Summer Sandbox Grants

Summer Sandbox Grants

At its best, E Term functions as a sandbox where faculty have the space and resources to develop new skills and experiment with new ideas. Undergraduate Studies (UGS) has set aside funding for individuals or groups of faculty to try new techniques and explore new pedagogy working in the summer.  

There are a few initiatives we are most interested in supporting:    

Artificial Intelligence  

  • Develop courses within a major that teach AI tools relevant to the discipline.
  • Develop teaching methodologies for courses to address the challenges of AI. 
  • Develop AI tools that support teaching.  

Enhanced student engagement strategies  

  • Build activities or courses to connect first-year students to the departmental culture.
  • Build courses that support sophomore student success and development.
  • Strategies to incease the face-to-face student interactions

Novel approaches to effective online teaching 

  • Develop engaging and effective online courses within the constraints of E Term  

Convince us! 

  • Your great ideas, which we have not thought about, might be just the right thing! 

Summer Sandbox Grants can support experimentation in an individual course, or they could be used to bring together groups of faculty over the summer to develop new strategies or approaches to teaching and learning. We expect that much of the work will be completed in the summer and that courses will be deployed within the next academic year.  

Applications Open: December 1, 2025

Deadline: February 2, 2026. 

 

Application Process for Summer Sandbox Grants : 

Applications will be submitted via Formsite form linked above.

  1. Project Overview: Basic project information; including a brief summary for publicity purposes
  2. Project Description: 
    1. Need for the project: Describe the course to be taught or projects to be advised, including a discussion of how the course meets a need during the academic year; 
    2. Approach: Describe what new approaches to teaching and advising you will be learning or developing;  
    3. Outcomes: Describe how you will measure the impact of the work and, how you will share the results within and outside WPI;   
    4. Project timeline : Estimate how long you will need to work on the project
  3. Budget with Justification: Itemized description of budget
  4. Certification: Department Head/Program Director endorsement is required. Your signed application will be shared with your department head upon your completion for approval.

Review Process - UGS will recruit a faculty committee from previous Summer Sandbox awardees to review proposals and advise on award decisions.  

 

Meet the Team

Arne Gericke
Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Undergraduate Studies

Phone: +1 (508) 8315000 x5263

Arne Gericke is the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, and a Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry.The research in my lab is generally concerned with the biophysical characterization of lipid mediated protein functions.We are particularly interested in studying phosphoinositide mediated signaling pathways. Phosphoinositide lipids represent only a small fraction of lipids in cellular membranes, yet their importance for cellular processes cannot be overstated. Phosphoinositides mediate physiological functions by regulating the activity and/or ...

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Debra Boucher
Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Studies, Undergraduate Studies

Phone: +1 (508) 8315000 x6828

Debra Boucher is Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Prior to coming to WPI, her work positioned her work at the intersection of enrollment management, student success, and academic affairs. At WPI Debra oversees the summer session offerings and works to leverage summer activities to support strategic initiatives. She works to build systemic supports for vulnerable students, smooth the pathway for transfer students, and build collaborative systems of support for all students. In her spare time, Debra enjoys baking bread, spending time with family, ...

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