2004 Awards
Agriculture and Life Sciences
Quirine Ketterings, Greg Albrecht, Mike Van Amburgh
Bridging the classroom and the farm for improved whole farm nutrient management.
The Whole Farm approach to farm nutrient management considers crop and soil management, herd management,
farm economics, and the quality of water and air for improved farm sustainability. This project developed
a tutorial approach for instruction both to students at Cornell, and to Extension educators, farmers, and
nutrient management planners in the private and public sectors.
Tyson Sacco
Autotutorial Bio 2.0: One-one-one biology instruction for the 21st century student.
BioG105-106 is an introductory biology course sequence for Biology majors, presented in the
“autotutorial” format. Since Visual images and animations are vital for teaching biological
concepts, a collection of images, using Cumulus, to assit teaching and quizzing of students was
implemented. This project was involved in training the TAs in teaching techniques as well as enabling them
to more easily access visual aids during one-on-one teaching and testing sessions.
Philippe Baveye, Astrid Jacobson
Development and implementation of virtual field trip format in a new “Soils and
Civilizations” course
This project developed web-based virtual field trips that integrate video, Quicktime VR movies,
interactive maps, and animations.
Arts and Sciences
Robert Thorne
Interactive Tools for Evaluation and Tutorial Support in Elementary Scientific Mathematics
Students entering Physics 207, Introduction to Physics, have diverse prior experience and competencies
in the math skills necessary for success in the course. This project developed web-based interactive
tutorials and evaluations in elementary mathematics for students to review, assess and practice math
skills for physics.
Paul Chirik, Melissa Hines
Improving Interactive Learning in Large Enrollment Introductory Chemistry Courses
The goal of this project is to increase student engagement in General Chemistry the second largest
undergraduate course on campus with the use of a Personal Response System.
By allowing students to respond to instructor queries, this system will enable immediate assessment of
student progress, stimulate students’ readiness to learn, and improve student participation within
the lecture format.
Richard Feldman
Implementation and Adaptation of Web Audio Lab to three language courses
The Web Audio Lab (WAL) is the pair of software solutions (CD + web) that was developed for use with the
Russian 101 course during the 2003 Faculty Innovation in Teaching program cycle. With an additional year
of funding, the project was able to continue development of both the CD and the web applications, and to
expand the content and features to respond to the needs of other language courses.
Architecture, Art, and Planning
Paul Anderson
Fabrication Technology Program
New technologies are allowing architects to think of design and construction in new ways. Consequently,
digitally based fabrication technologies are becoming an important focus of many architecture
departments’ curricula. The project combined resources with the Department of Architecture to
support the development of an intensive, studio-based course and lab where students can explore emerging
fabrication technologies and their potential applications in architecture.
Computing and Information Science
Phoebe Sengers
Supporting Novice Programmers on the Web
Combining active learning techniques, web-based learning resources, and
classroom interactivity via a Tablet PC, an introductory programming
course, INFO 130, was redesigned to engage students in learning to program.
Instructional strategies were developed through a partnership between
faculty and instructional designers in Academic Technologies & Media Services, CIT.
Engineering
Christine Shoemaker
Enhancing Lecture Discussion and Course Content Integration in Engr 241, Engineering
Computation
The goals for the Engineering Computation course were to refine the existing content, create new
assignments, and raise interest in lecture sessions. The project enabled active lecture techniques usin a
Tablet PC to annotate PowerPoint presentations during lectures, highlighting problem areas and drawing
student attention. A personal response “polling” system was implemted to allow students to
interact with the instructor, providing instant feedback on the overall level of understanding and
engaging students in the material.
Matt Ulinski
Machining Tutorials and Self-help Kiosk
For this project, a web-based tutorial to complement the training program for teaching basic machining
operations was developed. The tutorial covers the equipment and the steps required to make a basic lamp.
This is the project which each student needs to complete in order to use the Emerson Lab in Rhodes Hall.
The tutorial materials can be accessed outside the lab, or if the students need assistance as they are
making their lamp, they can access the site from within the lab using a touch-screen kiosk. In addition to
the tutorial materials, there is also a reference to advanced techniques and lab-specific information.
Human Ecology
Andrea Parrott
Virtual Visits to Women’s Health Facilities
In the Contemporary Issues in Women's Health course, students attend 8 out of 12 weekly field trips. There
are many sites that Andrea Parrot would like her students to visit that, for one reason or another, are
difficult or impossible to visit during the semester. The objective of this project iss to create
"Virtual Visits" to inaccessible sites. The tours area developed both as independent
multimedia visits, and to be accompanied with video- or audio-conferencing during class time, or with a
paired onsite visit to a similar type of women’s health facility.
Industrial and Labor Relations
Michael Gold
Teaching Law with Technology
This project enhances a labor law course that teaches critical thinking to a large undergraduate class.
The project will implement a personal response system that will lead students through a series analytical
techniques and provide immediate feedback to students. The project also include the development of online
interactive exercises.
Johnson Graduate School of Management
Rob Bloomfield
Simulation-Based Teaching in Management, Accounting and Finance
Many outcomes in the business world arise from complex interactions between individual decision makers.
This project will develop business cases for integration with course content.
Law School
Claire Germain
French Trials: a comparison of the US and French Court Systems
The “French Trials” project is designed to facilitate an understanding of the difference
between the U.S. and French trial systems. The project created a multi-media web site with a unique
approach to learning about the differences between legal systems. It allows law students to explore
different legal systems within a cultural framework. The project combines different digital media and
real-life court video to describe, demonstrate and explain cultural and legal concepts.
College of Veterinary Medicine
Bradley L. Njaa, Sean McDonough
Application of Digital Technology to Pathology Training of Veterinary Students
Pathology is a highly visual discipline. Students learn by seeing actual tissue from diseased animals, and
see records of these, in the form of photographs, as a way of seeing tissue that could not otherwise be
easily archived. This project seeks to improve the display of actual tissue using a digital image
collection during Pathology Demonstrations and the creation, search, and display of photographs of
diseased tissue for use during demonstrations, for self-study, and for research.
Faculty Advisory Board on Information Technologies (FABIT)
John Forester, Scott Peters
Exploring the World of Civic Practice: Exploiting the Power of Oral Histories in Adult Education and
Planning Practice
Courses in Education and City and Regional Planning examine practitioners in their respective
fields by producing oral history profiles. Students learn to interview, edit the transcripts, and present
quoted materials in order to create the finished profile. The work on this project provides students with
resources and processes to help them through the process of creating and analyzing oral history profiles.
Christina Stark
Cornell NutritionWorks: Building Capacity of Nutrition Professionals
Cornell NutritionWorks is a web-based professional development program designed for nutrition
practitioners working in communities. This project seeks to develop a distance-learning course that would
increase the capacity of professionals to address childhood obesity at the community level. The course
will also foster development of a community of professionals that are addressing this issue.
Ashim Datta
Computer-Aided Biological Engineering Design: Enhancing Student- Centered Distributed
Learning
BEE453 is a course that enables students to learn to use a professional computational/simulation tool
to model and solve practical biological/biomedical problems. Students learn the conceptual steps that are
needed to define a problem, make assumptions, and determine the governing equations needed to solve a
problem or model a process. The purpose of this project is to 1- Help the students learn the simulation
software more efficiently and bridge the gap between their course work and industry-standard simulation
software. 2 - Help students implement their design projects more efficiently.