Home » ACM Grants Support Collaborative Initiatives by Faculty to Expand Resources for Students

ACM Grants Support Collaborative Initiatives by Faculty to Expand Resources for Students

ACM Grants Support Collaborative Initiatives by Faculty to Expand Resources for Students June 1, 2018
ACM Grants Support Collaborative Initiatives by Faculty to Expand Resources for Students

Faculty collaboration designed to leverage expertise and expand resources for students is the thread that connects five projects receiving grants totaling $86,780 from the ACM Faculty Career Enhancement (FaCE) program in the spring 2018 funding cycle.

The grants will fund innovative, faculty-led projects to address challenges and opportunities in neuroscience, digital mapping for the humanities, access to statistical analysis software, the study of rapidly aging populations, and the emerging field of Mississippi studies.

Overall, 31 faculty from nine ACM colleges are involved in creating and leading the projects, which were chosen by the FaCE Selection Committee from among 10 proposals submitted in this round of grants.

“The committee noted that the funded projects involved a wide range of ACM participants coming together in collaborative teams to explore interesting and important topics in promising areas of study and teaching,” said Brian Williams, ACM Vice President and Director of Faculty Development and Grant Programs. “In each of these dimensions, these are examples of projects that advance the broader goals of FaCE — such as sustainability and cost-effective collaboration — in both the near and longer term.”

ACM awards FaCE grants through a competitive process in fall and spring cycles each academic year. Funding supports joint research projects, teaching and learning collaborations, collaboratively organized events, reading groups, and other cooperative initiatives to enhance teaching and learning at ACM colleges.

The fall 2018 funding cycle will begin after the annual FaCE conference on September 21-22, 2018. ACM faculty are invited to seek funding for projects addressing this year’s FaCE theme — Faculty Development around Pedagogical Communities of Practice — or other challenges or opportunities liberal arts colleges confront. To apply for a FaCE grant in the fall cycle, faculty must submit pre-proposals by October 24, 2018. A second funding cycle under this theme will occur in spring 2019.

The FaCE Program is supported by generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


Projects Funded by FaCE in Spring 2018

  • Grant amount: $18,402
  • Project Focus: Neuroscience faculty will collaborate to identify unique challenges and opportunities for successful undergraduate neuroscience education at ACM colleges and to develop and share lab, classroom, outreach, and program-level resources.
  • Project leaders: Rachel Bergstrom (biology, Beloit College), Stephanie Fretham (biology, Luther College), Clark Lindgren (biology, Grinnell College), Judith Thorn (biology, Knox College), and Nancy Wall (biology, Lawrence University)
  • Grant amount: $14,725
  • Project Focus: This project aims to enable faculty across the ACM to expand their collaborative teaching abilities and prepare new generations of students to grapple with economic, social, psychological, political, and healthcare issues related to the world’s aging population.
  • Project leaders from St. Olaf College: Mary Carlsen (social work, family studies), Ashley Hodgson (economics), Mary-Beth Kuehn (nursing), Julie Legler (statistics), and Jessica Petok (psychology, neuroscience); from Carleton College: Julie Neiworth (psychology) and Annette Nierobisz (sociology)
  • Grant amount: $22,137
  • Project Focus: Faculty will leverage existing mapping tools, such as GIS and data analysis, to produce maximal research insight, pedagogical utility, and suitability for digital humanities. Activities will include a hands-on workshop and creating a website geared toward humanities scholars.
  • Project leaders from St. Olaf College: Louis Epstein (music) and Hsiang-Lin Shih (Asian studies); from Carleton College: Austin Mason (history/digital humanities) and Victoria Morse (history/medieval and Renaissance studies)
  • Grant amount: $18,016
  • Project Focus: An ACM-wide planning meeting will build faculty interest and consider future opportunities in Mississippi Studies, a new, interdisciplinary research initiative to encourage collaboration among colleges on publicly-engaged projects centered on the Mississippi River watershed and its inhabitants.
  • Project leaders from Knox College: Katherine Adelsberger (environmental studies), Nicholas Baxter (anthropology-sociology), and Monica Berlin (English); from Macalester College: Eric Carroll (art, photography & design), Marlon James (English), Alicia Johnson (math, statistics and computer science), and John Kim (media and cultural studies); from Luther College: Jodi Enos-Berlage (biology) and Jane Hawley (dance, visual and performing arts);  from Coe College: Martin St. Clair (chemistry and environmental studies)
  • Grant amount: $13,500
  • Project Focus: This project will facilitate adoption across disciplines of R, a free Windows/Mac compatible platform that enables a wide variety of statistical and graphical techniques. Adopting R is aimed at improving access to quantitative software while containing costs and developing students’ quantitative reasoning skills.
  • Project leaders from Beloit College: Kristin Bonnie (psychology), Phil Chen (political science), Alexis Grosofsky (psychology), Leslie Williams (anthropology), and Ken Yasukawa (biology)

 

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