Grant Abstracts 2011   Association of American Colleges and Universities Susan Elrod Washington, DC $250,000 December 2011 For the past 20 years, countless reports have been issued calling for change and reform of undergraduate education to improve student learning and success in STEM; however, by many measures, recommendations in these reports have not been widely implemented.  Systemic change in higher education has proven difficult and research suggests that a focus on helping instructors implement more active, student-centered pedagogies will have an impact.  Research further suggests that the greatest gains in STEM education are likely to come from the development of strategies to encourage faculty and administrators to implement proven instructional strategies rather than to carry out additional research on these strategies.  Isolated efforts are not likely to yield the kind of widespread change described in national reports because colleges and universities are complex systems wherein multiple factors influence faculty actions, values and behaviors.  Existing reports rarely come with campus-level recommendations for institutional level changes or leadership actions required for implementing innovations and reforms on a wider scale.  Project Kaleidoscope, a national STEM reform organization housed at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, proposes to develop a comprehensive institutional STEM Effectiveness Framework to help campus leaders translate national report recommendations into scalable and sustainable institutional actions that improve recruitment, access, retention, learning and completion for all students in all STEM disciplines.   California Baptist University Anthony Donaldson Riverside, CA $250,000 December 2011 Equipment will be purchased to develop an advanced “green” computing, teaching and research laboratory with field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware and robotics equipment.  Using the new laboratory and equipment, undergraduate engineering students will study bioinformatics; robotics (enhanced recognition, ethics-based decision making and sensor interface development); and computer energy optimization.  Currently, study in these areas is limited by speed, efficiency and/or cost of computing.  Students will explore hands-on hardware/software co-design approaches emphasizing efficient hardware designs combined with flexible software structure (mainly for microcontrollers).  Use of the laboratory, FPGA hardware and other equipment, concepts and applications will be integrated into all four years of the undergraduate Electrical Computing Engineering (ECE) degree curriculum by augmentation of eleven existing engineering courses, thereby facilitating faculty communication and, as a result, student outcomes and learning.  Engineering education at CBU will be more “relevant, attractive and connected,”  allowing expanded recruitment, retention, and graduation of qualified electrical/computer engineers, an engineering specialty documented to be suffering from a shortage of qualified engineers.   Harrisburg University Wm. David Burns Harrisburg, PA $250,000 December 2011 The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) proposes to implement the initial launch of the Science and Civic Engagement Western Network (SCEWestNet), a multi institutional collaborative effort to promote, support and sustain college-level science education reform in the western region of the United States.  Building upon their NSF supported national science education reform project, SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), they will overcome the serious obstacle of sustaining and growing reform – and creating an effective community of practice – across the expansive 17 states of the West by creating SCEWestNet.  Two established SENCER Centers of Innovation (SCI) (SCI-West at Santa Clara University and SCI-Southwest at Texas Woman’s University) will anchor SCEWestNet.  The SCIs will work with experienced SENCER leaders in the West to plan an effective set of seven regionally localized organizational units or network nodes.  These seven nodal partners, each working with three new institutions in their area, will work with the SCIs to scale up science education reform efforts.  SCEWestNet will develop a sustainable structure to overcome obstacles of scale and cost and contribute to achieving significant, lasting science education reform.   Occidental College Lisa Sousa Los Angeles, CA $250,000 December 2011 This project will enable Occidental College to integrate its curriculum in the arts, humanities and social sciences with Los Angeles arts and cultural institutions.  The project represents Occidental’s commitment to the increased centrality of scholarly activity to the undergraduate educational experience.  Faculty will build and deepen relationships with local organizations and develop courses, research assistantships and internships with these community partners that will span the entire four years of the undergraduate career.  Six research-oriented Keck Cultural Studies Program courses will equip first-year students with research skills, and six Keck Research Seminars for upper-division students will allow advanced hands-on research connected with the College’s partners, which include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Autry National Center, and Outpost for Contemporary Art.  Twelve 10-week Keck Summer Research Projects and four 9-month Keck Internships will provide opportunities for students to build upon the skills and knowledge they have acquired to pursue advanced research for senior thesis projects and/or gain valuable work experience.  Students’ skills, attitudes and perspectives will be transformed through engagement with the broader Los Angeles community, close relationships with faculty mentors and the deeper critical thinking that independent research makes possible.   Saint Mary's College of California Edward E. Tywoniak Moraga, CA $250,000 December 2011 Saint Mary’s College of California is expanding cross-disciplinary learning opportunities for undergraduates through the Digital Studies Across the Curriculum project. “Digital Studies” addresses four areas of intellectual activity: digital inquiry, digital learning, digital media studies and digital media practice.  The project’s goal is to build faculty and staff capacity and technological infrastructure to integrate digital studies into multiple courses.  The cross functional project team is made up of eight faculty from four disciplines (Anthropology, Art & Art History, Communication, and Mathematics & Computer Science) as well as technology and facilities staff and academic leadership.  This team will 1) equip and staff a half-sized digital media lab to be used to develop and offer new courses and support students and faculty who use digital media; 2) enhance the knowledge of faculty in instructional methods using digital media and in new course content; 3) create and pilot six new courses to form the core of a Digital Studies minor; 4) evaluate newly created courses for inclusion in the curriculum; 5) share project findings with the wider academic community; 6) institutionalize and sustain the project; and 7) prepare for the integration of digital studies across the Saint Mary’s curriculum.  The project will reach 52 faculty through professional development and ultimately will serve 400 students annually through the Digital Studies minor and courses that integrate digital media.   San Diego State University Stanley Maloy San Diego, CA $250,000 December 2011 In addition to the environmental impact, global climate change influences the dissemination and severity of infectious diseases – from changes in the geographical distribution of insect vectors to the transmission in food and water.  Countering these problems will require scientists with expertise that crosses traditional scientific disciplines and who are facile with computational modeling and mathematics.  This interface between environmental sciences and medical sciences is a very enticing topic for many undergraduates and has the potential to attract undergraduates to careers in science.  In addition, the interface between these fields provides an excellent opportunity to integrate multiple scientific disciplines in a meaningful way.  This intensive summer program for undergraduates will include hands-on training in environmental sampling, laboratory methods in microbiology and molecular genetics, computer simulation and mathematical modeling, coupled with workshops on research skills, scientific writing and responsible conduct of research.  The summer program will be followed by a year of undergraduate research experience that incorporates interdisciplinary seminars and training activities.  The program will focus on developing critical, quantitative thinking and teamwork and will prepare students to do undergraduate or graduate research in a variety of related fields.   Westminster College Bonnie Baxter New Wilmington, PA $250,000 December 2011 Great Salt Lake is an extreme ecosystem and a unique environmental feature.  This lake is the focus of a number of ongoing faculty/student projects at the Great Salt Lake Institute, a distinctive, interdisciplinary collaborative at Westminster College.  This lake has enormous potential for novel undergraduate research projects in an array of scientific disciplines.  A team at the college will link projects with a lake theme such that Great Salt Lake is the fabric for Building Research, Innovation and Novel Experimentation (BRINE).  The overarching goals of BRINE are: (1) Transform the landscape of undergraduate science education by adopting a theme-based, place-based research model that can be replicated at other institutions; (2) Build and support an interdisciplinary scholarship community centered around a unique geographic resource; (3) Impact the learning outcomes for science students; (4) Impact the scholarship and motivation of science faculty; (5) Evaluate the BRINE program and use data to inform the entire undergraduate research program at Westminster.  The College will draw on its proximity to Great Salt Lake and new undergraduate research facilities to help accomplish these goals.   California State University, Fresno Brent Auernheimer Fresno, CA $250,000 June 2011 California State University, Fresno will create a high performance computing facility focusing on undergraduate teaching and research.  The Computational Science Center (CSC) will establish collaboration spaces and computer clusters to facilitate the interdisciplinary flow of faculty, students and knowledge across conventional departmental barriers.  Providing computing resources not currently available to undergraduates promises to revolutionize teaching and research.  The CSC will be used in updated undergraduate courses in bioinformatics, seismic data processing, climate modeling, and parallel programming and architecture, as well as an exciting new general education course open to all majors: Compo Sci. 100, “Introduction to Scientific Computing.”  The CSC aligns with the College of Science and Mathematics emphasis on undergraduate research as a major force in student success.  Finally, the use of collaboration spaces and the collaborative approaches to computational science are key because problems requiring cluster computing are typically solved cooperatively, and employers value graduates with experience working in heterogeneous teams.   California State University, Northridge Maria Elena Zavala Northridge, CA $250,000 June 2011 The College of Science and Mathematics seeks to help fund a confocal laser microscope (CM).  Placed in the microscopy suite in the College’s new Chaparral Hall, home of the Department of Biology, the CM will provide participating project faculty and undergraduates who will be jointly investigating selected research topics with fundamental instrumentation that overcomes limitations of the university’s current technology.  Offering sophisticated computerized imaging essential in modern approaches to biology, the CM will advance the College’s overall goal of performing world-class biology research that also enriches undergraduate science education, promotes student professional development, and encourages graduate studies.  The CM will vastly increase the number of students, many from traditionally underrepresented populations, who are exposed to computerized imaging, modern biology concepts, and related research, while also affording the basis for external funding of future projects.   Linfield College Jeff Peterson McMinnville, OR $250,000 June 2011 Linfield College has established the Linfield Center for the Northwest, a program enhancing undergraduate education through the active cultivation of a collaborative experiential learning community.  Center activities include Northwest-based 1) internships, 2) service learning opportunities, and 3) student-faculty collaborative research projects.  Linfield seeks to support the proposed three-year Keck Community-Engaged Research-to-Classroom Program, focused on research meeting identified needs in the Pacific Northwest.  The project expands Linfield’s current campus-wide research initiative by offering students opportunities to apply academic theory in community-engaged research experiences each summer.  Students engaged as summer researchers will subsequently serve as peer instructors, working collaboratively with faculty to integrate their investigations into course redesign initiatives.  A series of dissemination activities will focus on project best practices and research outcomes.  LCN will provide the unique intersection of academic research, course curricula and community interests that will impact 15 faculty researchers, 30 student researchers and approximately 250 Linfield students between the 2011-12 and the 2013-14 academic years.   Regis University Thomas Bowie Denver, CO $250,000 June 2011 In order to engage students in integrative learning that will prepare them to deal with a world characterized by complex and often ill-defined issues, Regis University will mount a multi faceted faculty development effort.  The primary method to build the integrative capacity of half the faculty is through an innovative, two-week institute offered over three consecutive summers.  This Integrative Teaching Institute (ITI) will serve 49 total faculty, in four integrative thematic areas, who will design or significantly revise a total of 48 integrative courses.  These faculty and courses will impact over 1,000 juniors and seniors at least twice during the grant period and virtually all traditional undergraduates in the years to come.  To this end, four unique strategies are employed.  First, the ITI design is itself integrative.  Second, the two-week duration of the program far exceeds the more typical two- or three-day development seminar.  Such as intensive approach often transforms how faculty members approach all their courses.  Now magnify this impact to half of the faculty.  Involving a critical mass of faculty instead of a smaller group is the third strategy.  Finally, this is a systemic approach that will build critical mass through the ITI, support it during the academic year with on-going discussions and conferences, increase faculty incentives and eventually integrate the ITI into a university-wide center.   Xavier University of Louisiana Leonard Jack New Orleans, LA $250,000 June 2011 Xavier University of Louisiana completed a feasibility study in 2010 to determine the merits and challenges of establishing an undergraduate program in public health.  The concept for this proposed program emerges from Xavier’s exemplary reputation in the health sciences and the superior faculty in these areas that would also support a public health curriculum.  This project will be advanced through several programmatic areas including administrative coordination, curriculum development, procuring library resources, expert consultation, and outcome assessment and evaluation.  Xavier has an exceptional record of graduating African American students in the physical sciences.  Xavier’s proposed curriculum for this project underscores its dependence on the liberal arts to nurture conscientious and well-rounded public health professionals.  To facilitate this work, the program’s organizational structure includes the creation of a formal academic public health program, continued dialogue with both internal and external experts in public health and related disciplines, and a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum grounded in a solid liberal arts foundation.