Five educational research projects developed by Missouri S&T faculty will be funded in 2011-2012 as part of a mini-grant program co-sponsored by the office of the vice provost for academic affairs and the Center for Educational Research and Teaching Innovation (CERTI).

Academic affairs is providing $20,512.50 in funding for the projects. In total, eight grant proposals were submitted, with requests of more than $39,000 in funding.
The purpose of the program is to recognize excellence in teaching research and highlight pedagogical practices that improve the quality of instruction in undergraduate and graduate programs.
The funded projects are:
— “Evaluation of a Hybrid Problem-Based and Just-in-Time Inductive Teaching Method Examples for Risk Analysis Instruction,” Katie Grantham, Kellie Grasman, Ryan Hutcheson and Jeff Thomas, $7,500 in funding with a matching grant from the engineering management and systems engineering department.
— “Development of Student-Produced Short Educational Videos for Use in a Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics Course,” Douglas Ludlow, $5,950 in funding with $1,000 travel funding provided through the chemical and biological engineering department.
— “Development, Assessment and Implementation of Metrics to Improve Innovative Thinking Through Project-Based Design Courses,” Shun Takai and Ashok Midha, $5,400 in funding with $1,200 travel funding provided through the mechanical and aerospace engineering department.
— “Pedagogical Improvements for Introductory Geology Lab for Engineers,” Leslie Gertsch and David Rogers, $1,100 in funding.
— “Using Radio Controlled Toys to Incorporate Experience into Teaching Construction Operations,” Eric Showalter, $562.50 in funding with a matching grant from the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department.
According to Bob Schwartz, vice provost for academic affairs, “The panel was pleased with the quality of the proposals submitted to the RFP for research in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Scholarship in this area is important to facilitate student success and the achievement of institutional goals regarding enriching the student experience.
“We hope to fund a similar initiative next year,” he added.
In addition to Schwartz, members of the review panel included Harvest Collier, vice provost for undergraduate studies, and CERTI team members.
Results of the research will be shared with the campus at the Missouri S&T Teaching and Learning Technology Conference in March 2012. For more information about the educational research mini-grant program, go online.