| Organization (Proposal Number) |
Principal Investigator |
| Project Title |
Director |
| Website (If Still Functioning) |
| Organization Information |
| |
| Coastal Carolina University (9873758) |
John Idoux, Provost |
| "Integration of Science and Education at Coastal Carolina University" |
Valgene Dunham, Dean School of Natural and Applied Science |
| In its short history, Coastal Carolina University (CCU) has established an outstanding record of faculty and student research with campus-wide emphasis on inquiry-based learning focused on undergraduate research programs. The institution has successfully developed an educational framework that promotes the integration of research and education for all students, and draws on its outreach to local schools to include university students and faculty working with in-service teachers and K-12 students. The University is at a unique juncture in its evolution and is well positioned to experience an effective augmentation to the variety of efforts underway in the integration of research and education. To enhance the culture of inquiry, CCU will increase research efforts by faculty and students, assimilate integration into teaching-training programs for public school teachers who seek to enhance the discovery experience for students, and develop interdisciplinary courses taught by faculty teams. |
| |
| Colby College (9873763) |
Edward Yeterian, Dean of Faculty |
| "Education Through Research: Fostering New Connections" |
F. Russell Cole, Biology Professor |
| http://www.colby.edu/NSF_AIRE/ |
| Colby College clearly recognizes the importance of the integration of research and education and continues to develop institutional wide initiatives that incorporate research into the undergraduate science pedagogy. With the creation of a new interdisciplinary curriculum, Colby faculty has redesigned courses to include open-ended, innovative approaches that are successful in teaching critical thinking for science and non-science majors. The College has initiated a new science planning process, which ensures students learn the scientific method, develop critical thinking and communications skills, and appreciate the sheer joy of discovery. To complement their science programs, Colby will hire Postdoctoral Teaching Fellows who will mentor undergraduates in independent research as well as work with faculty mentors. The Fellows will gain valuable experience in undergraduate teaching and will learn methods of enhancing science education through research at introductory and advanced levels. |
| |
| Grinnell College (9873774) |
Jim Swartz, Dean of the College and VP for Academic Affairs |
| "Using Research to Foster Interdisciplinary Learning in Science and Education" |
Bruce Voyles, Chair of the Science Division |
| http://www.grinnell.edu/GCAIRE/ |
| Having developed and employed successful mechanisms that foster curiosity to life long learning, Grinnell College continues to build a community in which teachers and students define problems and seek solutions together. The College has implemented a strategy that provides administrative structures, curricular and faculty development support, and physical infrastructure to encourage academic community growth. Most notably, the creation of the New Science Project addresses barriers to success that impact students of color, women, and first-generation college students. This activity has grown into a national model for institution-wide reform that centers on developing ways to provide students with curricular choices that best suit particular learning styles, and support systems that enable students to improve their performance in the early years. The success of Grinnell's reform efforts positions the institution to become a model for other liberal arts institutions seeking to reshape science education for all their students. |
| |
| Harvey Mudd College (9873831) |
F. Sheldon Wettack, Dean of the Faculty |
| "New Approaches to Integrating Research and Education at Harvey Mudd College" |
F. Sheldon Wettack, Dean of the Faculty |
| http://www.dof.hmc.edu/hww/aire/description.pdf |
| Since its founding, Harvey Mudd College has provided a rich academic environment for integrating research and education. The Engineering Clinic, a program focusing on teams of students practicing their profession by working on "real problems for real clients", has been extended to other scientific disciplines. Each student is required to have a capstone senior experience in the form of a clinic project or a research thesis, and every curriculum includes a broad technical core that provides tools and knowledge for interdisciplinary research. By establishing integrated first-year, project-oriented laboratory courses, expanding the colloquia program, and creating interdisciplinary and peer mentoring summer projects, an already successful program will be strengthen. An interesting component to the College's outreach efforts is "FutureWatch", a half-hour weekly radio and cable television broadcast exploring issues of science, technology, and the environment, an excellent vehicle to inform the public. An expanded format will include programs in which Harvey Mudd faculty and students discuss their own research activities, and the institution's efforts to perform integration activities. |
| |
| Hope College (9873667) |
James Gentile, Dean for the Natural Sciences |
| "The Implementation and Dissemination of an Integrated Curriculum for Science and Mathematics at the Interface of Research and Education" |
Donald Cronkite, Professor of Biology and Janet Anderson, Associate Professor of Mathematics |
| Hope College's Division of Natural Science has been recognized by Project Kaleidoscope as a "Program that Works" and as a model for other institutions. The mission of the science and mathematics program at Hope mirrors that of the entire College to provide an innovative curriculum, which intertwines student learning and faculty development. The institution has intentionally structured a curriculum in which students can extend the boundaries of departments to study at the interfaces of scientific disciplines, and also expand the study of science and mathematics to the social sciences, humanities and the arts. To enhance effective faculty and student learning and scholarly activities, the College will establish a Visiting Scholars Program. The goal of the program is to model integration of research and education at the undergraduate level for faculty who have had limited opportunities to work in an environment where this integration occurs. As a result faculty and programs will benefit from the insights gained from visiting scientists and creating long term collaborations between individuals and institutions. |
| |
| Oberlin College (9873794) |
Nancy Dye, President |
| "Investigative Learning the Laboratory, the Classroom and the Community" |
Janice Thornton, Director, Neuroscience Program |
| http://www.oberlin.edu/nsfaire/ |
| Oberlin College has always recognized the need to actively involve students in their own learning, and this ideal has become interwoven and incorporated in the fabric of teaching science at the institution. Having a strong record of supporting the integration of teaching and research, Oberlin is now prepared to extend institutionalized initiatives that integrate discovery-rich learning into all levels of the curriculum for majors and general audiences. The College devotes considerable efforts to assessment, and has developed an assessment model that provides accountability at the level of institution, department and individual faculty member. To broaden its evaluation efforts and assist other institutions with integration of research and education activities, the College will establish a Committee for Integrating Research and Teaching (CIRT). CIRT will unite two major components of Oberlin's educational mission, providing students with a rigorous academic foundation, as they develop community awareness and social responsibility. |
| |
| Occidental College (9873812) |
Theodore R. Mitchell, President |
| "Expanding and Promoting the Integration of Research Across the Curriculum" |
Chris Craney, Professor of Chemistry |
| http://departments.oxy.edu/urc/support/aire/aire.htm |
| Occidental College is dedicated to transforming the institution into a national model for a multicultural liberal arts college. The College has developed and implemented a plethora of successful activities that incorporate research into the educational experience for a diverse student body in an urban setting. Interdisciplinary models first pioneered in the sciences are being transferred across the curriculum and ideas about using new technology for research are infused into science from other areas of the curriculum. The College's efforts to expand the educational activities across institutional boundaries are done by incorporating models derived from the research activities to the K-12 schools in the Los Angeles area. An 85-foot oceanographic research vessel, the RV Vantuna, represents an example of a unique activity that integrates research and education. The Vantuna represents an opportunity to involve Occidental and Southern California high school and community college students in interdisciplinary marine research. |
| |
| Reed College (9873800) |
Steven Koblik, President |
| "Peer Mentoring of Investigative Labs and Independent Research Projects" |
Peter Russell, Professor of Genetics |
| http://web.reed.edu/nsfaire/nsfaire_depts.html |
| Integrating research and education has been the mission of Reed College since its inception. The mission has been reaffirmed throughout the curriculum, beginning with investigative experiences in the introductory lab course and culminating with the College's mandatory year-long senior thesis, which must involve collaborative research with a faculty member. Along with the senior thesis, another crucial element of Reed's approach to the integration of research and education is the mandatory comprehensive junior qualifying examination. To enhance their already successful program, the institution will establish an innovative Undergraduate Research Mentor Program focusing on peer-mentoring to supplement activities of faculty by helping develop research skills for students who are "new" to the scientific enterprise. |
| |
| Union College (9873791) |
Linda Cool, Dean of Faculty and VP for Academic Affairs |
| "Links and Mentors: Approaches to Science and Engineering Education for the 21st Century" |
Thomas Werner, Professor of Chemistry |
| http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs/Grants/NSF-AIRE/ |
| Recognized as the first liberal arts institution to offer an engineering program, Union College conceptualized a new General Education curriculum in the late 1980's, that emphasizes discovery-based learning in a research rich environment, consisting of three stages of investigative learning. This model has been effectively incorporated in the development of a new engineering curriculum, which fosters active learning activities and provides exposure to engineering technologies through research. Students pursuing engineering studies are required to work in teams and are provided with an international experience where students go abroad to work closely with engineers and students from other countries. Engineering faculty are challenged to create a series of hands-on engineering courses with laboratory components that stimulate and excite non-engineering students the same way that GenEd science courses for non-science majors have appealed to those students. Union supports and promotes programs targeted at training elementary through high school teachers in science as well as encouraging minority students to consider a career in teaching at the college level. |
| |
| Wellesley College (9873771) |
Nancy Kolodny, Dean of the College |
| "Expanding Opportunities for the Integration of Research and Education" |
Mary Allen, Professor of Biology |
| Wellesley College's approach to the integration of research and education is multifaceted and based on research, and on how to establish an environment where young women can thrive in science. The College has developed a comprehensive program that promotes a variety of systematic experiences to engage students in discovery and communication of knowledge from the very beginning of their college careers to their most advanced independent research projects. Their approach incorporates curricular revision and strong student/faculty research collaborations. Wellesley's recently established quantitative reasoning requirement will help ensure that students have the skills to begin their study of science and to master advanced level courses. A mandatory writing course in the first year and an emphasis throughout the curriculum on oral and written presentation skills link effective communications and course work. With the success achieved in the natural sciences, the institution proposes and is well positioned to expand the paradigm of discovery -based learning more broadly to the social sciences. |
