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Two English faculty awarded grants to improve undergraduate teaching, learning

October 11, 2013

Two of 10 new grants to develop innovative undergraduate teaching strategies have been awarded to CAS faculty in the Department of English. Irom Bimbisar, clinical assistant professor, and Patricia Freitag Ericsson, associate professor and director of composition, submitted winning proposals for the WSU Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Teaching and Learning grants.

Bimbisar and Ericsson’s respective projects titled, “Multimodality or Learning from Unfamiliar Sources” and “Teacher Feedback on Student Composing through Recorded Voice Commentary,” are designed to address one of three issues: promoting active learning in large classes, documenting student achievement of intended learning outcomes in lower-division university common requirements (UCORE) courses, and integrating sustainability issues into curriculum.

On Gaiser Pond: Middle-schoolers have been doing real science

July 23, 2013

Now dubbed “Gaiser Pond” by the school community, wetlands below the school are being studied and cleaned up thanks to two dedicated Gaiser Middle School science teachers and their students and environmental science graduate students from Washington State University Vancouver.

The Partners in Discovery GK-12 Project brought together environmental science graduate students from WSUV with middle school science teachers in several Clark County districts for real-world science projects using funds from an NSF grant.

WSU Professor Becomes Ambassador for Oboes

July 10, 2013

Thanks to a WSU grant, music professor and renowned oboist Keri McCarthy will travel to Burma later in July to deliver oboes to music students in Yangon, as part of a grassroots effort to build connections between the US and Burma. Oboes are virtually nonexistent in isolated Burma.

McCarthy plans to return to Burma in the spring to see how the oboes are being received, and will publish an article in a professional journal to encourage donations of oboes.

Grant funds preparation for invasive mussels

March 28, 2013

Researchers at Washington State University are preparing for a Northwest invasion of the zebra mussel – a small, distinctly striped and rather tenacious freshwater mollusk that can quickly encrust underwater surfaces. The mussels have caused significant damage in other parts of the country and pose an enormous risk to the hydroelectric infrastructure, recreational facilities and unique ecological system of the Columbia River Basin.

“Once they are established in the water, they are almost impossible to eradicate,” said Stephen Bollens, director of the WSU School of the Environment and lead investigator for a $630,000 grant from the Bonneville Power Administration to ramp up preparations.

WSU Professors Contribute to Middle School Instruction

February 15, 2013

With the help of a $1.7M federal Math and Science Partnership grant, WSU professors from several disciplines will provide instructional support for teachers in selected school districts over the next three years.

“The focus is on development of middle school math and science teachers’ content knowledge and on student-centered instruction through the use of ‘design challenges,’ which are integrated, project-based learning experiences,” said David Slavit, professor of mathematics and education at WSUVancouver.

Materials developed through the partnership program will be available for all schools across the state.