Professors receive research grants over summer

Three Texas A&M University-Commerce professors received grants from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for education and research projects this summer.

Dr. Madeline Justice, department head and professor of educational leadership, received a grant of $243,686 over five years from the U.S. Department of Education through the Texas A&M University System for the "School Leadership Program."

"The grant will help people interested in becoming principals and to have better leaders in their schools," Justice said. "We are very happy to have it. We know it will help."

According to Provost Larry Lemanski, the grant is indicative of the quality of the A&M-Commerce Education Leadership program.

"This is an area we have tremendous strength in and that's why Dr. Justice got the award," he said. "Because we're one of the leaders in this field, not only in Texas, but nationally."

According to Lemanski, all of these grants are part of a larger goal.

"We're really pushing the idea of scientific research and technology and getting various grant funding," he said. "So one of the things we're trying to do is significantly increase the amount of extramural funding that we get. And these kinds of programs are the kinds of programs we are pushing to increase."

To that end, Lemanski would like to see the amount of annual funding increase considerably.

"Right now we're between $5 and $6 million in funding for the university per year," he said. "We want to push that up over the next three years to $15 to $20 million."

Dr. Brent Donham, A&M-Commerce head and professor of industrial engineering and technology, received an $18,000 grant for the "2010 Engineering Summer Program (ESP)," which hosted middle school students from Commerce and Cooper from June 7-18 this summer.

"The students were introduced to robotics, given challenges, and designed and planned their own robots, which they demonstrated on June 14," Donham said.

The students were also taken on a tour of L-3 Communications in Greenville during the camp.

"L-3 is a major collaborator on various programs," Lemanski said. "Including our new computational science program."

Dr. Vanessa Huse, a mathematics instructor, received a $60,434 continuation of a grant for "Measurement in the Middle Grades," a Teacher Quality Grant Program. The award will be used for teacher training for middle school mathematics in the Athens area.

"We're trying to improve all the science and mathematics areas in the grade schools, middle schools, and of course high schools, so students in the United States are better prepared when they come to college," Lemanski said. "In other words, they won't find algebra so difficult. They're good at it."

However, Lemanski stressed that though he is enthusiastic about the advances in research at A&M-Commerce, he does not want to see the university sacrifice its educational base.

"We want to maintain excellent teaching as well," he said. "But also bring up the research and scholarship component of our institution."