my.evergreen.edu
Foundation Faculty Grants Empower Faculty, Students
“It was a dark Halloween night…”
So begins Toska Olson’s crime scene investigation (CSI) workshop for elementary school students.
But the CSI workshop taught by Olson, an Evergreen faculty member, at a Tacoma elementary school, is not the stuff of network TV. It is a complex exercise requiring teamwork and critical thinking skills to catch the bad guy. A missed step or an oversimplified conclusion could result in the wrong person being accused, or even convicted.
In the summer of 2014, Olson received a Faculty Foundation Grant, made possible by Evergreen Annual Fund donations, to develop a more sophisticated understanding of instructional theory and practice around integrated and critical thinking skills, an understanding she could then apply to her workshops. The grant also allowed her to order equipment, including kits that mimic real-life crime lab materials but are child safe.
Evergreen is fortunate to employ an exemplary faculty, renowned for expertise in areas ranging from sustainable infrastructure and filmmaking to religious studies, cyber security, biology, and family issues. Faculty Foundation Grants give them time and resources to update and reinvent curricula, maintaining its relevance and attraction for incoming students.
In Olson’s case, the grant helped her reach out to elementary and middle school students and give them a taste of Evergreen’s unique educational model. On top of the workshop’s CSI cool factor, students had the chance to ask questions, debunk myths, challenge assumptions and biases, and integrate science and sociology. “The kids are so excited to be part of an ‘investigation,’” she said. “They develop confidence in their ability to make evidence-based arguments.”
In fiscal year 2013–14, the foundation funded 12 faculty grant proposals totaling $50,000. Other financed projects included a children’s book on grief, loss, and hope; a research paper on democracy and memory in Chile 40 years after its 1973 military coup; and a project to measure the forces exerted by cells on each other and the medium in which they live.
“Faculty Foundation Grants feed the intellectual curiosity that we then pass on to our students.”
—Kristina Ackley, Ph.D.,
So begins Toska Olson’s crime scene investigation (CSI) workshop for elementary school students.
But the CSI workshop taught by Olson, an Evergreen faculty member, at a Tacoma elementary school, is not the stuff of network TV. It is a complex exercise requiring teamwork and critical thinking skills to catch the bad guy. A missed step or an oversimplified conclusion could result in the wrong person being accused, or even convicted.
In the summer of 2014, Olson received a Faculty Foundation Grant, made possible by Evergreen Annual Fund donations, to develop a more sophisticated understanding of instructional theory and practice around integrated and critical thinking skills, an understanding she could then apply to her workshops. The grant also allowed her to order equipment, including kits that mimic real-life crime lab materials but are child safe.
Evergreen is fortunate to employ an exemplary faculty, renowned for expertise in areas ranging from sustainable infrastructure and filmmaking to religious studies, cyber security, biology, and family issues. Faculty Foundation Grants give them time and resources to update and reinvent curricula, maintaining its relevance and attraction for incoming students.
In Olson’s case, the grant helped her reach out to elementary and middle school students and give them a taste of Evergreen’s unique educational model. On top of the workshop’s CSI cool factor, students had the chance to ask questions, debunk myths, challenge assumptions and biases, and integrate science and sociology. “The kids are so excited to be part of an ‘investigation,’” she said. “They develop confidence in their ability to make evidence-based arguments.”
In fiscal year 2013–14, the foundation funded 12 faculty grant proposals totaling $50,000. Other financed projects included a children’s book on grief, loss, and hope; a research paper on democracy and memory in Chile 40 years after its 1973 military coup; and a project to measure the forces exerted by cells on each other and the medium in which they live.
“Faculty Foundation Grants feed the intellectual curiosity that we then pass on to our students.”
—Kristina Ackley, Ph.D.,
Native Studies faculty member and Faculty Foundation Grant recipient