The Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Seed Project Grants are one type of grant provided through the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment. Seed Projects often seek to explore or expand new dimensions of existing translational outreach, community-based research, and public engagement activities. Seed Projects are animated by innovative ideas and are shaped by the priorities, needs, and interests of the communities they serve.
The 2022 Seed Grants, as described in their submissions, are:
Children’s Museum Educator Network: Piloting Working Groups to Support Improvement
Project Leader:
Peter Wardrip, Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, School of Education
Wisconsin has a remarkably high number of children’s museums. At least 14 currently operate with more emerging. Museum educators support creative and play-based learning experiences. In the past year, a network of these children’s museum educators has been initiated. As a network, museum educators hold the potential to learn from each other, share resources and further improve their own practice to impact thousands of learners annually. We will pilot a working group structure to explore productive ways for participating museum educators to share knowledge and resources and work together to develop new resources.
Developing a Dyslexia Toolkit for Interprofessional Care
Project Leaders:
Julie Gocey, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Public Health
Alanna Kessler-Jones, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine and Public Health
Low literacy negatively impacts health and education for individuals, families, and society. Families often seek help from their primary care teams regarding learning and reading problems such as Dyslexia. Unfortunately, clinicians tend to receive minimal training regarding reading development, learning disorders such as Dyslexia, or school and community services. This project aims to enhance interprofessional knowledge and confidence regarding reading, Dyslexia, and school services by providing continuing education sessions along with practical resources to help primary care teams collaborate with families. Our community partner, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, agreed to collaborate on development of training sessions and resources, host the sessions, and provide valuable feedback that will help us enhance and expand the program to other primary care teams in Wisconsin and throughout the United States. Additionally, the training will support interprofessional understanding of reading and Dyslexia through collaboration among physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, behavioral health clinicians, and care coordinators. Participants will be able to earn continuing education credits free of charge.
The Fibers of Our Future: Design, Textiles & Entrepreneurship
Project Leader:
Rachel Hart-Brinson, Outreach Specialist, Positive Youth Institute, Division of Extension
“The Fibers of Our Future: Design, Textiles & Entrepreneurship” project develops the creativity, ingenuity and innovation talents of Wisconsin 4-H and other youth through a one-year prototype program that starts with a focus on the “Hello Loom!” device developed, invented and brought to market by UW-Madison Professor Marianne Fairbanks. Through this project, Wisconsin youth will experience all five fields of STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art and math. We engage youth two ways: on-line through a series of monthly hands-on programs presented by Zoom; and in person at five events across the year and around the state. Beginning in July 2022, youth across Wisconsin will explore the historical and essential roles that fibers, textiles and clothing play in our lives today; try their hand at the historic technology of making fabrics and the modern engineering principles used in manufacturing the loom; and use project-based learning to hone their imaginations in creating fabric art and to explore the web of mathematical principles literally woven into spinning, weaving, and related fiber crafts of knitting, crocheting, knot-tying and felting. This program will both serve as project learning and post secondary pathways exploration. As a result, youth and the adults who serve them will be better connected to people and programs at UW-Madison, including the School of Human Ecology, the Department of Animal & Dairy Science, and the Biotechnology Center, thus helping to fuel their lifelong learning.
Gambian Soil Doctors Network
Project Leaders:
Geoffrey Siemering, Outreach Specialist, Department of Soil Science, College of Agricultural & Life Sciences
The Gambian Soil Doctors Network (GSDN) will focus on soil health as a critical element in sustainable and productive food systems and environmental resilience. The program builds on the newly developed United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Soil Doctors program which builds soil health through a train-the-trainer model. Soil health is defined as the capacity of soil to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain, or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation over a human time scale. The focus on soil will serve as a force multiplier for improving outcomes in numerous agricultural sectors (e.g., livestock and food crops), and our approach will model how a network of local subject-matter champions can extend the reach of education. UW-Madison Soils Extension staff will provide technical assistance and capacity development in natural resources management (NRM) and agriculture education and training (AET) to a wide range of participants, some who will become Soil Doctors by the end of the program.
Helping Wisconsin Parents Make Safe Over-the-Counter Medication Choices for their Children
Project Leaders:
Michelle Chui, Professor, School of Pharmacy
Ashley Morris, Research Assistant, School of Pharmacy
American children are common users of over the counter (OTC) medication. Although OTCs are beneficial and save money because they allow parents to treat their children’s minor illnesses at home, they are difficult to select and use properly. Children are at special risk, and thousands of children visit the hospital each year because of an adverse event associated with an OTC medication.
Researchers have tried to improve OTC safety for children, but cases of pediatric medication errors at home reach as high as 80%. This rate is alarming but not surprising: parents, of varying levels of health literacy, health numeracy, and English proficiency, face a complicated OTC decision-making process involving: (1) choosing among numerous products and (2) translating weight-based dosing to treat their child. This study takes an innovative approach to understand and address all components of parental decision-making during OTC selection for pediatric use.
This study will develop and validate a model for how Wisconsin parents make OTC selection decisions. Using scenarios reviewed-and-approved by parents, participants will be interviewed where they will select an OTC and describe how they would use the medication to treat the scenario’s child. From these interviews, we will develop a cognitive task analysis model for how parents select OTCs in the aisle. Then, we will conduct interviews using eye tracking technology, to validate the model for its representation of parental decision-making about OTCs for children. This model will also be reviewed by parents to prepare for and lay the foundation for future interventions.
Mapping Teejop: Indigenous Histories and Presence in Madison
Project Leader:
Kasey Keeler, Assistant Professor, School of Human Ecology
In this community-centered project, “Mapping Teejop” creates a user-friendly, self-guided, story map that allows users to explore, in person or virtually, Indigenous histories of the University of Wisconsin campus and nearby areas. Teejop has long been home to Ho-Chunk community members and visitors alike. This mapping project will collect, document, and make accessible important Native places to students, community members, visitors, faculty, and staff. Mapping Teejop is inclusive of not only Ho-Chunk histories, but those of other Native community members who have made their mark on Madison. This project builds on the Native Nations_UW and the Our Shared Future initiative to incorporate Native perspectives and build community engagement. This project seeks to highlight such sites as Observatory Hill, Ho-Chunk Nation Plaza at Camp Randall, the American Indian Student Cultural Center, the Ho-Chunk Nation Community Center, and the bronze badger sculpture at Camp Randall. Key to this project is close collaboration with Ho-Chunk community members, including Ho-Chunk graduate students. This buildable digital mapping project will allow others to layer upon the initial map. Once the first layer of Indigenous histories is complete, other units and departments on campus will be able to create additional mapping layers. For example, members of the Chican@ Latin@ Studies Department have expressed interest in creating a layer that collects, documents, and shares important Chican@/Latin@ histories. From there, this mapping project can potentially move to African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Gender and Women’s Studies as interest arises and funding is secured.
Parenting Infographics for Bilingual Parents in the 1st 3 months
Project Leader:
Anne Clarkson, Digital Education Specialist, Human Development & Relationships, Division of Extension
We will create three age-paced infographics conveying evidence-based child development information and parenting strategies. Each infographic will track with one month of a child’s age and be written for parents and caregivers. These highly visual infographics will use instructive images to help parents gain the skills necessary to support positive child development and increase understanding of appropriate age-based expectations in the first three months of life, often called the “4th trimester.” The visual nature of the infographics and limited text make translation into multiple other languages easier and more cost effective. We will partner with Hmong- and Spanish-speaking parents in Eau Claire, and translate the infographics into Hmoob (Hmong) and Spanish. This project lays the foundation for developing other age-paced infographics and partnering with a wide variety of community groups in Wisconsin to better support parents.
Partnering with Youth, Parents, and Community Pharmacists to Curb Adolescent E-cigarette Use
Project Leaders:
Jenny Li, Teaching Assistant, School of Pharmacy
Olufunmilola Abraham, Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are the most used tobacco product among youth nationally. About 3.6 million adolescents currently use e-cigarettes despite many efforts by schools, public health campaigns, and legislation to reduce rates of youth vaping. Two underutilized stakeholders in the fight against adolescent e-cigarette use are parents and community pharmacists. Although families and healthcare professionals are encouraged to educate themselves on the health risks of e-cigarettes for youth, there is a dearth of accessible education targeted towards parents and community pharmacists. Pharmacies are the most accessible healthcare setting in the community, and pharmacists have expressed a need for tailored educational resources to better counsel parents and youth on the health risks associated with e-cigarette use. Prior research has also shown that positive parental influence may be a protective factor against youth vaping. We have partnered with Wisconsin PATCH (Providers and Teens Communicating for Health), a community of youth, adults, and providers working toward improving health, and Forward Pharmacy, a community pharmacy with five locations in Wisconsin. They will support the project through stakeholder recruitment and consultation. Youth, parent, and community pharmacist stakeholders will elucidate how parents and pharmacists can contribute to curbing adolescent e-cigarette use and assess the usefulness of existing e-cigarette educational resources through interviews. The opinions, priorities, and preferences of stakeholders will inform adaptations of educational materials on e-cigarettes. The long-term goal is to effectively engage youth, parents, and pharmacists in reducing adolescent e-cigarette use, and this project is a critical first step towards that goal.
Promoting Family Resilience: Examining Racial/Ethnic Minoritized Parents’ Reflective Capacities
Project Leaders:
Tuyen Huynh, Postdoctoral Trainee, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, School of Medicine and Public Health
Larissa Duncan, Associate Professor, School Of Human Ecology
Early family functioning and caregiving quality play a central role in child and family resilience, particularly among high-risk families with young children who are facing the adverse effects of cumulative family risk factors (e.g., economic hardship; racism/discrimination), all of which negatively impact family relationships (e.g., leading to insecure parent-child attachment), and in turn, family well-being. Evidence demonstrates positive protective factors such as parent reflective capacities, or PRC, (e.g., reflective functioning, self-compassion, and mindful parenting) can help mitigate some of the detrimental effects of adversity on family resilience. Unfortunately, this existing empirical evidence may not be generalizable nor applicable to racial/ethnic minoritized families as the majority of PRC studies include predominantly White families. Therefore, in partnership with the United Methodist Children’s Services in Wisconsin (UMCS), the objective of this study is to extend PRC research to racial/ethnic minoritized families with young children in a community collaborative model. This effort will: clarify the relevance and preventative value of PRC for racial/ethnic minority families with young children; lay groundwork with UMCS to implement a community-based PRC-focused program to the diverse families that UMCS serves; and support future community-focused grant applications to examine the longer-term protective role of PRC for diverse populations.
Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Madison’s Native American History
Project Leaders:
Kira Story, Development Specialist, Wisconsin Public Media
Laurie Gorman, Administrative Program Manager, Wisconsin Public Television
PBS Wisconsin is creating an hour-long historical documentary of Madison that focuses on the period before European settlement. A qualified historian will conduct preliminary research. While the project will fit within our ongoing partnership project with the Wisconsin Historical Society called “Wisconsin Hometown Stories,” this portion will focus solely on the Native American history of Madison. We are excited to be able to build upon the existing and continuing research and outreach by the UW-Madison to understand the importance of the land upon which the campus resides and the rich cultural history of this place.