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:
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.