Congratulations to the 2024 Innovation Lab grant winners
This year was a highly competitive year with great ideas. Immense care and thought was put into this year’s proposals and the college is grateful for the help in supporting our college-level strategic plan.
- Ryan Cannon, Short Film Lab
- Anthony Ellertson, School of the Arts Curricular Convention
- Reginald Jayne, Interdisciplinary Studies Undergraduate Certificate
- Emily Meredith, A Biology Learning Center to Increase STEM Student Success
- Nicole Molumby, BA Curriculum Redesign Project
- Jon Schneider, BAS/IPS Programs
- Allison Simler-Williamson, The ArtSci Community at Boise State: An Interdisciplinary Platform for Inquiry and Innovation
- Julia Broderick, Healthy Attachments Project (HAP)
- Sarah Dalrymple, Faculty Learning Community
- Gail Shuck, Multilingual Students and First-Year Writing Placement
Ryan Cannon, Theatre, Film and Creative Writing
Short Film Lab
A new iteration of the Narrative TV Initiative, the Short Film Lab is an immersive sequence of four courses where students create original short films from the ground up—developing, writing, shooting, editing, marketing and distributing original stories under the guidance and mentorship of faculty and film professionals. The lab espouses experiential learning models and is fundamentally cross-disciplinary, drawing upon the breadth of disciplines that factor into film writing, development and production.
A COAS Innovation Lab Grant provides access to state-of-the-art cinema cameras, lenses and lighting equipment, preparing students for careers in the film and television industry and elevating the caliber of work they’re able to produce at Boise State.
Anthony Ellertson, Games, Interactive Media and Mobile
School of the Arts Curricular Convention
The School of the Arts Curricular Convention brought together approximately 21 faculty and staff from various school departments for a series of three meetings over the summer to explore the integration of emerging technologies in the arts.
During the first meeting, facilitated discussions helped to establish a common understanding of the role of emerging technologies in the arts. The facilitator compiled qualitative data and presented initial findings to the school director and department chairs, who met weekly over the summer to discuss these insights and plan a course of action. A lab resource report was developed by Ellertson, focusing on the enrollment goals necessary to create and sustain a lab. As a result of these discussions, a preliminary proposal for a certificate program, incorporating classes from GIMM, ADVS, Music and TFCW, was developed.
The school director and department chairs will continue their meetings this fall to finalize the certificate proposal and prepare for UCC submission.
Reginald Jayne, BAS/IPS
Interdisciplinary Studies Undergraduate Certificate
Over the past year, the BAS/IPS faculty team conceptualized, developed and launched two new online undergraduate certificates: Applied Emotional Intelligence and Well-Being and Design Thinking for Professional Purpose and Personal Fulfillment.
These programs were designed to enrich student academic experiences and redirected major SCH enrollment into COAS-delivered courses by using a tree-and-branch model. Based on current fall enrollments, the programs have met and even surpassed project outcomes.
Emily Meredith, Biology
A Biology Learning Center to Increase STEM Student Success
The Biology Learning Center aims to improve the retention and success of students enrolled in a wide range of biology courses. Through peer-led tutoring and graduate student and faculty-student hours within the library, the project brought together a large team of mentors to provide inclusive and accessible biology support for our undergraduates.
In the first two semesters of operations, they had 535 student visits. Notably, students in introductory biology courses who attended the learning center in the fall had a course GPA of 0.6 points higher than students who did not utilize academic resources. Every introductory biology student who visited the learning center in the fall re-enrolled for their spring semester.
The Biology Learning Lab begins its second year of operations.
Nicole Molumby, Music
BA Curriculum Redesign
The Department of Music will redesign the current B.A. music degree with an emphasis on experiential learning that benefits students from within the music department, the School of the Arts and beyond. Expanding the mission and vision of the department, the redesign will connect students to the music industry through career readiness opportunities and address the gap between traditional degree programs and preparation for 21st-century careers in music.
A redesigned music degree will be more inclusive of students with diverse musical interests and backgrounds. It will also accommodate accomplished musicians with career goals outside of performing or music education.
The COAS Innovation Lab Grant will allow the music department to build industry-standard facilities that support students in gaining the experiential learning needed to launch into the music industry after graduation.
Jon Schneider, BAS/IDS
BAS/IPS Programs
A new, skill-based online certificate program will focus on what a dynamic team looks like and what it means to be an effective member of any team (a team of choice, a team of obligation or anything in between).
Every industry demands and relies on effective teamwork, and this certificate program will immediately enhance a student’s ability to not only be more prepared for what their future work lives might demand, but to be more adept at navigating the collaborative nature of most college courses.
TEAM will be an opportunity to learn about and experience the impact of quality and inspiring teamwork and an opportunity for students to easily transition into the career-focused portions of their lives.
Allison Simler-Williamson, Biology
The ArtSci Community at Boise State: An Interdisciplinary Platform for Inquiry and Innovation
Arts and sciences are typically viewed as separate disciplines, but they share a foundation in discovery and innovation. When integrated, scholars from both disciplines benefit from enhanced communication, critical thinking and potential for transdisciplinary and transformative products. The interdisciplinary team is developing the ArtSci Community (ArtSci) at Boise State: A multifaceted group that offers students and faculty diverse opportunities to engage in art-science integration and to broaden their impact.
Through a set of vertically-integrated projects (Art-Science Integration and The Art of Science Visualization), an art-science community group (BASH), and campus- and Boise-wide events, this community aims to prepare students for upcoming challenges in an ever-changing and complex world. Their efforts blend art and science scholarship, allowing for new transdisciplinary discoveries.
Julia Broderick, Sociology
Healthy Attachments Project (HAP)
This project focuses on attachment in teaching and creating lasting impacts for students to connect to their university and peers. The fall semester will include creating a Canvas shell of a self-paced class that faculty can navigate to gain resources and feedback to reflect on their own teaching and attachment to students. Aside from creating the materials in the fall, a Teaching Assistant team will take field notes as Broderick teaches and assesses student engagement at specific week marks (e.g., week 4, week 7, week 13) to see the practice of closing a class culture with healthy boundaries intact. She will keep a teaching journal and have assigned deliverables for the team meetings.
Broderick will work with the English 101 program under the guidance of Ti Macklin to create a PD for the department in the fall and to consult and work through the canvas materials with a small cohort in the spring.