Funded Grants
Grant-funded projects have enabled Metro State to enhance its curricula in various disciplines; upgrade technology; build partnerships with other educational institutions and the community-at-large; and, most critically, create educational opportunities for a wider spectrum of students.
These projects contribute significantly to truly making Metro State the preeminent public urban baccalaureate College in Colorado.
| Program: | A Short Term Seminar on Egypt |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. Ali Thobhani, Executive Director, International Studies & Chair, African American Studies |
| Funding Agency: | U. S. Department of Education, Fulbright Group Projects Abroad Program |
| The grants allows a team of 15 educators from Metro State and Jefferson County Public Schools to participate in a curriculum development seminar on Egypt. The seminar consists of pre-departure program and 5 weeks in Egypt during summer 08. Upon the completion of on-site program, the team will develop curriculum materials to enhance their courses and present materials about Egypt at in-service training and professional meetings. | |
| Current Funding: | $85,500 |
| Program: | Astronomy Learning in Immersive Virtual Environments - ALIVE |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. Kamran Sahami, Professor, Department of Physics |
| Funding Agency: | National Science Foundation (NSF) |
| The Astronomy Learning in Immersive Virtual Environments (ALIVE) Project is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded collaboration between the Metropolitan State College of Denver (MSCD) and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS). Using the fully digital Gates Planetarium at DMNS the project seeks to find optimal learning modes for astronomy, and quantify the benefits that immersive VEs may have for enabling spatial learning. The experiment also compares the advantages of immersive VEs over their non-immersive counterparts and explores the role of immersive virtual environments in the smart classroom of the future. In the experiment, pre-course, post-course, and curriculum tests are used to determine the efficacy of immersive visualizations presented in DMNS’ Gates Planetarium versus the same visual simulations in non-immersive settings (i.e., shown on a flat screen in a normal classroom), as well as a control case using traditional classroom multimedia. An important sub-study explicitly examines gender-related trends, since there is evidence that women exhibit greater gains than men in certain virtual navigation tasks when using an immersive VE (Czerwinski et al. 2002). These results may have the potential to could increase female participation and retention in the sciences. | |
| Current Funding: | $481,650 |
| Program: | Collaborative Research: A Phase II Expansion of the Development of a Multidisciplinary Course on Wavelets and Applications |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. David Rush, Professor, Department of Mathematic and Computer Sciences |
| Co-PIs: | D.r Patrick VanFleet, Professor, St. Thomas University; Dr. Catherine beneteau, University of South Flordia; Dr. Caroline Haddad, SUNNY Geneseo |
| Funding Agency: | National Science Foundation (NSF) – Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) |
| The second phase of a collaborative two-year research project to ultimately add a course on wavelets to the math curriculum at colleges around the country. The project will focus on refining, expanding and testing the wavelet course; developing project modules to be used by students as end-of-term projects and/or in undergraduate research; and grow a sef-sustaining network of faculty educators. The co-PIs will attend national conferences to lead workshops for other professsors on how to use the course and software. | |
| Current Funding: | $384,000 |
| Program: | Improving Breastfeeding Initiation Practices of Health Care Professionals through Theory Based Online Education |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. Jennifer Weddig, Associate Professor of Nutrition, Health Professions |
| Co-PIs: | Susan Baker, Associate Professor, Colorado State University; Garry Auld, Professor, Colorado State University |
| Funding Agency: | Colorado Department of Physical Activity and Nutrition – COPAN |
| Our objectives were to change the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of registered nurses in relationship to evidence based practices in breastfeeding initiation. The change in knowledge was measured by a valid and reliable online pre and post intervention knowledge survey called the CUBA survey. Change in attitude and reported behavior was measured by a pre and post online survey developed by the co-PIs that was reveiwed by three International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBLC) for validity. The change in behavior was also measured by pre and post chart review. The control subjects were administered the same data collection tools but did not participate in the intervention. | |
| Current Funding: | $3000 |
| Program: | Metro State’s Mathematics for Rural School Program |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. Brooke Evans, Professor, Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences |
| Co-PIs: | Jim Loats, Professor, Mathematical Sciences; Don Gilmore, Professor, Mathematical Sciences: Dr. Patricia McKenna, Professor, Mathematical Sciences; Dale Brunsvold, former Professor, Mathematical Sciences, and Dr. Lew Romagnano, Professor, Mathematical Sciences |
| Funding Agency: | Colorado Council for Higher Education, No Child Left Behind, Act 2001, Improving Teacher Quality, Title II |
| The Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences is bridging the geographic gap between Metro State professors and high school math teachers who work in Colorado’s rural areas through a one-of-a-kind program that uses Web technology and distance education. What makes this model unique is that the delivery of the courses model teaching practices, directly transferable to K-12 mathematics classrooms, which support development of mathematical proficiency for Rural Schools Program, co-designed and taught by Metro State Mathematics Professors Brooke Evans, Jim Loats, Don Gilmore, Patricia McKenna, Dale Brunsvold, and Lew Romagnano, is in its third year and is up for funding again in 2008. The program started in 2005 has been awarded over $600,000. | |
| Current Funding: | $273,000 |
| Program: | Nutrition Improves when Children Cook |
| Principal Investigator: | Cindy Dormer, Assistant Professor – Health Professions |
| Co-PIs: | Shelly Owens, Assistant Professor – Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management, Renee Donahue, Aurania Early Learning Center |
| Funding Agency: | Colorado Department of Health: Colorado Physical Activity and Nutrition |
| This program aims to increase kids’ and parents’ consumption of vegetables by making food a larger part of classroom instruction and by allowing children to take vegetable-rich foods home to share with their parents. | |
| Current Funding: | $2,460 |
| Program: | Strides Toward Encouraging Professions in Science – STEPS |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. Rosemarie DePoy-Walker, Professor – Department of Chemistry |
| Funding Agency: | National Institute of Health (NIH) – Bridges to the Baccalaureate |
| The program is a collaborative training program between Community College of Aurora (CCA), Community College of Denver (CCD), and Metropolitan State College of Denver (MSCD) and is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health Bridges to the Future Program. The primary goal of the the National Institutes of Health Bridges to the Future Program is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities pursuing careers in Biomedical Research. The STEPS program attempts to attain that goal by providing selected students with specialized training in biomedical research techniques and placement in paid internships in research labs at cooperating sites throughout Metro Denver. Students also participate in extracurricular activities and receive free tutoring, lab supplies appropriate for their internships and the opportunity to travel to scientific conferences to present their undergraduate research and network with other student researchers. The grant has continued since FY 1987-88 with awards totaling over $1.2 million. | |
| Current Funding: | $254,864 |
| Program: | Student Support Services - SSS |
| Principal Investigator: | Patricia Trotman, Director |
| Funding Agency: | U. S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Program – Title IV |
| Student Support Services (SSS) is designed to provide academic support for low-income students, first generation college students, and students with disabilities to help ensure their graduation success at Metro State. The program is funded to serve 200 students each year. Program services include academic advising, tutoring, assistance in obtaining financial aid, career counseling, computer-assisted instruction, and graduate school preparation. Students may also participate in college survival skills workshops, cultural enrichment activities and scholarship opportunities offered by the program. The grant has continued since FY 2001-02 with awards totaling over $2.4 million. Website: www.mscd.edu/~sas/sss/ | |
| Current Funding: | $254,864 |
| Program: | Teaching with Primary Souces - Colorado |
| Principal Investigator: | Peggy O'Neill-Jones, Director |
| Funding Agency: | Library of Congress |
| The innovative Teaching with Primary Sources-Colorado (TPS-Colorado) program provides professional development to access and use the over 11 million digitized primary sources and vast collections of material from the Library of Congress. TPS-Colorado is part of the largest national Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program. Professional development classes are available for in-service and pre-service teachers, college faculty, librarians, media specialists and other educational support personnel. The goal of the TPS-Colorado project is to develop a professional development network that reaches out to Colorado eduators to support the use of the Library of Congress primary source-based instruction in the classroom. Website: http://tpscolorado.mscd.edu/ | |
| Current Funding: | $930,000 |
| Program: | TRIO - High School Upward Bound (TRIO-HSUB) |
| Principal Investigator: | Paulette McIntosh, Director |
| Funding Agency: | U. S. Department of Education, TRIO - High School Upward Bound Program |
TRIO-HSUB is designed to increase the rate at which participants comolete a secondary education, enroll in and graduate from institutions of post-secondary education. Website: www.mscd.edu/~hsub |
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| Current Funding: | $ 1,889,052 |
| Program: | Urban Teacher Partnership - UTP |
| Principal Investigator: | Esther M. Rodriguez, Director |
| Funding Agency: | U. S. Department of Education, Teacher Quality Enhancement – Title II |
| In October 2004, Metropolitan State College of Denver (Metro State) was awarded a five-year, $9.5 million federal Teachers Quality Enhancement Partnership (TQE) grant with a purpose to prepare high quality math, science, social studies and English teachers for professional practice in urban middle and high schools. The program is called the Urban Teacher Partnership (UTP). Along with Metro State, Denver Public Schools (DPS), and the Denver Mayor’s Office for Education and Children are program partners. To date, more than 200 Metro State students have participated in this program that explicitly connects them to urban teaching. UTP pre-service students are placed in eight Urban Apprentice Schools (UAS) within DPS where they work side-by-side with designated cooperating teachers under the guidance of an UAS Coordinator, Field Placement Coordinator and college professors. College classes are conducted at three UAS sites – two middle schools and one high school – another high school includes a Writing Center where UTP faculty and pre-service students provide support to high school teachers and students. Since October 2007 (year 4 of the grant), the focus and emphasis has been on strengthening the alignment of the systems (DPS and Metro State) and the disciplines (Letters, Arts and Sciences and Teacher Education) to provide and support new urban teachers. The grant has funded strategic activities to build an effective and coherent “pipeline” for preparing quality teachers for urban schools ranging from recruitment to preparation, hire and retention. In addition, we have made changes to institutional policies and investments in the necessary infrastructure that will allow us to sustain the purpose and goals of the Urban Teacher Partnership following the end of grant support. Website: http://www.mscd.edu/~utp/ | |
| Current Funding: | $ 1,511,845 |