The Office of Engagement Initiatives has awarded $1,307,580 in Engaged Curriculum Grants to 25 teams of faculty and community partners that are integrating community-engaged learning into majors and minors across the university.

This year’s awards involve 99 Cornell faculty and staff from 46 departments. The 39 community partners are from 10 countries; 11 projects are based in New York state.

Funded projects for 2019-20:

Applied Mathematics in Action: Transforming the applied math curriculum to prepare students for diverse career paths solving real-world problems.

Biomedical Engineering for Rural Health Care: Developing a student exchange program with a college in Tanzania to spur the design of accurate, reliable and robust medical equipment that works in multiple contexts.

Bringing Specimens to Life: Teaching students to communicate scientific knowledge that promotes local diversity and inspires an interest in the natural world.

Climate-Adaptive Design in the Community: Closely engaging stakeholders with a cross-course collaboration that inspires awareness of climate adaptation and design innovation.

Collective Leadership Course: Introducing students to a leadership model centered on shared visions, aligned goals and coordinated actions.

Community-Engaged Learning in Emerging Economies: Partnering with entrepreneurs, NGOs, universities and rural communities in developing countries to tackle challenges in business, agriculture and natural resource management.

Crime, Prisons, Education and Justice Minor: Exploring issues around the criminal justice system and incarceration policy through first-hand experiences with prison education.

An Endangered and Indigenous Language Curriculum: Preserving, teaching and documenting endangered and indigenous languages in New York state.

Engaged Learning Curriculum in Global Development: Designing a community-engaged curriculum for Cornell’s new Department of Global Development.

Engaged Research and Learning at the Nilgiris Field Learning Center: Introducing an intergenerational mentoring program and expanding language learning at NFLC in southern India.

Engineering Puerto Rico’s Infrastructure: Using community-engaged engineering to design for resilience during Puerto Rico’s reconstruction.

Expanding PRYDE Scholars Program Research: Activating 4-H youth participants in PRYDE scholars’ research.

Exploring Science Aboard the Physics Bus: Researching, designing and testing new hands-on physics exhibits that engage the public.

Feminism and Social Justice: Creating new community-engaged learning opportunities for Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies students.

An Introduction to the Internet of Things: Designing Cornell’s first introductory course on the “internet of things”: Technology and Engagement.

Learning Through Advocacy: Mobilizing students to combat the consequences of unemployment in the community through legal advocacy.

Minor in Applied Science Communication and Public Engagement: Preparing students to be socially engaged scientists and expanding the pool of experienced science communicators working with local organizations.

A Model for Sustainable Resource Use: Leveraging science and traditional ecological knowledge for environmental education.

Peace Building in Conflict Regions: Engaging with reconciliation and development efforts in Israel and the Palestinian territories and sub-Saharan Africa.

Policy and the Science of Climate Change: Bringing students to United Nations negotiations on climate change policy.

The Professional Practice of Entrepreneurship: Taking an interdisciplinary approach to social entrepreneurship by creating an aquaponics system for growing organic vegetables and fish in Chile.

Restoring Joint Function: Demonstrating how biomaterials scientists, engineers and orthopedic surgeons can partner to improve patient outcomes.

School Gardens in Chile’s Copiapo Valley: Promoting agricultural sustainability and community resilience through school programs in rural Chile.

Sustainable Engineering in Context: Bringing engineering students together so they can take a team approach to finding sustainable solutions to real-world problems.

Taking America’s Pulse: Teaching students advanced survey methods and analysis through a national opinion poll.

Ashlee McGandy is content strategist in the Office of Engagement Initiatives.