Institutional Resource

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Centralization of UT Resources

Cohort
2022

Resources related to accessibility at UT-Austin are not centralized in a single location that makes them easy for
students, staff and faculty to find them. As a result, UT community members cannot efficiently access the
resources they need because numerous different departments and units are responsible for them. Thus,

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Imagery for Critical Thinking: A Pedagogical Approach for Engineering and Science Students

Cohort
2022
Fellow(s)

Most science and engineering courses are founded on abstract mathematical and/or analytical theories/concepts. Though the abstract concepts are essential to describe underlying scientific and engineering principles, the teaching pedagogy largely misses out on the utilization of imagery. We expect our students to master the subject we teach, but rarely do we provide them with the necessary tools to synthesize their acquired knowledge. Innovation gets stifled in the maze of abstract theories.

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Making New Scientists: Supporting the Training of Incoming Science Majors

Cohort
2021
Fellow(s)

Traditional science degree programs concentrate primarily on content and are not known for preparing their graduates with other skills needed for scientific careers.

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Sync-Up - Teach-Up - Texas Teach-Up on Demand

Cohort
2021
Fellow(s)

Educators need increased opportunities to participate in Texas Teach-Up in order to benefit from modeling teaching at UT Austin. This project will explore two specific elements of this problem. Currently you can only participate during officially scheduled time/dates, you cannot participate on-demand. This limits access to only those who can make it, or are a part of the university, during the on-schedule times and dates. Additionally, as an on-schedule event, seats have closing limits. Some people who want to participate may not be able to do so because the session is full.

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The Compassion Project

Cohort
2021
Fellow(s)

Evidence from allied health fields shows that patients’ relationship with their provider is often the most therapeutic aspect of the health care encounter (Tresolini

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Internship in the Media Industries

Cohort
2021
Fellow(s)

Internships have increasingly become a critical step in the college-to-career transition in the media industries and beyond.

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Personal Financial Literacy Among UT Undergraduates

Cohort
2020
Fellow(s)

Everyone needs to understand personal finance. Sadly, a large body of research indicates that most American adults fail basic tests of personal financial literacy. This project aims to determine whether there is sufficient personal financial literacy education on campus, and, if not, how that problem can be corrected. 

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Engineering Sentences: A Cross-Disciplinary Training Program

Cohort
2020
Fellow(s)

Although Cockrell School of Engineering (CSE) undergraduates take a required engineering writing class, which I teach for Chemical Engineering, they typically struggle with writing laboratory and long-form research reports. Helping CSE students to overcome this obstacle matters because writing technical reports prepares engineering students for the writing-intensive work of a professional engineer. Faculty teaching these classes would also benefit from higher quality student work.

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Watering Two Plants With One Hose: Protocolization of Progress to Promote Practical Resource Sharing

Cohort
2020
Fellow(s)

When I first became faculty at UT Austin, I inherited an existing course; for a variety of reasons, I felt the need to overhaul all of the lectures. This process, however, proved time-consuming and I found myself unable to complete all of the lectures as originally planned prior to the start of the semester. Moreover, even the lectures that I did overhaul continued to have flaws and I was growing increasingly frustrated with the continued inadequacy of my lessons, despite devoting considerable time and energy to them. This was disheartening and my other responsibilities (e.g.

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Mentored Research Learning: An Evaluation

Cohort
2020
Fellow(s)

Mentored research defies the traditional higher education approach, which separates research and teaching into distinct activities. Instead, mentored research fully integrates faculty research activities and student learning. In this approach, researchers do not simply carry out their research in isolation with a paid set of PhD-level research assistants. Further, students do not simply learn from in-class lectures or more traditional out-of-classroom experiences, such as study abroad.

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