The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching has announced the 2005-06 recipients of the Judge Julian Beck Learning-Centered Instructional Project Grant Award, and next year, students will be witnessing what a difference more than $78,000 in award money can make.

The CELT grants are awarded once a year, and are used to help fund projects developed by CSUN professors. The projects are used in various academic departments so professors can better teach specialized subjects to their students, according to this person, according to Kelly Kroeker, administrative support assistant for CELT.

Each project is eligible for a maximum grant of $5,000.

This year, 17 projects received funding that distributed more than $78,000 to 30 professors. The award money comes from University Corporation endowment funds.

When applying for the grants, teachers are given a deadline by which they must submit their applications, budget requests and project proposals. The grant committee considers the project proposals and then determines if an award should be issued.

Teachers are selected by how well they demonstrate their projects’ usefulness in improving student learning, Kroeker said.

All faculty and staff are eligible to create and submit projects, either individually or as a group. Each department may work together to prepare its projects.

Women’s Studies, Political Science, Chicano/a Studies, Mathematics, History and Physical Therapy were among the departments that received grants this year, among others.

Women’s studies professor Florence Kyomugisha was one of 30 professors who received a project grant.

She proposed “Embracing Diversity through Innovative Pedagogy” with fellow women’s studies professor R. Dianne Bartlow.

“I am looking forward to using the grant money in order to create my project,” Kyomugisha said. “My plans are currently on hold though, because the grant money has not yet been distributed.”

Kroeker said each project must demonstrate a design that will improve students’ active and experimental learning practices, improve students’ classroom assessment techniques, and display web-based technology to improve student learning.

Cynthia Desrochers, director of CELT, is in charge of the program, but could not be reached for comment.