The trouble with introductory science and engineering courses is that students often don’t see how what they are learning is relevant to their lives. The proposed project addresses this by leveraging the team’s past efforts to develop an innovative web-based game situated within an online science learning community. This system, Enviropedia, will emphasize the connections between science and society by focusing on a simple decision that people make every day: what beverage containers to use. For this effort, Enviropedia will be developed and pilot tested in two freshman seminar courses at Stony Brook, demonstrating applicability to other campuses.

Distance mentoring of undergraduate research has the potential to open up multiple areas of disciplinary expertise that are not available to undergraduate researchers on all college campuses. The first track involves distance mentored undergraduate research and will involve computer-mediated mentoring, which we believe can provide for a close and effective research relationship between student researchers and faculty mentors. The second track of the project explores the implications of distance mentoring for faculty work and the faculty rewards system, including tenure and promotion.

Awarded Grant: $50,000 Principal Investigator: J Tomás Henriques, Buffalo State College LOOP aims to expand a new model of an electronic music Lab designed to support innovative instruction in music technology. The model calls for students to fully integrate the various disciplines they study, allowing them to compose and produce music and to create software tools for their own use as electronic musicians. Students learn and operate audio software and hardware, skillfully perform electronic music within a Digital Music Ensemble and engage in community outreach. Reports and Resources: LOOP Project: Shifting the paradigm of Music Instruction Dissemination of the LOOP Project, Part 1 – Outreach and academic activities Dissemination of the LOOP Project, Part 2 – A brief photographic overview of the project Mid-project report Project outcomes report Project outcomes report 2.0