2018 Provost’s Learning Innovations Grants

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2018 PROVOST’S LEARNING INNOVATIONS GRANTS

CALL FOR

PROPOSALS

The Provost’s Learning Innovations Grants (PLIG) program was developed to broaden and enrich the learning experience of RIT students by funding faculty-initiated projects that enhance student learning. 250 RIT faculty projects have received funding since the program was initiated in AY 2000-2001. (Examples of previously funded projects are available in the Previous Awards section of the PLIG website, rit.edu/ili/plig). The launch of the Innovative Learning Institute (ILI) and Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) in 2012, with its charge to assist in the creation of exceptional learning experiences for students, led to an evaluation of PLIG and a revitalization of the program to:

Better support dissemination of individual faculty learning to the wider faculty population

Integrate funding with Institute priorities

Support the scholarship of teaching and learning

The 2018 Application Form is found on page 3 of this document.

I. ELIGIBILITY

All full-time RIT faculty (tenured, tenure-track, visiting, lecturers) are eligible to apply.

II. PLIG TYPES

There are two types of grants - Exploration and Focus - for PLIG 2018. Full details are available on the Grants Types page of the PLIG website.

III. USE OF GRANT FUNDS

Provost’s Learning Innovations Grants for 2018 may range from $1,000-$5,000.

Examples of the use of PLIG funds include:

Course release (reasonable, actual replacement costs for faculty members removed from teaching)

Development of new technology-based learning tools and/or environments

Technologies or equipment required by the project that are not normally provided by the

department/college

Resources for research design and consultation, data collection and aggregation, instrument

development and/or purchase, secure data storage, data analysis, and report generation

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Travel to support research activity and/or meet with potential funding sources

IV. PLIG TIMELINE AND TASKS

The grant timeline assumes that most recipients will use the Spring 2018 and/or Summer 2018 term(s) to plan and develop their PLIG-funded project for delivery or implementation during the Fall 2018, Spring 2019, and/or Summer 2019 term(s). The full timeline, including grantee tasks, is available on the PLIG website.

V. SELECTION COMMITTEE AND EVALUTION CRITERIA

Applications for PLIG funds are evaluated by the PLIG selection committee according to the following criteria:

Utility (solves a defined problem; has potential to benefit many courses/faculty)

Creativity (is a novel approach or application; represents a new paradigm)

Efficacy (uses an evidence-based approach; impact to student learning and/or the student experience

can be demonstrated)

The criteria are further defined, illustrated, and explained in the Proposal Evaluation section of the PLIG website.

VI. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please email plig@rit.edu with any questions or comments.

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2018 PROVOST’S LEARNING INNOVATIONS GRANTS

APPLICATION

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Complete this Application Form, in its entirety, and save as “Lastname_Firstname_APP” (using yourname).

2. Complete the Budget Worksheet and save as “Lastname_Firstname_BUDGET” (using your name).

3. Ask your Department Head to complete the Department Head Certification, scan and save as,“Lastname_Firstname_SIG” (using your name).

4. Email all documents to plig@rit.edu, no later than 11:59pm EST, January 22, 2018.

If you have any questions about completing this application, please contact Michael Starenko at 585-475-5035 or mssetc@rit.edu.

APPLICANT INFORMATION

This application is for a (please select one type of grant):

Exploration Grant

X Focus Grant - Active Learning

Focus Grant - Applied Critical Thinking

Principal Applicant name: Amanda Bao

Faculty title: Associate Professor Email: axbite@rit.edu Phone: 585-475-4956 (Full-time only)

College: CAST Department: Civil Engineering Technology (CETEMS)

Department Head name: Maureen Valentine Email: msvite@rit.edu

Others involved in the project (if any): N/A

Project name: Active Learning in Structural Dynamics: Hands-on Shake Table Testing

Total funds requested (as calculated on the budget worksheet): $5000 (requests of $1,000 to $5,000 will be considered)

X

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BUDGET

There is a fillable PDF worksheet to calculate your budget. You can download the worksheet at rit.edu/ili/plig.

The total shown on this worksheet must match the “Total funds requested” in the Applicant Information section of this application form

If awarded, additional funds will be provided to cover any benefits and ITS expenses associated with the salary budget requested

Note that any equipment or other materials purchased with grant funds are the property of your department and revert to the department after your project is completed

TIMELINE AND TASKS

Please indicate any variances to the planned PLIG 2018 schedule and your reasons. If you do not intend to deviate from the schedule, you may leave this section blank. Note: the tasks are described in the Dissemination Agreement section.

Task Date Proposed Variance and Reason

Full project plan submitted to TLS August 24, 2018

Preliminary findings submitted to TLS January 11,

2019

Summary of final findings submitted to TLS

August 23, 2019

Final budget accounting submitted TLS August 23, 2019

Participation in ILI/TLS PLIG dissemination event (e.g., PLIG Showcase)

November 2019

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STATEMENT OF UTILITY (two pages maximum)

Using the evaluation criteria outlined in the Proposal Evaluation section of the PLIG website, please provide an overview of the project you are proposing, including:

Project objectives

An explanation of the teaching/learning problem(s) it is designed to address

An explanation of the significance of the project to student outcomes and/or the student experience.

A brief description of how the project integrates with activity already underway at RIT in a priority area and/or

how this approach has been successfully used at RIT already.

The research objective of this PLIG project is to build upon the pilot learning module developed

in AY16-17 and create a new hand-on shake table testing module to improve students’ learning

effectiveness and enhance students’ interests in theoretical dynamics topics.

Dynamics is a core course in Civil Engineering Technology. The principles of dynamics apply to

civil engineering practices in the areas of roadway design, bridge design, structural design and

seismic design. Students should have a functional understanding of the materials rather than

substitute numbers into equations. The learning outcomes include understanding basic vibrations

and dynamics terminology, such as natural frequency, period and damping, and modeling

structural systems using single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) models.

Structural Dynamics in Civil Engineering Technology is a course typically taken by fourth or fifth

year students and involves motion and dynamic forces on a structure. Dynamics classes are

considered as highly theoretical and math-intensive, and provide some struggles to students who

have not taken Calculus courses since their first year. Earthquake engineering is introduced at the

end of the course.

Active learning is a process which engages students in various activities that help advance their

understanding and knowledge of a particular subject. Active learning promotes hands-on

learning, and has been proven to increase critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. It gets

students more involved in their classes and students enjoy their classes more because of it.

However, active learning does not just happen on its own. Without a good plan to implement the

active learning strategies and without students’ participation, the lectures can be lost on the

students.

In this project, we propose a new hands-on active learning module using a shake table to

supplement the traditional lectures of the course “CVET-437 Principles of Dynamics in CET” in

order to enhance the teaching and learning effectiveness.

Shake table is an earthquake simulator ideal for teaching structural dynamics, vibration isolation,

feedback control, and other control topics related to earthquake, aerospace and mechanical

engineering. Users can generate sinusoidal, chip as well as pre-loaded acceleration profiles of real

earthquakes, such as Northridge, Kobe and El-Centro, to study their effects on buildings, bridges

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STATEMENT OF UTILITY (continued)

and various materials. Additionally, earthquake profiles can be downloaded from the PEER

Ground Motion Database.

The CETEMS department has purchased an instructional shake table for educational use. The PI

developed a pilot learning module in AY 2016-2017 and applied this module to the existing

dynamic course. In this pilot project, the PI led her research team to build several balsa wood

building models representing low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise buildings, and demonstrated the

shake table in class. The students observed the dynamic behaviors of the buildings, and visualize

the different vibration modes.

The pilot learning module has proven to be effective according to students’ grades and feedback

obtained from the teaching evaluations about advancing understanding of concepts and enhancing

interest as shown in Figure 1. It is natural to expand the pilot demo project to a larger scale and

develop a hands-on testing lab for the students with the support of the PLIG grant.

Figure 1: Results from RIT “Smart Eval” Teaching Evaluations

The proposed PLIG project will be focused on developing a students’ hands-on lab on dynamic

response of buildings under earthquakes and developing an advanced demo experiment for

effective seismic design and retrofit. The development will be accomplished during the summer

2018 and the fall 2018 by the PI and 2 student research assistants, and the new active learning

module will be implemented in the spring 2019.

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STATEMENT OF CREATIVITY (three paragraphs maximum)

Provide a brief description of how this is a novel approach, or a new application of an existing mode or model of teaching and learning, and/or research about how teaching and learning represents a new paradigm. (Please note that special consideration will be given to proposals that demonstrate a new use/application of a model, system, or technology already in use at RIT.)

Active Learning strategies have been adopted at RIT for years and have been proven to be effective

in many different disciplines such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and

etc. according to the previous PLIG grant proposals and showcase. The proposed project is built

upon the successful teaching pedagogy, and will advance the application to a new sub-discipline

within Civil Engineering Technology.

A new hands-on lab module will be developed to supplement the current CVET-437 Dynamics

course by implementing active learning strategy. The module includes both class demo and small

group project and testing. The class demo will use 3 comprehensive building models simulating the

real world buildings, and the details include scaled mini-figures and furniture on each floor to

representing real loads, building partitions, dampers to absorb vibration energy, and adjustable

springs to adjust stiffness of buildings. The input motions are simulated earthquake loads from the

shake table and four different earthquake loadings will be used for demo. The students can change

the loads and adjust the building stiffness the dampers to observe different dynamic responses of

the building models. The demo models will also allow students to change design configurations,

add reinforcement and bracing to enhance the building performance under earthquakes as well as

strategies for seismic retrofit and remedial procedure. This class demo project, when proven to be

successful in class, can be also showcased at ImagineRIT for demonstrate the building responses

under earthquakes.

For the small group project, each group will design, build and test their building models. Students

will apply the vibration theories that they learn from the lectures and combine their knowledge of

Civil Engineering, and design a building that can survive the given earthquake loadings. The

building models will be test on the shake table. The entire class will have 10 to 12 models to test,

therefore, the students will see different designs and learn from each other. From the tests, students

will discuss the lessons they learn from seismic failures, and summarize the effective strategies for

seismic design and retrofit. The brand new module will be a significant enhancement to the current

course.

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STATEMENT OF EFFICACY (two pages maximum)

Provide a brief description of the experiment/research design, methodology, and methods of data collection you will use to gauge efficacy.

In the pilot project in AY16-17, the PI’s research team has designed a few building models

simulating low-rise buildings and high-rise buildings. These models can demonstrate the building

fundamental dynamic behaviors, however, they are very basic and simple as shown in Figure 2.

For example, the dead load and live load on each floor are modeled by just a few layers of steel

plates. A sample input motion from the shake table is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Shake Table and Building Models

Figure 3: Sample Earthquake Motion Input

In this PLIG project, we will significantly enhance the models regarding to their functions as well

as appearance. The building frames will be built using balsa wood and poplar wood. At each story

level, movable mass blocks will be mounted to simulate gravity loads. In addition to the mass

blocks, decorations made of Lego pieces and mini figures will be used to model people and

furniture on the floor slab. The enhanced models will have very appealing looks to attract the

audience and arouse interest.

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STATEMENT OF EFFICACY (continued)

Adjustable dampers will be mounted at each floor to simulate the viscous damping in the real

structure. Students will be available to adjust the damping ratio to investigate its effect on

building’s seismic response. Springs with various stiffness will be mounted to the building models

and students can make different arrangement of the springs to explore the effect of building

stiffness on vibration modes.

In order to make the students group lab assignment meaningful, the PI’s research team will design

and test many trial models to find the optimized design parameters and their reasonable range.

These parameters and ranges are to make sure that the building models’ natural frequencies are

within the shake table’s capacity and will be given to the students for reference. The students will

have the flexibility to design buildings’ dimensions, structural forms, load distributions, stiffness

and damping. The lab will be done in groups of 4 students. In the process of design, building and

testing, students will actively learn the dynamic concepts and their application in Civil Engineering

field.

After the testing, students will have a session to discuss the observations and lessons learned from

seismic failure, and make conclusions about optimized seismic design and remedial approaches for

seismic retrofit.

The new hands-on active learning module is expected to enhance teaching and learning

effectiveness when compared with the traditional dynamics lectures.

Data will be collected and analyzed to show the effectiveness of the active learning module. The

data include the students’ exam grades, feedback from the survey about the intended learning

outcomes (ILO) of the course, teaching evaluations about advancing the understanding of concepts

and enhancing interest.

The earthquake demo experiment will be showcased at ImagineRIT in 2019 or 2020. It will be an

excellent opportunity to educate the public about building resilience during natural disasters and

show off students’ design ideas and talents of solving real world problems.

The proposed PLIG project involves designing, building and testing of building models,

quantitative data collection and analysis, dissemination of the project findings at national

conference and local events, and pursuing external funding to support transforming the findings to

a broader community.

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DISSEMINATION PLAN (optional)

Provide details about the journals, conferences, shows, or other external vehicles with strong potential for dissemination of your results. Include supporting documentation, such as preliminary interest or acceptance, with your application, if available. (Please note that special consideration will be given to proposals that have a defined opportunity for external dissemination, such as an academic journal or professional conference.)

ILI/TLS will assist with arranging channels for disseminating results within RIT (e.g., annual PLIG Showcase).

A conference paper “Active Learning in Structural Dynamics: Hands-on Shake Table

Testing” to be submitted to 2019 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)

conference.

An external proposal to an education foundation or Department of Education on Active

Learning in Civil Engineering courses built upon the data collected from this PLIG

supported work.

Showcase the building resilience under earthquakes at Imagine RIT.

Showcase the project results at PLIG showcase.

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ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Please address these questions, if needed.

Will your project require assistance for extensive or unusual media, multimedia, simulation, and/or software development? If so, please explain?

All courses offered by RIT must be accessible to students with disabilities, according to Section 504 of the

Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

(rit.edu/studentaffairs/disabilityservices/info). Is your proposed teaching approach accessible to all students, with

reasonable accommodation? If not, please explain.

RIT abides by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which prohibits instructors from

making students' identities, course work, and educational records public without their consent

(rit.edu/xVzNE). Will any data gathering or sharing for your project raise any FERPA issues? If so, please explain.

No.

Yes.

No.

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DISSEMINATION AGREEMENT

By completing this grant application, I agree to provide the materials described here, in support of disseminating what is learned from this project to other faculty at RIT.

I also agree to return all/a portion of the funds that I receive for this project to RIT if I fail to complete or provide the materials described here.

Full project plan (including roles and responsibilities, milestone dates, and pertinent project details)

Overview of preliminary findings (may include experiment/study design, lessons learned, initial data

collection, and/or literature review summary)

Final summary of findings (including data collection, lessons learned, implications for further study, and which

may be in the form of an article abstract, conference presentation outline, or short report)

Final budget accounting (reconciliation of budget provided with your application and the actual project

expenses)

Participation in an ILI/TLS dissemination event (e.g., present a poster or other display at the PLIG Showcase)

By submitting this application, I accept this agreement. __AYB__ (applicant, please initial here)

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DEPARTMENT HEAD CERTIFICATION

I support this PLIG application and budget, and verify that the principal applicant is a full-time faculty member in good standing in my department.

Principal Applicant name: __Amanda Bao______________________________________________________

Department Head Name (PRINT): ____Maureen Valentine_________ Email: _ msvite@rit.edu ___________

Department Head Signature: ___________________________________________ Date: _______________

NOTE: When signed, please scan and email with your Application Form to: plig@rit.edu