Tag: projects

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Summer 2016 Ball State Immersive Learning Projects

Ball State faculty, students, and community partners are working together this summer on a number of immersive learning projects.

Reading Intervention at the Youth Opportunity Center
Working collaboratively with the YOC, Ball State students will spend the summer making a real difference in the lives of young people. They will study psychological, environmental, and cultural factors that contribute to reading difficulties, develop skills in applying proven reading strategies, and ultimately implement a reading intervention program.
Community Partner: Youth Opportunity Center
Faculty Mentors: Janay Sander, Educational Psychology and Ruth Jefferson, Special Education

Virginia B. Ball Center Summer Seminar – Water Quality Indiana
Students from Ball State University, Taylor University and the Indiana Academy will blend science and journalism through testing of local waterways with community partners from the Upper Mississinewa River Watershed Partnership. Students will have the opportunity to conduct interviews with stakeholders, produce defendable scientific results, generate multimedia products, and disseminate information to a public audience of consultants, regulators, and landowners to help create a sustainable future.
Community Partners: Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District, Randolph County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Upper Mississinewa River Watershed Partnership
Faculty Mentors: Adam Kuban, Journalism and Lee Florea, Geological Science

Muncie Public Art Master Plan
Students will work with local citizens to generate policies regarding the future of public arts in Muncie. Policies also will be informed by goals and initiatives developed by the Committee for Public Arts of Muncie and the Muncie Arts and Culture Council Board of Directors.
Community Partner: Muncie Arts and Culture Council Committee for Public Art
Faculty Mentor: Lisa Dunaway, Urban Planning

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Spring 2016 Ball State Immersive Learning Projects

Ball State students are busy around Muncie this semester!  Here’s a list of projects taking place in our community.

Building Better Health: Developing a Community Gold Standard
Community Partner: Little Red Door East Central Indiana
Faculty Mentor: Peggy Fisher, Department of Communication Studies
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ecoREHAB Studio: Thomas Park Avondale House Rehab
Community Partner: Ball Brothers Foundation
Faculty Mentor: Jonathan Spodek, Department of Architecture
LEARN MORE | READ ARTICLE

Families for Forward Thinking: Partnering with Parents in the 21st Century
Community Partner: Wee Wisdom Nursery School and Child Care Facility
Faculty Mentor: Stacey Allred, Department of Elementary Education
LEARN MORE

Heath Farm Sustainability Park Planning
Community Partner: Red-tail Land Conservancy
Faculty Mentor: Dave Ferguson
LEARN MORE

Louis E. Ingelhart Scholars and Facing Cancer
Community Partner: Little Red Door
Faculty Mentor: Adam Kuban, Department of Journalism
LEARN MORE

Muncie’s Sports Tourism Potential: Strategies to Make the SportsPlex Serve the Community Better
Community Partners: City of Muncie, Muncie Visitors Bureau
Faculty Mentor: Craig Webster, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
LEARN MORE

Public Safety Committee Interviews and Focus Groups
Community Partner: Whitely Community Safety Committee
Faculty Mentor: Melinda Messineo, Department of Sociology
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Serve to Learn Youth Development Project and Focus Groups
Community Partner: Whitely Community Council
Faculty Mentors: Dorshele Stewart, Department of History; Melinda Messineo, Department of Sociology
LEARN MORE

Thomas Park – Avondale Neighborhood Action Plan
Community Partner: Thomas Park – Avondale Neighborhood Association
Faculty Mentor: Lisa Dunaway, Department of Urban Planning
LEARN MORE

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Beech Grove Cemetery Book & Phone App – Fall 2015

Beech Grove Cemetery holds many wonderful stories about the people who came from Muncie and made contributions as state, national and international citizens.  Muncie’s Beech Grove Cemetery Board asked Ball State students to create a book to document these stories and to transfer that content into a walking tour that would allow visitors to access that information via smartphones.   Students gained experience in historical research, technical, and public writing.  The students were responsible for conducting research, identifying themes, designing interpretation, and selecting stories for the book and app.

Learn more from the project video:

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City-wide Preservation Plan for Muncie – Fall 2015

Muncie – like many Midwest industrial communities – is recovering from the recent recession and the resulting blight. According to research completed by Ball State’s historic preservation graduate students, the cities that are making the best recoveries are those with strategies that combine historic preservation and city planning to enact redevelopment efforts based on strategic demolitions, rehabilitations, targeted code enforcement and land banking. They have two major strategies in common: data collection and good preservation plans. Through this immersive learning project, Ball State students led by Faculty Mentor Susan Lankford, participated in ScoutMuncie, a data collection and historic resources survey initiated by Muncie’s Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation Commission. The students used this data, information gathered through a series of community meetings, and their own research to prepare a preservation plan that will guide the Commission’s efforts to preserve our history and use our historic resources to increase quality of life, strengthen our sense of place, and ensure our Sustainability.

Check out their video to learn more:

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The Many Faces of Muncie – Fall 2015

People make Muncie tick.  This city was built and continues to run because of complex, interesting, fascinating people.  This project celebrates the lives of everyday Muncie residents and their contributions to the economy, history, diversity and culture of this community, focusing on telling the stories of their lives and their professions.  By spending time with these people, the Ball State students and their Telecommunications Faculty Mentor, Suzy Smith, were able to shed light on what it takes to create a diverse, steadfast and strong-willed community.

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Muncie Meth Task Force Survey – Fall 2015

The Muncie Meth Task Force is a diverse group of individuals representing housing providers, the health and wellness fields, the city of Muncie, local foundations, and the neighborhoods that are working to find solutions to the issues related to Meth in the community. There are a variety of focus groups and interviews being conducted by consultants at Indiana Resource and Prevention Center out of Indiana University. This work is funded by a NeighborWorks grant to PathStone through which the City of Muncie (Community Development) is a partner.  The purpose of the grant is to complete an assessment of the Meth issue in our community and to establish an action plan to deal with Meth issues relevant to housing.  

In this project Melinda Messineo led a group of Ball State students in conjunction with the Muncie Meth Task Force, to gather information about the use of methamphetamines in Muncie and Delaware county, and the reasons behind the possible increase in usage rates. The data will be used to inform intervention programs that the Task Force will be creating over the next year. To gather the data, students communicated with local law enforcement as well as current and former users from the area.

If you would like more information about the Muncie Meth Taskforce, please contact Annette Phillips.