ASHLAND — Ashland University has received a $225,032 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Promoting STEM Education at Two-Year Colleges.” The grant runs through June 30, 2019.
The project, which is under the direction of AU Provost Dr. Eun-Woo Chang and Kathleen A. Alfano, professor emeritus, College of the Canyons, calls for Ashland University to hold a National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal writing workshop to help faculty at two-year colleges successfully obtain NSF funding majorly focused on Advanced Technological Education (ATE) and Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) programs.
“The key outcome of this project will be an increase in the number of competitive ATE and S-STEM proposals submitted by faculty at two-year colleges,” said Chang. “The project design addresses the barriers to participation in ATE and S-STEM competitions faced by faculty at two-year colleges and will address the low number of two-year college applicants and awards made from these programs.”
According to Dr. Chang, the project proposal writing component and two-year mentoring by experienced principal investigators will increase the knowledge and skills of the two-year college STEM faculty at institutions that currently have minimal grant activity, thereby strengthening the personal and institutional ability to pursue other proposal based projects.
“The large number of recruited institutions for the one workshop and two-year mentoring by experienced principal investigators — a total of 50 participating two-year college faculty — will have a positive impact on the quality of STEM education for a great number of students at awarded at two-year colleges,” Chang said.
“The project will lead to an increase in the collaboration between two-year and four-year colleges, benefiting faculty and students at both types of institutions through improved student transfer success, aid in developing articulation agreements, and increased sharing of resources between institutions,” Dr. Chang added.
