Faculty awarded Schillig projects

Faculty members in the School of Architecture, the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Education, and Engineering, and from MSU-Meridian are receiving 2000 Schillig Special Teaching Project grants.

Coordinated by the Office of Academic Affairs, the Schillig Projects program provides financial support to encourage new ideas for improving undergraduate teaching. Specifically, funds are provided for teaching activities and/or materials for which the usual financial resources do not exist.

Awards can be as much as $2,500, though larger amounts are considered when a proposal is deemed to have significant merit. Normally, no more than one award is given to a project proposer within a 24-month period.

Receiving awards this year are:

• John Brocato, College of Engineering, $2,500, for online resources for enhancing undergraduate writing and speaking instruction in the engineering curriculum;
• Alex Brown and Karyn Brown, Communication, $2,745, using a teleprompter for teaching television performance;
• Michael Brown, Geosciences, $2,495, incorporating meteorological instrumentation and corresponding measurements into undergraduate education;
• Harry Cole, Civil Engineering, $500, digitizer for 35mm slides and negatives;
• Marcela Garma, Foreign Languages, $2,500, using video technology in the foreign language classroom;
• Gordon Garretson, College of Engineering, $1,949, Smart Board for the technical communication program;
• Nils Gore, Architecture, $2,227, increasing technical proficiency through understanding of materiality and construction;
• Janie Gregg, Meridian-Business and Industry, $2,500, developing web sites;
• Paul Grootkerk, Art, $1,000, Art Department's slide collection project;
• Lana Johns, Music Education, $2,542, PowerPoint presentations to enhance the delivery of information in the music appreciation classroom;
• Jack Jordan, Foreign Languages, $2,500, Striving for fluency through French juvenile literature;
• Gail Levinsky, Music Education, $2,500, funding for professional-level repair of a donated bass saxophone case;
• Michael Li, Mathematics and Statistics, $2,500, integrating computer visualization and mathematical software in the classroom teaching of multivariate calculus and differential equations;
• Taylor E. Mack, Geosciences, $2,255, incorporating global positioning systems into undergraduate education;
• Renee Matich and Jan Cooper Taylor, Human Sciences, $2,500, purchasing food and equipment;
• Phyllis Bell Miller, Human Sciences, $2,459, incorporating color technology into apparel, textiles, merchandising, and interior design courses;
• Charlotte Oakley, Human Sciences, $2,457, promoting and strengthening undergraduate nutrition research;
• Stephen Paul, Psychology, $2,500, equipment purchase;
• David Perkes, Architecture, $2,648, equipment purchase;
• Kathlene Postma, English, $960, improving undergraduate education in magazine production;
• Julianne Trautmann and Catherine Boyd, Human Sciences, $2,500, developing a database and online exhibits for the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection;
• Sandra Vaughn, Meridian-Arts and Sciences, $2,500, Changing Attitudes through Cooperative Learning;
• Daniel Webb, Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sport, $2,500, equipment purchase;
• G. Wayne Wilkerson, Landscape Architecture, $2,000, Trimble GeoExplorer 3 for Educators Pack for Department of Landscape Architecture; and
• Scott Willard, Animal and Dairy Sciences, $2,492, Practices in Physiology of Reproduction (Teaching Laboratory ADS 4611).