Budget Justification Wording to Be Pasted Into the Fastlane Field for Mesa

Budget Justification wording to be “pasted” into the Fastlane field for Mesa

Senior Investigator: Dr. Niccole Cerveny’s time allocation to this project will greatly exceed the nominal release time request. Her dedication to the project is of the highest order, as reflected by her dissertation and refereed publications. She anticipates spending at least 6 months each year writing, refining, evaluating, and retesting modules — as well as helping to train colleagues at Mesa and partnering community colleges. She will also be coordinating with colleagues in geology, biology, and archaeology in the teaching of the modules. For diverse learners in need of counseling, she will be the coordinator of that effort. Critically, she will be the point person in coordinating with the external evaluators.

GIS Technician: This individual will be working with full-time instructor Karen Blevins to craft the geographic information system for South Mountain Park and Petrified Forest National Park, where the students will be working. The creation of the GIS and associated internet map server is a vital part of the technology component of the proposed curriculum development. Once the GIS is running and debugged, Karen Blevins and existing system administration of the GIS lab will be sufficient to maintain the GIS element of the curriculum long past the end of the grant.

Equipment/Server: The requested amount reflects the purchase, software and set-up of the GIS server and associated internet map delivery software. This server will also be delivering the Internet modules. The server must be rugged enough, with RAID 5, to survive long past the end of the proposed grant activity. The server will be housed in the Mesa Community College and maintained by the existing systems administration staff.

Travel: Dr. Cerveny strongly believes in the importance of networking and communicating with the larger CCLI community. Thus, funds are requested for attending such meetings. In addition, at the intermediate phase of module development and refinement, in the summer of 2007, we request funds for core individuals (from Mesa Community College, one external evaluator, and one of the curriculum development consultants) to attend the SENCER conference — with the goal of making sure that the eventual presentation of the modules are of the highest quality and maximize national portability.

Publication Costs: We are requesting page charges to publish the research findings in refereed journals such as the Journal of Geosciences Education, Journal of Geography, and Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

Consultant Costs:

Dr. Whitley and Dr. Gordon:

Dr. David Whitley of W&S Consultants and Dr. Steve Gordon of the U.S. Air Force Academy will serve as independent evaluators, with attached letters of commitment.

Dr. Gordon's position with the Air Force prevents him from receiving pay. Still, in his letter of commitment, he explains his willingness to lend his geoscience assessment expertise as a component of his larger outreach effort with the Air Force Academy. Dr. Whitley is a consultant. His heavy evaluation load reflects a commensurate consultant cost. This requested fee reflects his international expertise. Dr. Whitley evaluated rock art curriculum at the Universite de Paris I, CFI International University at Hiroshima, Japan, University of Gothenburg in Sweden, Queens University at Belfast, Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala, as well as evaluating rock art curriculum in the USA such as at Northern Arizona University, University of Montana and Southwest Texas University. He has played a very active role in the international rock art research and historic preservation communities, representing the US to ICOMOS, UNESCO and the French Ministry of Culture.

Other Costs:

Faculty Stipends: to encourage faculty in a variety of disciplines at Mesa Community College to incorporate RASI into different aspects of their syllabi.

Teacher Stipends: will be used for Arizona Geographic Alliance K-12 teachers to (a) construct lessons connecting the CCLI curriculum to math standards; (b) pilot those lessons in their classrooms; (c) refine the lessons; (d) conduct training on the lessons at the Arizona conferences for geography and mathematics education; (e) videotaping of lesson demonstrations for use as streaming video in pre-service and in-service teacher training; and (e) posting of these lessons on the Arizona Geographic Alliance website.

Budget Justification wording to be “pasted” into the Fastlane field for University of Colorado at Denver

Co-Investigator: Dr. Casey Allen’s time allocation to this project will greatly exceed the request for a half-month summer salary. $200,000 for a Phase 1 CCLI (community college and four- year institutions combined) limits financial support, but Dr. Allen’s dedication to the project is reflected in his dissertation topic focusing on learning rock types through weathering of cultural stone enhances learning of science by women and minorities. Should this proposal be funded, and should research on whether Mesa Community College women and minority students increase their proficiency learning core competencies in science, then Dr. Allen and UC Denver would play a central role in a Phase 2 proposal focusing on the expansion of RASI in wetter regions. Dr. Allen’s key roles for Phase 1 include handling assessment and initial efforts adapting RASI for student use on building stones. The reviewers should also understand that Dr. Allen has start-up funds of $50,000 that would be used to further his research on student learning through rock weathering. Budget Justification wording to be “pasted” into the Fastlane field for ASU

Senior Personnel: Dorn's commitment to module development, evaluation, and corresponding K- 12 curriculum modification cannot be accommodated by the limited budget. His salary is simply too large to permit funding and still carry out the proposal. The reviewers need to understand that this is a labor of love for both Dorn and the project coordinator, Dr. Cerveny. There is a massive crisis in both science education of minorities and in the decay of priceless rock art. Research (Allen, 2008) reveals the power of this project to address both needs. Thus, the funding is being spent in the core areas needed to complete the project, rather than faculty support.

Other Personnel: Elyssa Gutbrod, a student in year 2 of a 5-year PhD program will be heavily involved in the programming and development of the GIS used by MCC students. Her own Ph.D. research project will assess student, faculty, and land manager interaction with the user-interface of this GIS.

Fringe Benefits: Fringe benefits are accessed at a rate of 43% at ASU for graduate students (35% tuition remission and 8% health benefits).

Total Direct: Total direct costs for ASU’s portion of the project are $46,296.

Total Indirect Costs: Facilities and administrative (F&A) costs are expenses that cannot be easily charged to a project, such as electricity, building maintenance, office supplies, administrative staff, and so on. Since F&A costs are difficult to charge to a project, they are computed as a percentage of overall project costs. They are assessed on Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) using facilities and administrative costs rates approved by the Department of Health and Human Services. ASU’s indirect rate for instruction projects on campus is 53%. Items excluded from the F & A calculation include: capital equipment, subcontracts over the first $25,000, and student tuition remission. The indirect costs for ASU’s portion of this project are $18,532.

Total Direct and Indirect Costs: Total direct and indirect costs for ASU’s portion of the project are $64,828.