Past Outreach and Engagement Grant Recipients

Click here to see the funded programs for 2023.

Click here to see the funded programs for 2022.

Click here to see the funded programs for 2021.

Click here to see the funded programs for 2020.

$644,978 Awarded

Erasing the Space Youth Discourse and Civic Participation among Disparate Communities

The Kirwan Institute, OSU Extension, and Erase the Space (EtS), a local non-profit, seek to connect disparate students, teachers, and communities to foster public discourse and deliberate about community-centered problems. Erase the Space has created and facilitates a collaborative writing exchange between schools across the urban-suburban-rural continuum over the course of a school year. The exchange provides authentic experiences through writing prompts, analyzing structural spatial inequality, and an in-person meeting to develop ideas to bring people together. Erase the Space has proved their concept and seeks to scale up their program. The Kirwan Institute will design formal evaluations to collect data about the intended outcomes and administrative processes to inform future expansion and implementation. This grant will fund data collection across 14 classrooms and sites. OSU Extension desires to evaluate how the exchange, which is facilitated in a formal classroom, can be adapted for non-formal environments, especially for 4-H clubs across Ohio. Additionally, OSU Extension will connect adult mentors to youth participants seeking to implement the ideas generated through the exchange process. Scholarly outcomes include the creation of a toolkit for non-formal programming, a communications strategy for Erase the Space, at least two academic journal articles and submission of a conference workshop at the Community Engagement Conference. All three entities will be working together to foster productive public discourse, provide young people with leadership opportunities, and tackle the problem of structural spatial inequality in Central Ohio.

Team Lead: Glennon Sweeney, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Ohio State Partners:

Kirwan Institute

External Partners:

Erase the Space

Sharing Visions: Intergenerational Work in Appalachian Ohio

In partnership with faculty at Ohio University, staff at OSU Extension in Scioto and Perry Counties, and community partners in the region, The Center for Folklore Studies at The Ohio State University will document and promote cross-county, intergenerational relationship-building, capacity building, and succession planning for grassroots organizations in Scioto and Perry counties in Appalachian Ohio. The long-term desired outcome is longevity and flexible continuity for small community organizations in Appalachian Ohio. The overarching goal of this work is to both reinforce existing relationships and create new connections and structures that will sustain small community organizations in Appalachian Ohio beyond the life of the proposed project.

Team Lead: Cassie Patterson, College of Arts and Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

Comparative Studies
OSU Extension (Scioto / Perry Co.)

External Partners:

14th St. Community Center
Ohio University
Sunday Creek Associates

Summer Success Kindergarten Readiness Camp

This project expands on the Summer Success Kindergarten Readiness Camp developed by the Schoenbaum Early Childhood Center with support from the Office of Outreach and Engagement in Weinland Park. Summer Success is a four-week intensive readiness camp to develop readiness skills in low-income children in the summer before kindergarten. Impact evaluations show that Summer Success significantly increases kindergarten readiness skills in participating children. With this proposal, we partner with the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) to expand Summer Success to two low-income, high-need Columbus neighborhoods: Parsons and Northern Lights.

Team Lead: Laura Justice, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

College of Education and Human Ecology
Crane Center for Early Childhood Learning
Schoenbaum Family Center

External Partners:

Columbus Metropolitan Library

Pay it Forward A Student Philanthropy Initiative

The Pay It Forward initiative is an established program focused on developing a new generation of philanthropists through an innovative course-based service-learning program that engages Ohio college students in hands-on philanthropy, grant-making, and volunteer service, while deepening faculty teaching and providing community nonprofits with much needed assistance. Participating faculty infuse the study of philanthropy as a core component into their courses. Each course receives real dollars to award to nonprofits. Students provide up to 15 hours of volunteer and research service to local nonprofits while simultaneously identifying community needs, establishing funding criteria, and engaging in group decision-making as part of each course experience.

Team Lead: Stuart Lishon, OSU Marion

Ohio State Partners:

OSU Marion
OSU Mansfield
OSU Newark
College of Pharmacy

External Partners:

Ohio Campus Compact

Exploring the Association of Maternal Mycotoxin Exposure with Adverse Birth Outcomes

Mycotoxins, toxic metabolites produced by some fungi, are problematic in developing countries due to contamination of major dietary components. Fumonisins, a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium verticillioides, are found in maize-based foods and associated with increased risk for neural tube defects (NTDs) in mice (Marasas et al., 2004). This proposed study would provide strong preliminary data to support future research efforts, including applications to the National Institutes of Health. Further, this proposal seeks to continue growing meaningful partnerships between OSU and Guatemalan partners to catalyze engaged research, teaching, and programs that improve food safety while promoting healthy dietary choices during pregnancy. The proposed work will advance OSUs strategic and scholarly goals by improving the well-being of our global communities and fostering a culture of engagement between OSU and community partners in Guatemala. Specifically, this work will expand the capacity of OSUs Global One Health initiative (GOHi) through applied research and outreach in areas currently not served by GOHi.

Team Lead: Barbara Kowalcyk, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

External Partners:

Laboratorio Diagnostico Molecular
World Bank

Improving the Quality of Life of Chronically Ill Individuals Through Financial Coaching

This project seeks to increase the quality of life of chronically-ill patients through one-on-one financial coaching provided to patients and caregivers. Our project is novel in three ways: First, we build on our teams expertise in financial coaching and leverage our existing relationships with Consumer Credit Counseling Services, the Financial Planning Association of Central Ohio, WesBanco Bank, UW-Center for Financial Security, and the Kirwan Institute. Together we create a new collaboration with an outpatient unit at OSU Hospitals, the Chronic Brain Injury (CBI) Rehabilitation Program. Second, we adapt a recent, innovative financial coaching program to fit CBI patients and their holistic financial needs. Third, we employ a novel longer-term approach to coaching, combining in-person and telephone-based methods, for CBI patients whose needs are particularly pressing because their earnings potential is severely compromised during peak wage-earning years.

Team Lead: Caezilia Loibl, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

College of Education and Human Ecology
College of Medicine
John Glenn College of Public Affairs
Kirwan Institute
OSU Extension

External Partners:

Brain Injury Association of Ohio
Consumer Credit Counseling Services of the Midwest, Inc.
Financial Planning Association of Central Ohio
University of Wisconsin Center for Financial Security

Greater Hilltop Resource Mapping

Columbus is known as resource rich but coordination poor. Case in point, the Greater Hilltop, an expansive and predominately low-income Columbus community, has a plethora of social services of which many neighbors in-need are unaware or unable to access. The City of Columbus does not have the capacity to create detailed resource guides in every community. This project will put the power to create neighborhood resource guides in the hands of community members. Through a community-based participatory partnership between Hilltop residents and community organizations, OSU student organizations ENCompass and Smart Campus, The City of Columbus, Neighborhood Design Center, and The Kirwan Institute (KI) for the Study of Race and Ethnicity will map existing resources in the Greater Hilltop and create a Community Resource Mapping Toolkit. The Greater Hilltop Community is vast, encompassing 12.5 square miles and stretching on Columbuss west side from I-270 on the West and South, to the CSX Railroad on the East, and I70 on the North. By piloting a physical and online resource map in the Greater Hilltop, we will establish a method for tracking resources, designing and printing physical resource maps, and using a the city of Columbuss ESRI ArcGIS HUB, meaning that the city of Columbus will host the Greater Hilltop Communitys Resource map. These methods will be made publicly available through the Community Resource Mapping Toolkit. The Kirwan Institute is committed to working with other Columbus communities to test the toolkit and the City of Columbus has committed to hosting additional resource maps.

Team Lead: Glennon Sweeney, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Ohio State Partners:

Encompass Student Organization
Kirwan Institute
Smart Campus Student Org.

External Partners:

Columbus Dept. of Development
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Highland West Civic Association
Hoge Memorial Presbyterian Church
Neighborhood Design Center
Ohio Organizing Collaborative
Shalom Zone
Westside Urban Ministry

Linden Worker-Owned Business: A Community-University Partnership for Social Justice, Local Food and Community Economic Development

This project will be the first of a number of worker-owned businesses, aims to leverage the local and sustainable food purchasing initiative of Ohio State University in order to create living-wage jobs and generate wealth for people with criminal backgrounds and other disadvantaged residents. Furthermore, this project, which is a collaboration between OSUs Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) and Building Responsibility, Equality and Dignity (B.R.E.A.D.) a nonprofit coalition of 40 diverse religious congregations in Franklin County, addresses both a practical and a research problem. The practical problem is to determine how to improve community health and wealth in the Linden neighborhood of Columbus.

Team Lead: Kareem Usher, College of Engineering (Knowlton School Architecture)

Ohio State Partners:

InFACT
Kirwan Institute
Knowlton School of Architecture
School of Environment and Natural Resources

External Partners:

Building Responsibility, Equity and Dignity (BREAD)
Sisters of Empowerment
South Linden Area Commission
St. Stephen's Community House

Creating Healthier Communities through Meaningful Partnerships: A Model from the National African American Male Wellness Initiative OSU Partnership

Chronic diseases, particularly diabetes (DM), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer, pose a tremendous burden for Ohio residents, health systems, and employers. This burden is not equally distributed and mortality from these diseases is greatest among African American (AA) men. The National African American Male Wellness Initiative (AAMWI) was established in Columbus, Ohio in 2004. Using an annual walk with health fair, the AAMWI aims to reduce premature mortality among AA males. It has become the largest health initiative in Central Ohio for AAs, spanning 5 cities in Ohio and total of 16 nationally. The Ohio State University (OSU) partners with the AAMWI to advance health equity in DM, CVD, and cancer. Through our partnership, community health workers (CHWs) and health coaches (HCs) will aim to activate at-risk AA men to embrace wellness by 1) facilitating engagement with a primary care provider and addressing social determinants of health that present barriers to wellness; 2) improving participants Lifes Simple 7 (LS7) American Heart Association metrics (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, smoking, body mass index, physical activity and dietary intake) through a community team-based intervention; and 3) increasing participation in clinical trials.

Team Lead: Darrell Gray, College of Medicine

Ohio State Partners:

College of Nursing
College of Public Health

External Partners:

African-American Male Wellness Initiative
American Heart Association
Gateway Health and Wellness Center
Healthcare Collaborative of Greater Columbus

Bushel and a Peck: Healthy Food and Health Coaching for Central Ohio

This project will expand healthy food distribution and wellness programming throughout campus and the local community to impact 1,000 community members over one year. The grant will support expansion in several ways. First, it will allow expansion to a third location as well as increasing the number of participants at current locations. Second, it will subsidize food for underserved participants while new locations are created that will support a need based, tiered pricing system to make the program sustainable. Third, funding will be used to train wellness coaches among student volunteers to provide sustainable wellness coaching at BFFs main weekly food distribution site at Scott House.

Team Lead: Robert Cooper, OSU Health Plan

Ohio State Partners:

Best Foot Forward
Office of Human Resources

External Partners:

Communications Workers of America Local 4501
DNO, Inc.

Collaborative Development of 100% Solar-Driven Adsorption Air Conditioning

We believe we have developed a path to 100% solar driven, sorption-based air conditioning system that is an extension and integration of three previous disparate efforts. Connect and Collaborate funding will allow us to generate a prototype of our device, validate our concept, and quantify the savings available with such a system in various climates. We expect this proof of concept will enable us to generate a great deal of follow-up funds from interested parties nationally and worldwide, including the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, The Rocky Mountain Institute, and private sector partners. Furthermore, we will strengthen collaboration with the group we have assembled.

Team Lead: Jordan Clark, College of Engineering (Civil, Environmental and Geodetic)

Ohio State Partners:

College of Arts and Sciences
College of Engineering

External Partners:

Daikin North America

Expanding the Universitys Role in Addressing the CAE Skills Gap: Continuous Learning and Workforce Development

Workplace trends toward an increasingly virtual product development cycle is driving the need for engineers capable of using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools to solve complex engineering problems. These problems include virtual crash safety, light-weighting, smart material characterizations, emissions improvements, development of autonomous technologies, and various other requirements that are historically expensive and time consuming to validate with physical prototypes. CAE tools are the next evolution of engineering carried forward by the tech boom and advances in computing power. These recent advances in CAE capabilities have occurred over a short period of time, and undergraduate curriculum redesign is challenged to keep pace of industry needs for graduates with meaningful exposure to CAE. Considering that most engineers enter the workforce with an undergraduate degree, alternative models to traditional graduate school should be explored. The proposed Certification in Practice of CAE will be a program which is specifically designed for working professionals and considers their unique needs. Utilizing a distance education format along with learning strategies that promote deep learning, this project will contribute to the development of the high-tech workforce of the twenty-first century. This enhanced accessibility to graduate level education will increase technical literacy in CAE tools, and will serve both individuals as well as employers in identifying and engaging in collaborative research partnerships with The Ohio State University.

Team Lead: Shawn Midlam-Mohler, College of Engineering

Ohio State Partners:

Simulation Innovation and Modeling Center

External Partners:

Honda R&D Americas
Ohio Supercomputer Center

A Virtual Reality Intervention to Improve Youth Concussion Recognition and Reporting

The goal of this project is to develop and test an innovative, VR mobile-based application (app) that can be used to teach youth about the common signs and symptoms of concussion, the potential dangers of concussion, and the importance of reporting. To make our VR app appealing to youth, our designed app will allow youth to experience concussive events and symptoms without the risk of actual injury, and learn to identify when a concussion occurs from the first-person perspective. Building on the progress of our proof-of-concept VR concussion app, in this phase of the study we will optimize our VR app by implementing a developmentally appropriate and interactive medium to educate youth about concussion.

Team Lead: Ginger Yang, College of Medicine and Nationwide Childrens Hospital

Ohio State Partners:

Nationwide Children's Hospital
School of Communication
Sports Medicine

External Partners:

Buckeye Premier Youth Soccer League
COSI

Drumming Dance Rehabilitation (DDR): A Novel Therapy Program for Parkinson's Disease with the Columbus PD Community

This proposal aims to offer innovative solutions for PD treatment by combining rhythm performance with choreographic movement, namely, Drum-Dance Rehabilitation (DDR) program. DDR provides an outstanding platform for PD treatment, in which the patients intensify dopamine release by enjoying inherent pleasure that music and dance render. Regularly participating in DDR at no cost, patients can reduce the substantial economic burden due to life-long medication. Most importantly, DDR will increase the well-being of PD patients and their caregivers by engaging them in music and dance activities.

Team Lead: Yune Lee, College of Arts and Sciences (Speech and Hearing)

Ohio State Partners:

School of Music

External Partners:

City of Columbus Parks and Recreation
Parkinson's Foundation

Growing a Farm to School Community in Wayne County

Growing a Farm to School Community in Wayne County is a unique collaboration between the non-profit A Whole Community, Inc., Northwestern Local Schools, Wooster City Schools, the College of Wooster, The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center, and Wayne County Extension. Using a multi-faceted approach that will increase local produce on school menus and create a flourishing Farm to School culture in the school and community, this project will: (1) Expand the supply chain partnerships to offer a diverse array of local produce for schools to purchase; (2) Implement an Individualized Farm to School Plan for each school to identify barriers and create solutions, including providing food service staff with training, menus, recipes, and kitchen supplies; (3) Amplify and build off OSU Wayne County SNAP-Ed existing and ongoing programming; (4) Implement Farm to School Ambassador Clubs, led by school staff and college interns, that are student driven and parent supported, as they host experiential nutrition education activities.

Team Lead: Shoshanah Inwood, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

Agricultural and Technical Institute (Wooster)

External Partners:

A Whole Community, Inc.
College of Wooster

Development of Sun Protection and Health Behavior Intervention for Ohio Farmers

This project will use the RE-AIM framework to conduct a cross-sectional survey of diverse farm groups (e.g., primary operators, migrant workers, and Amish) and their family members (e.g., adolescents, wives) about the types of sun protection interventions they are receiving (Reach) and using (Effectiveness). In addition, a survey to various outreach educators (OSUE, medical/dermatologists) will determine the types of intervention programs delivered (Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance).

Team Lead: Dee Jepsen, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Nursing
OSU Extension
Wexner Medical Center

Connecting Communities through the Arts at Urban Arts Space

Urban Arts Space, as The Ohio State Universitys arts and culture hub beyond campus, is uniquely situatedboth geographically and via its missionto facilitate and serve as a connector for timely, purposeful, and impactful partnerships between town and gown, leveraging available resources to create relevant arts-based engagement with the community. This proposal positions Urban Arts Space as a hub for arts and culture initiatives through the establishment of a strategic plan and a steering committee composed of key stakeholders from town and gown. The steering committee and corresponding strategic plan will address sustainability and optimize arts and culture engagement that delivers impactful educational reciprocity, enhances day-to-day life, and feeds into Columbus arts and culture economy.

Team Lead: Merijn van der Heijden, College of Arts and Sciences

External Partners:

Capital Crossroads & Discovery Special Improvement District
Ohio Arts Council

$568,940 Awarded

Economic and Workforce Development through Food Processing Community Education and Project Commercialization

Food entrepreneurs and small businesses face a steep learning curve in terms of food safety, processing techniques, and regulatory compliance. Indeed, few if any food producers get into production because of their love for process management and regulations. OSU Extension (OSUE) plays an important role in assisting these entrepreneurs by providing professional development programs, technical services, and promotional engagement of local food systems within the community.

This program will address (1) the need for technical services for processors by funding a process analysis service needed in product development and regulatory compliance, (2) connecting entrepreneurs and established food businesses to equipment infrastructure and an experienced workforce supported by facilities and programming at regional incubators (3) the development of training for the extension system so that county-based personnel can assist with the roll out of these resources and provide local business assistance and food safety staff training. Funding from this grant will be combined with support from additional programs that are also committed to these objectives. Our core team has extensive experience in community education, entrepreneur and small business support, food safety training and implementation, and direct marketing of foods and beverages.

Team Lead: Abigail Snyder, OSU Extension, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Education and Human Ecology
Department of Food Science and Technology
Family Consumer Sciences Extension
Food Industries Center
OSU Extension
OSU South Centers

External Partners:

CIFT (Northern Ohio Food Business Incubator)
Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (Southern Ohio Food Business Incubator)

Preventing Falls: A Community Based Intervention Program

The most common cause of injury for individuals in Franklin County is falls, and EMS fall calls for older adults have increased by 268% over the past decade. Falls in older adults often result in catastrophic injuries that lead to profound changes in mobility, the ability to care for oneself, and overall life expectancy. Falls among older adults also have significant downstream effects on our local and national healthcare systems. Direct medical costs for fall injuries in the U.S. are estimated at $31 billion annually. Falls among older adults that lead to significant injury or death often occur at home among individuals who strongly desire to continue to live in their own home.

Currently, no significant intervention is available by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to prevent subsequent falls. Funding from the Connect and Collaborate grant will support a community based intervention study. Specifically, this study will evaluate the effects of paramedic distribution and installation of a fall prevention toolkit on participating residents' usage of the fall prevention toolkit items, fear of falling, and number of in-home falls with an existing community paramedic infrastructure. Additionally, stakeholder input and toolkit refinement for rural community distribution will be developed. Once the objectives of this project are met, we expect a reduction in the number of preventable in-home falls among community members, which in turn could open up new opportunities to redirect additional emergency responder resources toward non-emergency based fall prevention efforts creating a sustainable fall prevention model.

Team Lead: Carmen Quatman, MD, PhD, OSU College of Medicine

Ohio State Partners:

College of Medicine
Department of Orthopedics-Trauma Division
Department of Physical Therapy
Department of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences
Department of Trauma Surgery

External Partners:

Upper Arlington Fire Division

Columbus, Ohio Collaboration of Dentists, Pharmacists, and Physicians to Address Overprescribing Antibiotics

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that 30-50% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are not necessary or prescribed incorrectly. One in five emergency department visits is for an antibiotic adverse event. Antibiotics are societal drugs because individual use affects not only individuals, but also others in the community. The more we use antibiotics the less effective they become due to development of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic misuse and resistance affects an entire community. Combating antibiotic resistance requires a collaborative effort from a diverse group of healthcare providers, including dentists. The CDC states dentists prescribe 10% of all outpatient antibiotic prescriptions (25.6 million prescriptions annually). An area of ongoing controversy is antibiotic prophylaxis for joint implant patients who need a dental procedure.

In 2009, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons put out a blanket statement to consider antibiotics for all patients with joint replacements, who undergo any dental procedure with potential to cause bacteremia. The 2015 American Dental Association (ADA) Guideline states, In general, patients with prosthetic joint implants, prophylaxis/preventive antibiotics are not recommended prior to dental procedures to prevent a prosthetic joint infection. Dentists are in put in a difficult situation when joint implant patients demand antibiotics prior to dental procedures based on orthopedic surgeon advice. The Connect and Collaborate grant will be used to host a stakeholders meeting to engage collaboration among local dentists, orthopedic surgeons and OSU antibiotic stewardship experts to address overprescribing antibiotics.

Team Lead: Debbie Goff, College of Pharmacy

Ohio State Partners:

College of Dentistry
College of Medicine
College of Pharmacy
Infectious Diseases Institute

External Partners:

Goff & Gilbert Prosthodontist Dental Practice
Sheetz & Rekos Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Ohio
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Philosophy and Critical Thinking (PACT) Summer Camp

Philosophy and Critical Thinking (PACT) brings high school students from very different backgrounds together for intensive, week-long summer programs, taught by students and faculty at Ohio State University. The training involves learning and applying critical reasoning skills in the context of social problems that have abstract as well as applied dimensions. Campers learn to analyze arguments, research controversial topics, and to debate and create poster presentations on these topics, working in teams. They work with instructors in small groups, getting intense personal feedback. They also learn from faculty who are experts on the topics.

One goal is improving the critical thinking and learning skills of the campers. Another is to give OSU students (graduate and undergraduate) pedagogical experience and skills in training younger students, and to increase their mastery of the philosophical material. In addition, OSU faculty organizers will use the program as source material for their research on effective pedagogy in philosophy and critical thinking. Columbus Metropolitan Library Northside Branch will provide space and logistical support for the camp, and assist with recruitment. This serves the librarys mission by increasing its exposure to its target community.

Team Lead: Justin DArms, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Arts and Sciences

External Partners:

Columbus Metropolitan Library

Animations for Introduction to the Science of Cancer: A Free Online Course Offered by Ohio States Comprehensive Cancer Center James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute

Introduction to the Science of Cancer (ISOC) is a free online course for people in Ohio and globally. Thirty-five OSUCCC James oncologists and researchers explain cancer in user-friendly terms. With five modules and 40 videos, the course explains the nature of cancer and cancer diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research. ISOC, which is part of the Global One Health initiative, is designed for people who have a limited knowledge of science but who want a better understanding of cancer. It has been accessed by thousands of people globally, used in high-school classrooms and for onsite workshops at two hospitals in Zimbabwe. It has been well received all around, and this Connect and Collaborate Grant will further extend its usefulness.

We will use this grant to develop 10 animated illustrations that will help learners better understand key molecular and cellular concepts related to cancer development, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. These graphics will also find additional use in a book version of ISOC to be published by OSU Press in open-access online and print editions and for press releases and stories in the OSUCCC James research magazine, Frontiers. These illustrations and animations will help us better achieve the courses ultimate goal: to slow the anticipated growth in worldwide cancer incidence by promoting cancer prevention among individuals, communities and nations.

Team Lead: Darrell Ward, OSU Wexner Medical Center

OSU Partner:

OSU Wexner Medical Center Events and Video Production

External Partner:

Thom Graves Creative

Development of an Education and Outreach Program to Assist Fresh Produce Growers with Meeting Food Safety Requirements

Fresh produce is the leading cause of foodborne illnesses in the country and Ohio growers must meet federal food safety standards to ensure that their produce is safe. Understanding regulatory requirements, awareness of safe agricultural practices, and developing and following written food safety plans (FSP) are critical steps toward minimizing the risk of on farm produce contamination. OSU lags behind other land grant universities in providing fresh produce safety education and training programs. In addition, stakeholder awareness of fresh produce safety programming available at OSU is low compared to their awareness of programming in other states. We have formed a team of Food Safety State Specialists, Extension educators, OSU students, community organizations, and industry partners to provide a diverse group of Ohio growers with the tools and resources needed to supply consumers with a safe product.

To address these needs, we will provide: i) pre-harvest food safety knowledge and awareness training to new and underserved produce growers in the community; ii) farm food safety plan writing workshops and on-farm audit readiness programs; and iii) a roadmap for an OSU food safety training program for FSMA equivalence. In order to achieve our goal in improving fresh produce safety and sustaining the fresh produce industry, we will form a fresh produce safety education and training cooperative with participating food safety experts from Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.

Team Leads:

Melanie Ivey, OSU Plant Pathology (Principal Co-Investigator)
Sanja Ilic, OSU Human Sciences, Human Nutrition (Principal Co-Investigator)

Ohio State Partners:

Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC)-Outlying Branches
OSU CFAED Center for Cooperatives
OSU Extension Fruit and Vegetable Safety Team
OSU Human Sciences, Human Nutrition
OSU Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT)
OSU Plant Pathology

External Partners:

Giant Eagle (Emerging)
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)
North Central Region Center for FSMA Training, Extension, and Technical Service (NCRFSE)
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
Wallace Center

Launching the Data Science for Women Summer Camp

Data science and analytics (DSA) is transforming the global economy and academic research; however, there is a shortage of job candidates with DSA skills, with up to half of job postings going unfilled. A 2017 report by the Business-Higher Education Forum and PwC predicts that this shortage will likely expand, and gaps among gender (men outnumber women 3:1) and underrepresented minority groups will widen. Properly addressing these must include outreach to women and minorities at an age when they first begin to consider college and career goals.

In July 2018, the Translational Data Analytics Institute (TDAI) will launch an annual Data Science for Women Summer Camp for girls in 8-10th grades to help address this gap. Campers will build skills in problem solving, analytical thinking, analytical tools usage, and communication, while also exploring careers in DSA. Our goal is to expose more young women in Franklin County especially those from high student poverty school districts and underrepresented minority groups to the field of data science and analytics, and create a pipeline of women who ultimately pursue DSA degrees and careers. Our camp will be unique among outreach programs, as existing camps both in Ohio and nationwide focus on coding, animation, math, engineering, and STEM in general. And only a handful of DSA camps nationally serves minority groups. The Data Science for Women Summer Camp aims to address a critical action for change noted in the BHEF-PWC report: To expand pathways that lead to a diverse analytics workforce.

Team Lead: Jenna McGuire, Translational Data Analytics Institute, Office of Academic Affairs

Ohio State Partners:

ACCAD
Big Data & Analytics Association
College of Arts & Sciences
College of Education & Human Ecology
College of Engineering
Corporate Engagement Office
Data Analytics Major
Industry Liaison Office
Office of Diversity & Inclusion

External Partners:

Columbus City Schools
Metro Early Career High School
Women in Analytics Conference

WestSide Storytelling Collaborative (WSC): Youth Storytellers and Artists Transforming Visions of their Community

Research indicates that participation in collaborative, artistic processes contributes to youth educational and community engagement, while also supporting youth cross-cultural understanding (Enciso 2011; Faltis & Abedi 2013; Heath 2012; Orellana 2016). Columbuss west side is home to a diverse community of longtime residents and immigrant families, creating a remarkable place for youth to engage with cross-cultural histories and worldviews. Public storytelling and artistic transformation of stories can inspire new perceptions and more equal relationships among youth as they create images of others experiences and examine their own distinct beliefs and practices (Enciso 2010; 2017). Likewise, partnerships with community artists will lead to a stronger arts program for youth (P21Partnership 2015).

The WestSide Storytelling Collaborative will pair 10-12 youth with 5 mentor artists for collaborative learning, cross-cultural understanding, community-based storytelling, and art-making. The youth-adult artist partnership will culminate in a multi-media community exhibit featuring dual presentations by adult-artist and student-artist teams. The WSC will also engage Ohio arts organizations and west side arts leadership groups committed to forming a sustainable youth arts-mentoring project.

Team Lead: Patricia Enciso, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

Department of Teaching and Learning
Wexner Center for the Arts

External Partners:

Franklinton Arts District
Ohio Arts Council
Columbus City Schools

Improving Diagnosis of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Human and Cattle in China

One person dies of tuberculosis (TB) every 21 seconds, with 10.4 million new TB cases reported in 2016. China is one of six countries accounting for 60% of total TB cases in the world, with 918,000 new TB cases reported in 2016 at a case rate of 67 per 100,000 populations. Of the TB cases worldwide, it is estimated that 5% to 15% are due to Mycobacterium bovis, cause of bovine-TB infection. The epidemiology of bovine-TB in China is unknown due to a lack of surveillance. M. bovis can be transmitted from animal to human by consumption of raw milk and close contact with respiratory secretions. In rural China, increase zoonotic transmission is suspected due to close contact between farmers and cattle. M. bovis causes increase morbidity and mortality with an extensive impact on human and animal health and global economy. There is no gold standard test for bovine-TB diagnosis in animals.

We will validate two commercially available point-of-care TB diagnostic tests (Alere DetermineTM. Urine LAM-Ag and Lionex tests, Rapid Blood test) and a novel in-house produced thin-layer agar based TB culture (CX) test to screen for bovine-TB in cattle and humans in rural China. We hypothesize that our point-of-care diagnostic tests will enable faster diagnose of bovine-TB cases and significantly aid in preventing transmission of this disease between animals and from animals to humans. We will also organize via OSU-China Gateway a Global One Health Scientific Workshop in Beijing (China) bringing together OSU/US faculty and key Chinese partners to further expand our global One Health Initiative.

Team Lead: Shu-Hua Wang, College of Medicine

Ohio State Partners:

College of Medicine
College of Veterinary Medicine

External Partners:

Dairy Center of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital
Shandong University China
Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Establishing a Collective Impact Center in Marion, Ohio

The Collective Impact approach is a proven method to impact complex social issues by bringing together leaders from the private, public and non-profit sectors to focus on a common agenda and shared indicators around social determinants of health. Through the development of a unified vison for impact, shared measures to track progress, coordinated mutually reinforcing activities, and trust among all partners, our team will implement the Collective Impact framework in Marion, Ohio. The ultimate vision is for there to be a powerful collaborative of diverse, cross sector stakeholders including community leaders, educators, business, nonprofits, funders, law enforcement, faith leaders, medical community, service providers, and community members, including young people who are all working together on linked activities and held accountable by shared goals in order to dramatically improve Marion County health rankings.

In order to achieve this, the project team will collect local data for a deeper understanding of neighborhood demographics, root causes of problems, and gaps and asset identification. Simultaneously, OSU Extension will facilitate community engagement to help identify overlooked spaces, neighborhood issues, and recruit resident involvement for improvements and change in our community. We will improve organizational readiness by providing training, technical assistance, support, and coaching throughout the project from a Collective Impact leadership team (i.e. team members). Finally, we will coordinate implementation of a long-term community level effort to improve population level outcomes.

Team Lead: Whitney Gherman, OSU Extension

Ohio State Partners:

Center for Public Health Practice
OSU Extension
OSU Marion

External Partners:

Marion Community Foundation
Marion General Hospital
Marion Public Health
Ohio Health
The Solidarity Project
United Way of Central Ohio

The Global Sustainable Village

Student service-learning projects need a learning laboratory on campus to research, develop, and prototype hands-on community service project solutions. We propose to develop a Global Sustainable

Village (GSV) to provide students appropriate space to develop hands-on skills and as a piloting ground for service-learning projects. Currently, students implement solutions without having an opportunity to fully engage with representative tools, techniques and materials before beginning work in the field. The ability to develop and work directly with technologies in a life-like setting before leaving campus will improve student experiences and learning outcomes, as well as strengthen OSU relationships with community partners and improve the impact of community development efforts for end-users. Such experiential learning will provide student groups the opportunity to develop sustained research projects that can be incorporated in a community service setting. The GSV is a collection of authentic living environments that accurately represents an integration of both the context and substance of student-generated humanitarian innovations developed in conjunction with our local and international partners. The goal is for all aspects of a familys needs to be incorporated in each residential space, including housing, food, water and power. This proposal represents the first step in realizing the vision of the GSV by producing a comprehensive site and building plan for the local (i.e., US-based) portion of the village.

Team Lead: Howard Greene, College of Engineering

Ohio State Partners:

College of Engineering
OSU Extension

External Partners:

American Electric Power
Elford Construction
Habitat for Humanity Mid-Ohio

Establishing Partnerships between Academia, State Agencies, and Private Business to Deliver Nutrition Assistance to the Poor

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provide billions of dollars in food assistance to low-income households in the US. These benefits have been shown to reduce infant mortality, improve overall health, and help households become more food secure. Yet many eligible people do not participate and others leave benefits on the table. These are important issues because the health and well-being of lower income households are affected by the foods they consume. The Connect and Collaborate grant will support a study of factors that influence enrollment decisions in the WIC and SNAP programs using primary and secondary data sources.

Initially, we will establish a data sharing agreement with the Ohio Department of Healths WIC agency. Administrative data from Ohio will allow us to identify factors associated with underutilization of WIC benefits. Insights from this initial effort will contribute to the development of surveys that will be distributed to current WIC recipients, WIC-eligible nonparticipants who participated in the past, and WIC- eligible nonparticipants who have never enrolled in WIC. We will also examine SNAP utilization patterns. To secure access to SNAP enrollment data and facilitate future surveys targeted toward SNAP participants, we will establish ties with state SNAP administrators. At the same time, we will target a survey towards attendees at SNAP education courses run by OSU Extension. This will give us the initial results needed to inform more comprehensive analyses of SNAP administrative and survey data. Lastly, we plan to establish ties with local grocers. We expect these relationships to result in joint research efforts that ultimately link industry, state agencies, and academia. This project will provide unique policy-relevant insights about participation in food programs by conducting research through partnerships with a diverse set of stakeholders involved in the WIC and SNAP programs. This should contribute to food security, and more importantly, improvement in the lives of program recipients. We hope the project will also serve as a model for establishing similar partnerships in other states or for other government assistance programs.

Team Lead: Andrew Hanks, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

OSU Extension

External Partners:

Ohio Department of Health

Integrating Remote Sensing for In-Season Corn Nitrogen Management

Remote sensing (RS) provides the agricultural community the opportunity to examine the spatial and temporal differences of crop and soil health. This information can be used to implement variable rate technologies, which helps to optimize the use on-farm resources, maximize economic profits and reduce environmental problems of crop production. This project will use RS images acquired throughout the growing season from manned and unmanned aircrafts to determine methods to improve in-season corn nitrogen (N) management. We will conduct field N management trials; collect ground-truth and RS images; and develop methods to process and analyze data, and a prototype to determine in-season N requirement. We already have collected a few hundred images and field data covering > 500 corn acres from the growing season of 2015 2017 across Ohio, and have developed some workflows to incorporate imagery into decision-making. However, we need to conduct more field experiments to improve the confidence of our developed workflows so they can be used across a wide range of Ohio crop fields.

We will work directly with farmers, consultants and agricultural technology providers on how imagery can be integrated into farm decisions during the growing season and season-end. The outcomes include a database of images and field collected data, and a prototype for integrating RS for in-season N management. Impacts include data informed on-farm decision making, environmental and economic benefits with elimination of out of season N application or reduced fertilizer application, and long-term mutual beneficial relationships between farmers, cities, industry partners, and the university.

Team Lead: John Fulton, Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Ohio State Partners:

Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Department of Horticulture and Crop Science
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Molly Caren Agricultural Center

External Partners:

AirScout Inc.
Integrated Precision Agriculture
3D Aerial

Bringing Natural History to Life: Mini Exhibits for a COSI-AMNH Partnership

In fall of 2017, in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation (CDDC), the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) opened the Dinosaur Gallery. This is part of an anticipated decades-long partnership that represents a $5 million investment by the State of Ohio, intended to draw visitors from outside of Ohio and to increase the visibility of COSI among the other large, interactive science museums across the country. The challenge in this new partnership lies in innovating the educational experiences that accompany the long-term exhibits. The planned collaboration addresses this challenge by engaging OSU students as innovators and translators of supportive, interactive exhibits. These activities take place within a new Service-Learning course in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology and will generate supplemental, interactive activities for visitors to COSI as they provide students with opportunities to translate sophisticated, discipline-specific knowledge to diverse audiences.

The effort supports the community partner priority areas of education and workforce development. Experience in the communication of STEM concepts is foundational to successful employment in the field, but is not generally part of the major coursework required of majors in the sciences. Nonetheless, museums and science centers play a critical role in developing interest in STEM and are key to the success and engagement of many groups not currently well-represented in STEM. Thus, the proposed partnership provides training to current students and pathways for retention and recruitment for current and future students.

Team Lead: Marymegan Daly, College of Arts and Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Arts & Sciences
Museum of Biological Diversity
Office of Service-Learning

External Partners:

COSI

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Strengthening Capacity for Health and Education/Social Science in Ethiopia and Cameroon

Student engagement in meaningful, well-mentored research is an important component of research capacity building. In graduate degree programs, research capacity links directly to successful completion of a students masters thesis or PhD dissertation, the capstones of a successful graduate curriculum. Our two-year project will design a capacity building innovation to articulate and test a theory of change through a Model of Collaboration/Capacity Building (MCCB) focused on strengthening the research experience for Ohio State University (OSU) graduate students and for graduate students and faculty within two higher-education institutions (HEIs) in Africa: University of Ngaoundr (UNdr), Cameroon, and Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia.

Based on our experiences at OSU and within these institutions, the most powerful capacity building projects are those that are relevant to the local community; combine active research experience with tailored training in research design, data collection, and statistical methods; and include mentoring through the publication and dissemination process. Our strategy incorporates elements of effective service-learning translated to the graduate level. This design project will contribute to the development of well-trained graduate-level researchers or OSU and our partners and improve our combined capacity to conduct collaborative research in resource-poor environments. Our approach aligns with and builds upon our collective research and teaching experiences via the Global One Health initiative (GOHi) by linking education science and quantitative research methods (OConnell), observational study design and infectious diseases (Garabed), and capacity building and cultural exchange (Joseph).

Team Lead: Ann OConnell, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

Center for African Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

External Partners:

Addis Ababa University (AAU)
Measurement and Evaluation, AAU
Office for Academic Standards and Quality Enhancement (OASQE), AAU
School of Veterinary Medicine and Sciences, University of Ngaoundr,
Science and Math Education, AAU

Producing Qualified and Diverse Natural Resources Professionals through Advanced Partnerships and Experiential Learning Communities

Workforce diversity is deficient within environmental and natural resources fields when compared to societal demographics, a common trend but acute challenge in many occupational fields. A partnership between OSU-Mansfield, the School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR) at OSU-Columbus, and First Energy aims to increase undergraduate student enrollment, engagement, and career placement of under-represented students of color. Our proposal aims for success both within the university and ultimately the workforce through a combination of experiential-learning communities, mentoring programs, and internships. By utilizing the natural resource assets at OSU-Mansfield, focused recruitment would cultivate a small number of incoming 1st year students into a faculty-led learning community to fundamentally address core equity questions, often through an environmental lens.

The Ecolab initiative currently at OSU-Mansfield already engages natural resources management, education, and agricultural sustainability in a manner designed to simultaneously address social issues from an ecological perspective and ecological issues from a social perspective. With a growing SENR curriculum now available at OSU-Mansfield coupled with experiential, field-based learning opportunities, campus-change students of color transitioning from OSU-Mansfield to Columbus campus will be uniquely and well-equipped by their enhanced regional campus experience. Select students participating in the First Energy Fellowship program would complete summer internships at OSU-Mansfield after their first year and benefit from additional investments by First Energy through personal mentoring and additional professional internship opportunities. The C&C grant also helps to fund a Mansfield campus property manager and facilitate expanded learning opportunities and research on First Energys right-of-way infrastructure at Ohio State Mansfield.

Team Lead: Gabriel Karns, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
School of Environment and Natural Resources
OSU Mansfield
OSU Extension

External Partner:

First Energy

OSU-SJTU Center for Light-weighting Research and Education (CLRE)

The Connect and Collaborate grant will be used to establish the OSU-SJTU Center for Light-weighting Research and Education (CLRE), a world-class collaborative research and education center between The Ohio State University (OSU) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The CLRE will carry out fundamental and applied research and support education/training in the development of lightweight metallic materials and their manufacturing processes. The center will promote technical collaborations and cultural exchanges between OSU and SJTU faculty, staff and students as well as the greater US-China communities. CLRE leverages investments in The Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability (M&MS) Discovery Theme at OSU as well as intrinsic areas of expertise at OSU and SJTU. CLRE will (1) organize seminars and workshops at OSU and SJTU on light-weighting technologies; (2) support joint research projects between OSU and SJTU on fundamental science related to M&MS discovery theme; and (3) facilitate student exchanges between the two universities. The Center will seek industrial collaboration and other external support for sustainability.

Team Lead: Alan Luo, College of Engineering

Ohio State Partners:

College of Engineering
Institute for Materials Research

Building Consensus and Assessing Feasibility of Food Growing and Processing in Lima, Ohio

This initiative seeks to facilitate a collaborative feasibility analysis of food system interventions on vacant and abandoned land in Lima, OH. This marks the implementation phase of the first Ohio Land Exchange (OH/LEX) land use project, focused on taking advantage of available land in Lima to improve its food system. The OH/LEX pilot process in Lima, funded in part by an Engagement Impact Grant awarded in 2015, has contributed to the development of a local group of stakeholders focused on enhancing the food system in Lima. In order to move from the opportunities currently identified by this emerging coalition to the implementation of land-based interventions in Lima, OSU Extension and Knowlton School faculty will focus on two simultaneous tracks, intended to be mutually reinforcing.

Track 1 will develop and build an architecturally designed model garden and outdoor community space for food and health-related entrepreneurial activities (food-related education in collaboration with the school district, vendor development in collaboration with the farmers market, OSU Extension demonstrations around nutrition and wellness, etc.). Most of this space will be used temporarily, during the summer of 2018, as a living laboratory. This means that users, visitors and supporting institutions will be surveyed in that period on a regular basis and data will be gathered to assess feasibility of permanent Food and Entrepreneurship Hub. Track 2 will focus on conducting a market analysis to assess the economic impact and retail market potential of a Permanent Food Hub in the City of Lima.

Team Lead: Nancy Bowen-Ellzey, OSU Extension

Ohio State Partners:

Center for Urban and Regional Analysis
Extension Community Development
Knowlton School / Landscape Architecture
Knowlton School/City and Regional Planning
OSU Lima

External Partners:

Activate Allen County
Allen County Public Health
Allen County SWCD
City of Lima
City of Lima Land Bank
LACNIP/Lima Sprouts
Legacy Links
Mercy Health
United Way of Allen County
West Ohio Food Bank

$438,275 Awarded

Improving Power Outage Prediction and Response through Community Partnerships

Weather is one of leading causes of power outages and these outages can result in significant economic losses. Ohio ranks 3rd nationally in significant weather related power outages. As a result, we seek to develop more accurate tools for predicting weather-related power outages though collaboration with electrical utilities. Our long-term goal is to establish an industry-university center that is focused on developing better power outage models by bringing together university researchers and industry practitioners. This planning grant will be used to build stronger collaborations with the electrical utilities that serve Ohio. This will be accomplished by hosting an industry workshop, providing students with career-relevant training and then placing these students in internships with our industry partners, and developing improved power outage models for the utility industry.

Team Lead: Steven Quiring, Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences

Ohio State Partners:

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Geography

External Partners:

University of Michigan
Texas A&M University
Purdue University
First Quartile Consulting
Beck Consulting
American Electric Power
First Energy
Duke Energy

STEMCoding @ OSU

The growth of online coding tools has made it easier than ever to incorporate computer programming into introductory STEM. However, for certain subjects like physics there is little in the way of content to draw from for this level and even less research on what activities amplify student learning of scientific concepts. OSU Marion Prof. Chris Orban developed a large set of programming exercises for freshman physics classes that are being implemented in high school physics classrooms. One of the key barriers for introducing more computer programming into introductory STEM courses is that few STEM teachers are comfortable with computer programming. The proposed program will include a summer continuing education course that teachers will complete, which includes observing high school camps during summer 2017 where our computer programming content is being used. For more information about this program, please go to u.osu.edu/stemcoding.

Team Lead:

Chris Orban, Ohio State Marion

Ohio State Partners:

OSU-Marion
College of Engineering, Department of Engineering Education
Physics Education Research Group
OSU Extension (4H)

External Partners:

Marion Technical College
University of Mount Union
Reynoldsburg STEM High School

Summer Success: A Kindergarten Readiness Camp for Children from Low-Income Homes in Columbus

Ensuring that all children arrive to kindergarten ready to learn and prepared for its academic and social rigors is a critically important issue in early childhood education and policy. In reality, many children arrive to kindergarten without the requisite skills needed to succeed. Children from low-income families, facing poverty, homelessness, and associated challenges, are at greater risk for poor kindergarten readiness. The current proposal seeks implementation grant funding to address gaps identified during a pilot instantiation of "Summer Success," a kindergarten readiness camp developed through a community research partnership serving 4-year-olds in the local Weinland Park community, a predominantly low-income urban community in Columbus, Ohio. The four-week, 140-hour program is designed to systematically and explicitly develop a comprehensive set of critical skills that help children arrive to kindergarten ready to learn, including core academic skills in literacy, math, and language, social-emotional skills, motor skills, and interest in creative arts.

Team Lead:

Laura Justice, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

College of Education and Human Ecology, Department of Human Sciences & Department of Educational Studies
Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy

External Partners:

Schoenbaum Family Center
Columbus Metropolitan Library
COSI
Columbus City Schools
Franklin Park Conservatory
Godman Guild

Planting Urban GEMS Youth Work in South Columbus

Planting Urban GEMS Youth Work in South Columbus will engage approximately 100 vulnerable youth to empower them in partially addressing food insecurity in their own community by growing healthy foods and contributing to community wellness/healthy eating movement. Planting Urban GEMS will establish an aeroponic food production facility to provide positive youth development opportunities for 14-22 year olds in South Columbus. This Connect and Collaborate funded project melds the innovations and youth engagement of the Urban GEMS initiatives with work of the Parsons Avenue Merchants Association to create greater potential for sustainability and larger community impacts.

Team Lead:

Deanna Wilkinson, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

Office of Diversity and Inclusion
Department of Biomedical Engineering
College of Education and Human Ecology
OSU Extension

External Partners:

RHH4-Life
Men for the Movement
Ministries 4 Movement
CD4AP
Local Matters
Southside CAN (delete AUS)
Family Missionary Baptist Church
Parson's Avenue Merchant's Association
Pure Motion Creative
Franklin Park Conservatory
Juice Plus/Tower Gardens
Africentric Personnel Development Shop
Nationwide Children's Hospital Gardens

Mapping the Food Environment in Central Ohio Connecting the Food Mapping Team and the Food Opportunity Research Collaborative Proposal

The Ohio State University is committed to addressing food insecurity in Central Ohio. Currently, two interdisciplinary teams at the university focus on understanding and engaging with communities on food insecurity: the Food Mapping Team (FMT) and The Food Opportunity Research Collaborative (FORC). To date, the work of the FMT has focused on developing a quantitative and spatial description of food insecurity while FORC focuses on qualitative depictions of the lived experience of those who are food insecure. The primary purpose of bringing these teams together is to integrate and expand their individual work and to provide a holistic description of food insecurity in Central Ohio, fill a gap in the current food insecurity work/literature, and engage communities.

Another purpose is to enable these two teams to create a shared theoretical framework and agenda, which will improve the likelihood of securing additional extramural funding. The teams plan to pursue a Geographic and Spatial Sciences NSF grant. Utilizing Community-Based Participatory Research methods, both the FMT and FORC incorporate the community in the research and engagement process. This planning grant allows the teams to deepen existing community partnerships and expand into new communities throughout Central Ohio. Through additional partnerships with Columbus Public Health and Celebrate One, an initiative targeting infant mortality in Central Ohio, another aim of this new collaboration is to develop methods in which data generated from this work can inform food and health policies at the local, state and federal levels.

Team Leads:

Glennon Sweeney, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Michelle Kaiser, College of Social Work

Ohio State Partners:

College of Social Work
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, OSU Extension
College of Education and Human Ecology, Department of Human Sciences
Office of Academic Affairs, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
College of Engineering, Knowlton School of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning
John Glenn College of Public Affairs
Medicine, School of Health & Rehab Sciences Division of Medical Dietetics
Arts and Sciences Comparative Studies and Anthropology

External Partners:

Columbus Public Health
Serving Our Neighbors (SON) Ministry
Worthington Resource Pantry (WRP)
Smoky Row Church and Food Pantry
North Interfaith Coalition
Franklinton Gardens
Fresh Foods Here a United Way Healthy Corner Store initiative
Broad Street Pantry
Get Cr8v

Building Community Resilience through a Culturally Responsive Leadership Development Program: A Community-Based Participatory Research Project

The proposed culturally responsive bilingual leadership project uses community-based participatory approach to research. The program, distinct in recognizing and utilizing community assets, will focus on the leadership development of Bhutanese Nepali refugee women in Central Ohio as a core component to address mental well-being and building community resilience among the refugee population. Participants will attend two-hour training sessions every two weeks for four to six months, focused on five key areas: (1) political literacy, (2) economic/financial literacy, (3) legal literacy, (4) health literacy, and (5) school system literacy. This empowering project will be implemented in two cycles and provides an opportunity for refugee women to build their leadership skills so that the participants can be active citizens within and outside of their communities.

Team Leads:

Binaya Subedi, College of Education and Human Ecology
Arati Maleku, College of Social Work

Ohio State Partners:

College of Education and Human Ecology
College of Social Work

External Partners:

Bhutanese Nepali Community of Columbus
Ethopian Tewahado Social Services

Engage and Innovate

There is an opportunity for the Materials Innovation Lab to serve both industry partners and undergraduate students by providing real-world, experiential, community-engaged learning through the application of innovation theory to problems and challenges posed by industry. Our goal is to establish an Engage and Innovate program to enable a community-engaged environment benefiting students and OSU and industry partners in an impactful and sustainable manner while advancing the scholarly goals of the university. Our approach is to leverage learning, success, and momentum from initial innovation experiments to expand scope and reach. These experiences will form the basis for creation of a portfolio of offerings that provide real-world, experiential learning through externships and curriculum development for our students while generating student touch-points and valuable outputs for our partner's product development programs.

We currently have many of the pieces in place to accomplish this objective in our Innovation Lab, but need to expand our approach to better integrate with our OSU partners, develop and formalize our process, and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the program. The outcomes and impacts will provide students with real-world, experiential learning though externships, qualified industry contacts, potential industry-sponsored internships, and experience in interdisciplinary collaborations and innovation methods. Industry partners will gain better access to the university, undergraduates, and high-quality outcomes enabling long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships with a trusted partner to develop innovation talent as an extension of their R&D organization.

Team Lead:

Jay Sayre, Institute of Materials Research

Ohio State Partners:

Institute of Materials Research
Fisher College of Business, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
College of Engineering, Department of Engineering Education
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

External Partners:

Erdos Institute
Worthington Industries
FORJAK Industrial
Battelle
Select Sires
Procter & Gamble
Black and Decker
Entrotech
NiSource
SunEdison

Assessment of Potential Energy Demand Management Strategies in Agriculture

High demand charges can dramatically increase the electricity prices for many commercial and industrial electric consumers. While the impact of demand charges on electric bills is significant, many electric consumers are uninformed of these costs, how their demand charges are calculated, and the impact of their usage patterns. The overriding goal of this project is to assess how electric peak demand affects agricultural facilities and, in turn, the manner by which farmers can implement energy management plans, production strategies and make investments in equipment to minimize cost associated with demand charges, fostering long-term positive and sustainable benefits for their operations. Until we have a record of when individual motors are running throughout the course of a year, we cannot fully understand the situation or effectively explore solutions with the agricultural sector. We will leverage university and private farms to facilitate research that addresses current knowledge gaps related to electricity usage in agriculture.

Team Lead:

Eric Romich, OSU Extension (Wyandot County)

Ohio State Partners:

OSU Extension
OSU Western Agricultural Research Center
OARDC
College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

External Partners:

Energy SOS

Reaching Urban School Settings with Teaching and Learning (RUSS) Gardens

Food and Agriculture as a Systems Intervention in Rust Belt Communities is an ambitious new collaborative project that seeks to leverage a local sustainable food system (including urban and nearby rural agricultural diversification) as a full-system approach to addressing the systemic crises of deindustrialization in Mansfield, Ohio. It aligns community needs and ambitions directly with key Ohio State Discovery Theme goals within the Food and Agricultural Transformation and Sustainable and Resilient Economy themes. This programs long-term goal is to create functioning, productive RUSS Garden classrooms in all of the Mansfield City Schools and across Richland County, as sites of cross-curricular learning, near-peer education, health and wellness practices, and small plot, high yield production that will eventually provide fresh produce to school meals.

Team Lead:

Kip Curtis, Department of Environmental History, Ohio State Mansfield

Ohio State Partners:

OSU Extension
OARDC
Department of Education, Teaching and Learning, Ohio State Mansfield
Department of Development and Community Relations, Ohio State Mansfield
Department of English, Ohio State Mansfield
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Environment and Natural Resources
The Ohio State Math Literacy Initiative
The Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT)

External Partners:

North End Community Improvement Collaborative
Mansfield City Schools

Project OPIATE: Opiate Prevention Initiative Action Through Education

The opiate problem in the nation has grown immensely, and Lake County, Ohio, is no different. In 2016, the number of opioid-related overdoses more than doubled from the year before. The causes of the epidemic of both opioid-related deaths and misuse span the social ecological model, and therefore interventions need to address the individual, the family and social networks, healthcare and paramedical care, and policies and systems. This project will implement strategies that address key components of the social ecological model focusing on education and awareness in teens of the risk of opioid use. We will recruit youth from 4-H in Lake County and from two Lake County school districts to participate in the Lead & Seed training program, focusing on the SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework.

These youth and adult leaders will then be trained in to present the Youth-to-Youth pHARMING Effects presentation to their school-aged peers and parents. Finally, the youth and adult leaders will use Generation Rx tools to continue brief, tailored messages over the course of the semester. The value of this approach comes through alignment of evidence-based, youth development programming with promising tools already in use in the state to test the impact of putting the pieces together. We will evaluate our work and plan for both local sustainability and state dissemination.

Team Lead:

Andrew Wapner, College of Public Health

Ohio State Partners:

College of Public Health
OSU Extension (4H Youth Development)

External Partners:

Lake Co. General Health District
Lake County Extension Office
Lake Co. Educational Service Center
Mentor Schools
Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools
Lake County ADAMHS Board
Crossroads

Designing Together: Diversifying Participation in Engineering Education with High-Need Urban Schools

This proposal for a Connect & Collaborate implementation grant seeks bridge funding to support innovations emerging from a two-year, partnership-based research study focused on diversifying participation in engineering. The original study received funding by grants from Battelle and The Ohio State University Office of Outreach and Engagement. This proposed project involves adapting two different middle school engineering curricula (one arts-infused and one conventional), which the OSU team has piloted in Hilltonia Middle School (a Columbus City Schools [CCS] district identified high-need school). Currently, we are implementing the two curricula as weekly extracurricular activities for 6th grade students.

Team Lead:

Deborah Grzybowski, Department of Engineering Education, College of Engineering

Ohio State Partners:

College of Engineering, Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
College of Education and Human Ecology, Diversity, Inclusion and Community Outreach

External Partners:

Columbus City Schools
Beta by Design
Ohio Department of Education

$304,403 Awarded

CNS Cancers in Sao Paulo

Central nervous system (CNS) cancers represent the major cause of both cancer and disease-related death in the developed world in children between 1 and 18 years of age. We have made significant progress in the United States, however, for countries in South America, survival and quality of survival outcomes still lag behind. The management of children with CNS cancers demands close collaboration between pediatric oncologists specifically trained in CNS tumors (neuro-oncologists), pediatric neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, pediatric neuro-pathologists and other specialists; without such intimate cooperation, misdiagnoses, delays in initiation of appropriate therapy, and the age-appropriate selection of therapies become sub-optimal, as is seen widely throughout South America. Our colleagues from IPO/UniFeSP-GRAAC Children's Cancer Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil reached out to us in 2014 to develop more formal and structured multi-disciplinary collaborations to overcome their challenges.

The program seeks to establish the following initiatives during the next two years:

• Conduct a second Pediatric Latin American Neuro-oncology conference in 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil attended by pertinent pediatric sub-specialists from South America;
• Formalize educational visits for residents/fellows from IPO/UniFeSP-GRAAC to OSU/Nationwide Children's Hospital for advanced training;
• Establish multi-disciplinary, real-time teleconferencing of challenging pediatric CNS tumors;
• Enhance their neuropathology infrastructure and expertise through educational interactions and training with our neuropathologists;
• Include advanced molecular profiling at OSU in the Chakravarti/Bell lab for pediatric medulloblastoma tissues; and
• Provide an educational experience for an OSU medical or pre-medical student to undertake a global health field project in pediatric neuro-oncology in Sao Paulo.

Team Leads:

Jonathan Finlay, College of Medicine
Diana S. Osorio, College of Medicine

Ohio State Partners:

College of Medicine

External Partners:

Nationwide Children's Hospital

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

Global Gateways (Office of International Affairs)
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Columbus Community Teaching and Learning Consortium (CTLC): Supporting Parent-Teacher Engagement in Schools through a Research-Practice Partnership

This grant will support us in developing and delivering a Place-Based Family Involvement course with parents from our CTLC partner schools. We know that family involvement in children's education is a significant factor in their subsequent school success. Despite these benefits, barriers exist to building strong school-family-community partnerships. Parents may not engage actively because of work and family commitments and educators may feel unable or unprepared to engage with families. To better understand and overcome these barriers, this course will focus on telling and revising stories about family involvement in schools.

A key innovative feature of the course is the integration of technology through digital storytelling. Parents will co-lead and -design the course and all participants will create digital stories to accomplish both course-specific outcomes and long-term, generative and sustainable outcomes. Often, we carry stories about one another that are shaped by our past experiences in different places and spaces at different times. Sometimes we carry single, stereotypical stories about one another based on language, race, ethnicity, class or myriad other factors. And sometimes these single stories limit our opportunities to learn from and teach one another. Through this course, we will work together to ask questions, tell our own stories, collect other people's stories, and create new stories that may help us to better support K-8 students in schools. Ultimately, we will each create a short, video story based on our reading, writing, inquiry, and discussions. Our time together will end with a Family Involvement Film Festival in April.

Team Lead: Caroline Clark, College of Education and Human Ecology

Ohio State Partners:

College of Education and Human Ecology/Department of Teaching and Learning

External Partners:

Columbus City Schools
The Graham Family of Schools
Highland Elementary School

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

The Columbus Foundation
Office of Service-Learning
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Community Garden Leadership Initiative

Community gardens serve many purposes in our communities, such as providing an area to grow fresh produce for those that do not have space where they live, serving as community meeting areas, and providing the opportunity for physical activity. However, community gardens often fail due to lack of leadership, community buy-in, and lack of participant knowledge, which are too often ignored in the planning and development stage. While Extension doesn't currently have the capacity to initiate and manage community gardens, Extension can play a vital role in providing education, technical support, and leadership development training in order to empower community garden leaders to maintain and sustain community gardens as important assets in neighborhoods.

This project will offer leadership training and support to community garden leaders who currently manage or are interested in developing a community garden and develop local networks in order to increase sustainability and long-term success of community gardens in Ohio. A six-week training course will piloted in several counties (Franklin, Stark, and Summit) and a Stark-Summit community garden network will be formed. A Master Gardener Volunteer Community Garden Mentor specialization will also be developed and offered to counties that maintain a MGV program. The long-term goal of this project is to sustain community garden and food projects throughout Ohio via community engagement, leadership training, and volunteer involvement and increase the amount of fresh produce grown by these projects.

Team Lead: Jacqueline Kowalski, OSU Extension

Ohio State Partners:

OSU Extension

External Partners:

Let's Grow Akron

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Connecting People and Climate to Improve Outcomes for Ohio and Beyond

A significant amount of meteorological and climatological data is publicly available, but it is neither tailored to the needs of public and private stakeholders nor available on an intuitive and applicable platform for resource managers, producers and policy makers to utilize effectively. Serving as data stewards, it is the mission of the State Climate Office of Ohio to connect Ohioans with weather and climate information necessary to improve lives. This collaborative endeavor will lead to a multi-platform prototype tool consisting of the "FARM" (Fertilizer Application and Resource Monitor) mobile and web app and climate database. This tool will provide farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin with the real-time weather and climate information needed to make compliance decisions concerning fertilizer and manure application.

An important facet to the FARM app will be the ability for farmers to elect to have notifications "pushed" to their mobile device(s), providing up-to-date information at their location and time of need. The development of this tool will also lead to a robust database of weather and climate information needed for compliance. In addition to being available on smart-phones and tablets, the app will have an accompanying website for use on personal computers. Our second venture is to forge a new multidisciplinary research initiative within the OSU community and upper Ohio River region to compete for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) grant. This consortium will develop and integrate climate data and inform resource management and public policy throughout the Midwest.

Team Lead:

Bryan Mark, College of Arts and Sciences / Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center

Ohio State Partners:

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
OSU Extension
Office of Energy and Environment

External Partners:

weatherUSA, LLC

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Energy and Environment
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Connecting the Dots to Economic and Cultural Revitalization in Fayette County, Ohio

Connecting the Dots to Economic and Cultural Revitalization in Fayette County, Ohio will use community engagement interventions with various art practices to investigate the local culture of Washington Court House and other villages in Fayette County. This planning process will bring together multiple partners from Fayette County and Ohio State to design opportunities and interventions (such as storytelling, interviews, community discussion forums, brainstorming sessions, and art making) that will lead towards sustainable economic revitalization efforts.

It is our intention that this project will result in a customized and scalable process that will enable Fayette County towns and villages to stimulate economic development using art and culture as a foundational intervention in rural areas to improve quality of life and well-being. Specifically, this project is designed to serve rural Ohioans in Washington Court House, Bloomingburg and Jeffersonville in Fayette County. In joining colleagues from around the country (including Cooperative Extension Offices from the Universities of Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin, Oregon and Iowa State Universities, Imagining America's Extension Reconsidered, and, most recently, the Kettering Foundation's Rural Issue Guide) to explore rural economic development, collaborators are looking for best practices that incorporate art and culture interventions in economic revitalization efforts in rural American towns and counties.

Team Leads:

Sonia BasSheva Manjon, College of Arts and Sciences
Godwin Tayese Apaliyah, Director, Fayette County Economic Development & Ohio State Community Development Extension Educator, Fayette County

Ohio State Partners:

College of Arts and Sciences/Barnett Center
College of Arts and Sciences/Center for Folklore Studies
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
University Extension Community Development

External Partners:

Fayette County Travel and Tourism
City of Washington Court House/Main Street Group
Fayette County Commission
Bloomingburg Mayor's Office
Jeffersonville Mayor's Office
Fayette County Public Library
Fayette County Historical Society and Museum
Fayette County Economic Development
Fayette County Geographical Information System
The Print Shop, Record Herald Newspaper
White Fence Gallery
Creative Courthouse
Anima Viva Arts
Miami Trace School

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Service-Learning
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Costs and Benefits of Human-Animal Interactions for Rural Children

Are animals the solution to improving health in rural children? In developing countries, livestock are a source of income and nutrition that can improve food security and opportunities for households and children within them. However, diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of infant mortality in developing countries worldwide and is often zoonotic in origin, or transmitted between humans and animals. So how do the costs and benefits of human-animal interaction compare and do they vary cross-culturally? With a better understanding of the complex interplay between the costs and benefits of different interactions with different species in different settings, local and international development organizations and health-care providers could provide recommendations on the most beneficial use of animals within a particular culture and context to improve the lives and health of rural children. Through a collaborative partnership between The Ohio State University and the Autonomous National University of Nicaragua in Len, we will develop tools to study this issue and put our findings into practice in rural populations around the world.

Team Leads:

Rebecca Garabed, College of Veterinary Medicine
Jiyoung Lee, College of Public Health
Barbara Piperata, College of Arts and Sciences

OSU Partners:

College of Veterinary Medicine - Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
College of Arts and Sciences - Department of Anthropology
College of Public Health - Division of Environmental Health Sciences
College of Nursing

External Partners:

Center for Demography and Health (CIDS) at the Autonomous National University of Nicaragua in Len (UNAN-Len)

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

Infectious Diseases Discovery Theme
Global One Health
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Expand Experiential Learning Opportunities in Columbus City Schools through the GEM Program

Team Lead:

Patty Cunningham, Office of Student Life (Social Change)

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

Office of Service-Learning
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Generation Rx: Promoting Safe Medication Practices for Life

Prescription medications are among the most misused substances in the United States, and this phenomenon has resulted in myriad health, social, fiscal and legal consequences. For example, drug overdose is our country's leading cause of accidental death, and Ohio now leads the nation in the number of these deaths. Generation Rx is a medication safety initiative established by The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and the Cardinal Health Foundation to help address this phenomenon. This Connect and Collaborate Grant proof-of-concept project creates a new vision for a partnership between Generation Rx, OSU Extension, and the Kroger Company. We believe that it will engender long-term and sustainable relationships that will benefit the people of Ohio and beyond through activities to promote "safe medication practices for life."

Our initial efforts will focus on combating the opioid epidemic, which is one of Ohio's (and America's) most pressing public health concerns, using a two-pronged approach. First, the Opioid Patient Education Program will engage Kroger pharmacists in patient education activities when opioid medications are dispensed. Secondly, support will be provided in K-12 schools through OSU Extension for opioid safety instruction. These efforts will begin in Southeast Ohio to assess impact, plan for programmatic expansion, and establish a framework for addressing other medication safety issues moving forward. Ultimately, these relationships will take different forms to address the many medication-related issues that impact the drug-taking culture in which we live. The project will begin in January 2017 and conclude in December 2018.

Team Leads:

Kenneth Hale, College of Pharmacy
Nicole Kwiek, College of Pharmacy

Ohio State Partners:

College of Pharmacy
OSU Extension

External Partners:

Cardinal Health Foundation
Kroger Pharmacy

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Outreach and Engagement

LiFEsports Youth Leadership Academy: Helping Underserved Youth Be College and Career Ready

LiFEsports is a comprehensive youth development Initiative at The Ohio State University serving over 600 youth ages 918 annually through its flagship summer camp, year-round sports clinics, and the Youth Leadership Academy (YLA). The Initiative targets programming to reach vulnerable youth in the Columbus community, as over 80% of youth live in households at or below 200% of the poverty line. With the support of the Connect and Collaborate Planning Grant, the LiFEsports Initiative will focus efforts on improving the sustainability of the LiFEsports YLA. First developed in 2013, the YLA is designed to serve LiFEsports youth who have aged out of traditional summer camp programming.

The YLA promotes college and career readiness by engaging high school youth in yearround programming focused on building financial literacy, enhancing leadership skills, promoting college access, and fostering 21st-century skills. The YLA strives to support youth in enrolling in post-secondary education upon completion of high school. In 2016-17, 50 high school youth are enrolled in the YLA. Over the next two years, LiFEsports hopes to grow this program to serve 75 youth and provide more extensive programming. Through this planning grant, LiFEsports will begin a collaborative planning process with its community and University partners to determine effective avenues and opportunities to support LiFEsports in developing and maintaining the infrastructure necessary for the YLA and the LiFEsports Initiative at large. By increasing the sustainability of the YLA, the LiFEsports Initiative and its partners hope to continue to impact the lives of vulnerable youth in the Columbus community.

Team Lead:

Dawn Anderson-Butcher, College of Social Work

Ohio State Partners:

College of Social Work
Department of Athletics
Office of Student Life, Recreational Sports
OSU Extension
The Sports and Society Initiative
Undergraduate Research Office

External Partners:

Huntington National Bank
Columbus City Schools
Camp Mary Orton

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Pay as You Can: Restaurant, Marketplace, and Meal Delivery Service to Increase Access to Healthy Food in Marion, Ohio

Food insecurity is a persistent problem with staggering health implications. Over 14,000 Marion County residents (15.9%) are food insecure; the childhood food insecurity rate is 25.7%. Without affordable nutrition, Marion county families are forced to choose between food quantity and quality lending to untoward health outcomes: 32% of adults are obese; 47% of third graders have BMIs of 25 or greater (> 95th percentile). The objective of our project is to develop a replicable and sustainable model that can be instituted locally to address the food insecurity crisis. We will create a comprehensive plan for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a pay-as-you can restaurant, marketplace, and meal delivery service to be located in a renovated facility in downtown Marion, Ohio.

Unlike other food access options, the downtown location is accessible by public transportation to those most in need. Other social service and education providers will be recruited to occupy space and share services. The benefits of the project are far-reaching. Statewide and nationally, the project and its learnings will further development of this proof of concept for possible replication. This includes development of strong evaluation methods that can be offered as a service to new or existing initiatives. Once constructed, the restaurant and marketplace can contribute to improved health of adult patrons, including increased consumption of fruit and vegetables. The economy will be strengthened from greater commerce, added jobs, on-site employment training, and the drawdown of federal USDA cash reimbursements for meals catered to surrounding Head Start programs.

Team Leads:

Gail L. Kaye, College of Public Health
Whitney Gherman, Marion City Schools
Winnie Brewer, Marion City Schools

Ohio State Partners:

OSU Extension
Ohio State Marion
College of Public Health

External Partners:

Marion City Schools

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Outreach and Engagement

The Ohio Land Exchange (OH/LEX) Program

The Ohio Land Exchange (OH/LEX) program seeks to connect city and county land banks to the resources of The Ohio State University and its Extension educators. In Ohio, more than 20 cities with a population over 20,000 have seen significant declines in population, land use and economic activity over the last 30 years, making them "shrinking" or "legacy" cities (Greater Ohio Policy Center, 2016). In 2015, an Impact Grant from the Office of Outreach and Engagement funded the OH/LEX pilot-project in Lima, Ohio. This initial effort produced new forms of data on vacant land in Lima and advanced innovative approaches to engage stakeholders and highlight potential forms of vacant land reuse through the development of arts-based events and displays.

The OH/LEX program expands this approach by engaging city, county land bank and OSU Extension staff throughout the state to implement sophisticated social, technical and environmental strategies for the (re-)use of vacant land, especially in small- and mid-sized legacy cities. The OH/LEX team will organize a series of workshops for Extension and land bank staff to familiarize them with this new approach. In addition, the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis will assist with the development of an online portal that enables easy access to information about vacant and abandoned land. The goal of these two activities is to enable OSU Extension staff to deliver the OH/LEX approach to interested jurisdictions, supported by faculty and staff at Ohio State's Knowlton School of Architecture, School of Environment and Natural Resources and Center for Urban and Regional Analysis.

Team Lead:

Tijs Van Maasakkers, Knowlton School

Ohio State Partners:

Knowlton School - City and Regional Planning
Knowlton School - Landscape Architecture
School of Environment and Natural Resources
OSU Extension
Center for Urban and Regional Analysis
Lima Campus

External Partners:

City of Lima Department of Community Development
Allen County Land Bank
Downing Community Advisors

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

OSU Extension
Office of Outreach and Engagement

OSU and South Africa Collaborate to Fight Superbugs

There are 700,000 annual deaths worldwide attributable to infections caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens called 'superbugs" and if left unchecked will increase to 10 million by 2050. The world has overused, misused, and abused antibiotics in humans, animals, and agriculture. Human health takes the spotlight with superbugs now highly prevalent in common infections. Almost 50% of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary. Every unnecessary dose of antibiotics contributes to the escalating rate of superbugs. To improve the health of people, animals, and the environment we need a scalable and proven solution that can be implemented on a global basis. The United Nations issued a call to action for countries to implement antibiotic stewardship programs to address the spread of superbugs and overuse of antibiotics. In South Africa, a shortage of trained pharmacists in infectious diseases creates a challenge. OSU and South Africa implemented a train-the-trainer antibiotic stewardship pharmacist mentoring program in 2014. The six South African mentored pharmacists trained an additional 47 pharmacists. The results, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases show how pharmacists decreased antibiotic use in 47 hospitals across South Africa by 18%. The planning grant will assist in identifying sources to scale up the existing program and to answer key scalability questions.

Team Leads:

Debra Goff, College of Pharmacy
Julie Mangino, College of Medicine

Ohio State Partners:

College of Pharmacy
College of Medicine
Discovery Themes Infectious Diseases
Fisher College of Business

External Partners:

University of Cape Town Groote Schuur Hospital
Ampath National Lab
Netcare Hospitals Ltd
Sefako Makgatho University

Connect and Collaborate Funders:

Infectious Diseases Discovery Theme
Office of Outreach and Engagement

Mitigating Impacts of Mined Lands Through Re-Mining and Reclamation

This proposed study will be a collaboration to investigate the effects of reclamation through re-mining on the local hydrology and hydrogeology conditions, as well as the associated environmental and ecological benefits. The outcomes will provide quantitative justification to the mitigation of acid mine drainage achieved by reclamation through re-mining practice. It will also fill the knowledge gap of a currently ongoing re-mining study, titled Mitigating Impacts of Acid Mine Drainage from Legacy Mining through Secondary Coal Mining and Reclamation, funded by Ohio Coal Research Consortium (OCRC). By collaborating with Ohio coal mine operators and regulatory authorities it seeks to advance regulatory policies to increase mitigation of acid mine drainage through re-mining, assist regulatory authorities on creating a comprehensive regulatory framework that advances incentives, and reduce disincentives for coal mine operators to incorporate re-mining into their mine plans or as a stand-alone reclamation project.

Team Lead: Tarunjit Butalia, College of Engineering

Partners:

OSU College of Engineering
Ohio Department of Coal and Natural Resources
Ohio Coal Association
B&N Coal
Oxford Mining

$263,876 Awarded

OH/LEX: Ohio Land Exchange

The Ohio Land Exchange (OH/LEX) proposes to develop a set of interactive methods to engage communities and individuals in decision-making around vacant land in Ohio. Abandoned buildings and vacant parcels are a common site in many of Ohios cities and towns. OH/LEX will help communities re-imagine their decision-making processes around vacant land by including a broader group of stakeholders and introducing new ways of deriving value from vacant land. OH/LEX seeks to maximize local governments ability to protect public health and safety by effectively shifting the use of abandoned properties from tax deficiencies into productive lands.

Team Lead: Prof. Kristi Cheramie, Knowlton School of Architecture

Partners:

OSU Knowlton School of Architecture
OSU College of Public Health
OSU-Lima
OSU Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering
The STEAM Factory
The City of Lima, OH

Establishing a Green Home Technology Center: An OSU and Community Partnership for Research, Education, and Demonstration of Green Building Technologies to Support Healthy, Energy Efficient, and Sustainable Housing in Ohio

Reducing energy consumption and the associated environmental impact is a significant challenge we are facing. New green technologies that reduce home energy consumption and improve indoor environmental quality will provide a tremendous opportunity to reduce financial burdens on households, mitigate climate change, and increase the nations energy security. The goal of this project is to establish a Green Home Technology Center (GHTC) through partnerships with homeowners, builders, and professionals, and to demonstrate and disseminate effective green home technologies for a transformational change in residential energy consumption and environment impact.

Team Lead: Prof. Lingying Zhao, College of Food Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Partners:

OSU Office of Energy and Environment
OSU College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
OSU Extension
OSU College of Engineering
OSU Knowlton School of Architecture
New Albany Plain-Local School District
The USGBC of Central Ohio
Efficiency Smart American Municipal Power, Inc.
Buckeye Power, Inc.
Ohio Energy Office
Habitat for Humanity MidOhio

smART::ART Integrated Formal and Informal STEAM Education

Engineering is an inherently creative process. In concert with the mission of the Engagement Impact Grant, this proposal seeks to engage underrepresented populations in those creative processes and in so doing, generate a better understanding of the interrelated domains of engineering, science, technology, and visual art. Due to fear and/or lack of exposure to STEM concepts at a young age many creative people shy away from anything STEM-related and self-select the arts. The project will create a pool of students and teachers who think critically about multi-faceted issues, make informed decisions, and solve problems creatively using engineering skills and habits of mind. Ultimately, the partners seek to create scientifically, technologically, and mathematically literate citizens who pursue lifelong learning opportunities within the future STEM workforce.

Team Lead: Prof. Deborah Grzybowski, College of Engineering

Partners:

OSU College of Engineering
OSU College of Education and Human Ecology
COSI
Beta by Design
Hilltonia Middle School
Metro Early College Middle School

Connecting People, Education, Services and Quality of Life: Preparing Service Coordinators to Respond to the Enhanced Needs of an Ever-Increasing Low Income Aging Population

Affordable housing communities are home to some of our countrys most vulnerable older adults who are most often in need of health and social services support. Service Coordinators, who are most often located in these communities, have traditionally acted as a resource for referrals to community-based services, guiding older adults with increasing levels of frailty toward needed services to maintain independent living. In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the fragmentation and lack of coordination of health and social services for older adults, with one result being identified strategies in the Affordable Care Act to fund programs that would coordinate care with a more cost effective and person centered-focus.

Team Lead: Linda Mauger, College of Medicine

Partners:

OSU College of Medicine
OSU College of Public Health
OSU College of Social Work
OSU Department of Communications
OSU Center for Integrative Health and Wellness
American Association of Service Coordinators
Fantine Academic and Career Training Services
Howard University School of Social Work
Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging

Adult Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Integrating TBI Education Into the Curricula, Creating a More Prepared Social Service System

Social Workers are frequently called upon to provide services to clients who have had a TBI, yet information about identifying TBI and accommodating its effects has not been widely integrated into Social Work education. In recent years, the importance of assessing and tailoring services for individuals impacted by TBI has been noted by researchers and practitioners working in fields as diverse as child welfare, veterans services, criminal justice, mental health, and substance abuse. As primary providers of social services in these and other settings, it is critically important that Social Workers acquire the skills to assess lifetime history of TBI, understand the long term implications, modify services as needed, and refer clients for additional health care services if warranted. This proposal will develop systematic approach to raise awareness of future professionals attending the OSU College of Social Work as well as other Social Work training programs in Ohio, provide these students with new skills for identification and accommodation of TBI and associated Executive function weaknesses, and develop a plan for replication of this model in the curricula of other health and social service professionals throughout Ohio and across the nation.

Team Lead: Prof. John Corrigan, College of Medicine

Partners:

OSU College of Medicine, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
OSU College of Social Work
OSU Department of Communications
OSU Center for Integrative Health and Wellness
Brain Injury Association of Ohio
National Association of Social Workers, Ohio Chapter
BrainLine at WETA
Give an Hour
Association of Service Coordinators
Fantine Academic and Career Training Services
Howard University School of Social Work
Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging

Utilizing Assistive Technology to Help Students with Disabilities Succeed

This project seeks to increase access to Assistive Technology (AT) for students with disabilities through research, consultation/training for educators and students, and community outreach. The team will work toward improving outcomes for students with disabilities through the use of AT in educational and vocational settings. The project will support research studies to build the evidence-base for the effectiveness of AT for students with intellectual disabilities, provide AT consultations for students and staff regarding the use of AT with students with intellectual disabilities, and disseminate information about the benefits of AT in both research and community settings in the Columbus area and around the country.

Team Lead: Prof. Marilee Martens, OSU College of Medicine / Nisonger Center / Dept. of Psychology

Partners:

OSU College of Education and Human Ecology
OSU College of Medicine
OSU College of Arts and Sciences
OSU Nisonger Center
Williams Syndrome Association
Berkshire Hills Music Academy
Anoka-Hennepin School District
Philadelphia School District(s)

Creating a Canopy: Measuring Impact of Tree Planting in Weinland Park

One characteristic that often defines beautiful and desirable urban neighborhoods is plenty of trees. In keeping with the Universitys commitment to revitalize the Weinland Park neighborhood, this project seeks to increase the tree canopy, engage neighborhood youth in planting new trees, and quantify the environmental, social, and economic impact of these efforts. To increase the number of trees, support summer youth employment in Weinland Park, and measure the impact of urban reforestation, this proposed project would facilitate a planting program that engages residents, property owners, neighborhood organizations, academia, and institutional partners.

Team Lead: Prof. Maria Manta Conroy, OSU Knowlton School of Architecture

Partners:

OSU Knowlton School of Architecture
OSU Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA)
OSU College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
OSU Extension
Columbus Foundation
Community Properties of Ohio
Godman Guild Association
Neighborhood Design Center
Weinland Park Community Civic Association

$316,714 Awarded

OSU and South Africa Collaborate to Combat Antibiotic Resistant "Superbugs"

Antibiotic resistance is a complex global health care crisis requiring a multifaceted solution with trans-disciplinary approaches and global partnerships. To address this challenge, hospitals are implementing antibiotic stewardship programs (ASP), multidisciplinary teams led by specialty trained infectious disease physicians and pharmacists, and include microbiologists and infection control preventionists. The OSU ASP is recognized nationally and internationally for its ability to improve patients' lives through the judicious use of antibiotics. By collaborating through this program to train and mentor South African pharmacists, it will provide them with the necessary skills to become active in establishing their own ASPs.

Team Lead: Debra Goff, College of Pharmacy

Partners:
OSU College of Pharmacy
OSU College of Veterinary Medicine
OSU College of Medicine
OSU Wexner Medical Center
Medicine University of Cape Town Groote Schuur Hospital
Ampath National Laboratory Services, South Africa
Department of Medicine, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Netcare, Ltd.

Bold Booths: A New Strategy to Engage Columbus and its Infrastructures

The project interjects thought-provoking and functional architectural installations in downtown Columbus' more banal spaces: surface parking lots. It involves collaboration between faculty and students from the university with other organizations supporting ColumbusPublicArt, as well as leading professional designers. These new booths, once valued merely for their ability to watch over vehicles in exchange for dollar bills and credit card swipes, will become exchange points in the city for exploration of public art.

Team Lead: Beth Blostein, Knowlton School of Architecture

Partners:
OSU Knowlton School of Architecture
OSU College of Engineering
OSU College of Arts and Sciences
Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District

Creation of the Central Ohio Community Technology Clinic

The Community Technology Clinic is an interdisciplinary collaborative endeavor, serving as a haven within an under-served Columbus-area neighborhood to enable the design of novel technological solutions, tailored to the needs of community members, provide course-work and research opportunities for faculty and students, and serve as an instrument of change in addressing immediate needs of residents. Ultimately, transformational change will occur through improvement of services to neighborhood residents through the innovative application of technology.

Team Lead: Kevin Passino, College of Engineering

Partners:
OSU College of Engineering
OSU College of Social Work
OSU College of Education and Human Ecology
Columbus Coalition for the Homeless
Catholic Social Services
Healthy Worthington Resource Center and Food Pantry

Ghana Sustainable Change Program

This is an interdisciplinary service-learning study abroad program that provides culturally sensitive, localized district planning to assist the Offinso North District in meeting the challenges of population growth. The program focuses on working hand-in-hand with the community, that includes a pre-travel, interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate OSU students to determine a series of focus projects including housing, mapping and land use planning, water, sanitation, public health, agriculture, and more. In May session, students travel to the Offinso North District to implement these projects in collaboration with local teams of District staff and university students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Team Lead: Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Knowlton School of Architecture, with coordination from City and Regional Planning Section

Partners:
OSU College of Engineering
OSU Knowlton School of Architecture
OSU College of Public Health
OSU Center for African Studies
OSU School of Environmental and Natural Resources
OSU Fisher College of Business
OSU Office of International Affairs
Offinso North District Assembly
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Brong Ahafo (Ghana) Association of Columbus, Ohio
planning NEXT
University of California at Berkeley
Habitat for Humanity, Mid-Ohio
Ghana International Organization for Migration and United States Association for International Migration
Ghana Sustainable Change Program Alumni

Inclusive and Equitable Neighborhood Revitalization on Columbus' Southside: A University and Community Partnership to Assure Diversity and Inclusion in the Neighborhood's Renaissance

This program will leverage the partnership with local neighborhood leadership, to apply Ohio State's expertise and analytical capabilities to bring about a Renaissance on Columbus' south side. The partnership will bolster the neighborhood's diversity through inclusive community planning and neighborhood engagement that builds a bridge of social capital among the community's diverse populations. As the Renaissance emerges, this initiative hopes to produce an equitable and opportunity- rich community and also provide a model of re-vitalization for neighborhoods locally and nationally.

Team Lead: Jason Reece, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Partners:
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
OSU Moritz College of Law
OSU John Glenn School for Public Affairs
Community Development for All People

Understanding Barriers to Reproductive Health Care Among Somali Women in Columbus, Ohio

Somali immigrants in the US have low levels of preventative health care utilization. Particularly for women, lack of utilization of reproductive health services has negative impacts for women directly, and for their children, families and the community as a whole. Through qualitative research with Somali women in Columbus, this study will assess barriers to reproductive healthcare utilization. We will consider, for example, how cultural and language differences, low medical literacy, and discrimination may create barriers to healthcare for immigrant women. Through engagement with members of the Somali community, we will develop evidence-based, culturally-acceptable programmatic interventions to improve care around prenatal care, births, STI treatment, and cervical cancer prevention.

Team Lead: Alison Norris, College of Public Health

Partners:
OSU College of Public Health
OSU College of Medicine
Center for Somali Women's Advancement
District Office for Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, 3rd Ohio Congressional District
Columbus Public Health
Community Relations, City of Columbus
Barbara K. Brandt, Inc.

Camp NERF (Nutrition Education Recreation and Fitness): A Summer Intervention Designed to Empower Disadvantaged Children to Make Healthy Dietary and Physical Activity Choices and Prevent Unhealthy Weight Gain

Childhood obesity negatively affects the physical and mental health of the child, and also academic success. Many school-aged children experience unhealthy weight gain during the summer. There is a need for evidence-based nutrition and physical activity programs to equip children with the knowledge, skills, and resources to prevent unhealthy weight gain during this time. Camp NERF is an innovative, theory-based 10-week daily nutrition and physical activity summer program, grounded in an existing, evidence-based curriculum and infused with cognitive behavioral techniques, designed to help reverse this trend in underserved school-aged children. The goal is for Camp NERF to become the prototype summer program to achieve optimal nutrition, physical activity and wellness in school-aged children across the nation.

Team Lead: Carolyn Gunther, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

Partners:
OSU College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
OSU Extension
OSU College of Medicine
OSU College of Education and Human Ecology
OSU College of Nursing
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Children's Hunger Alliance

$300,000 Awarded

Making a Difference Program

A critical component of Healthy People 2020, is to eliminate health disparities that stem from the interplay of the environmental, biologic, and social determinants of health.

Mark Twain said, The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Through the proposed Making a Difference Program, The Ohio State University College of Nursing will partner with a Near East Side community organization, Making a Difference, Inc., in the first step of getting started.

This program will develop and implement a synergistic model of community and civic engagement for improvements in health and wellness by creating a steering committee and advisory board, implementing health screenings, participating in community events, developing a community-engaged model for research and scholarship, and seeding community agency-initiated innovation projects.

The program will encourage alignment of complementary resources to augment capacity, create trans-disciplinary teams, maximize research and educational advancement within the College of Nursing, and increase and guide community partners through sustained, mutually-beneficial relationships.

Partners:

College of Nursing
Making a Difference, Inc.
The Eldon and Elsie Ward Family YMCA

The Science of Language: Using Language Sciences to Promote Science Education at COSI

The Science of Language seeks to expand a combined research and science education project sited in the "language pod" exhibit at the Center for Science and Industry in Columbus. The pod is one of three glass enclosed research spaces that enable museum visitors to witness and participate in actual scientific research on language.

Inside language pod, faculty from the Buckeye Language Network (BLN) conduct state-of-the-art research on how people acquire and represent language mentally, how language is produced and understood in real-time, and how it contributes to reasoning about social patterns of language use.

Ohio State students make this an interactive enterprise by engaging with COSI visitors outside of the pod to demonstrate concepts from the science of language through the use of portable exhibits and several research toys created collaboratively by Buckeye Language Network members. The demonstrations provide accessible, interactive illustrations of concepts, ranging from basic physical and biological facts about speech to complex phenomena such as how language conveys meaning from one mind to another.

The project will provide students the opportunity to share the excitement of scientific explanation with COSI visitors, who in turn will be able to observe research in progress, participate in actual studies, and learn about the interpretation of research results.

Partners:

College of Arts and Sciences
Center for Science and Industry (COSI)

Women in Engineering Robotics Outreach Initiative

The Women in Engineering (WiE) Robotics Outreach Initiative (ROI) is a collaborative partnership that leverages existing Ohio State University programs and the expertise of three nationally recognized community partners - TECH CORPS, the Teaching and Learning Collaborative (TLC), and the STEM Equity Pipeline Project.

The WiE ROI initiative will impact educators and students on a state-wide, national, and international level. With the help of TECH CORPS, TLC, and the STEM Equity Pipeline, the program will host three community workshops for educators seeking to start programs for 4th through 8th grade students.

These workshops will provide technical content, information on gender equity and diversity, and best practices to encourage girls into STEM and develop 21st century learning skills. The program also will develop training materials to assist up to 20 new FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams across Ohio, potentially reaching more than 200 young students, with the assistance of more than 100 current Ohio State University student mentors.

The more than 30 educators and FLL mentors from Ohio State University and industry will be trained on how to start teams, ways to integrate core subjects especially math - into FLL team tasks, and sustain their efforts.

Those educators who attend workshops will have an opportunity to reach more than 1,500 future students in STEM, and 45,000 students overall.

The programs success will focus on WiE partners and student mentors, who play an integral role in initiating and sustaining the project through integrated education, research, and outreach programs to inspire and increase STEM knowledge of K-8 teachers.

Partners:

College of Engineering
TECH CORPS
The Teaching and Learning Collaborative
The Ohio STEM Equity Pipeline Project

Health Science Frontiers: Advancing Public Engagement

As the health sciences advance at a swift pace the question arises about whether the public has the requisite community resources to make informed decisions about their health. At the same time, to be effective communicators, health experts must engage directly with the public to fully understand local community needs.

Building on an existing collaboration, Health Science Frontiers addresses community needs around health science literacy by creating a series of up to eight televised public forums. Each forum will include a panel discussion about a health science issue with a broad array of experts including scientists, communicators, reporters, medical providers, ethicists, advocates, and policy-makers.

The structure of these forums is designed to encourage two-way communication between experts and the public. In each forum, a discussion between invited experts about a specific health topic will be moderated by a WOSU journalist. The panel discussion will take place before a live studio audience of about 100 attendees at WOSU@COSI and will include members of the general public and invited educators and medical professionals.

Audiences will pose questions to the panel and engage in a public dialogue. Each forum will be taped and edited into a 60-minute episode aired later on WOSU TV during primetime, with an estimated audience of nearly 20,000 viewers per episode.

As a means to provide a permanent community resource a project webpage, created in partnership with WOSU and COSI, will post each episode and provide additional educational resources about health science issues.

Partners:

School of Communication/College of Arts and Sciences
College of Medicine
The Research Institute at Nationwide Childrens Hospital
WOSU@COSI
The Center for Science and Industry (COSI)

Moms2B

The Moms2B mission is to empower pregnant women in high risk neighborhoods to deliver full-term healthy babies by providing weekly group sessions focused on education, nutrition, clinical and social support that continues through the babys first year of life.

Moms2B addresses disparities in health and social determinants through weekly group sessions and builds bridges to prenatal care and community resources.

Each session includes pregnant and parenting women and a multidisciplinary team of physicians, midwives, nurses, social workers, medical dieticians and lactation consultants. Faculty and students from OSU and Nationwide Childrens Hospital lead and support the groups along with nurses from the Columbus Public Health Caring for 2 programs in collaboration with community partners, student interns and volunteers.

Partners:

College of Medicine
College of Social Work
College of Nursing
Office of Outreach and Engagement
OSU Extension
College of Education and Human Ecology
Schoenbaum Family Center
Nationwide Childrens Hospital
Ohio Better Birth Outcomes (OBBO)
The Columbus Foundation
CareSource Foundation
J.P.Morgan Chase Foundation
The Kroger Company
Proctor and Gamble
Kiwanis Columbus
MEDTAPP
The Governors Office of Community and Faith Based Initiatives
Columbus Public Health
Caring for 2
Weinland Park Collaborative
Grace Missionary Baptist Church
Christ Memorial Baptist Church
Broad Street Presbyterian Church
Temple Israel
Godman Guild
American Red Cross
Mid-Ohio Food Bank
New Directions Career Center.

OSU-Ethiopia Outreach and Needs Assessment on Rabies Elimination: One Health Prototype for Zoonotic Diseases Control

Rabies is one of the most significant zoonotic viral diseases in Africa, causing high morbidity and mortality in both humans and animals.

In sub-Saharan Africa, rabies continues to be a major public health concern, and Ethiopia has one of the highest rabies incidence rates on the continent.

The One Health initiative addresses one of the most significant infectious diseases of global public health importance and brings together diverse disciplines including public health, veterinary medicine, ecology, epidemiology, microbiology, social science, and communication toward a common goal of eliminating rabies in the region.

This project will focus on developing plans to eliminate incidences of rabies in Gondar, Ethiopia, while enhancing sustainable partnerships to make a significant global impact in the area of One Health.

Partners:

College of Veterinary Medicine
College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
College of Public Health
University of Gondar (Ethiopia)
Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Federal Ministry of Health and Agriculture, Ethiopia
Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority
African Union
Pan African Vaccine Institute

The STEAM Factory: Outreach and Engagement

The STEAM Factory is an initiative of Ohio State University faculty, post-doctoral students and staff who seek to promote interdisciplinary collaboration across the university community in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, and disseminate research, technology and pedagogy through creative methods of reaching a broad audience.

One forum for public engagement currently used by The STEAM Factory is the multi-purpose facility located at 400 W. Rich Street, in the East Franklinton area of Columbus. During the Spring Semester of 2013 at the bi-weekly 400 W. Rich Winter Market, STEAM Factory members showcased their work, leading to direct interaction between OSU researchers and the local community.

Now, the STEAM Factory is looking to expand its range of activities by establishing a more permanent presence in Franklinton that contributes toward greater outreach between Ohio State and the Columbus community by hosting workshops and public lectures, conducting collaborative research, and showcasing current research to local school and community groups.

The STEAM Factorys presence among the artists and artisans at 400 W. Rich, in proximity to downtown Columbus, COSI and the future site of the Columbus Idea Foundry also supports the possibility for developing a hub of creativity and technology in Franklinton.

Partners:

College of Arts and Sciences
College of Medicine
University Libraries
College of Engineering
ACCAD
Franklinton Development Association
400 West Rich

$160,000 Awarded

Developing FleetCalc to Reshape Our Nations Vehicle Fleets

Fleet owners now have a plethora of fuel options, vehicle types and technologies to choose from. There is a huge amount of information available on these options, some of which is contradictory, hard to compare, misleading or false. This same gauntlet is faced by policy makers who look to formulate strategies to accomplish a particular goal, or who wonder what the implications are of a particular program or initiative.

Complex fleet calculators have been developed giving fleet owners detailed information on the implications of a particular vehicle option. These fleet calculators require large amounts of data, and their results are complex and difficult to interpret. In contrast, this initiative will develop a simple-to-use software tool called FleetCalc that would: provide policy makers with a high level look at the results of a given policy, enable scoping studies by fleet owners to identify vehicle options of high interest, and provide educational information on available options in a clear, concise and consistent manor.

FleetCalc objectives include: (1) provide the ability to rank vehicle options in a variety of ways; (2) give an overview analysis while still providing accurate guidance; (3) allow the user to get good results with simple inputs; (4) provide policy level outputs and guidance; (5) provide a fleet owner with the capability of doing a high level scoping analysis; and (6) give educational guidance in the forms of hyperlinks, videos, and linked reports to help the user gain a solid overview of each option.

Partners:

Giorgio Rizzoni, Center for Automotive Research and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Beth-Anne Schuelke-Leech, John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Jim Durand and Vincenzo Marano, Center for Automotive Research

Pay It Forward Marion

As part of The Ohio State University, Marions course-based, service-learning initiative, Pay It Forward Marions (PIFM), this projects purpose is to promote civic engagement in at least six English courses ranging from beginner to advanced and to improve the local community through skill-based service and philanthropy.

Beginning writers will apply their burgeoning research, writing, and rhetorical skills by examining community needs and developing fundraisers to increase available funds.

Their findings and funds will be passed along to intermediate writing students, who will research and volunteer at local non-profit organizations responding to the identified community needs, promote the PIFM project, and collect RFPs. Students in advanced classes will receive these materials, analyze proposals, engage in more in-depth research at the non-profits seeking funds, and create multimodal arguments about how to distribute the funds.

Students will be able to provide $14,000 per year in grants to the community and conduct and record primary research by borrowing digital voice recorders. At an annual celebration where students will not only award grants to selected community organizations, but they will also discuss their research, their volunteer projects, and ultimately what contributed to their final decisions.

Partners:

Stuart Lishan, Ben McCorkle, Cassandra Parente, Alexis Martina, Amy Tibbals, Catherine C. Braun, English
Pam Stone, United Way of Marion County

Shakespeare and Autism: Intervention in the Columbus Community

The Ohio State University/Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) partnership is developing a ground-breaking, collaborative research project between Ohio State Theatre and the Nisonger Center.

Taking its cue from the RSCs innovative Stand Up for Shakespeare pedagogy, the project engages the question of whether drama - particularly Shakespeare - can break through the communicative blocks of autism and whether this therapeutic intervention has long-term benefits. This project includes a full, randomized control study of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study will begin with community partner, Columbus City Schools, in autumn 2012 and continue through spring 2015.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that drama-based intervention is a useful tool to improve the core symptoms of ASD in children and adolescents. However, such intervention has not been tested in a large-scale, randomized, wait-list control trial.

The team will collaborate with Kelly Hunter, a leading RSC actress, who has worked with children and young people with ASD for 20 years. Her signature approach, the Hunter Heartbeat Method, pairs the recitation of Shakespeares rhythmic language with physical gesture in a way that is accessible to those with ASD.

Kelly Hunter and Robin Post, Ohio States project director, have trained a team of Ohio State graduate and undergraduate theatre students in the implementation of Kellys method. This group has been involved in a pilot project working with a group of middle school children with ASD and the pilot has provided the foundation for the full-scale study. A new team of undergraduate and graduate theatre students will receive the training and this team will work with the new group of children with ASD while the proposed research is conducted. Plans are underway to develop a service-learning course at Ohio State to ensure that this work continues into the future.

Partners:

Lesley Ferris, Theatre and OSU/Royal Shakespeare Co. Programs
Marc J. Tass, Psychology, Psychiatry and Nisonger Center
Mary Ey, Columbus Public Schools Student Support Services
Amy Hess, Nationwide Childrens Hospital Autism Treatment Network

Identifying Social & Cultural Barriers to Food Security in Nicaragua

With approximately 1 billion people world-wide suffering from lack of adequate access to food, food insecurity and maternal-child malnutrition remain critical health issues in poor communities around the world. This project aims to address this pressing need in poor communities in Nicaragua (the 2nd poorest country in the Western hemisphere) through an outreach through research approach.

This effort will involve local researchers and community members in a much-needed food security and health study in Len, Nicaragua, and in outreach efforts that provide evidence-based feedback to the local communities about these health issues.

The teams outreach approach is multi-level, with proposed activities aimed at increasing the capabilities of local community members, enhancing the skills of local research partners, and establishing a new partnership with a local university.

The immediate outcome of the project will be the identification of barriers to food security and child health in poor communities in Len, Nicaragua, while elevating Ohio States visibility as an international research and outreach university engaging in policy relevant food security and health research and outreach.

In the long-term, this project will yield invaluable future opportunities for Ohio State students and faculty to engage with local communities in research, learning and service in an international setting, where food insecurity and child malnutrition present serious threats to individuals well-being and require the development of new evidence-based and locally-relevant solutions.

Partners:

Barbara Piperata, Anthropology
Kammi Schmeer, Sociology
Andrs Herrera and Mariano Salazar, Center for Demographic and Health Research (Len, Nicaragua)

$179,949 Awarded

Community Memory Screening and Education for Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia: An OSU-Alzheimer's Association Collaboration

As the baby boomer generation ages the prevalence of dementia diagnoses such as Alzheimer's disease(AD) have increased dramatically. Current advances in the early detection of and medical treatments for dementia provide hope for addressing the devastating consequences of these diseases. The purpose of this project is develop the infrastructure for creating a state-wide network of diagnostic, educational, and treatment services for Ohioans who are facing the challenges of memory loss due to dementia. A pilot program of community memory screenings paired with educational presentations will be offered in collaboration with the Central Ohio Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, which currently serves 14 counties in central Ohio.

The development and evaluation of screening and educational modules will lead to the implementation in future years of a Train-the-Trainer approach to replicating the program across the state with other partners, including the other 6 Chapters of the Ohio Alzheimer's Association currently serving all 88 Ohio counties (Appendix C). The desired outcomes of this project include the increased rate of early diagnosis and treatment of dementia, the increased opportunity for individuals to participate in research projects focused on Mild Cognitive Impairment and dementia, the increased knowledge of dementia and its consequences by program participants, an increase in the numbers of professionals, caregivers, students, and the public who received dementia specifictraining, and a sustainable network of diagnostic, research, educational, and treatment services for Ohioans at risk for dementia.

Partners:

Michelle S. Bourgeois, Ph.D., Professor, Speech & Hearing Science
Douglas Scharre, MD, OSU Memory Disorders Clinic, College of Medicine
Ken Strong, Alzheimer Association, Central Ohio chapter

The Columbus Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) at The Ohio State University

The Schweitzer Fellows Program provides community service fellowships for graduate and professional students in health-related fields who are dedicated to addressing unmet health needs in their local areas. The mission is to develop "leaders in service": individuals who are dedicated and skilled in addressing the health needs of underserved communities, and whose example influences and inspires others.

Partners:

Terry Bahn, EdD, College of Medicine
Lisa Durham, MSW, College of Social Work
Rev. James Childs, Jr., Ph.D., Trimity Lutheran Seminary
Bill Ownes, LISW, ACSW, Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resouce Center
Qiana Williams, Human Services Chamber of Franklin County

DEALL K-12 Chinese Outreach

Since 2007, the Chinese Flagship program has been operating an ambitious outreach program intended to increase the number of K-12 students taking Chinese in Ohio. Through ongoing dialog with the Ohio Board of Regents this program has now been joined to a larger effort to improve the quality of Chinese education in the state through an OSU certification and licensure program delivered principally via distance learning. The grant being requested here will provide seed funding that will lay the foundation for the entire effort.

Parnters:

Galal Walker, Professor, Department of East Asian Langues and Literatures
Robert Bowers, Franklin County Educational Council
Marcy Raymond, MA, Metro Early College High School
Zhiwei Bi, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures

Sustainable Futures for Linden Village: A Model for Increasing the Social Capital and the Quality of Life in an Urban Neighborhood

The proposed "Sustainable Futures for Linden Village" project is a partnership between OSU Faculty in the Colleges of Engineering, Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Greater Linden Development Corporation (GLDC). It supports the realization of community-defined priorities for affordable green, energy efficient housing development, job training opportunities, homeowner assistance with renovation, and practical, hands-on learning environments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills development for local students. Specifically, this project is closely related to a comprehensive local redevelopment effort, the Linden Village Initiative, designed to revitalize and improve a target urban area surrounding the Linden McKinley STEM Academy on Duxberry Avenue. This initiative integrates urban revitalization, home rehabilitation, energy retrofit, repair and maintenance with sustainable development goals. The OSU project team and involved students will play several roles in the initiative through integrated research, education, and outreach programs that will enhance local revitalization efforts by providing technical assistance to the community and increasing the awareness, knowledge, and skills of local community residents, teachers/students, and organizations in sustainable community and housing development.

Partners:

Jesus J. Lara, PhD, Department of Landscape Architecture
Qian Chen, Ph.D., LEED AP, Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Charisma Acey, PhD, Department of City and Regional Planning and The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Donna J. Hicho, Greater Linden Development Corporation
Michael Wilkos, The Columbus Foundation

Take a Loved One to the Doctor: African American Diabetes Management and Preventive Care Initiative

OSU Medical Center has established its first multicultural partnership with the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show's Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day campaign. The campaign's purpose is to impact African-American health disparities and encourage annual visits to the doctor, thus preventing health problems and treat existing issues.

The Medical Center's initiative will educate African Americans on cultural health disparities and promote preventive care. Additionally, the concept of becoming the example for your family will be heavily promoted, with techniques taught for leading a healthier lifestyle, making smart choices and visiting the doctor regularly.

This grant will act as an extension of the Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day campaign, with a focus on diabetes. The local African American population in Franklin County will be targeted, with a high concentration on the 43205 and 43203 zip codes. The Columbus Health Department's 2004 Healthy Neighborhood Report concluded that in the predominantly African American populated area of the near east side of Columbus, diabetes is the leading health problem. The study reported that African American men had the highest mortality rate for the state of Ohio.

Partners:

Dorian Harriston, MA, Department of Strategic Communications & Marketing
Patti Johnson, Reach media, Inc.
Ryan Johnson, MPH, Columbus Office of Minority Health/Columbus Public Health
Annie Ross-Womack, Longstreet Businessmen's Association, Inc.
Judson J. Jeffries, Ph.D., OSU African American Studies Community Extension Center
Kim Jordan, Eldon and Elsie Ward Family YMCA
Kwame Osei, MD, College of Medicine
Wanda Dillard, MS, The Ohio State University Medical Center
Trudy Gaillard, PhD, College of Medicine
Cara Harris, MS, College of Medicine
Melanie Paris-Arum, The Ohio State University Medical Center
Dawn Tyler-Lee, MA, OSU/City of Columbus East Side Project

$190,000 Awarded

Columbus Public Art 2012

This initiative will develop and mount an exhibition of public artworks, installations, and events on the occasion of the 2012 celebration of the bicentennial of Columbus, Ohio. Ten to fifteen regional, national, and international artists will be commissioned to create site-specific work to activate the core downtown area between spring and fall 2012. The initiative represents a collaborative effort on the part of the university, Columbuss major visual arts institutions, and the City of Columbus. Art in public spaces can provide exhilarating and spontaneous encounters for a broad audience and engage individuals who would otherwise not consider going to a museum or gallery. Especially in conjunction with the bicentennial, it will open a new chapter for art in public spaces in Columbus.

Partners:

Malcolm Cochran, College of Arts & Humanities (OSU Department of Art)
Wexner Center for the Arts
The Arts Initiative at Ohio State
City of Columbus: Columbus Art Commission, Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District, Office of Mayor Michael B. Coleman
Experience Columbus
Greater Columbus Arts Council
Columbus Museum of Art
Otterbein University
Columbus College of Art & Design

Columbus Violence Prevention Collaborative

Youth violence is a serious public health problem that compromises the healthy development of youth and communities. Advances in research have identified numerous prevention and intervention strategies that are effective for reducing youth violence and promoting healthy adolescent development in high-crime neighborhoods. Effective partnerships between university researchers and community stakeholders hold promise for strengthening the capacity of stakeholders to implement evidence-based violence prevention strategies. Aligned with Ohio State's land-grant mission, this research project will build the capacity for innovation among individuals, organizations, and the community to further the development of a holistic, multi-system, community-based, and data-driven intervention approach. Further, the Columbus Violence Prevention Collaborative (CVPC) aims to reduce and prevent serious violence through a multi-phase process. The goals will be met through a joint learning process, which is an expansion of current work of the OSU Youth Violence Prevention Advisory Board (YVPAB).

Partners:

Deanna Wilkinson and James L. Moore III, College of Education and Human Ecology
Keith Gooch, College of Engineering
Ola Ahlqvist, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Angela Harvey, Sociology, Ohio State Newark
OSU Researchers and Members of the OSU Youth Violence Prevention Advisory Board, including community youth and residents, faith leaders, non-profit organizations, government agencies, health, mental health, education, business, law enforcement, juvenile justice, courts, corrections, and state policy leaders

Homeownership Investment Program

The proposed Homeownership Investment Program is a high-impact community outreach program evolving out of an ongoing partnership between the John Glenn School of Public Affairs and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, in collaboration with an experienced team of university extension faculty. This outreach program will build on the Ohio Housing Finance Agencys successful affordable mortgage program and educational services for homebuyers by adding an interactive online financial planning module and providing phone-based financial counseling services for the first year after home purchase. The overarching goal is to equip Ohioans with the financial planning skills necessary to sustain homeownership, build savings, and obtain long-term financial security. The effectiveness of this outreach program will be evaluated by creating several treatment groups that receive different combinations of financial planning services. The results of this innovative outreach program will provide replicable, evidence-based practices to improve the Ohio Housing Finance Agencys homebuyer program and to be shared as a model for policy and practice at the local, state, and national level.

Partners:

Stephanie Moulton, The John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Czilia Loibl, College of Education and Human Ecology, OSU Extension
Michael Collins, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Cooperative Extension
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency
The Office of Affordable Housing Research
The Center for Financial Security

Social Innovation and Commercialization

The College of Engineering defined the need to create an experiential opportunity for students to learn the process of product design and commercialization. The Tony R. Wells Foundation created a vision to promote social entrepreneurship and innovation across the OSU community and, specifically, to provide nonprofits with an alternate source of revenue through the concept of a social venture. The Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering departments offer a year-long capstone design course with a declared mission to design assistive devices for people with disabilities. The Engineering Education and Innovation Center (EEIC) combined these three concepts; created license and contractual agreements (ref: MOA signature page in appendix) with OSU legal and commercialization offices; and formed the Social Innovation and Commercialization (SIAC)a self-sustaining community outreach and engagement program. Multi-disciplinary teams of students work with community partners to define, design, and commercialize products to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Income resulting from manufacturing these products provides an alternative revenue stream to our non-profit partners and financial support to sustain the College of Engineering SIAC program.

Partners:

Peter Rogers, Rob Siston, and Mark Ruegsegger, College of Engineering
College of Medicine
College of Arts
Fisher College of Business
Tony R. Wells Foundation
Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio
United Cerebral Palsy of Central Ohio
Easter Seals Central and SE Ohio
Southeast Ohio, Inc.

$153,417 Awarded

The State of OHIO gets FUEL FOR LEARNING

This project blends Move-Into-Learning (College of Medicine) and Food Fit (College of Education and Human Ecology), two successful outreach research programs that have been locally implemented in socioeconomically stressed areas of the city of Columbus, to create a sustainable statewide program addressing childhood obesity, learning readiness, behavior, and stress prevention. DVDs that address nutrition, exercise, and stress reduction strategies will be provided to classroom teachers along with professional development in conjunction with COSI. OSU Extension Family and Consumer Sciences educators will be trained to evaluate the program once it has been implemented at school sites across the state.

Partners:

Gail L. Kaye, Program Director, Department of Human Nutrition, College of Education and Human Ecology
Maryanna Klatt, Assistant Professor, School of Allied Medical Professions, College of Medicine
COSI
OSU Extension

Learning in Fitness & Education (LiFE): An Innovative Service, Teaching, and Research Project

This comprehensive youth development initiative project is built upon a historical community outreach program operating at Ohio State for the past 40 years, the National Youth Sport Program (NYSP). The interdisciplinary team will implement a 20-day (4-week) summer sports program for 600 low income youth, focused on the development of social competence through sport and other play-based enrichment activities, college access, and career exploration. Follow-up booster sessions will be provided to youth six times throughout the academic year at Boys and Girls Club of Columbus sites. These booster sessions will be focused on group-based mentoring and developing connections with caring adults. The LiFE Sports team will also partner with First Year Experience and the Economic Access Initiative to provide all project participants with college access and career exploration activities in the summer and throughout the year.

Partners:

Dawn Anderson-Butcher, Associate Professor, College of Social Work
Rebecca Wade-Mdivanian, Project Coordinator, College of Social Work
Jerry Davis, Department of Athletics
School of Physical Activities and Educational Services
College of Education and Human Ecology
Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience
Economic Access Initiative
P-12 Project
Office of Academic Affairs
Department of Recreational Sports
Office of Student Life
The Boys and Girls Club of Columbus
Ohio Department of Education Office for Safety, Health, and Nutrition

A Partnership of Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) and Metro High School

Metro High School students partnered with Ohio State graduate and undergraduate students to develop and operate a vegetable, flower, and herb farm. The farm provided a hands-on learning environment for students interested in sustainable agriculture practices including crop production and marketing, farm management, water conservation, irrigation systems, integrated pest management, and renewable energy resources. Ohio State students acted as mentors to the Metro students. The project addresses global issues of food production and access, locally grown food, and entrepreneurship.

Partners:

Elaine Grassbaugh and Mark Bennett, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
Neal Bluel, Metro High School
Sheli O. Smith, PAST Foundation

$206,000 Awarded

Science at the Polar Frontier: BPRC, the Zoo, and Metro School

With support from the OSU Office of Outreach and Engagement and the Battelle Memorial Institute, the Byrd Polar Research Center (BPRC) at Ohio State collaborated with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to develop a set of presentations about Arctic research in support of the Zoos new Polar Frontier exhibit. Additional information is also made available on the BPRC website. The most timeless product from this collaboration is a series of computer graphics that are generated from the Polar Weather Research and Forecast model showing real-time temperature and pressure conditions and a 48-hour forecast for the entire Arctic region. Output from the model was adapted to generate color-coded maps specifically for the Zoo, requiring more than a year of effort. The maps are being archived at BPRC for future use by Metro High School and other students who are interested in changing conditions in the polar environment. The model output will also be shared with other members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums with polar exhibits. Visitors to the Polar Frontier are also introduced to the science of understanding past Arctic climate through studies of ice cores and seafloor sediments, two other important research areas at BPRC.

Partners:

Carol Landis, Education and Outreach Specialist, Byrd Polar Research Center
Nancy Hampson, Director of Conservation Education, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Marcy Raymond, Principal, Metro High School

Mansfield Young Peoples Project

The Mansfield Young Peoples Project (MYPP) is an after-school program and annual summer institute which trains lowest-quartile high school students to be peer mentors, leaders, and advocates for quality education. In conjunction with the national YPP, high school students train along with college students to become math literacy workers (MLWs) in order to build a powerful network of young people from marginalized and under-resourced communities. Organized around entry-level knowledge work, students mentor elementary and middle school kids in an after-school program of math games and activities. They simultaneously learn to take responsibility for the program, creating a virtuous circle of older peers modeling successful academic and leadership skills to younger students, who will develop into similar roles as they grow up.

In 2008, MYPP began developing its first cohort of 9 eighth graders from the lowest academic quartile, with four college team leaders. In 2009, the cohort grew to 19 students, and MYPP served as a bridge to the establishment of the Mansfield Algebra Project (MAP), funded by a five year National Science Foundation grant. MAP currently serves 19 tenth graders, MYPP serves 25 high school students, and more than eight college students have trained as team leaders. The number of outreach schools where MLWs work has doubled from one to two, and seeks to double again in 2010-2011. A short video documenting the summer program can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/14219555

Partners:

Lee McEwan, Associate Professor, Mathematics, OSU Mansfield
Heather Tanner, Associate Professor, History, OSU Mansfield
Young Peoples Project
Algebra Project

Ohio House of Science and Engineering

Ohio State University has numerous well-established science/engineering outreach and public science literacy programs that seek to improve grades K-20 science education (Wonders of Our World, W.O.W., GK-12 Program, Future Engineers Summer Camp, and the DNA Fingerprinting Workshop). Operating as a consortium of these highly effective programs, the Ohio House of Science and Engineering will foster and promote STEM outreach and education activities from kindergarten through the PhD. It intends to serve all of the following roles in the university community: a primary point of contact for external constituencies to find STEM outreach programs at the university; a stable administrative structure for programs and physical base for operations; a laboratory or think tank for testing and developing new outreach ideas; and a curriculum development resource for STEM elements in higher education. The proposed Excellence and Engagement project will expand the efforts of a number of current outreach efforts to include inquiry-based teaching in K-12 classrooms. This will be the pilot for demonstrating the OHSE operation. At full strength, the OHSE expects to serve approximately 10,000 K-12 students per year with 1,000-1,500 contributing scientists and engineers.

Partners:

Susan Olesik, Professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
David Tomasko, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering
Amanda Simcox, Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, College of Biological Sciences
Linda Weavers, John C. Geupel Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science and Associate Professor, College of Engineering

Engineering to the High Schools

The United States is facing a shortage of engineers. To address this shortage, the key is to educate school teachers, and through them their students, about what engineering is. The teachers are eager to learn, and the schools are creating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) clubs and engineering clubs to reach the students, but the teachers and clubs need content. Ohio State's Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) students, as part of the ECE senior capstone design course, have developed a series of hands-on engineering activities to increase awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) among high school students and their teachers. ECE seniors and faculty visited 15 Columbus area high schools, engaging students and their teachers in building speakers, audio equalizers, LED displays, touch-screen sensors, electric motors, a Jeopardy! style quiz game with buzzers and timers, and more. The ultimate goal of the ECE STEM initiative is to teach engineering concepts to high school teachers directly, to encourage and support independent teaching of these concepts in the high schools. Thorough documentation including parts lists and detailed directions has been developed. These lists will be posted on websites at STEM Columbus, Ohio House of Science and Engineering, and the College of Engineering. Battelle will help purchase and make available parts kits for these projects to share across school districts in the state. With the projects in place, ECE, with Battelles support, is organizing build parties at which teachers can come and build the projects themselves before taking them back to their schools.

Partners:

Betty Lise Anderson, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Marcy Raymond, Principal, Metro High School
David B. L. Gould, Director, Upper School, Columbus School for Girls
Susie Carr, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Whitehall City Schools
Chris Brandon, Project Director, Battelle Engineering Experience
Glenda LaRue, Director, Women in Engineering Program, College of Engineering

Stable Cradle

This project is expanding and strengthening the existing Stable Cradle Program, a partnership of the OSU Medical Center and Maryhaven's Women's Program. The Stable Cradle Program aims to encourage pregnant women who use substances to stop using the addictive substances immediately and to provide a support system to help them achieve that goal throughout pregnancy and the first year of the childs life. The support system includes peer health mentors, women who were previously substance abusers and have successfully overcome their addiction and established healthy families. The peer mentors are under the supervision of a licensed substance abuse counselor.

With funding from the Excellence in Engagement Grant, the three strategic goals of the program were met. The licensed counselors and peer health mentors hours were increased. The increased hours have improved the program by allowing more timely follow up with participants to lower the 25% loss rate to no more than 7%. On average, the program served 30 women each month, which is an increase of 7 women. And, to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, data was collected from each new client. The data included race/ethnicity, drug of choice, when the client started prenatal care and referral agency, gestation, post-partum visit, involvement with Franklin County Children Service (FCCS), other health issues and referral to community agencies. By changing the reporting process, the program was able to identify areas that need further research.

The impact of the Stable Cradle program is that all the mothers are receiving assistance with establishing a medical home for their infants and with accessing community services to meet their individual needs.

Partners:

Wanda Dillard, Director of Community Development, Ohio State University Medical Center
Mary Margaret Gottesman, Associate Professor, College of Nursing
Maryhaven Womens Program
Material Assistance Providers
Andrew Russ, Attorney, Wolfe & Russ LLC

$210,000 Awarded

Building Community: Creating Sustainable Childhood Learning Environments

This project proposes the design and construction of a series of interactive educational playground structures within the Early Childhood Learning Centers experiential outdoor learning environment for 2007-2008. Architecture honors students will collaboratively build one interactive learning structure per year, with community partners, consultants and members of the community. Currently, a small pilot program is underway, which should contribute to the success of initiating this proposal over the next two years. This environmentally conscious design/build project will serve as an Ohio State honors project within the Knowlton School of Architecture. In partnership with the Early Childhood Learning Center and Urban Wild, students will have the opportunity to design and construct a series of small, interactive outdoor learning structures. This project will introduce students of architecture to principles of service-learning, sustainable design, and construction.

Team Lead: Lisa Tilder, Associate Professor, Knowlton School of Architecture, College of Engineering

Engaging Fruit and Vegetable Growers in Enhanced Food Safety Practices through Audience Tailored Risk Communication

Recent events and media coverage have thrust the risks associated with fresh produce into the public eye. These outbreaks and the resulting consequences for the industry have revealed a significant disparity between the need of produce growers for relevant educational programs in food safety and the ability of land-grant universities and other educational stakeholders to deliver. The long-term goal of this project is to promote adoption of farming and produce handling practices that will result in a safer food supply and a more robust agricultural economy in Ohio. The specific objective is to train Ohio produce farmers and gardeners in currently available control measures and practices, using learning strategies that will increase adoption.

The project focused on reaching small to medium-size farmers, especially those who do not participate in Extension and grower-association educational programs. Outreach also focused on Master Gardeners who influence the practices used in thousands of noncommercial gardens. To date informational and education programs have reached 555 Ohioans.

A unique characteristic of this program is delivery of education in the small, rural communities where underserved audiences live. University educators have been able to interact with small, part-time farmers (including many first-time produce growers) who never attend regional and statewide programs. Three types of programs are being provided:

• a 15-minute teaser to inform participants about issues of fruit and vegetable safety facing their business, with an invitation to participate in more in-depth training (330 participants to date)
• a 1-hour program that covers issues and basic good agricultural practices (GAPS) for food safety (75 participants)
• an in-depth 2-hour workshop including GAPS training and hands-on activities to enhance learning (150 participants)

Many participants did not understand the unique educational role of OSU Extension and initially thought the educators were introducing a new on-farm regulatory process. Thus the project affords a unique opportunity to distinguish the universitys role from those of other public sector agencies.

Partners:

Doug Doohan, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center
Jeff LeJeune, Food Animal Health Research Program, OARDC
Hal Kneen, Eric Barrett, Andy Kleinschmidt, Terry Kline, and Mike Gastier, OSU Extension
John Wargowsky, Ohio Farm Bureau
Shari Plimpton, CIFT/EISC, Inc.

Haiti Empowerment Project: Building a Stronger Educational System through Collaborations

It is imperative that faculty in industrialized countries provide guidance to developing countries in the area of instruction. In a country where only 67% of children attend primary school and an average annual income is $400, Haiti is in desperate need of such intervention. There are three primary obstacles to the Haitian education: a lack of critical thinking, antiquated methods of teaching, and access to quality, sustained professional development. The Empowerment Project is addressing these obstacles through the development of the foundational understandings of problem solving and critical thinking (for both teachers and students) in the classroom, the implementation of school-embedded professional development with the addition of teacher coaches, and the creation of a professional learning community that is based on mutual respect and motivation for transformation.

Partners:

Terri Teal Bucci, Department of Mathematics, OSU Mansfield
Benito Elementary School (Gallette, Haiti)
FAITH Elementary School: Croix-des-Bouquets (Haiti)
University of Notre Dame Haiti
University Caraibe (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

Health and Wellness Initiative at Weinland Park: Move-Into-Learning

Ohio State has taken a coordinated approach to address the complex needs of young children and their families in Weinland Park, a very economically distressed neighborhood near the university. This project was created not only serve this community, but to generate new knowledge and models about how to better serve families and children. The project created a health and wellness initiative and new partnership between the School of Allied Medical Professions and the Weinland Park Project. The goal was to establish a wellness program, Move-into-Learning, that includes music, movement, yoga, and meditation, as an ongoing program in the classrooms of Weinland Park Elementary School.

During the summer and autumn 2007, project staff created three CDs with movement and meditation instruction and music background and developed a thematic weekly program to be implemented at the school. The project directors worked with the school principal to identify the schedule and the class that would be involved. A second-grade class of 29 was identified, most of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and many with significant behavioral issues, including very aggressive and disruptive behaviors. The 8-week program provided daily yoga, movement crossing the bodys midline, and guided mindfulness meditation to help the children become more attentive, feel more centered, and improve their classroom behavior.

The program consisted of a daily 15-minute yoga, movement, and meditation session led by the teacher, using the CDs. Once a week, Drs. Klatt and Case-Smith provided a full hour program of yoga, movement, and meditation. Each week had a theme that supported healthy living, self-worth, and self-efficacy. The goal was to give the children tools and strategies that would empower them to cope with stress and feel positive about themselves. By enhancing their sense of self and feeling of being in control, their behaviors toward others can become more positive.

To assess the effects of the yoga/meditation program, the students were videotaped during the classroom session one hour before the weekly sessions and immediately afterward. Project staff will measure the behaviors of some of the children who often demonstrated disruptive and negative behaviors (measuring out-of-seat and talking out behaviors). Although the videotapes have not yet been analyzed, the childrens and teachers feedback about the program has been very positive. They demonstrated eagerness to do the Move-into-Learning program on a daily basis in the classroom, and became increasingly more engaged during the weekly sessions with a decrease in disruptive behaviors. The teacher felt that the program has had a positive effect on the students. She intended to continue doing the daily 15-minute CD with the children after the 8-week intervention ended.

Benefits of partnering with Weinland Park Elementary in the Move-into-Learning program include the following:

• With development of the CDs and the thematic weekly program, the program can easily be replicated and/or disseminated. The project will continue next year with two additional classrooms.
• This project aligns with the universitys commitment to partner with the university-area community by providing a positive interdisciplinary educational program.
• Five undergraduate and graduate students experienced an important service-learning opportunity.
• Analysis of the students behavior before and after the program will provide information about the effects of the Move-into-Learning program and its potential benefit to elementary school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Based on feedback from teachers and students, the Move-into-Learning program has been a highly positive, beneficial experience that was successfully integrated into the school day.

Partners:

Jane Case-Smith, Professor, School of Allied Medical Professions, College of Medicine
Maryanna Klatt, Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Allied Medical Professions, College of Medicine
Todd Rogers, Weinland Park Birth to Grade Five Project, Weinland Park Elementary School

$150,000 Awarded

Preparing Expert Literacy Volunteers to Serve in Urban Schools

Faculty in the College of Education and Human Ecology formed community partnerships with the Columbus Education Association of Retired Teachers and classroom teachers to create a sustainable model for training retired teachers to work as expert literacy volunteers in schools. Expert Literacy Volunteers in Schools (ELVIS) teach small groups of students in kindergarten through second grade who are performing at the middle range of reading and writing abilities, freeing classroom teachers to work with students experiencing the most difficulty. ELVIS capitalizes on community assets through the identification of community expertise, the communication of needs by partners, the articulation of partnership and helpful supports that can be tailored to the needs of participants, and the use of a literacy intervention at a critical time in childrens development.

Phase 1 focused on recruiting volunteers through the Columbus Education Association-Retired Teachers, resulting in 12 high-quality volunteers who attended the first orientation session. Phase 2 turned to development of curriculum in consultation with partners at Weinland Park Elementary, so that the volunteer effort would complement instructional approaches. Eight training sessions for volunteers, which included school visits and practice teaching, were held. In phase 3, volunteers began to work in schools with the support of faculty and clinicians. Nine of the 12 volunteers remained with the program and one shifted to tutoring older students outside of the ELVIS project. Phase 4, during summer 2007, involved recruitment of an additional cadre of volunteers and revision of the training program. Initial volunteers will help train new cadre.

ELVIS was evaluated by comparing a pre and post project Reading Recovery levels for the children and surveying ELVIS volunteers and classroom teachers. Reading level increases from October to June were as follows: kindergartenfrom level A (emerging reader) to levels 2-4; first gradefrom levels 2-4 to 10-18; and second gradefrom levels 4-5 to 16-28. Teachers reported that ELVIS volunteers improved students reading levels and boosted vocabulary development. Volunteers made suggestions for coping with childrens behavior and improving the synchronization with classroom teaching. Volunteer tutors were pleased with the shared reading/interaction strategies used. Their suggested improvements also involved child behavior and working more closely with teachers. Through careful attention in early phases of implementation and a modest initial investment, ELVIS is making a significant difference in the lives of children and retired teachers. Administrators in other states have expressed interest in adopting the ELVIS model in their school and relationships with philanthropic organizations and publishers who could contribute essential infrastructure are under development.

Partners:

Adrian Rodgers, Assistant Professor, College of Education, OSU Newark
Dennis Sykes, Director of OSU Early Childhood Systems
Todd Rogers, Principal, Second Avenue/Weinland Park Elementary School
Judy Valentine, Columbus Education Association

A Pharmacy/Extension Partnership to Improve the Health of Ohioans

The Partner for Promotion program leverages efforts of three university-based partners (OSU COP, OSUE Community Development, and the OSUE Family and Consumer Sciences) with those of Doctor of Pharmacy students enrolled in advanced practice community pharmacy courses, county Extension educators, and community pharmacists (i.e., adjunct clinical faculty) in effective community-based health education. A model for partnering to improve health outcomes for community residents that was piloted through an OSU CARES faculty support grant was implemented in rural and urban communities. Pharm.D. students worked with Extension educators and community pharmacists to conduct community health needs assessments that will be used to develop appropriate patient education materials and programming. To improve health care access, strategies for offering and conducting patient health screening and referral services will be developed. The identified gaps in health education resources will be filled through the development and use of educational materials that enhance health literacy, preventative health, and healthy behaviors in health education interventions.

• 28 pharmacies have developed and more than half continue to provide innovative patient care services, conducting over 1,400 patient visits.
• Community pharmacists worked with all partners to receive training and assistance in developing sustainable patient care programs.
• Collaboration between eight pharmacies and OSUE in five Ohio counties produced targeted services such as grocery store tours at three sites featuring healthy food choices and nutrition labeling.
• Participating pharmacy students and pharmacists learned how to plan and market health education programs and identify key community contacts.
• 19 of 28 pharmacies were first-time advanced pharmacy practice experiential sites, thus, expanding the number of high-quality experiential sites for pharmacy students.
• Surveys of students and pharmacists indicated a 53% increase, in students perception they had the knowledge and skills to implement innovative pharmacy services.
• Students reported up to 70% and preceptors up to 30% increase in their confidence to employ specific skills needed in patient care service development, leading to improved access to community-based health care.

Partners:

Jennifer L. Rodis, Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy
Kenneth E. Martin, Community Development, Ohio State University Extension
Barbara Ludwig, Department Chair Extension, Interim Associate Dean, Human Ecology, Engagement in Extension
Gerald L. Cable, Director, Professional Experience Programs, College of Pharmacy
Doris Herringshaw, Wood County Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension
Shari Gallup, Licking County Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Ohio State University Extension

Model Preschool Vision Screening Program

Based on award-winning research from the VIP Study, this project developed a community-based model preschool vision screening program for widespread implementation through collaboration among the College of Optometry, the College of Human Ecology, and OSU Extension. Components included educating parents, teachers, healthcare professionals about the significance of vision disorders among preschool-aged children and their negative impact; training lay screeners to implement preschool vision screening programs; creating self-sustaining models for public education, preschool vision screening programs, and screener training programs; increasing the number of preschoolers who have their vision screened; and creating a model preschool vision screening program for use in Ohio, other states, and national organizations.

The VIP Study, a nationwide multidisciplinary study centered at Ohio State, showed that the three best performing screening tests for use with 3- to 5-year-old children were similarly effective when administered by trained lay screeners or trained health care professionals. Based on this finding, a pilot program was conducted:

• In three Ohio counties (Henry, Shelby, Summit), optometry students and faculty trained and certified high school 4-H members to screen children at childcare centers and community events. In Shelby County, six 4-H teens and the FCS Educator were trained and certified on three vision screening instruments, conducted four screenings, and screened 127 preschoolers 3 to 5 years old to detect three significant eye problems (amblyopia, strabismus, and refractive error), which if caught early are preventable. In Summit County, a team of 4-H members was trained to conduct accurate screenings at Akron-area YMCA preschool sites. In Henry County, 57 preschoolers were screened by one of nine certified 4-H screeners.
• One screening instrument was retained in each county to establish a self-sustaining community-based program.
• FCS educators are informing parents, teachers, and health care professionals in all counties about preschool vision problems.

Additional external funding allowed the expansion of the University/Community Model Preschool Vision Screening to seven new counties in 2009. Phase 1 participants, Nancy Stehulak, Henry County; Pam Leong, Shelby County; and Jackie Krieger, Summit County; were trained as Certified Preschool Vision Screening Trainers by College of Optometry staff and they will train an additional seven county educators, adult volunteers and 4-H teens on how to implement the model vision screening program in the following counties: Cuyahoga, Darke, Hancock, Logan, Mercer, Portage, and Trumbull.

Partners:

Paulette P. Schmidt, Professor of Optometry and Vision Science, College of Optometry
Betty Head, Project Coordinator, College of Optometry
Barbara Ludwig, Department Chair Extension, Interim Associate Dean, Human Ecology, Engagement in Extension, Family and Consumer Science and 4-H Youth Development Programs

$99,500 Awarded

Increasing Public Horticulture Volunteerism and Horticulture Education through Technology-Enhanced Learning

This partnership between the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, OSU Extension, and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens developed a technology-enhanced public horticulture certification program in the areas of volunteer training and personal development. The first Public Horticulture Volunteer (PHV) and Green Gardener (GG) class at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens was delivered online using Moodle software. It enrolled 18 students; 16 completed the course; 12 received PHV certificates and 4 received GG certificates. Following a focus group evaluation, online content was revised and transferred to OSUs Carmen system. The second course enrolled 24 students; 21 completed the course (10 PHV and 11 GG). Overall, only five students had previously taken an online class and many had never attended college. The course produced highly trained horticulture volunteers, increased volunteer retention, and exposed the volunteers to new ways of learning and developing skills. As a result of the partnership with OSU, CBG received a grant for the Green Corps program, in which OSU horticulture faculty and students will mentor inner-city youth in the development of horticulture skills. The Green Gardener and Public Horticulture Volunteer Certificate programs at Cleveland Botanical Gardens were expanded in 2008 to two courses per year.

Partners:

Jennifer Pope, Research Associate, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Stephen C. Myers, Chair, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science
James A. Chatfield, OSU Extension, Cuyahoga County, and Ohio 4-H
Brian E. Holley, Executive Director, Cleveland Botanical Gardens

Living JerusalemLiving Columbus

Living Jerusalem: How do people of different cultures share knowledge of their heritage and practices across the borders between ethnic spaces, especially in disputed territories? Living Columbus: If Columbus were to become the model for religious understanding among Jews, Muslims, and Christians, how would we get there and what would our model look like? This initiative was designed explore outreach across several types of boundaries locally in Columbus and among Columbus-based OSU students and Jerusalem-based Al Quds and Hebrew University students in a virtual community across religious, national, and ethnic divides. Three outreach and engagement projects were conducted:

• Fifth-grade students and their teachers at Sunrise Islamic Academy, the Columbus Jewish Day School, and St. Joseph Montessori School (Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic day schools) participated in Living Columbus: The Salaam, Shalom, Peace Project. The students learned how to document and think about and present their own religious practices by creating and hosting tours of their schools. The students also learned about the traditions, cultural experiences, and religious observances of the other two schools.
• Offered in spring 2006, 2007, and 2008, the International Studies 501 course (Living Jerusalem: Ethnography and Bridgeblogging in Disputed Territory) allowed Ohio State students to interact electronically and then travel on a brief mini-study tour of Jerusalem where they met their classmates at Al-Quds University, a Palestinian institution, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an Israeli institution, both located in the contested city of Jerusalem. The students communicated through weblogs and video conferencing, and one component of the course was an examination of how the building of a virtual community facilitated the travel of culture and ideas and even understanding across hostile borders. (onCampus article: http://oncampus.osu.edu/article.php?id=1063)
• In the Ohio Interfaith Foodways Project, community partners from the Islamic Center of Central Ohio and the Tefereth Israel Synagogue helped organize dinners hosted by Muslim, Jewish, and Christian families, featuring foodways enjoyed by the host religious group and a brief program on food and religious culture and observance. Recipes were collected for inclusion in an interfaith recipe book now in progress and all dinners were videotaped in anticipation of a short documentary that will be completed.

In addition, Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S. scholars attended Jerusalem: Cultures and Communities in Contention, a November 2006 working conference sponsored by the Living Jerusalem Project and hosted by the Mershon Center, Melton Center, and the Middle East Studies Center. One focus of the conference was on re-envisioning an edited volume on Jerusalem begun in the mid-1990s. The working team reassessed essays written in the 1990s in light of developments over the past 12 years.

Partners:

Amy Horowitz, Lecturer and Program Specialist, The Melton Center for Jewish Studies, College of Humanities
Amy Shuman, Associate Professor, Department of English, College of Humanities
Tamar Rudavsky, Professor, Department of English, College of Humanities
Marcelita G. Haskins, Director, Educational Services, WOSU Stations
Mazhar Jalil, Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio
Norman Hosansky, Congregation Tifereth Israel

$40,408 Awarded

Oral Health Literacy Pilot Project

The Oral Health Literacy Pilot project provided oral health education and health literacy to adult immigrants of central Ohio through partnership with Columbus Literacy Council and many refugee organizations. Through this project, oral health literacy workshops were presented to 332 students in 12 ESOL, 2 Adult Basic English, and 3 Somali literacy classes. The workshops offered oral health education and free dental screenings performed by the Ohio State University dental and dental hygiene students. Participants identified with dental needs were assisted in finding affordable dental care programs. This project also developed a health literacy curriculum for dental students to increase their awareness about this important issue and educate them about community outreach. The students learned how to communicate with their patients who are at low literacy levels or do not speak English. Project staff shared materials and information with College of Nursing students, who used the data on Somali participants to further their research on oral health literacy in the Somali population in Columbus and presented their findings to the Columbus Health Department.

Partners:

Homa Amini, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, College of Dentistry
Paul Casamassimo, Pediatric Dentistry
Columbus Literacy Council
Community Refugee and Immigration Services
Acculturation Program
Somali Senior and Family Services
Columbus Childrens Hospital

Art in the Service of Science: Enhancing Science Education in K-12 Classrooms through Arts Integration

The goal of this project was to use the arts (dance, music, poetry, and computer graphics) to illustrate fundamental biological principles for K-12 classrooms to enhance learning and retention in science. Two DVDs were created: TBDBITL Marches the Krebs Cycle, in which members of the OSU Marching Band performed the Krebs Cycle of cellular metabolism, and Football and Photosynthesis, in which members of the OSU football team perform the Z-scheme of photosynthesis while Coach Jim Tressel narrates. Two middle school teachers wrote lesson plans to use along with the DVDs in K-12 classes. The DVDs have been disseminated to K-12 teachers across the state and to attendees at the State Science Fair in Columbus. The DVDs have been posted on three servers (Knowledge Bank, WOSU and OIT) and have been made available to ITSCO, which provides digital teaching material to K-12 teachers in several states.

Impact on Teaching. The teaching of Biology 101 has been greatly facilitated by having the DVDs to illustrate key biological concepts in a manner that is more palatable to nonmajors. The success of using art to explain science has led to the creation of two new sections of Biology 101 lab/recitations. In one section, students illustrate a biological concept of their choosing using art, music, poetry, dance, creative writing or some other artistic medium. In the other section, students use Photoshop, iMovie and iPhoto to create a digital story about some biological idea, controversy, or concept. The latest enhancement of Biology 101 using the arts is a rock opera created in collaboration with a music doctoral student.

Impact on Research. An evaluation specialist was engaged to measure the learning of nonmajor as a result of viewing the DVDs in Biology 101 and improve biology teaching. Information gleaned from testing Biology 101 students and their reactions to the DVDs to further the goals of two emerging teaching paradigms: Universal Design for Learning and 21st Century Literacy.

Impact on Partnerships. A new alliance was forged with COSI by this grant to develop Biology Unbound: Stuff of Life, an informal learning presentation for visitors to COSI. An interactive prototype has been developed and installed at COSI in downtown Columbus. The exhibit is designed to help museum visitors understand the structure of DNA and the process of its formation. It includes a multiuser DNA touch screen workbench and a wall projection that lets users engage their entire body in exploring the concepts. Funded by the Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs, Biology Unbound engages all five senses in teaching biology to informal learners in age-appropriate, interactive events.

Partners:

Susan Fisher, Professor, Department of Entomology, College of Biological Sciences
Vita Berezina-Blackburn and Maria Palazzi, Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design
Rachel Boggia, Department of Dance
Marcelita Haskins, WOSU Public Media
ITSCO (Instructional Technology Services of Central Ohio)
COSI-Columbus

Community-Based Service Learning for Dental Students through Collaboration with Head Start and Give Kids a Smile! Day

This project provided required dental screenings, oral health education, and fluoride varnish for 5,000 children, ages 1-5, enrolled in Early Head Start, Head Start, and Head Start Plus in Columbus by dental students. It also gave dental students first-hand experience of the oral health needs of underserved populations and issues surrounding access to dental care.

Partners:

Hilary Soller, Clinical Assistant Professor, Section of Primary Care, College of Medicine and Public Health
Canise Bean and Jessie Tudor, College of Dentistry
Polly Mowrey, Columbus Dental Society
Columbus Childrens Hospital Pediatric Dental Residency Program
CDC Head Start Program
CDI Head Start Program

Risk Assessment Directed Treatment Planning for Chemically Dependent Adolescents

The purpose of this project was to form a community partnership between Maryhaven, Franklin Countys largest addiction treatment provider, and OSU to improve the quality of care that is provided to adolescents with addiction disorders. Ohio State faculty trained the counseling staff at Maryhaven's Adolescent Treatment Program for Substance Abusing/ Mentally Ill children in assessment and diagnosis of disorders, treatment planning and counseling interventions, and the use of the Global Risk Assessment Device (GRAD), a computer-driven screening and assessment tool devised to help identify the severity of the adolescents issues from the perspective of the family and the primary clinician. Maryhaven staff greatly increased their knowledge of current assessment and intervention strategies and are now able to compare individual case severity and to access a database that shows comparison over time. Maryhaven has also developed a best practices committee to review assessment and intervention strategies for all patients served, including the youth and families described in this project. The grant served to establish a strong relationship between the Counselor Education program and Maryhaven that has resulted in clinical internships and paid employment for OSU students.

Partners:

Paul Granello, Associate Professor, College of Education
Darcy Haag Granello, Counselor Education, College of Education
Steven Gavazzi, Human Development and Family Science, College of Human Ecology
Grant Schroeder, Maryhaven

Planners Day in School

This seed grant funded a pilot Planners Day in School (PDIS) effort. The primary purpose of this project was to engage middle school students in the world around them through an understanding of city and regional planning. The project brought 23 graduate students in The Ohio State Universitys City and Regional Planning (CRP) program into sixth-grade social studies classes at a local middle school to discuss what planning is, what planners do, and how someone becomes a planner. Additionally, the CRP students facilitated two map-oriented exercises with the middle school students. The mapping exercises helped middle school students identify what they liked and disliked about their community and envision what they would like to see. These exercises coincided with sixth-grade social studies curricula addressing regional change and consequences of change, helped build critical thinking, and set the foundation for a more engaged youth citizenry. Toward the goal of institutionalizing the Planners Day in School process, a lesson plan aligned with the state level sixth-grade social studies curriculum was created. The lesson is incorporated into a manual developed by the project to help others replicate a PDIS program.

The seed grant continues to bear more fruit. A CRP masters student serves as the PDIS coordinator and makes contacts with area middle schools. In academic year 2007-2008, more than 20 MCRP students have participated in the 2-day programs for 6 social studies classes at Monroe Middle School and visits to Mifflin Alternative School.

Partners:

Maria Manta Conroy, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning, Knowlton School of Architecture
City and Regional Planning Student Association
Ohio Planning Conference
Clintonville Area Commission

2005 Special Outreach and Engagement/Service-Learning Initiative Grant

Rebuilding the Mississippi Gulf Coast

With this special Outreach and Engagement and Service-Learning grant, city and regional planning students in a service-learning course prepared community plans for rebuilding DeLisle and Saucier in Harrison County, Mississippi, areas that were devastated by the 2005 hurricanes.

Team Lead: Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Assistant Professor, City & Regional Planning, Knowlton School of Architecture

$201,500 Awarded

Discovering the Stories of Native Ohio: An Oral History Project

The earthworks in Newark and other locations are visible signs of Native American presence in Ohio, but the contributions of the mound builders and their descendents are not as well known. A team of OSU Newark faculty in comparative studies, history, and education worked with students, staff, and community members to collect and record the stories of Native American experiences in Ohio and to make them available to teachers, students, researchers, and other community members. The project team set up recording studios at pow wows held by the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio, where they also videotaped dancers, singers, and presentations by Native elders. These personal histories are archived in a special library collection, and interviewees received a copy of their oral history as a legacy for their own families. Impacts:

• Initiated partnerships between Ohio State and members of Ohios Native communities
• Created new courses, pedagogies, and educational materials for the teaching of American Indian Studies (15 lesson plans for grades K-12 on earthworks and American Indian Studies, benchmarked to state standards); provided inservice training for teachers and administrators at elementary, middle, and high schools and professional meetings
• Developed new collaborative research methodology for American Indian Studies
• Provided great momentum for the Newark Earthworks initiative, including the receipt of more than $100,000 in grants for the Oral History Project and official designation of the new Center for the Study of Native American Earthworks, History, and Culture, an interdisciplinary center on the Newark campus
• Developed four minidocumentary films incorporating excerpts from the interviews on topics such as language and culture and women and culture; screened at Newark Earthworks Day, a public symposium on earthworks, and other venues
• Collected interviews with 64 Native Americans with ties to Ohio, plus recordings of lectures, events, receptions and discussions that are housed in the Oral History Project archive

Lucy Murphy, Richard Shiels, Katherine Borland, Christine Warner, and Martha Chaatsmith received the 2008 Public History Award from the Ohio Academy of History for the creation of the Newark Earthworks Center.

Partners:

Lucy E. Murphy, Associate Professor of History, OSU Newark
Richard Shiels, History
Katherine Borland, Comparative Studies
Christine Warner, Education
Martha Chaatsmith, OSU Newark
Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio
American Indian Education Center of Cleveland
Land of the Singing Coyote Indian Center, Seaman, Ohio
Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites, University of Cincinnati
The Works, Newark, Ohio

The OSU/Port Clinton Performing Arts Festival

This university-community partnership successfully produced three multiweek performing arts festivals showcasing the artistic talents of students, faculty, and staff and expanding the summer tourism season into fall for Port Clinton and Ottawa County. The project demonstrated the positive economic and environmental impact of visual and performing arts in enhancing the well-being of communities. Accomplishments:

• Presented nearly 150 performance events and exhibitions for more than 1,200 people, involving 175 undergraduate and graduate students
• Developed a methodology, timeline, and process for community involvement in mounting festivals
• Expanded performance and educational opportunities for students and local artists
• Generated nearly $300,000 for the local economy
• Fostered collaboration among university departments and with community organizations

Partners:

Mark Shanda, Professor/Associate Chair, Department of Theatre, College of the Arts
D. Bowen Loeffler, President, Port Clinton Renaissance Corporation
Tom Brown, Mayor, City of Port Clinton
Richard Spicer, President, and Chic Elum, Chairman, Board of Directors, Port Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce
Michael Libben, President, Ohio State Alumni Club of Ottawa County Shoreline Properties of Port Clinton, General Manager
Marcia Jess, OSU Extension

Connecting People, Education, Services and Quality of Life: The Professional Service Coordinator Certificate Program

Service coordinators are social service workers who are responsible for ensuring that residents of affordable housing communities are linked to the specific supportive services they need. In collaboration with the American Association of Service Coordinators (AASC), project directors assembled an interdisciplinary team of OSU faculty members and professionals from the wider community who possess expertise in discipline-specific topics. This team developed 18 modules for an online professional development certification program. The objective was to provide a common body of knowledge, standards of practice, and increased professionalism for service coordinators via distance learning.

• Program faculty worked with AASC to create the first-ever Comprehensive Examination for Service Coordinators.
• More than 600 service coordinators have completed over 2,650 modules.
• In the first two years of the program, 69 candidates passed the examination (84% pass rate).
• Service coordinators completing this certification have the opportunity to continue their education by participating in Ohio States SAGE Program (Series in Applied Gerontology Education) online.

Partners:

Bonnie Kantor, Director, Office of Geriatrics and Gerontology, College of Medicine and Public Health
Janice Monks, Executive Director, American Association of Service Coordinators
Terry Allton, Vice President of Support Services, National Church Residences
Le Ann Mjelde-Mossey, Assistant Professor, College of Social Work
Christine Price, Assistant Professor, OSU Extension Gerontology Specialist and OSU College of Human Ecology
Virginia Richardson, Professor, College of Social Work
Patricia Schwirian, Professor Emeritus, College of Nursing
Margaret Teaford, Assistant Professor, School of Allied Medical Professions

Project ProUD AchieveMent: Promoting Unity in Diversity and Achievement Through Mentoring

Project ProUD AchieveMent (Promote Unity within Diversity and Achievement through Mentoring) was designed to promote three outreach and engagement programs at OSU Marion.

1. Mentoring in Marion City Schools. Through the grant, the mentoring program developed an orientation and training manual, conducted a formal evaluation, increased OSU student participation from 11-14 per quarter to 25-30 per quarter through recruitment activities, and developed a resource library of educational games. Despite the retirement of the project directors in 2006, the mentoring program has been sustained by other faculty in psychology (Chris Daddis) and English (Ben McCorkle). Now called PALS: Pride And Life Skills Mentoring Program, the program continues to connect OSU Marion students with mentees in Marion Public Schools through Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Marion County, and Marion Public Schools.

2. Increasing Tolerance for Diversity in the Marion City Schools. The project focused on the tensions raised by the merger of three middle schools, bringing together teachers, counselors, principals, and OSU faculty/staff members to develop collaborative programs that promote unity within diversity. OSU theatre and psychology students, middle school students, and educators worked together to a theatre production, Sticks and Stones, that examined stereotypes and prejudice. To promote sustainability, a puppetry project on diversity was developed collaboratively by English, psychology, and theatre service-learning courses with grant support from the Service-Learning Initiative.

3. Developing Campus Leadership on Diversity Issues. As part of the overall OSU Marion campus effort in the area of diversity, the grant funded a professional development retreat for faculty and staff that generated additional diversity initiatives and leadership. Shawn Jackson, who had worked with the service-learning project as diversity coordinator in the Marion City Schools, was hired as full-time diversity coordinator was hired for the Office of Campus Diversity.

Project Proud Achievement was identified as one of OSU Marions 50 points of pride during the regional campuss 50th anniversary.

Partners:

Dan Christie, Professor, Department of Psychology, OSU Marion
Anne Bower, Associate Professor of English, OSU Marion
Santo Pino, Director, Middle Schools, Marion City Schools
Kathleen Clemons, Student/Community Intervention Specialist
Sheryl Rhoades, Director, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Marion County
William Zwick, Superintendent, Marion City Schools

$94,951 Awarded

Building Partnerships with Local Health Departments Program for Excellence in Environmental Health

This seed grant was used to conduct the first initiative of the School of Public Healths Program for Excellence in Environmental Health. The program conducted a series of 13 regional workshops designed to build partnerships with local environmental health practitioners and to compile baseline information about the current status of the local governmental environmental health workforce in Ohio. A directory of all local directors of environmental health in Ohio was compiled and distributed via e-mail. The Program for Excellence in Environmental Health seeks to become a focal point for defining and discussing the existing and emerging issues that challenge practitioners of environmental health. This project has enabled the School of Public Health to make contact and begin a dialogue with this community. These newly established relationships will form the basis for long-term partnerships with the local environmental health practice community.

Team Lead: Deborah Gray, Health Division of Environmental Health Sciences School of Public Policy

Ohio LEAD Program

A partnership was formed between the Ohio Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program, the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, and the Hocking, Athens and Perry Community Action Agency/Second Harvest Foodbank of Southeastern Ohio. The Ohio LEAD Program conducted an intensive 3-day study institute that focused on the social issues of poverty, hunger, child poverty, unemployment, and economic development in the poorest counties in Ohio. The institute was delivered in southeastern Ohio to 25 emerging leaders. Evaluations indicated that participants changed their perception of poverty and hunger and became more active in their communities.

Team Lead: Alice Walters Black, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

Universal Housing Solutions for All Ages and Abilities

Universal Design is a worldwide movement based on the concept that products and environments can be designed to consider the needs of the widest possible array of users. By applying Universal Design techniques, interior features can be designed and existing structures modified to maximize safety and independence for those with physical limitations. This project provided community education about the principles of Universal Design and home modification that would enable senior Ohioans to age in place successfully. The seed grant supplemented Service-Learning and OSU CARES grants that supported community partnerships with Lowe's stores, where Universal Design workshops were offered and a retail marketing strategy that promoted home modification products was implemented. Members of the Extension aging team offered Train the Trainer sessions for family and consumer sciences agents throughout the state. A project website provides training resources for educators: http://ehe.osu.edu/ud/. In 2009, more than 1,500 people attended the Universal Design exhibit at Farm Science Review. Project staff are working with Lowes and others to develop a laundry/mud room exhibit for next year. Lowe's and Dave Fox Remodeling, which made significant contributions to this project, received the 2008 Award for Excellence in Community Partnership Building from the Service-Learning Initiative.

Partners:

Susan Zavotka, Department of Consumer and Textile Sciences, College of Human Ecology
Human Development and Family Science
Occupational Therapy
OSU Extension
Ohio Department of Aging

Pest Management Kiosk Garden Center Pilot Project

Seed funding was used to develop the Gardeners Tool Sheda kiosk with an iMac computer, touch screen, and printer that dispenses research-based information on yard and garden care. The kiosk was tested at a garden center in southwestern Ohio. User surveys indicated that people found it easy to use and added value to their store visit, and they recognized its affiliation with Ohio State and OSU Extension. The pilot test was used to debug and improve the tool for use in other garden centers.

Team Lead: Jim Jasinski, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science/Entomology, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

Building Support for Physical Activity

This seed grant provided preliminary data on community involvement in physical activity. Community members and organizations were involved through a leadership council, focus groups, and community forums that helped gather information on community resources and needs related to fitness. Results of the study were used to obtain a $1.1 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Extramural Prevention Research Program that funded Project ComFit, a 3-year project designed to increase long-term physical activity by altering the physical and social environments of the area.

Team Lead: Richard Suminski, School of Physical Activity and Educational Services, College of Education

W.O.W. Science Outreach to the State of Ohio and to the Nation

WOW is an interactive science education program serving 15 elementary schools in 3 districts in the Columbus, Ohio area. WOW staff and faculty have developed more than 125 hands-on experiments designed to increase both students knowledge and interest in science at a young age. Ohio State student volunteers, as well as scientists and parent volunteers, go into the classrooms to help the teachers facilitate experiments that teach basic concepts of the physical and biological sciences, and they provide more individual assistance to the students. The programs experiments are correlated with state test standards for K-5 science. Schools involved with W.O.W. have seen dramatic improvement in the percentage of students passing the science section of the state proficiency test. The seed grant was used to substantially improve the website as well as to expand the offerings within Columbus inner-city schools.

Team Lead: Susan Olesik, Department of Chemistry, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Fostering Global Awareness: Resources for Learning about China and Japan

This grant supported the development of several outreach and engagement tools that are currently being used to foster greater global awareness in schools and communities throughout Ohio.

• The Institute for Japanese Studies offers Japan Artifact Boxes and the Institute for Chinese Studies offers Chinese Culture Boxes, each of which can be borrowed for use in schools, libraries, and community organizations for up to 2 weeks. Each box contains contain information and lessons about Japanese or Chinese history, language, art, culture, toys, and games.
• Both Institutes have groups of volunteers who give presentations about Japan or China (Passport to China Speakers Program). These volunteers will come to classrooms to conduct workshops or presentations that will give participants a virtual tour of Asian culture through fun, hands-on activities.

Partners:

Zhiwei Bi and Janet Stucky, Institute for Chinese Studies/Institute for Japanese Studies, College of Humanities

The Car

The Car is a unique opportunity for seventh- and eighth-grade students to become involved in teamwork and cooperative learning using a 1998 Bill Elliott Show Car. The field trip experience engages students in science, mathematics, and language arts as they become part of the racing world for the day. The seed grant provided scholarships to subsidize the cost for participating schools. During the first year of operation, more than 1,280 students and their teachers from a seven-county area participated. The program was also offered to young women by one of the community partners, Girl Scouts of Appleseed Ridge.

2002 Mini Seed Grants

$10,526 Awarded

Character Improvement and Team Building within City School Districts

Developed a set of team-building activities for character education in the Ashtabula and Conneaut city school districts.

Partners: Tom Cole and Tom Hopkins, OSU Extension 4-H Youth Development, Ashtabula County

I CAN Go to College (Kids College)

Funding supported elementary and middle school students attendance at a summer enrichment program designed to encourage interest in postsecondary education.

Partners: Sue Kofsky and Dominic Dottavio, OSU Marion

Middle East Studies Center Lecture and Presentation Activities

Grant supported further development of outreach materials designed to provide accurate and timely information about the cultures, politics, and peoples of the Middle East.

Team Lead: Alam Payind, Middle East Studies Center

Senior Series Personal Profile Workshops

Funds supported development and implementation of workshops for Extension and aging professionals on life-planning issues for older adults.

Team Lead: Christine Price, OSU Extension, Human Development and Family Science

Breakfast of Science Champions

Grant supported costs of a program that introduces middle school children to the work of scientists and to a college campus.

Team Lead: Melissa Weber, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Latino Migration Story Project

In conjunction with genealogy workshops for Latinos, a competition was held for high school students to exhibit written and visual works about their families migration stories. Grant funds supported prizes and exhibit production.

Team Lead: Luz Calvo, Department of Comparative Studies, and Ignacio Corona, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Women in Science Day

Support for an annual event in which women scientists on the faculty, staff, and graduate and professional students introduce girls in grades 7-12 to careers in the sciences

Team Lead: Raquel Diaz-Sprague, School of Allied Medical Professions

La Clinica Latina

Support for a medical clinic offering free primary care to uninsured and low-income Latino patients and opportunities for intercultural learning and community service for health care professionals and students.

Team Lead: Raquel Diaz-Sprague, School of Allied Medical Professions

Chadwick Arboretum Promotional Brochure

Supported production costs for a brochure promoting the educational outreach and volunteer opportunities of the arboretum.

Team Lead: Mary Maloney, Chadwick Arboretum, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

Volunteer Literacy Partners

Provided stipends for volunteer tutors at local elementary schools to improve the ratio of tutors to students.

Team Lead: Mindy Wright, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing

$109,709 Awarded

These grants were made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The Eye Clinic at Faith Mission and Fort Hayes

The College of Optometry offers free examinations and eyeglasses to children under 18 at the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center and to homeless adults at Faith Mission. The grant helped provide over 600 pairs of glasses to patients at the mission and 271 examinations and glasses to children at Fort Hayes.

Team Lead: LeVelle Jenkins, College of Optometry/Faith Mission/Fort Hayes Career Center

The Learning Bridge: Assisting Columbus Public Schools in the University Neighborhoods, P-12 Project

The Learning Bridge was a partnership between The Ohio State University P-12 Project, the Columbus Public Schools, and the Columbus Education Association. The collaboration worked to improve the education of children and youth in the 13 public schools that serve families living in the neighborhoods around The Ohio State University.

Partners:

Daryl Siedentop, College of Education
College of Social Work
College of Human Ecology
Interprofessional Commission of Ohio
Campus Partners
Columbus Public Schools
Columbus Education Association

OSU Reaches Out for Better Health: Development of a Tobacco Cessation Clinic

The seed grant supported the early operation of this program in the dental clinic, staffed by students, faculty, a dental assistant, and a behavioral consultant.

Partners:

Abdel Mohammad, College of Dentistry
The Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital
College of Pharmacy

College Bound

The College Bound Summer Institute for elementary and middle school children was an outreach effort sponsored by the College of Social Work that provided a 10-week summer camp of morning core academic classes and afternoon athletic and cultural activities. The seed grant funded scholarships for participating students.

Team Lead: Charles Ross, College of Social Work

A Virtual Resource Station for Ohio Spanish Teachers

The Virtual Resource Station was designed to provide assistance and resources to Spanish teachers throughout the state of Ohio. The site enabled teachers to ask questions about the Spanish language or Hispanic cultures by fax, e-mail, or toll-free telephone.

Team Lead: Terrell Morgan, College of Humanities

2001 Mini Seed Grants

$39,240 Awarded

Taking Horticulture to the Classroom

Team Lead: Pam Bennett, OSU Extension, Clark County

Welcome to the Real World

In the 1990s, OSU Extension conducted a money management program under several titles (Reality Day, Reality Store, Welcome to the Real World) using resources from other states. This grant provided funding to establish the program in Greene County. Greene County Extension staff convened a statewide curriculum committee to develop an Ohio-specific curriculum that would be more comprehensive. The Real Money, Real World curriculum was developed and first offered in 2005.

Team Lead: Beth Bridgeman, OSU Extension, Greene County

Young Womens Summer Institute

Support for a a week-long program for middle-school girls designed to promote computer, math, science, and engineering skills and provide hands-on experiences.

Team Lead: Susan Brown, Ohio Supercomputer Center

The Ohio State University and Linden McKinley High School Counseling

Support for a physical activity group designed to aid depression in high school girls.

Team Lead: Janet Buckworth and Paul Granello, College of Education

Katys Kids

Grant supported expansion of an outreach program that teaches elementary school children about prescription drug safety and the work of pharmacists.

Team Lead: Gerald Cable, College of Pharmacy

Crittenton Family Services

Funds supported purchase of health promotion and disease prevention materials for a service-learning project in which student nurses worked with at-risk families.

Team Lead: Elizabeth Cullen, College of Nursing

Peer Power

Support for a peer education program that enables undergraduates to become facilitators and designers of presentations and workshops that introduce womens studies topics to middle and high school students.

Team Lead: Lin Distel, Department of Womens Studies, College of Humanities

Outreach School Tours

Support for undergraduate theatre company tours to elementary and high schools.

Team Lead: Lesley Ferris, Department of Theatre, College of the Arts

SKIP (Successful Kinesthetic Instructor for Preschoolers Services)

Funded the purchase of early childhood motor skill equipment used by OSU students to teach a motor skills program at a public elementary school.

Team Lead: Jackie Goodway, College of Education

Department of Psychologys Psychological Services Center

Support for an outpatient clinic for adults, children, and families seeking psychological assessment and psychotherapy.

Team Lead: Robert Grant, Department of Psychology, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Ohio Byzantine Cultural Initiative

A pilot program to use Internet resources for an educational and cultural program on Byzantine culture.

Team Lead: Timothy Gregory, Department of History, College of Humanities

Bug Zoo

Supported operating costs of a demonstration program on insects that is presented in schools.

Team Lead: Jeremy Heath, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center

Interactive Youth Learning Center

Team Lead: Roger High, Department of Animal Sciences

Optometry Clinics at Faith Mission and Fort Hayes

Team Lead: LeVelle Jenkins, College of Optometry

Department of Entomology Insectary & Greenhouse

Facility that breeds insects and arthropods for teaching and research and provides school tours and classes.

Team Lead: George Keeney, Department of Entomology

Prairie Program

Support for an elementary and middle school program on seeds, plants, and flowers that is now a regular offering of the Marion Prairie Nature Center.

Team Lead: Robert Klips, OSU Marion

Kilroy Was Hereand Were in Hot Pursuit!

Team Lead: Jerry Martin, Office of Information Technology

COPC Efforts with the College of Nursing

Team Lead: Barbara Polivka, College of Nursing

Counselor Education (OSU & Linden McKinley Center for Counseling)

Team Leads: Tania Psathas and Paul Granello, College of Education

Young Womens Business Academy

A program that provided high school females a chance to experience entrepreneurship and the business world, co-sponsored with Ohio State University Extension and the Girl Scouts.

Team Lead: Karen Ream, Alber Enterprise Center, OSU Marion

Efforts between Williams County Extension and Williams County Agencies

Supported the formation of a working partnership and training in capacity assessment for LEARN Williams County, a regional strategic planning and capacity building effort.

Team Lead: Melissa Rupp, OSU Extension, Williams County

Lima K-12 Outreach Programs

Support for the purchase of equipment for three school programs: Decisions, Dilemmas, Discussions; Inquiry, Scientists and the Environment; and Many Hats of Agriculture.

Team Lead: Lynn Sametz, OSU Lima

Initiative with Boys and Girls Club: English

Funds provided learning materials for children tutored by OSU Marion students and for the publication of student essays and a newsletter about the program.

Team Lead: Jacquelyn Spangler, OSU Marion

Adopt-A-Class

Grant supported visits to fifth- and sixth-grade classes by OSU agriculture students to present lesson plans they developed and elementary students visit to ATI to learn about agriculture and horticulture.

Team Leads: D. Elder Stewart and Linda Houston, Agricultural Technical Institute

Mentoring and Sharing through the Power of Books

Supported book discussions by OSU honors students and Columbus Africentric School students.

Team Lead: David Strauss, University Honors and Scholars

South High School Urban Academy Mentoring Program

Supported campus visits by high school students who were mentored by OSU English students.

Team Lead: H. Lewis Ulman, Department of English

The Virtual Museum as a Tool for Bringing Biodiversity to the Class

Designed and implemented web-based exercises on biodiversity for junior high science classes.

Team Leads: John Wetzel and John Freudenstein, Department of Entomology

Minority Youth Arts Saturday School

Provided equipment and materials for an enrichment program for at-risk preschool and elementary-aged children from the University District.

Team Lead: Wanda White, Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center

4-H in the Classroom

Team Lead: Rhonda Williams, OSU Extension, Darke County

College of Education and Columbus Public Schools

Supported an educational program for eighth-grade English as second language students

Team Lead: Shelley Wong, College of Education

SAFE (Secure and Friendly Environment Program)

A project addressing anxiety disorders in a partnership between the Medical Center and Columbus Public Schools

Team Lead: Ellen Yokoyama, University Hospitals

$32,358 Awarded

Outreach to Urban and Suburban Elementary Students: Scarlet and Gray Ag. Day

The purpose behind Scarlet and Gray Ag Day is to introduce agricultural literacy and appreciation and to show students the importance of agriculture and natural resources in their life and future. Elementary students take part in learning centers that incorporated hands-on learning activities, allowing them to dye wool, see the inside of a cows stomach, experiment with fuel cells, check for egg fertility, and conduct experiments testing the basic properties of water. Teachers are given hands-on experience and lesson plans using food, agricultural, and environmental principles that meet schools academic content standards. More than 600 fifth-graders attended the 2001 event, which was run with the help of more than 150 student volunteers.

Team Lead: David Zartman, Animal Sciences Human and Community Resource Development, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

TeensLook@Health: Teaming Teens, Teachers, and Technology to Deliver Credible Health Information to Todays Youth

Through a partnership with medical students and faculty from three Ohio universities, high school students schooled their peers in health issues by developing interactive pages for NetWellness, a consumer health website that provides information created and evaluated by medical and health professional faculty at Ohio State, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Cincinnati. Teams of 40 high school students and 20 medical students produced 13 projects. Faculty from Ohio State and UC then reviewed their work, with 11 of the projects approved for the NetWellness website. At a culmina0ting event, Celebrating Talents in Technology, two students were awarded $500 scholarships for their reflections on how their participation influenced their health choices and those of their peers. The peer-to-peer aspect of the project resulted in engaging, relevant health information that is more likely to be used by teens.

Team Lead: Brenda Rose, Health Sciences, College of Medicine and Public Health

Make It! Sell It! Give It! A Youth Entrepreneurial and Service Project

This 5-week pilot program focused on comptuer skill development, team building, problem solving, and introduction to business operations was attended by 23 youth from the Weinland Park community adjacent to Ohio State. Participants learned computer skills and business operations related to custom embroidery. They also conducted a service project, designing and making t-shirts given to children at the Homeless Families Foundation.

Team Lead: Bridgett Sloan, College of Human Ecology

Contemporary Music Festival 2001

With the support of this grant, the 2001 edition of the Contemporary Music Festival took one of its concerts to the annual conference of the Ohio Music Educators Association in Columbus. Featured guest composer Lukas Foss conducted the OSU Symphony Orchestra for elementary and secondary school music teachers and students attending the conference.

Team Lead: Donald Harris, College of the Arts

Building a Collaborative Community Learning Project

Team Lead: Richard Dempsey, OSU Lima

$80,358 Awarded

DNA Fingerprinting Workshop for Middle School Students

Faculty and undergraduate students in the College of Biological Sciences present workshops in Columbus high schools that give students hands-on experience in DNA analysis using molecular biology techniques. These workshops are designed to stimulate students to consider careers in the biological sciences. Department of Theatre students made a video that serves as a critical part of the workshops.

Partners:

Amanda Simcox, Molecular Genetics Department
Biochemistry Department
Microbiology Department
School of Journalism and Communication
Columbus City Schools

Grade 9: Strengthening Bridges that Link Schools, Families, and Communities

The Linmoor Middle School Ethnic Student Services Partnership entailed taking University students into the school as volunteer tutors and mentors for Linmoor students in grades six through eight, sponsoring workshops, and inviting Linmoor students onto the Ohio State campus. The student volunteers who served as tutors and mentors showed how the positive decisions they made as early as the sixth grade enabled them to go to college.

Partners:

Barbara Newman, College of Human Ecology
Indianola Middle School

The Pied Piper Fantasy

Thanks to this seed grant, 150 young flutists shared center stage with Ohio State musicians, dancers, and world-renowned composer John Corigliano during the 2000 Contemporary Music Festival. The young musicians were involved in two performances of Corigliano Pied Piper Fantasy. The School of Music and Department of Dance teamed up for the production, which featureed OSU dancers as the rats and elementary, middle, and high school flutists portraying the children led astray by the Piper.

Partners:

Donald Harris, School of Music
Department of Dance
Wexner Center for the Arts

Mentoring and Sharing through the Power of Books

The South High Urban Academy Mentoring Program matched approximately 45 Ohio State students with high school students in advanced English classes. The college students combined college life lessons with discussions of literary classics with their e-mail pen pals. The program encouraged high school students to get comfortable with technology and to think about further education. The seed grant was used to purchase literary classics that the high school and college students read and then discussed together via e-mail.

Partners:

David Strauss, Office of Minority Affairs
African American and African Studies Extension Center
University Honors and Scholars Center
Columbus Africentric School

Trevitt Elementary/OSU Partnership for Literacy

An English 110W/193W class funded by this seed grant tutored third graders after school at Trevitt Elementary School. The English class combined intensive reading and writing about literacy, language, community, and culture with service in a particular community setting. Trevitt is one of several literacy partnerships undertaken by the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing with Columbus public schools.

Partners:

Andrea Lunsford/Mindy Wright, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing
Community Extension Center
Trevitt Elementary School

Community Commitment

The seed grant helped support the annual Community Commitment day, one of the largest single-day student-led community service projects on a college campus in the nation. The event familiarizes students, especially freshmen, with the campus-area community, enabling them to make connections for future volunteer work.

Team Lead: Tracy Stuck, Office of Student Affairs

Peer Power!: Making Community Connections and Engaging Ohios Youth through Peer Education

Peer Power was an interactive peer education program designed to strengthen girls aspirations and commitment to higher education and promote critical thinking and life skills. OSU undergraduate students were trained to present workshops on a variety of topics including gender socialization, body image/self-esteem, dating violence, leadership development, and changing career aspirations. These presentations were made to Ohio schools, youth groups, and other community organizations. Peer Power was grounded in a Womens Studies curriculum designed to help women and girls acquire a sense of empowerment and catalyze educational and career aspirations that were previously undeveloped.

Team Lead: Elizabeth Allan, Women Studies and Consumer and Textile Sciences

Living with Dignity: Innovative Health Outreach for Terminally Ill Persons and Their Families

Columbus Soul: A Millennium Center for Healing through the Creative Arts served as a clearinghouse linking central Ohio hospice directors, staffs, patients, and families to palliative care, stress relief activities, and educational workshops. The seed grant supported a class for somatics graduate students and their onsite training and placement in community partner sites. The partnership included major Columbus hospitals, the Columbus Health Department, the Ohio Hospice Organization, and Ohio States Cultural Studies/Somatic Studies and Music Education programs (College of Education) and the Department of Human and Community Resource Development. The center was eventually merged into a somatics clinic and studio, a clinical professional practice setting that offered workshops and health care to the unviersity and community.

Team Lead: Silvana Napier, Department of Human and Community Resource Development