
| Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences | Geophysics Hawaii Volcano Field Trip | Paul Davis |
| Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Transforming Introduction to Ecology and Behavior into a more active classroom | Daniel Blumstein |
| Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Using Modern Classroom Technology in a Large, Upper-Division Class “Evolutionary Medicine” | Pamela Yeh, Benison Pang, Jessica Gregg |
| Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Sustainable Native Gardens | Alison Lipman & Leryn Gorlitsky |
| French & Francophone Studies | Implementing Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in the French Language Program at UCLA | Kimberly Jansma & Laurence Denie |
| Integrative Biology & Physiology | Achieving intimate research experience at scale | Roy Wollman |
| Life Sciences Core Education | A Pilot: Mobile All-in-one Virtual Reality computer station used in Laboratory Course Life Sciences LS23L | Gaston Pfluegl |
| Life Sciences Core Education | Enhancing Motivational Predictors of Student Success Across the Introductory Life Sciences Curriculum | Jeffrey Maloy & Erin Sanders O’Leary |
| Musicology | Creating Musical Community (Ethnomusicology/Music/Musicology M103) | Nina Eidsheim & Mark Kligman |
| Musicology | Videotape course: “The Reel Beatles” | David Leaf |
| Physics & Astronomy | Data-driven, Systematic, and Sustainable Transformation of Physics for Life Scientists | Ian McLean, Katsushi Arisaka, Joshua Samani, George Trammell, Elizabeth Mills, Shanna Shaked |
| Physics & Astronomy | Proposal to enhance infrastructure of 180E physics undergraduate lab | Walter Gekelman |
| Psychology | Developing a Tool to Assess the Learning Gains of the Neuroscience Curriculum | William Grisham |
| World Arts & Cultures/Dance | Legislative Theater for Racial Justice | Robert Gordon, Bryonn Bain, David Gere |
