Select Faculty Accomplishments

As the Spring 2019 semester winds down and we prepare to head into summer, I want to take a few moments to share the recent activities of two members of the College’s faculty.

Dr. Nanette Marcum-Dietrich (Department of Educational Foundations) has secured funding in the amount of $399,179 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Watershed Awareness using Technology and Environmental Research for Sustainability (WATERS) project.

Dr. Nanette Marcum-Dietrich

The project will result in a student-centered, universally accessible middle school curriculum for learning water concepts and promoting water career awareness.  The curriculum will engage students in use of GIS applications and modeling based on data collected in local watersheds.  It will use Universal Design for Learning to broaden inclusivity among learners, and engage a handful of pilot teachers in the co-design and continuous improvement of the curriculum over three years.

Nanette, congratulations on this, your latest NSF grant!

Dr. Nicole Sorhagen (Department of Psychology) has spent this academic year collaborating with researchers across the nation as a result of having been awarded a prestigious National Study of Learning Mindset Early Career Fellowship. Nicole and her colleagues are engaged in analysis of data from the National Study of Learning Mindsets, a large, randomized, controlled trial of an online growth mindset intervention. Nicole has used the data to look at motivation, anxiety, and achievement in mathematics.

Dr. Nicole Sorhagen

The fellowship is through the Mindset Scholars Network, a high profile interdisciplinary research collaborative whose mission is to “advance our scientific understanding of learning mindsets in order to improve student outcomes and expand educational opportunity. It conducts original interdisciplinary research, builds capacity for high quality mindset scholarship, and disseminates the latest scientific knowledge through outreach to education stakeholders” (Mindset Scholars Network).

Congratulations, Nicole.  Thank you for representing our College in this large national effort!