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Ferrum College announced
today that it has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant
for research and teaching in southern Appalachian watersheds. The grant
is to support a proposal by Ferrum Professors Dr. Carolyn Thomas and
Dr. Bob Pohlad entitled "CAWS: Collaboration through Appalachian
Watershed Studies” and will award $180,000 for the college to work in
collaboration with Appalachian College Association (ACA) colleges. The
ACA will supply matching grant dollars to support student work for a
grand total of more than $200,000 in funding.
The Collaboration through Appalachian
Watershed Studies (CAWS) aims to strengthen their science curricula
using teaching and learning experiences in locally delineated small
watersheds. The CAWS proposal details, “The participating faculty and
colleges are creating a research–rich learning environment, infusing
the small watershed approach methods into our curricula, improving laboratory
instrumentation, implementing collaborative, cross-site student research
projects, participating in faculty development workshops, and developing
an online Lab Manual for Small Watershed Studies.”
CAWS has involved more than eight colleges
from five states. The CAWS project was developed from discussions at
ACA Technology Summits and Research Opportunities and Collaboration
in the Appalachians (ROCA) workshops.
Pohlad noted that the CAWS process allows
them to “function at a distance that the web has narrowed, allowing
us to operate like a team at a large university” but with the advantage
of data collection expanded to the Appalachian region. The colleges
also meet “face-to-face” at workshops and visits, sharing expertise
and interest.
The experience of data collection and
study of the Appalachian Watershed has already been a boon to faculty
and students alike, allowing those same large-university research benefits
in the intimate teaching environment a small private college affords.
This allows the students the ability to get experience more akin to
graduate-level research.
“I think we are teaching collaboration
as much as we are teaching watershed study,” Thomas remarked. Pohlad
echoed that sentiment, “The watershed students’ experience now informs
other students and gives outstanding experience in learning to teach
others.” One example is the way science classes this fall are studying
forest regeneration in the burn area from last spring’s fire on Ferrum
Mountain. This all leads to a dramatic, experiential student encounter
that connects on a local level through the Ferrum Mountain Creek Watershed
to a national one of multi-state collegiate study and analysis.
For more information CAWS: Collaboration
through Appalachian Watershed Studies, visit the website at: http://www.ferrum.edu/caws.
A high resolution photo of Dr. Carolyn Thomas and Dr. Bob Pohlad standing
beside a CAWS presentation poster is available at this web address:
http://www.ferrum.edu/media/FerrumCTBPcaws.jpg.
Ferrum College is a four-year,
private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United
Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s
degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private
colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu. |
