Featured Awards – June 2013

Kirsten Monsen (Biology & Molecular Biology, CSAM) received a subaward from Maryland Department of Natural Resources for $18,000 for “Detecting the extent of mortality events from Ranavirus in amphibians of the Northeastern U.S.” This is a multi-institution, multi-agency Research Conservation Needs (RCN) Grant funded through the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA). The project is to survey for the presence of the amphibian pathogen Ranavirus in a five state area (MD, DE, NJ, PA, and VA) and involves the collaboration of the MD Dept. of Natural Resources, the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, the PA Fish and Boat Commission, the VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries, the DE Division of Fish and Wildlife, and Towson University.   Dr. Monsen’s role in the project will be to test wood frog larvae collected from all five states for the presence of Ranavirus (up to 4500 samples from 30 ponds).

Mika Munakata and Erin Krupa (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) and Jacalyn Willis (Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics, CSAM) were awarded $367,700 from the New Jersey Department of Education for the first of a three-year “CUSP: Creative University-School Partnerships” Program. The purpose of this program is to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by enhancing the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers. The project will encompass the needs of the collaborating districts’ teachers of grades 5-8 mathematics as those needs relate to 1) the Common Core State Standards; 2) the local assessment results of those districts’ students on the NJ-ASK tests and classroom observations by supervisors, principals, and PRISM outreach staff. The schools that have collaborated to recruit teachers to this project are all Title I and/or Focus Schools from 7 districts within New Jersey, for a total of 70 teachers. Summer Institute participants will experience 70 hours of PD from August 12-23 (7 hours per day, M-F, 9am—4pm). School year follow-up of 30 hours will include large-group meetings and collaborations using an online forum, individual coaching, and a culminating poster session. Year-1 will focus on Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations, Ratios and proportional relationships. Mathematics professors Mika Munakata and Erin Krupa will facilitate both the summer institute and the follow up sessions during the academic year. While the content of the first year will emphasize the focus strand, connections between strands will also be explored and encouraged.

Steven Shapiro (Library Public Services) and Benjamin Lapp (History, CHSS) were awarded a grant in the amount of $3,000 from the NJ Council for the Humanities for the project entitled “Commemorative Program for the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht.” The program consists of lectures and a film and discussion series exploring the terrible consequences for German and Austrian Jews of Germany’s orchestrated Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) pogroms on November 9th and 10th of 1938. The events scheduled include content from a variety of humanities disciplines including history, culture, religion, philosophy, and art.