Other research projects

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Southeast Minnesota Foodshed Planning Initiative, 2009-present
  • Research assistant 
  • Principal invesigator: Valentine Cadieux
  • Funded by the Southeast Minnesota Regional Partnerships
  • This community-university partnership focused on the potential to strengthen regionally based agriculture within Southeast Minnesota. The section of the project I worked on examined the variety of perspectives on the current and ideal food system in the region utilizing Q methodology, a survey process where participants rank statements in a forced distribution. This work was coupled with qualitative interviews providing further insight on subjects' perspectives, which were coded and analyzed. This project is ongoing.

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Developing a first-year GIS course, 2010
  • Research assistant
  • Principal investigator: Steven Manson
  • This project involved creating a unique course for first year students focusing on the fundamentals of cartography and spatial analysis along with the increasing ubiquity of maps within social and political life. Incorporating a combination of lecture, hands on activities, and labs utilizing web based mapping software, this course introduced students to the technical and social aspects of map making with a minimum of technical training. I played a key role in developing the first version of this course, which now enrolls approximately 200 students. An article describing this course is currentlyin press for Journal of Geography.

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In Your Ear, On the Air, For Your Eye: Podcasting and Wikis as Tools of Universal Instructional Design, 2007-8
  • Co-investigator along with Murray Jensen and Jill Trites
  • Funded by a grant received from the Digital Media Center, University of Minnesota
  • Along with two other instructors from General College at the University of Minnesota, this grant project investigated the use of new web technologies to increase accessibility. My aspect of this project looked at the use of audio recording and podcasting as a potential bridge for students' voices within a first-year composition course. In partnership with a public radio station run out of a Minneapolis High School, students created short audio programs for the station and brief podcast interviews to be posted online. Using survey data, students' reflections, and my own observation, I assessed the instructional value of this method. This project resulted in the article "Engaging the Tensions of Service Learning," listed in the Publications section of this site.