The following grant announcements were released during the summer term:Ron Edwards, Cooperative Education Office, and Reid Adams recently received a $15,200 grant for an internship program.
The grant is being funded by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.
The grant will afford students an opportunity to apply what has been learned in the classroom to the work environment. ?Students can also check out a prospective employer while the AGFC looks at a prospective employee,? said Edwards.
Stephanie Vanderslice, Lisa Mongno and Sophie Bradford, Department of Writing and Speech, recently received a $43,000 grant for the National Writing Project of Central Arkansas.
The grant is funded through the U.S. Department of Education through the National Writing Project.
The National Writing Project of Central Arkansas will provide area teachers with a professional development program. Teachers will learn to integrate writing into their classes in all subjects and across all grade levels.
Ginny Adams, Department of Biology, and Reid Adams recently received a $13,000 grant to develop species profiles and an interactive key for incorporation into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Non-native Fish Database.
The grant is being funded through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the Vicksburg Consolidated Contracting Office.
The authors of the grant will collect data that will be used to develop an interactive model on non-native fish for use by both the public and private sectors to identify and prevent the spread of non-native species.
Once the interactive model is complete, it will be used in science courses at UCA.
Sharon Ross, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, recently received a grant for $30,500 for a grant titled, ?Implementing the Support Personnel Model in Schools.?
The grant is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Arkansas Department of Education.
According to the author, the grant will provide training and support for speech pathologists in Arkansas schools using speech language assistants.
Ginny Adams, Department of Biology, recently received an $18,000 grant to determine the population, size and movement of the Grotto Sculpin (Cottus Carolinae) in Perry County, Missouri.
The grant is being funded by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
According to the author, ?We will provide valuable data on the status of this species ? a cave-dwelling fish that is a federal candidate for the Endangered Species Act.?
Adams continued, ?We know so little about the biology of cave organisms. Although this research will take place in Missouri, it will further enhance our knowledge of cave biology and provide information that is relevant to all caves.?
Both undergraduates and graduate students will have the opportunity to participate in this research.
Jeff Whittingham, Department of Middle, Secondary and Instructional Education, recently received a $24,355 grant for a project titled, ?We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution.?
The grant is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Center for Civic Education.
The grant will provide opportunities for teachers and students throughout the state to become better informed about the U.S. Constitution and civic responsibility.
Barbara Griffith and Belinda Robertson, Arkansas Center for Mathematics and Science Education, recently received $2,000 for a grant proposal titled, ?ASTA Minigrant and Travel Grant.?
The grant is being funded by the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority.
According to the authors, ?The purchase of $1,500 in consumable materials and inquiry-based science kits will be used to train middle school teachers and conduct model science lessons in Arkansas public schools. Also, travel compensation will be provided to the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority Regional Associates to attend a grant reading (evaluation) workshop.?
Steve Runge, Department of Biology, recently received a $36,000 grant for Marshfield Clinic Student Internships.
The grant is being funded by the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation.
According to the author, this grant will fund two 12-month fellowships for UCA graduate students to conduct advanced microbiological research at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin.
The participating students will obtain excellent training in microbiology at an excellent private research institution. Their studies will focus on biological source tracking (i.e. racking the sources of biological contamination), and important topic in Arkansas where we have strong poultry and beef industries that potential sources of these bacteria.
Carl Frederickson, Department of Physics and Astronomy, recently received a $3,600 grant for the Navy ASEE Sabbatical Leave Program.
The grant is being funded by the American Society for Engineering Education.
According to the author, ?This sabbatical will further two project that I have been involved with at the Naval research Laboratory in Washington DC. The first project involves laboratory measurements made in a large, water-tank facility that simulates the shallow water environment near the ocean shore. This study will help develop more efficient methods for locating and identifying objects buried in shallow water environments.
?The second project involves the analysis of field data. Over the last three years, a group of researchers from NRL have taken data in Panama City Bay using a hydrophone on a horizontal track. This provides measurements of the acoustic scattering by a target from different viewpoints. I have begun to develop software that will be used to enhance the scattered signal from a target.
The Navy is interested in techniques that can be used to locate and identify objects (most importantly mines) in shallow water environments near the shore.?
Joseph Anderson, Donna Lampkin Stephens and Kevin Clark, Department of Mass Communication and Theatre, recently received a $5,000 grant to produce a documentary film titled, ?The Old Gray Lady ? Arkansas? First Newspaper.?
The grant is being funded by the Arkansas Humanities Council.
According to the authors, ?The grant will enable us to plan the production of a documentary film about the Arkansas Gazette. The film will premiere in October 2006, the 15th year since the last printing of the Gazette.?
The production team for the film will be made up of UCA faculty, alumni and students. The quality of the production will have a positive impact on the public?s perception of the mass communication program, Channel 6 television and UCA as a whole.
Stephen Dinkelacker, Department of Biology, recently received a $16,930 grant for a study titled, ?A multi-scale analysis of the impact of roadway networks on Blanding?s turtles: Implications for conserving genetic, population and landscape diversity in the Nebraska sandhills.?
The grant is being funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service through the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
According to the author, the study will analyze how roadways effect vertebrate populations on a genetic to landscape scale. ?The principles being investigated can be applied directly to Arkansas.?
Betty Hubbard and Jacquie Rainey, Department of Health Sciences, recently received a $20,000 grant for a project titled, ?Skills-based Health Education Evaluation.?
The project is being funded by the Arkansas Department of Education.
The purpose of this grant is to determine whether students who receive skill-based instruction demonstrate an increased ability to perform health skills. The evaluation will look specifically at middle school students? ability to avoid tobacco, increase their physical activity and consume a healthy diet.
According to the authors, ?The grant benefits students, the state and the nation by helping to determine an effective approach for teaching students the skills necessary to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Students who practice positive health habits at an early age have a greater quality of life and are more productive. They also require fewer medical services, reducing the burden on our medical care system.?
Linda Griffith and Belinda Robertson, Arkansas Center for Mathematics and Science Education (ACMSE), recently received a $63,391 grant to support the continuation of a secondary mathematics specialist.
The grant is being funded by the Arkansas Department of Education.
The grant will allow the ACMSE to provide additional services to area secondary mathematics teachers. ?With the conviction that all children can learn mathematics, the specialist will assist districts with professional development and implementation of mathematics training, mathematics teacher evaluation, selection of standards-based instructional programs and materials, understanding of research, advantageous arrangement of the instructional day, orientation of counselors regarding mathematics education, and the appropriate integration of technology into mathematics instruction,? Griffith said.
Griffith and Roberts also received a $30,000 supplemental grant from the Arch Ford Education Services Cooperative to support the secondary mathematics specialist.
This grant will support the salary, materials and other expenses for the secondary mathematics specialist.
