April 12, 2019

SVSU supports professors’ innovation with Dow Teaching Awards

Four Saginaw Valley State University educators will receive funding for their ideas to improve student learning after being selected to receive 2019-20 Dow Professor Teaching Awards from SVSU's Center for Academic Innovation.

The awards come paired with cash grants to help support the work of individual faculty and faculty teams.

Aneesha Gogineni, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received $5,500 for materials needed to redesign a course on active learning in thermodynamics. Funds will be used to purchase and assemble hands-on materials, as well as for an app, which will be integrated into the class to increase student responses to questions, analyze their understanding level, and engage them in the subject. Data collected from the redesigned course will be presented at a conference.

Brandon Haskett, assistant professor of music, received $5,500 for upgrades to SVSU's music technology lab.

“This project would result in our students' increased exposure to digital music creation and collaboration, allow them to use their previous knowledge of popular music genres to create something new and give students real-world experiences with hardware, software and their related processes, which will prepare them more fully for the professional world,” Haskett wrote in his award proposal.

Scott Kowalewski, associate professor of rhetoric and professional writing, and Bill Williamson, professor of rhetoric and professional writing, jointly received $4,223.88 for upgrades to their department's recording studio and usability lab, where students create and assess websites and other digital documents. The upgrades will focus on digital video production.

“This project extends our students' professional development and career preparedness, meeting the demands of contemporary communicators,” the professors stated in their award proposal.

The awards are supported by the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Academic Fund at SVSU.