Workshop on Teaching College Introductory Courses Follow-Up Department Grants
All workshop participants are eligible to apply for a non-competitive $2000 Introductory Course Department Grant to host a workshop on teaching introductory courses in their department or in their region.
The purpose of these grants is to augment the impact of a single faculty member’s participation in the Workshop on Teaching College Introductory Religion Courses. We hope that a Department Grant will help workshop participants bring the learning of the workshop back home to their colleagues.
We recognize that introductory courses are typically influenced by decisions and structures on the departmental and institutional level. Our hope is that a Wabash Center Introductory Course Department Grant will jump start a department-wide conversation on teaching introductory courses, including: student learning goals; teaching and assessment strategies; the design, content, and staffing of introductory courses; the place of the course in the curriculum, and a host of other related issues as well. We also recognize that the stakes involved in these departmental conversations can make them difficult to conduct without an outside convener.
Therefore, we are making available $2000 Department Grants to fund such activities as:
• arranging for a Wabash Center trained workshop facilitator to help conduct a department-wide conversation on teaching introductory religion courses;
• discussing Barbara Walvoord’s book, Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses (copies of the book are provided by the Wabash Center, outside of the grant budget);
• providing appropriate hospitality: meals, off-site meeting space, travel, as necessary to facilitate a productive conversation;
• initiating other activities that you might propose that would help your department plan, discuss, strategize, and implement changes to how introductory courses are taught in your department.
All Department Grants will include a Wabash Center facilitator. The stipend for the facilitator should be included within the grant budget. And in order to ensure consistency, the Wabash Center has established a set stipend level. (See the Sample budget, below.)
To apply:
download application form(pdf)
1. Fill out the application form, which must be signed by the department chair and the person at your institution responsible for receiving grant money.
2. Attach a 500 to 800 word proposal that: outlines the goals of the project including the institutional context of the course, describes the steps or activities designed to reach those goals, provides a simple budget detailing how the Wabash Center grant money will be spent.
3. At the conclusion of the project, we require a 1000 to 1500 word final report from the department chair describing the goals, activities and what was learned from the project. This report is due one month after the closing date of the grant.
Deadline
Applications will be considered as they are received.
July 1, 2008-for participants in workshops held in Fall 2007 & Spring 2008.
September 1, 2008-for participants in the workshops held at the Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in June 2008.
Febuary 1, 2009-for participants in workshops held in Fall 2008.
NOTE: For these small departmental grants, the Wabash Center will not permit a budget line for Institutional Overhead expenses.
Process for Departmental Grant:
After a faculty member attends a workshop, their department is eligible to submit a proposal for a follow-up grant. The Wabash Center will help refine the proposal and assist with the process of arranging a workshop facilitator. The facilitator will then work out the final design of the workshop, in conversation with the department. After the department has submitted a final version of the workshop proposal to the Wabash Center, we will draw up a contract for the department chair to sign and return. When the signed contract is received, we will mail a grant check to the school. The Wabash Center requires a brief final report after the event – briefly reviewing the goals and activities of the workshop, what was achieved and what needs to happen next.
Sample Budget (pdf)
Mail Applications to:
Wabash Center
301 West Wabash Avenue
Crawfordsville, IN 47933-0352
1-800-655-7117
Questions
Please Contact:
Paul Myhre
Associate Director, Wabash Center
myhrep@wabash.edu
1-800-655-7117