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NJCU was recently awarded a $298,000 Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The proposal for these funds was a collaborative effort drafted by assistant professors Terry Kamps, Allison Fitzgerald, and Meriem Bendaoud from the Biology Department and Assistant Professor Yufeng Wei, Professor Ken Yamaguchi and Associate Professor Robert Aslanian from the Chemistry Department.

Titled, “Improving the Undergraduate Learning and Teaching Experience through Innovative Course Clustering,” the grant will provide support to develop a new laboratory curriculum that better reflects the technical and soft skillsets students need to obtain positions in research-intensive organizations. The project is based on the concept of “course clusters,” wherein multiple classes from the chemistry and biology laboratory curriculum will collaborate to solve a research problem. Students will obtain hands-on experience with modern techniques and instrumentation and have opportunities to improve soft skills in a student-centered learning environment.

This is not the first time NJCU’s science-based programs have been the recipient of grant money. This past fall, the NSF awarded the University a $1.4 million grant to recruit STEM majors as secondary school faculty for high-need districts in New Jersey. At that time, NJCU was also awarded a $5.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education designed to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students attaining degrees in six STEM fields at the University.