Sinclair360

The students in Tom Singer's guitar-building class could go home already. But week after week, they stay late, studying schematics, perfecting their designs, tinkering with strings - building their very own electric guitars. "I never schedule the class to end later than 8 p.m.," Singer said, "because I would never get home."

At its core, this exercise in guitar making is an innovative experiment in teaching math, physics and engineering. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project uses the guitar to teach fundamental science and math principles and product lifecycle management concepts. Faculty members at Purdue University, Sinclair Community College and two other community colleges have worked together to write a curriculum to train high school and college instructors to bring the guitar project back to their classrooms.

It's one of many ways in which Sinclair is using NSF dollars to improve education, both at Sinclair and beyond. NSF funding supports multiple projects across the Sinclair campus bringing to life ideas that might otherwise wither for lack of financial support.

Sinclair leads the nation among community colleges in NSF funding. The college's track record began in 1989, when a group of chemistry faculty went after a NSF grant to purchase electronic instrumentation for organic-chemistry analysis. That grant was the first in a string of NSF grants that have created opportunities for Sinclair faculty, staff and students to pioneer new curricula and ideas.

The college posts impressive numbers, bringing in nearly $19 million in NSF funding over the past two decades. And the success rate is even more eye-popping: 70 percent of the NSF proposals that come out of Sinclair are funded. "No other community college has that kind of legacy," said Neil Herbkersman, senior director of Advancement and the college's grants expert.

So how did the college build such a strong record of NSF funding? There are multiple reasons: strong relationships with the NSF representatives to understand what the college needs; successful outcomes on the parts of faculty and staff who carry out the work of the grants; and partnerships with other universities and high schools. But perhaps most important Herbkersman believes is the time that his office spends on each grant proposal, planning, honing and polishing each idea.

Rockin' a masterpiece

Project ideas bubble up from the faculty and staff. Often they are fuzzy versions of what will develop over the next several months.

Herbkersman, who has 30 years of experience in grants development, leads a three-person grants office that is instrumental in Sinclair's NSF success. A trained environmental scientist, he joins his expertise with that of social scientist Karla Hibbert-Jones and attorney Nancy Jones. "They become traffic cops - facilitators - to take the raw ideas and turn them into feasible grant applications," said Tom Raga, vice president of Advancement. "If one of our faculty members has Neil and his team working with them, they are shooting at a target."

About 10 months before the funding deadline, Herbkersman and his team step into gear. They sharpen each idea through a process called Compression Planning with Storyboarding, a series of targeted brainstorming sessions that has become their bread-and-butter approach to getting a grant application ready.

In total, the college spends between 100 and 200 hours on each grant proposal. An early application is submitted in April, and comments from NSF come back over the summer, giving Sinclair time to revise the proposal for the October deadline. "The last thing we want to do is send in a project that's immature," Herbkersman said. "That's a waste of precious time."

The NSF is aware of the time that Sinclair takes with each proposal, said Gerhard Salinger, coleader of the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program office. In fact, he has suggested that other institutions bring Herbkersman in to speak. "There are other people who think he has something to tell them about how proposals should be put together," Salinger said.

Groupies and roadies

For all of the work that goes into the crafting of the grant, the legwork that happens beforehand can be just as critical. Herbkersman and other Sinclair officials spend time each year building relationships with NSF staff members. Sinclair Community College President Dr. Steven Johnson and Vice President of Advancement Raga travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the foundation staff face to face.

They want to know what funding trends are coming down the pike. They promote the college as a potential partner for NSF projects at other schools.  "We're cultivating personal relationships within the NSF, to make sure as things change that we get notified sooner and have the opportunity to ask questions," Herbkersman said.

Similarly faculty at Sinclair are building relationships with instructors at four-year universities, other community colleges and high schools, to find ways to work together on future projects. The guitar project, done in conjunction with Purdue University and several other community colleges, is an excellent example of such teamwork. Sinclair began building a relationship with Purdue, regarded as the country's leading engineering educator, long before the proposal was submitted.

The NSF is particularly interested in seeing community colleges work with technical high schools. For Sinclair that
trend is especially promising; the college already has partnerships with multiple technical high schools, through the Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium (MVTPC). "We can make a simple call and bring on a partner across 58 school districts in seconds," Herbkersman said. For example, Sinclair manages a $350,000 aviation diesel maintenance grant in conjunction with Miami Valley Career Technology Center and a Cincinnati-based technical high school.

Sinclair is partnering with Dayton Public Schools, Miami University, the University of Dayton and Wright State University on a $643,000 NSF grant to create a middle and high school science- and math-teacher education path. High school students in the academy will start at the David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center, then come to Sinclair with 12 credit hours toward a science-teaching major, matriculating to Wright State or other universities as juniors. "It is revolutionizing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teacher education in the Greater Dayton region," Herbkersman said.

NSF sponsors local tour

The bulk of Sinclair's NSF funding comes from the foundation's ATE program, which emphasizes two-year colleges and focuses on the education of technicians for advanced technology fields. Sinclair's largest NSF funded project - the National Center for Manufacturing Education - has been continually funded since 1995, and was one of the first national centers of excellence recognized by the ATE program. Most recently NSF funded the center to create and maintain an electronic clearinghouse of engineering technology resources for educators.

It's designed to be a one-stop shop for manufacturing and engineering educators around the globe to procure actual classroom activities, find current research in their fields and look at sample programs, according to Gilah Pomeranz, project manager of the National Center for Manufacturing Education. The center, which created a two-year curriculum for  manufacturing education and trains teachers nationwide in activity-based learning, serves as a resource for other colleges across the country pursuing NSF grants. "We became and continue to be the poster child for the Advanced Technological Education program of NSF," Pomeranz said.

Other projects also have a national reach. Late last year college instructors from across the country gathered at Sinclair for faculty development on the most advanced hybrid vehicles. They were trained by representatives from Ford, General Motors, Honda and Toyota, gaining technical skills and knowledge on the latest hybrid and alternative vehicles, to help them develop hybrid programs at their institutions. This weeklong project was funded by a nearly $800,000 grant from NSF.

NSF funding helps improve day-to-day education at Sinclair, said Raga. It creates grant-funded jobs, allows the college to purchase equipment and provides faculty development that may not otherwise materialize. "Some [grants] are flashy and some are less so," he said. "But if it's purchasing diesel aviation engines or engaging high level hybrid-vehicle manufacturers, it's all to the benefit of student outcomes and student learning."

And for Tom Singer and his guitar class, there's no sweeter sound than that of students' actually enjoying what they are learning. "I am amazed at the level of commitment that the students have," Singer said. "The key that opens the lock for some students is the applied nature of learning."

The students in Tom Singer’s guitar-building class could go home already. But week after week, they stay late, studying schematics, perfecting their designs, tinkering with strings – building their very own electric guitars. “I never schedule the class to end later than 8 p.m.,” Singer said, “because I would never get home."

This exercise in guitar-making is at its core an innovative experiment in teaching math, physics and engineering. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project uses the guitar to teach fundamental science and math principles and product life-cycle management concepts. Faculty members at Purdue University, Sinclair Community College and two other community colleges have worked together to write a curriculum that they are now using to train high school and college instructors to bring the guitar project back to their classrooms

It’s one of many ways in which Sinclair is using NSF dollars to improve education, both at Sinclair and beyond. NSF funding supports multiple projects across the Sinclair campus, bringing to life ideas that might otherwise wither, for lack of financial support.

Sinclair leads the nation among community colleges in NSF funding. The college’s track record began in 1989, when a group of chemistry faculty went after an NSF grant to purchase electronic instrumentation for organic-chemistry analysis. That grant was the first in a string of NSF grants that have created opportunities for Sinclair faculty, staff and students to pioneer new curricula and ideas.

The college posts impressive numbers, bringing in nearly $19 million in NSF funding over the past two decades. And the success rate is even more eye-popping: 70 percent of the NSF proposals that come out of Sinclair are funded. “No other community college has that kind of legacy,” said Neil Herbkersman, senior director of Advancement and the college’s grants expert.

So how did the college build such a strong record of NSF funding? There are multiple reasons: strong relationships with the NSF representatives, to understand what the college needs; successful outcomes on the parts of faculty and staff who carry out the work of the grants; and partnerships with other universities and high schools. But perhaps most important, Herbkersman believes, is the time that his office spends on each grant proposal, planning, honing and polishing each idea.

Perfecting the grant

Project ideas bubble up from the faculty and staff. Often they are fuzzy versions of what will develop over the next several months.

Herbkersman, who has 30 years of experience in grants development, leads a three-person grants office that is instrumental in Sinclair’s NSF success. A trained environmental scientist, he joins his expertise with that of social scientist Karla Hibbert-Jones and attorney Nancy Jones.

“They become traffic cops – facilitators – to take the raw ideas and turn them into feasible grant applications,” said Tom Raga, vice president of Advancement. “If one of our faculty members has Neil and his team working with them, they are shooting at a target.”

About 10 months before the funding deadline, Herbkersman and his team step into gear. They sharpen each idea through a process called Compression Planning with Storyboarding, a series of targeted brainstorming sessions that has become their bread-and-butter approach to getting a grant application ready.

In total, the college spends between 100 and 200 hours on each grant proposal. An early application is submitted in April, and comments from NSF come back over the summer, giving Sinclair time to revise the proposal for the October deadline. The state of the proposal in April is key to getting useful feedback to shape the final product, Herbkersman said. “The last thing we want to do is send in a project that’s immature,” he said. “That’s a waste of precious time.”

The NSF is aware of the time Sinclair takes with each proposal, said Gerhard Salinger, co-leader of the ATE program office. In fact, he has suggested other institutions bring Herbkersman in to speak, he said.

“There are other people who think he has something to tell them about how proposals should be put together,” Salinger said.

Beyond the application

For all of the work that goes into the crafting of the grant, the legwork that happens beforehand can be just as critical. Herbkersman and other Sinclair officials spend time each year building relationships with NSF staff members. Sinclair Community College President Dr. Steven Johnson and Vice President of Advancement Raga travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the foundation staff face to face.

They want to know what funding trends are coming down the pike. They promote the college as a potential partner for NSF projects at other schools. “We’re cultivating personal relationships within NSF, to make sure as things change that we get notified sooner and have the opportunity to ask questions,” Herbkersman said.

Similarly faculty at Sinclair are building relationships with instructors at four-year universities, other community colleges and high schools, to find ways to work together on future projects. The guitar project, done in conjunction with Purdue University and several other community colleges, is an excellent example of such teamwork. Sinclair began building a relationship with Purdue, regarded as the country’s leading engineering educator, long before the proposal was submitted.

The NSF is particularly interested in seeing community colleges work with technical high schools. For Sinclair that trend is especially promising; the college already has partnerships with multiple technical high schools, through the Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium (MVTPC). “We can make a simple call and bring on a partner across 58 school districts in seconds,” Herbkersman said.

For example, Sinclair manages a $350,000 aviation diesel maintenance grant in conjunction with Miami Valley Career Technology Center and a Cincinnati-based technical high school. Another MVTPC connection is the Dayton Urban STEM Academy. (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

Sinclair is partnering with Dayton Public Schools, Miami University, University of Dayton and Wright State University on a $643,000 NSF grant to create a middle and high school science- and math-teacher education path. High school students in the academy will start at the David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center, then come to Sinclair with 12 credit hours toward a science-teaching major, matriculating to Wright State or other universities as juniors. “It is revolutionizing STEM teacher education in the Greater Dayton region,” Herbkersman said.

The bulk of Sinclair’s NSF funding comes from the foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, which emphasizes two-year colleges and focuses on the education of technicians for advanced technology fields. Sinclair’s largest NSF-funded project – the National Center for Manufacturing Education – has been continually funded since 1995, and was one of the first national centers of excellence recognized by the ATE program.

Most recently NSF funded the center to create and maintain an electronic clearinghouse of engineering technology resources for educators. It’s designed to be a one-stop shop for manufacturing and engineering educators around the globe to procure actual classroom activities, find current research in their fields and look at sample programs, according to Gilah Pomeranz, project manager of the National Center for Manufacturing Education.

The center, which created a two-year curriculum for manufacturing education and trains teachers nationwide in activity-based learning, serves as a resource for other colleges across the country pursuing NSF grants. “We became and continue to be the poster child for the Advanced Technological Education program of NSF,” Pomeranz said.

Other projects also have a national reach. Late last year college instructors from across the country gathered at Sinclair for faculty development on the most advanced hybrid vehicles. They were trained by representatives from Ford, General Motors, Honda and Toyota, gaining technical skills and knowledge on the latest hybrid and alternative vehicles, to help them develop hybrid programs at their institutions. This weeklong project was funded by a nearly $800,000 grant from NSF.

NSF funding helps improve day-to-day education at Sinclair, said Raga. It creates grant-funded jobs, allows the college to purchase equipment and provides faculty development that may not otherwise materialize. “Some [grants] are flashy and some are less so,” he said. “But if it’s purchasing diesel aviation engines or engaging high-level hybrid-vehicle manufacturers, it’s all to the benefit of student outcomes and student learning.”

And for Tom Singer and his guitar class, there’s no sweeter sound than that of students’ actually enjoying what they are learning. “I am amazed at the level of commitment that the students have,” Singer said. “The key that opens the lock for some students is the applied nature of learning.”

Largest NSF projects ever at Sinclair

Manufacturing Engineering Resource Center: An NSF National Center of Excellence
Project Director:    Steven Wendel, NCME
Amount:     $9,900,000
Duration: 01/01/1995-05/31/2012

Faculty Development in Hybrid and Advanced Automotive Technology
Project Directors: Rex Kent & Steve Ash, Automotive Technology
Amount: $1,063,643
Duration: 04/01/2006-03/31/2012

IT@Sinclair: Improving Student Retention in IT Programs
Project Directors: David Siefert & Charlotte Wharton, Business Technologies
Amount: $1,733,320
Duration: 0/1/1999-06/30/2007

Current large NSF projects at Sinclair

Manufacturing Engineering Resource Center: An NSF National Center of Excellence
Project Director: Steven Wendel, NCME
Amount: $9,900,000
Duration: 01/01/1995-05/31/2012

Dayton Urban STEM Teacher Academy
Project Director: Norma Hollebeke, Biology
Amount: $642,863
Duration: 01/01/2009-12/31/2011

Aviation Diesel Engine Maintenance Program Development
Project Director: Kent Wingate, Aviation Technology
Amount: $350,000
Duration: 07/01/2009-06/30/2012

Faculty Professional Development in Design, Construction, Assembly and Analysis of a Solid-Body Electric Guitar
Project Director: Thomas Singer, Mechanical Engineering Technology
Amount: $204,062
Duration: 07/01/2009-06/01/2012

By Tracy Staley

Tracy Staley is a Dayton-based writer whose work has appeared in the Dayton Business Journal, the Nashville Business Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, among others.