The Moore Family Foundation Faculty Development Program for Teaching provided grant funding for 12 faculty projects at Central College during the 2021-22 academic year. The funding total was $63,879.

Dawn Stiemsma Reece, associate professor of sociology and 1989 Central graduate, received a Moore Family Foundation grant to lead a workshop in August for faculty. The workshop focused on improving student participation through engaging discussions and allowed participants to share successful tactics, demonstrate new strategies and review the latest pedagogy.

“Moore Family Foundation funds purchased two research-based books for all the participants,” Reece says. “In the workshop, we modeled new and novel discussion techniques across disciplines for different levels of classes and across disciplines. Faculty were encouraged and enabled to use discussion for a widespread, positive impact on students.”

Moore funding also supported:
– Curriculum development for teachers of writing and research across disciplines.
– The redesign of a diversity and inclusion course and syllabus.
– Hands-on manipulatives for increased comprehension of molecular interactions.
– The development of concrete classroom activities to demonstrate theoretical concepts in math and economics.
– A survey of native bees in Big Rock Park in Pella
– The continuance of the Prairies for Agricultural Project for an 11th year. This project has been assessing annual variation in floral abundance in prairie reconstructions and the importance of floral redundancy for pollinating bees.
– Collaborative research on manganese compounds for catalytic transfer hydrogenations and identification and characterization of Bacillus subtilis genes responsible for Ni2+ defense.

The Moore Family Foundation has provided significant support to Central over the years. Since 2013, the college’s faculty have received $627,938 in funding from the Moore Family Foundation Development Program for Teaching. The foundation’s goal is to provide Central faculty with the opportunity to strengthen engagement with students in the classroom and other educational settings. The foundation funds faculty professional development in teaching, including:

– New course development.
– Redesigning courses.
– Equipment for teaching.
– Workshop, seminar or training registration fees.
– Collaborative research.

The late Frank Moore, a 1949 Central graduate, and his wife, Grace, who was designated an honorary alumna of Central in 2001, have been long-term generous benefactors to the college. Frank was the director of the human research area files at Yale University, where Grace was a foreign language translation editor. From 1979-88, Frank was a Central trustee. Together, the couple created two scholarships funded by their annuities, one endowed scholarship, two faculty awards and a chair in anthropology, in addition to ongoing gifts from the Moore Family Foundation.