PEW SCHOLAR TEACHER GRANT


Pew Scholar Teacher Grants are intended to encourage teaching-related projects that promote teaching innovation and renewal. These can include traditional aspects of pedagogy (teaching strategies/methods, use of new technology, evaluation of learning, etc.), as well as the transformation and extension of subject matter knowledge as reflected in curriculum and course development, teaching methodologies, or faculty assisting other faculty.  In applying for these grants, faculty should keep in mind that course development is one of the customary expectations for faculty. Grant requests should demonstrate how the project would go beyond these customary expectations.

Eligibility: All faculty, full- or part-time, are eligible. Visitors, affiliates, contract, and part-time faculty, however, require a tenured or tenure-track faculty member as a participant in the grant activity.

Maximum award:  Level 1 (up to $7,500) , and Level 2 (up to $5,000). The two levels are differentiated by the size, depth, breadth, and impact of the intended grant activities.

Deadlines: October 1, February 1, and April 1.

Items to note:

1. All other things being equal, faculty members and/or departments who have not received grants in preceding grant rounds will be given priority over those who have.

2. Ongoing projects are not funded by Pew FTLC.

3. Be as thorough as possible in your application. A primary reason many grants are denied is due to a lack of thorough implementation and assessment plans. Another reason many grants are reduced or denied is due to a lack of detail or errors in the budget.

PRIOR PEW SCHOLAR TEACHER GRANTS

We publish examples of different grants we have awarded to show the type and variety of Pew Scholar Teacher grants and their benefit to both their departments and the University.

2012 - The Writing Department received a Pew Scholar Teacher grant to pilot the use of an e-portfolio web application built by department chair, Dan Royer, to ultimately manage the 1,700 WRT-150 student portfolios that are submitted at the end of each semester. Professors Mary Lotz, Dauvan Mulally, Amy Norkus, and Julie White are using the application on iPads to learn and improve its functionality, to reflect on and document how the technology can change the portfolio process, and also to test how the technology supports e-comments on student writing throughout the semester. After Fall 2012 semester, they have reported that this new web application worked quite well. There were 234 student portfolios submitted in the pilot project. There were a large number of efficiencies introduced through this new portfolio management process—so many, in fact, that the final four-hour meeting for discussion of “third reads” was not needed because the third reads were all complete before the meeting! This early completion has never happened in the 15 years of portfolio group grading in the first-year writing program. The pilot group will more than double in size for the Winter 2013 semester, impacting about 750 first-year students. The project will be discussed in a workshop for writing teachers on January 4.

2011 - Joel Wendland, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Liberal Studies Department and a U.S. Army veteran, and Patrick Johnson, Assistant Director of the Writing Center, received a Pew Scholar Teacher Grant to support a GVSU Student Veterans Writing Workshop. They conduct and facilitate peer writing groups as well as extend office hours to help student veterans discuss and gain skills for successful academic writing.

2010 - Professors Chirag Parikh, Andrew Sterian, and Lucian Ngalamou from the School of Engineering used their Pew Scholar Teacher grant to enhance the current robot platform to incorporate light sensors and wireless capability to remotely control the robot expanding the practical knowledge gained by students from interfacing with the various sensors to the microcontroller. The project continues as they develop laboratory experiments to support the new platform, such as remotely monitoring the robot in real-life traffic intersection simulation.

 

Page last modified May 2, 2013