Teaching Enhancement Grants announced

Nine teaching and learning projects have been awarded 2001-02 Teaching Enhancement Grants.

The grants are administered by Creating a Collaborative Academic Environment. CCAE associate director Christopher Carlson-Dakes says the grants typically range from $3,000-$7,000 per project, depending on the size of the project, how many students will be served and the type of opportunity created by the proposal.

“Projects could involve providing new options for students, changes in course content, the development of a new course or improvements in the process of teaching and learning,” he says.

This year’s recipients are:

• Geraldine Diemer, nursing; Rebecca Byers, medicine; and Nancy Worcester, women’s studies, for training medical, nursing and social work students about working with domestic violence victims.
• Ksenija Bilbija, Spanish and Portuguese, and Leigh Payne, political science, for a new study-abroad research seminar in Buenos Aires, “Legacies of Authoritarianism in Argentina,” The seminar will pair student researchers teams with Argentine historians, political scientists, activists, architects, filmmakers, playwrights and novelists.
• Gail Simpson, art, to redesign of preparatory courses taken by all first-year art majors. Plans also call for students to meet with local artists.
• Gerry Campbell, agricultural and applied economics, to use community service to help students in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Community Scholars program connect their academic work to real-life people and situations.
• Martin Bailkey, Janet Silbernagel and John Harrington, landscape architecture, to support UW–Madison landscape architecture students who will aid in the physical revitalization of low-income neighborhoods in Milwaukee.
• Katherine Cramer Walsh, political science, for community-based projects that will further students’ understanding of their role as citizens.
• Philip Brown and Dave Mickelson, geology and geophysics, for a course in which beginning students will take part in outdoor laboratories in Madison, greater Dane County and the Black Hills of South Dakota, providing a personal context for the study of mineralogy, petrology and geologic structure.
• James Dillard, communication arts, to support students who are formulating persuasive health campaigns with a budget and access to specialists at University Health Services.
• Tony Jacob, Chemistry Learning Center and Rich Amasino, biochemistry, to reallocate staff time to set up an administrative home for the biochemistry peer mentor program.

For more information about the TEG awards, contact Carlson-Dakes, (608) 263-4259.