Armed with innovation grants, Glendale Community College will be scaling up an automated system to help students with career guidance; Irvine Valley College will expand its pathways work with veterans; and College of the Redwoods will build up a program for incarcerated students. These three California institutions, as well as eight others, have been awarded grants ranging from $1 million to $3 million by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to help them grow programs with a track record for boosting student success.
A technical college in Washington has received National Science Foundation funding to expand its maker-based learning program. Bellingham Technical College received a $649,480 "Scholarships in STEM" grant to support the college's project, "Building Inclusive Maker Communities for Engineering Technology Students." The program will connect three cohorts of 12 low-income, academically talented students over the course of five years, who will participate in multi-year, extended projects.
This summer, 16 institutions across K-12 and higher education will receive furniture, design, installation and on-site training for a new active learning classroom, thanks to Steelcase Education's fourth annual Active Learning Center Grant. Valued at about $67,000 per classroom, the grant "supports active learning strategies in classrooms where teachers are already striving to implement related practices by installing a learning space with furniture designed to encourage student engagement and success," according to a news announcement.
A six-year project at the University of Houston will develop, mentor and retain 30 STEM teacher-leaders in high-need school districts.
Oral Roberts University built a Global Learning Center that combines anytime, anywhere access to information, course materials and streaming media with a deep dive into augmented and virtual reality.
Next month's ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego is the venue where three people will be recognized for their innovative contributions to education. They include an individual who has brought coding to girls, another who has dived into the science of learning and a third who has used data to increase student achievement at his university.
MIT's Connected Learning Initiative has won the King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The project uses pedagogical design and technology to improve the academic prospects of students underserved students in India.
Students working toward degrees in science, technology, engineering or math at John Carroll University are getting a boost, thanks to a $640,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The university aims to "increase the enrollment and graduation rates of academically high-performing students [in STEM subjects] who have demonstrated financial need, particularly among first generation college students and underrepresented minorities," according to a news announcement.
A project at Carroll University is working to improve retention for STEM students, thanks to a $1 million award from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics grant program. The grant-winning project, "Carroll University Pro-STEM Initiative: Promoting STEM Retention through Self-Efficacy," is designed to provide academic and financial support for students majoring in STEM fields, especially if they are required to take calculus, in an effort to improve retention. Approximately 128 students majoring in mathematics, computer science, chemistry, biochemistry or applied physics will receive scholarships as a result of the award, accounting for about $660,000 in grant funds.
The Online Learning Consortium is launching a new program that provides hands-on research and networking opportunities for current and recently graduated doctoral students in the field of digital learning. Participants in the O.L.C. Emerging Scholars program can contribute to projects in the O.L.C. Research Center, collaborate with researchers at institutions and organizations around the world, and network with peers and mentors.
