Faculty Development Grantees 2011-12

Project Summaries 2011-2012

Aaron Patton, Assistant Professor of Agronomy
Dr. Patton's Integrated Turfgrass Systems course (AGRY 512) is a capstone course that ties together key concepts from previous course work with new information towards the creation of agronomic management plans for optimum turfgrass performance and environmental stewardship. During this course students develop management plans and budgets for the maintenance of real-world sites. With each of the individual units, students learn the material through hands-on evaluation of various sites and problem-solving exercises. In addition to agronomic components of management plans students learn the social, ethical, and economical aspects underlying agronomic management decisions. In this course, students already partner with the board of directors and golf course superintendent of a local golf course to create solutions to capital improvement project ideas requested by the golf course. Additionally, students interacted with industry leaders throughout the curriculum as industry leaders were used as panelists to help critique student group presentations. Additional steps will be implemented in 2012 to increase the service learning components of this course through a partnership with the City of West Lafayette Parks Department. Students will assess the conditions of local athletic fields, provide written plans for their management, and serve the community through a work-day activity to improve the conditions of these fields. It is expected that the course will allow the students to enhance their education and training through learning from community partners, and, at the same time, improve the conditions of local athletic fields.

Alejandro Cuza, Assistant Professor of Languages and Cultures
¡Aprendiendo a leer! is a Service Learning Program directed by Prof. Alejandro Cuza from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the School of Languages and Cultures. The goal of this program is to teach Hispanic children (K-3) how to read in Spanish, their native language, and in the process foster their L2 (English) literacy development and overall academic growth. Hispanic children who receive reading instruction in their mother tongue show significantly higher levels of reading ability skills in English, their second language via L1 skill transfer. Students enrolled in SPAN 398 and SPAN 362 will participate in the project and commit to two hours a week during a 9-week period in partnership with Delphi Elementary School (http://www.delphi.k12.in.us/). Our curriculum includes leveled reading activities, phonemic awareness instruction, the reading and singing of children's music, and explicit vocabulary teaching. This program will impact our undergraduate students by providing hands on experience on the teaching of Spanish to young children; it will also impact Hispanic parents and their children, educators, psychologists, school principals, and policy makers by providing insightful information on how to improve the quality of literacy instruction in a diverse society. The project will also contribute with the development and implementation of a theoretically grounded and empirically tested Spanish curriculum at the elementary school level. Improving literacy development for Spanish-speaking children is fundamental as they face greater challenges in achieving academic success than native speakers of English. This project will also serve as the stepping-stone for strengthened connections between Purdue University and the Delphi community, thereby advancing Purdue's strategic mission as a land-grant institution.

Chad Allred, Professor in Marketing and Management
Prof. Allred and the Purdue Marketing Association (PMA) are co-developing a service-learning program through which undergraduate students can obtain real-world consulting experience by address marketing and communications needs of local non-profit organizations. The program will be implemented as a team-based directed internship, in which student teams report directly to sponsoring organizations. Purdue and the PMA will facilitate engagement and act in advisory roles. Initial projects include 1) developing social media channels for the Lafayette Urban Ministries, thereby extending capabilities to raise funds and care for the poor and needy throughout the community and 2) increasing awareness of, and participation in, educational outreach programs offered throughout the community by the Lafayette Civic Theater. The success of these projects will undoubtedly lead to additional service-learning projects. The overarching focus of this initiative is to develop a sustainable process.

Hubo Cai, Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering
Dr. Cai's Geospatial Technology course is a graduate level course that synergizes the fundamentals of Geographic Information System (GIS) and its applications in infrastructure engineering and management. The course is composed of lectures, labs, and a community service oriented term project. Students learn the key concepts of GIS and infrastructure engineering in lectures, bridge GIS (as an enabling technology) to infrastructure engineering (as the problem domain) in labs, and apply their in-class knowledge in a community service project. Currently students are partnering with the City of Lafayette Economic Development Department to work on a series of projects related to local business growth and expansion, appropriate land use and improvement of Lafayette's neighborhoods, focusing on infrastructure. Students are expected to appreciate their Purdue education by applying what they learn in class to solving real world problems and contributing to the sustainable local economy. Students are also expected to learn from their community partners in terms of problem-solving. It is very promising that the successful completion of the 2012 projects will lead to more future projects that have profound impact to the neighborhood living quality in Lafayette.

Jason Stanfield, Continuing Lecturer in Management
Dr. Stanfield is building a service-learning course where accounting students can apply the income tax concepts learned in classroom to real taxpayer problems. Partnering with area agencies such as Lafayette Urban Ministry (LUM) and the United Way of Greater Lafayette, students work through the agency Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs to prepare tax returns for low-income taxpayers. In his tax accounting course, Dr. Stanfield offers course credit for completing the required VITA certification and works with interested students to place them with area agencies, in addition to volunteering along with the students on Friday afternoons during the busiest part of tax season. In the Spring 2012 semester, more than 30 students current and former students volunteered with local agencies, not only honing their tax skills but learning to work with a diverse group of clients in a professional setting. Students show tremendous improvement in both their tax preparation skills and their self confidence in working with clients. Dr. Stanfield hopes to formalize the volunteering experience into a dedicated service learning course in a future semester.

Lata Krishnan, Professor in Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences
Dr. Lata Krishnan is working with Dr. Jennifer Simpson (Clinical Associate Professor, SLHS) and a community partner in Zambia, Africa to develop an international service learning summer program for undergraduate and graduate students. Students will be involved with the community partner in meeting their needs which may include direct clinical services such as hearing screening/assessments, hearing aid fittings and counseling; as well as training of local Zambian personnel to help them sustain patient care The goals of this new summer program are to: 1) Allow students to experience a clinical setting where they have to be flexible, creative, and culturally sensitive 2) Educate students about the profession of Audiology in a developing country and challenge them to think critically to solve problems 3) Expose students to the differences in patient population, needs, and service delivery systems to raise their awareness of global issues in hearing health care 4) Allow students to be more culturally sensitive when they practice in the US, where population demographics indicate that the percentages of individuals from minority cultures are on the increase 5) Teach students to disseminate information in the form of in-services on basic hearing screening, appropriate recommendations and referrals and hearing aid use and care to local personnel 6) Create tomorrow's global leaders, who will be more aware of global needs and be inspired to continue giving back to the community at large as they continue their careers.

Nathan Mentzer, Assistant Professor of Industrial Technology
The Engineering/Technology Teacher Education program at Purdue University is housed in the College of Technology. Instrumental in Purdue's P-12 strategic STEM initiative, the program provides service to our community through a variety of mediums as an integral part of the teacher development process.
Students in the IT278 Teaching Construction Technologies course engage in the content of construction technologies and the methods of teaching simultaneously. This course has partnered with the Montessori School of Greater Lafayette which is a local preprimary and elementary school. Projects have included design and construction of a stage/amphitheater to facilitate the development of children ages 2-8 as they engage in self-expression. In designing this structure, Purdue students practice ethnographic observation and interview techniques to understand the "problem" and develop an appropriate solution. They worked with the children/teachers to build the structure on the playground.
Students in the IT581 Pedagogy of Advanced Manufacturing course practice skills in rapid prototyping while developing solutions to local problems. In this course, we partnered with the Child Development Lab at Purdue to identify children's challenges with the using standard computer mouse. Students identify challenges in fit and function and redesign the computer interface (mouse). They prototype a new mouse and observe its use, reflecting on the successes of their redesign effort.
On the program level, Engineering/Technology Teacher Education students participate in two service learning opportunities: Imagination Station and the Indiana Math, Science, and Technology Education Alliance. The Imagination Station is a local community based informal education science, space and technology center for kids. Our pre-service teachers prepare and deliver lessons on technology to foster technological literacy for all children. The Indiana Math, Science, and Technology Education Alliance sponsors an annual competition focused on energy efficiency in transportation technology. Students from around the state design and build super-efficient gas powered go-carts. The annual race often involves carts with 1000 miles per gallon or better. Purdue students provide support for the race by managing the fueling station and track safety.

Dr. Timothy Lescun, Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciencesy
The United States Pony Clubs, Inc. is a national organization whose mission is "to develop character, leadership, confidence and a sense of community in youth through a program that teaches the care of horses and ponies, riding and mounted sports." A major area of need in veterinary care for horses is lameness. During progression into the advanced levels of Pony Club, accessing information on veterinary care of horses can be challenging for some members. Dr. Lescun, an associate professor of large animal surgery in the Veterinary Clinical Sciences department within the College of Veterinary Medicine, is partnering with local Pony Club leaders to develop a program of integrated resources for Pony Club members to utilize for their learning about the care of horses, specifically in the area of lameness. This program will include web-based resources and a program of hands-on workshops. The program will be developed with a service-learning component in the Equine Lameness elective (VCS-83200) course currently offered in the 3rd year veterinary curriculum. Veterinary students will both contribute modules of material to the website as part of the course as well as provide instruction in the hands-on workshops offered. Serving the needs of future equestrians to enhance their understanding of basic concepts of conformation and common causes of lameness in the horse will be a central focus of this project. Veterinary students will develop skills in communication of medical knowledge, as well as reinforce concepts covered in the lameness elective course.