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2010-11 Innovation Grants announced

May 3, 2010, WALLA WALLA – Six Innovation in Teaching and Learning Fund grants have been awarded for 2010-11 to a total of eight Whitman College faculty and staff members. 

“These grants underscore Whitman’s commitment to academic innovation that provides our students with an individual and highly original learning experience,” President Bridges said. “The projects of our faculty and staff reflect the heart of the college’s learning tradition: intellectual curiosity, creative enterprise and rigorous critical inquiry across a broad landscape of disciplines.” 

The 2010-11 recipients are:

Library staff members Lee Keen, head of instructional and research services, and Michael Paulus, archivist and special collections librarian will design and teach a new course titled “Primary Sources Seminar” in spring 2011 and 2012. 

Allison Calhoun, associate professor of chemistry, will enhance her Physical Chemistry classes by integrating the use of mathematical, graphical and molecular modeling techniques.

Patrick Frierson, associate professor of philosophy, will incorporate rock climbing into the learning process. It will enable students in his “Education and Autonomy” course to participate in climbing clinics and learning experiences on the Whitman climbing wall in order to incorporate a physically demanding and new sort of learning process for reflection during text-based class discussions.

Deborah Wiese, assistant professor of psychology, will lead “Shinrigaku: Psychology in Japan” – a three-week summer course on cross-cultural psychology that focuses on Japan and includes field-study there.

Jim Hanson, professor of forensics, and Nick Robinson, parliamentary debate and individual events coach, will develop instructional materials and programs for debate training using multimedia and teleconferencing.

Timothy Parker, assistant professor of biology, will develop student-driven scientific ecological research in a teaching laboratory. He will purchase equipment to implement a long-term ecological field study to offer students in his ecology course an authentic and intellectually challenging research experience that develops their abilities as scientists and ecologists.

The innovation grants are funded in part by a gift from the Aven Foundation, headed by trustee John Stanton ’77 and his wife, Theresa Gillespie. Also, Ann Hunter-Welborn ’68 and her husband David Welborn created and began funding an endowment in 2008.

The funding “advances Whitman’s support of a campus culture that values and fosters innovation within the college’s rich liberal arts and sciences tradition,” said John Bogley ’85, vice president for development and college relations. 

Read more about the  Innovation in Teaching and Learning Fund.

Published on May 3, 2010
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