Written by Anne Krapfl
Five faculty proposals to develop new approaches for teaching undergraduate courses will share $56,000 in available funds for 2015-16, the 19th year of the Miller Faculty Fellowship program. Senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert endorsed the recommendations of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) advisory board, which reviewed 17 proposals requesting nearly $210,000 in funds.
The five fellowship projects and their team leaders are:
- Using Service Learning to Improve Students’ Science and Math Literacy, $11,000
Proposal team: Heather Bolles and Elgin Johnston, mathematics; Cinzia Cervato, William Gallus and Chris Harding, geological and atmospheric sciences; Craig Ogilvie, physics; Jane Rongerude, community and regional planning; Halil Ceylan, civil, construction and environmental engineering; and Lora-Leigh Chrystal, Program for Women in Science and Engineering - A Severe Weather Tool to Expose Students in Science Learning Communities to Authentic Research, $14,000
Proposal team: William Gallus, Cinzia Cervato and David Flory, geological and atmospheric sciences - Moving the Agronomy 212 Lab Out of the Classroom and into the Field, $4,000
Proposer: Erik Christian, agronomy - Designing Curriculum Involving Industry Participation: Assessing Student Learning Through Effective College-Industry Partnership, $15,000
Proposal team: Shweta Chopra, Gretchen Mosher and Russ Hoffman, agricultural and biosystems engineering; and Mack Shelley, political science - Strengthening the Foundation in Effective Teaching for Education Students in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, $12,000
Proposal team: Patricia Carlson and Vincent Genareo, School of Education
Projects will be completed by June 30, 2016. CELT advisory board members used these criteria in their assessments of all the proposals:
- Capacity to improve the quality of the undergraduate curriculum for students
- Enhancement of student learning outcomes and the student learning experience
- Scholarship from the project that enhances the understanding of teaching and student learning in that discipline
- Clarity of the project plan
- Clarity, appropriateness and relevance of the proposed budget
The Miller Faculty Fellowships are funded by the estate of F. Wendell Miller, a Rockwell City attorney and farm manager who died in 1995. The bulk of his estimated $27 million estate created the Miller Endowment Trust, with income from the trust shared equally by Iowa State and the University of Iowa. Former president Martin Jischke established the fellowship program in 1996.
This article was originally published by the Iowa State News Service.