Wheaton Wins NSF, Mellon Grants

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the college nearly $400,000 in grants this spring to help faculty establish a digital imaging facility and to support curriculum transformation across the disciplines.

The $144,677 grant from the NSF will help create the Imaging Center for Undergraduate Collaboration (ICUC), a digital imaging facility for scientists in all disciplines. Comprised of networked computers, microscopes and specialized cameras, this facility will actively engage students in scientific inquiry by allowing them to both create and analyze digital images.

Co-principal investigators Robert Morris, assistant professor of biology, and Geoffrey Collins, assistant professor of geology, hope that the facility will improve all students' learning and appreciation of science.

The $250,000 Mellon grant allows the college to further implement the transformation of Wheaton's liberal arts curriculum with the creation of a College Learning Center on campus.

At the heart of the college's new curriculum, the center will be a place where both students and faculty can develop and refine foundational skills (such as writing, research, quantitative reasoning and technological fluency) and pursue connections across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The center also will help to coordinate teams of faculty and professional staff, who will seek to connect courses from different disciplines, develop effective pedagogies, and supervise ongoing evaluation.

For more information about Wheaton's new curriculum, contact the Wheaton communications office at 508-286-8235.

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