Recent Grants
Engaged Teaching Funds have provided resources for a number of Marietta College faculty since being introduced in the 2005-2006 academic year. Short descriptions of most of the funded proposals are given below:
Jeff Walker, Deptartment of Communication and Media Studies, received a grant for travel to San Antonio for the 2008 National Communication Association convention. "I saw a need for a course on communication ethics at Marietta College; the NCA convention offered an afternoon-long short course on teaching the undergraduate communication ethics course. Not only did I glean creative ideas that helped me create the course I teach here (both in-class and, in the summer, online); I had the chance to network with some of the best scholars working in this field, including the co-author of the textbook I use. I continue to grow as a communication ethics scholar thanks to the session itself as well as those relationships created during the convention - a trip I would not have been able to make without the pedagogy grant."
Nicole Livengood, Department of English, received $500 to fund the transcription of nineteenth-century writer Elizabeth Stoddard's newspaper columns. Nicole used these columns as a focal point in her "Herman Melville and Elizabeth Stoddard" class. Students researched and annotated columns of their choice while learning about nineteenth-century American literary culture. The students' work is part of a long-term project intended to make Stoddard's columns accessible to the public via the World Wide Web.
Kathy Wolfe-Crouser, Deptartment of History, Political Science, Philosophy, and Religion, received a grant that allowed her to bring speakers in to her Gender Studies class. The speakers' various professional and real-life experiences gave the students yet another way of understanding and relating to the course material. Additionally, the speakers (all local) were thrilled at the opportunity to promote their organizations and network with students.
The Education Department received $600. 00 to fund digital voice recorders for use in the Education 220 Adolescent Literature class during the spring 2009 semester. Students used these recorders to record the interviews they conducted with senior citizen participants who lived during the World War II era. As part of the project students combined their interview recordings along with artifacts, photos, and video to create a digital movie about their senior’s experiences. These recorders were also used by the Marietta College Summer Reading Camp teachers to record and assess children’s oral reading abilities. They will be utilized again for a joint project about the 1950’s.
Jackie DeLaat received a mini-sabbatical to institute a major simulation in her Legislative Process course in which the students will simulate committee action on a bill. She received $1000 for attendance at meetings with teaching panels, and used a portion of that money to attend the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago, in April 2007.
Luding Tong received a mini-sabbatical in the fall of 2006 to prepare for a new course ("Chinese Visual Culture and Visual Expressions through Advertising"). She used the sabbatical to take courses on advertising, to learn about theories and scholarships on the discipline of advertising, and to familiarize herself with major advertising journals such as Advertising Age.
She also traveled to Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati to conduct research on their collections of Chinese visual arts. "Chinese Visual Culture and Visual Expressions through Advertising" is intended to fulfill "Global Issues" or "Historical Perspective" cognate areas and writing proficiency requirements for the college's general education requirement.
Eric Fitch received a grant of $300 to buy texts which he used to update his background in areas of environmental policy and law, with an emphasis on water resources. He integrated this new knowledge into several courses, but particularly in ENVS 310 Environmental Policy and Law and ENVS 311 Politics of Global Ecology.
Debbie Egolf received $70 to purchase videos related to teaching science using case studies & group work. She has since used case study teaching in her science and ethics class and group work in that class and her physical chemistry class.
Matt Menzel received ~$150 to buy "toys" called Polydron (polyhedral construction sets). He uses them for hands-on demonstrations/guided discovery when teaching graph theory, giving capstone presentations, etc. According to Matt, they have been very helpful at getting students to work with polyhedra and to conjecture what polyhedra can and cannot exist.
Grace Johnson received a mini-sabbatical to write a casebook for a new accounting course. This casebook, titled "Exploring the Authoritative Literature of Accounting through Minicases" is currently being used in Acct 460, Accounting Research.
Bill Bauer received a grant of $600 to purchase assistive technology for his "Introduction to Exceptional Children Class" and his "Introduction to Mild Moderate Learners" and Methods. The equipment allows students to try out various pieces of technology to enhance their knowledge of adapted devices that can assist their students (field and student teaching).
Devices that were purchased include assisted listening devices, an assistive reading pen, various braille and large printed devices, as well as behavorial and learning devices that can be used to promote an effective classroom environment. All students have tried all of the devices and have placed artifacts of their usage in their electronic portfolio that is used to evaluate their ongoing quest to become a "highly qualified teacher."
Marilee Morrow received a $1000 grant to help pay for some of the research for her international study tour course, World Broadcasting: A Focus on China's Dramatically Changing Media Industry. She used the grant in combination with other funds to visit her course locations, solidify her course itinerary and interview her contacts. As a result, she is able to share firsthand information with her students about the rapid changes in media, and further emphasize the importance of understanding the industry across cultures to be leaders in their chosen field.
Holly Menzel received $2000 to develop a new statistics course. Through assessment, her department learned that they were not adequately meeting the needs of some of the departments they service. Throughout the Spring '06 semester, she met with these departments to begin developing this new course. The development of the course continued into the summer, and in the fall of 2007 the new course was offered for the first time. As a result of this new course, her department is continuing to update and change their statistical offerings, allowing them to better serve the entire college.
Dennis Kuhl helped coordinate the purchase of several sets of classroom response devices (clickers) for several departments. Clickers were purchased for Physics (two classrooms), Psychology, and the Physician's Assistant Program. Funding came from the Pedagogy fund, Instructional Technology (through Laura Little), and from individual departments.