New grants highlight the college’s dedication to cutting-edge research
This past autumn, the college’s faculty and staff reaped a bounty of new grant awards. These new projects demonstrate our dedication to groundbreaking research that improves lives.
$3.2M grant tests telemedicine, mobile health interventions for rural cancer patients
Suzanne Bartle-Haring, professor of Human Development and Family Science, will provide critical data analysis for a new five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The randomized efficacy clinical trial will examine how telemedicine and mobile health interventions help with negative symptoms of advanced cancer among underserved patients in rural and Appalachian communities.
Bartle-Haring, who co-directs the college’s Couple and Family Therapy Graduate Program, is co-principal investigator of the grant. She will work with Principal Investigator Sharla Wells-Di Gregorio at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State’s College of Medicine.
Dore, Justice receive $1.98M to study improving literacy skills with educational media at home
Rebecca Dore, director of research for the college’s Crane Center on Early Childhood Research and Policy, is the principal investigator of a $1.98 million, five-year grant that will examine whether assisting caregivers in using educational media with their children at home can improve early literacy skills.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the project’s co-principal investigator is Crane Center Executive Director Laura Justice, EHE Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology.
Prior work by Dore and Justice showed that a storybook intervention with explicit print referencing improves children’s early literacy skills. However, caregiver adherence was often low. This project aims to use family-friendly educational media to circumvent or diminish barriers and promote adherence.
Only Ohio Orientation and Mobility program continues
Danene Fast, assistant clinical professor of Elementary and Secondary Education, received renewal of her Orientation and Mobility grant for the fiscal year from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. As the only such program in Ohio, it prepares learners for the culminating exam to become a certified orientation and mobility specialist through the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Graduates become adept in understanding the needs of those who are visually impaired so they can navigate their communities and use specialized equipment.
Justice, Purtell granted $2.3M to assess child developmental language disorders
Laura Justice, EHE Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology and principal investigator, and Kelly Purtell, associate professor of Human Development and Family Science and co-principal investigator, will study how family poverty conditions and early family content contribute to persistent language disorder at age 9 among young children experiencing poverty.
The researchers will study how family poverty conditions and early family context contribute to persistent language disorder at age 9 among young children experiencing poverty.
Their three-year, National Institutes of Health grant of $2.299 million is a renewal to continue following a sample of more than 300 children studied in the prior grant. The phase 2 study will test the theory that children with developmental language disorders who experience the adversities of poverty have heightened risk for persistent language disorders.
Lepicki collaborates on $4.8M grant to train climate-ready workforce
Traci Lepicki, associate director of the college’s Center on Education and Training for Employment, is co-principal investigator for a $4.8 million award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct “Training a Climate-Ready Workforce to Manage the Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources in Ohio Coastal Communities.”
Collaborating with the principal investigator in Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Lepicki will perform the critical role of surveying the grant’s employer partners to gather data about workforce needs. Then her center’s experts will use its renowned Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) job analysis to guide subject matter experts in identifying critical knowledge, skills, behaviors and tools for positions.
Results will be the basis for developing new curricula. Lepicki also will lead annual meetings with employer partners to continually match curriculum with job needs.
Mayhew evaluates $1M clean-tech battery manufacturing career program
Matthew Mayhew, professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, is a co-principal investigator and evaluator on a $1 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to provide academic training for students to enter the rapidly growing workforce in battery manufacturing for the automotive industry.
Led through Ohio State’s Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research, the program will recruit and train students from Columbus State Community College, Wilberforce University and Ohio State. The core team includes industry partners Honda and Schaeffler Americas.
Mayhew, the college’s Flesher Professor of Educational Administration, will advise a PhD student in executing the logistics of the evaluation plan. They will use a combination of evaluation processes and assessment tools to determine if the program is helping students achieve what is needed to enter the battery manufacturing workforce.
Piasta leads $3.2M grant to boost science of how to teach reading
Shayne Piasta, professor of Elementary and Secondary Education, is principal investigator of a $3.2 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the most effective and efficient way to teach children’s achievement of phonemic awareness.
Decades of basic research into the science of reading have established that this ability is essential to learning to read. However, we know less about the science of teaching reading. Scholars disagree about the approach.
Piasta’s project, “Optimizing Early Phonological Awareness Instruction to Support Reading and Spelling Acquisition,” will collaborate with Columbus City Schools and other local schools to recruit study subjects in preschool and kindergarten. Researchers at Florida State University are partners who will recruit additional children to participate in Florida.
Purtell, O’Leary, Justice analyze changes to Ohio child care quality, improvement system
Co-principal investigator Kelly Purtell, associate professor of Human Development and Family Science, and co-principal investigator Jamie O’Leary, associate director of policy and external affairs at the college’s Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, are collaborating on a $2 million, five-year grant from the federal Administration for Children and Families, in partnership with the Ohio Department of Children and Youth. The principal investigator, Lauren Jones, is faculty at Ohio State’s Glenn College of Public Affairs and a faculty associate of the Crane Center. Laura Justice, professor of Educational Psychology and executive director of the Crane Center, serves as advisor on the grant.
Recent changes to Ohio’s child care quality rating and improvement system increased subsidies to providers and streamlined procedures to emphasize quality standards. The researchers are examining the impact of these changes, including how they affect family access and child care providers’ ability to provide quality care. The project is supported by a consortium of research-policy partners nationwide.
Zirkle guides faculty preparation for two NSF workforce grants
Christopher Zirkle, associate professor of Workforce Development and Education, is co-principal investigator on a $25.3 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to jumpstart U.S. natural rubber production. His focus is on enhancing workforce development to fuel the new domestic industry. Multiple university partners are collaborators.
Collaborating with Principal Investigator Judit Puskas, an Ohio State professor of food, agricultural and biological engineering, Zirkle will work with K-12 educators to develop summer camps, create work-based learning opportunities — including internships — and establish connections with low-income, prospective, first-generation college students through campus-based Upward Bound programs. He will also work with teachers, developing professional development opportunities focused on the natural rubber industry and assisting with related lesson-planning.
In another $2.5 million grant from the NSF, Zirkle is co-principal investigator in creating the Reinforcing Instructors for Semiconductor Education Consortium. Working with Scot McLemore, principal investigator at Columbus State Community College, Zirkle will lead professional development and instructor training for individuals entering the teaching profession related to the semiconductor industry. He will develop a series of online modules focused on instructional methods, adult learning, student assessment and other topics.