PEW TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENT GRANT
Pew Technology Enhancement Grants are intended to enable faculty to purchase materials beyond the unit's customary budget to enhance a new or existing course. Pew Technology Enhancement grants do not include stipends (check Pew Scholar Teacher grants if you need a stipend) nor do they assist with the purchase of computers. If you need software, be sure to check if the school already owns a license and mention that in your grant application.
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.
Maximum award: $3,000.
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.
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PRIOR PEW TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENT GRANTS
We publish our current grants as examples to show the type and variety of technology we have awarded.
2012 - Professor Alexandra Locher of the Biology Department received a Pew Technology Enhancement grant to purchase handheld GPS devices to teach students the skills for GPS use and the applications such skills would have for natural resources management, such as tracking animal movements or mapping timber stand boundaries.
2011 - Professor Paul Keenlance of Biology used a Technology Enhancement grant to purchase six Reconyx Hyperfire cameras that have been used extensively both in classes and in support of undergraduate and graduate research projects. For example, three groups used the remotely triggered cameras to assist in documenting the species of wildlife for areas where they were developing their habitat management plans in BIO 408 (Wildlife Management). This opportunity provided a validation of the groups’ estimate of the quality of habitat available in their management areas, which greatly strengthened the inference they could make about what habitat management activities needed to be implemented.
Danielle Bradke also used the cameras as an integral part of her S3 project examining den site characteristics and reproductive activity of American martens in the Manistee National Forest. She tracked radio collared female martens to locate their dens. Once she located the structure that appeared to be a den she placed a camera to monitor either the opening to the cavity or the base of the tree. The images collected by the camera allowed Danielle to document whether the female had kits, how many kits she had, and the survival of the kits throughout the summer. To date she collected over 24,000 (no that isn’t a typo) images while monitoring 6 female martens. Her abstract has been accepted and she presented her results in a poster at the Annual Meeting of the Wildlife Society in Portland this past October. This is a national meeting and the opportunity to present, as an undergraduate, is a significant step toward her goal of attending graduate school. These are just two of many exemplary opportunities provided by this new equipment.
2010 - Professor Karen Libman from the School of Communications rented a new visual projection system through a Pew Technology Enhancement grant and outside funding from various sources, to project images onto flats for the GVSU production of Rent. Over 50 students worked on the production and the show sold at an all time high. The Grand Rapids Press noted that “luminous projections onto big screens of New York City streets and also flashes of famous faces – Rock Hudson, Freddy Mercury, etc. – who died of AIDS, added bolts of color, texture, and light, enhancing this ambitious production.”
Page last modified May 2, 2013
