Two USFSM professors receive PAInT Pilot Research Grants

USF Sarasota-Manatee professors Dr. Helene Robinson and Dr. Phillip Wagner have been selected to receive Pilot Research Grants of $5,000 each from the Florida Center for Partnerships for Arts-Integrated Teaching (PAInT Center).

Dr. Robinson, the arts integration curriculum coordinator and an instructor at USFSM’s School of Education, is conducting a project, “Evaluating the School of Education’s Positive Behavioral and Academic Methods Project in Manatee Partnership Schools.” The grant will assist her in measuring the impact of arts integration in Manatee County schools that partner with the School of Education. Arts integration is a teaching method that combines the arts with academics to help children understand and retain the academic material.

Dr. Wagner, an instructor in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, is examining how programs at the YMCA in Lakewood Ranch support Manatee County residents, particularly the county’s most vulnerable. His project, “Picture Perfect Partnerships: Using Arts-Based Research in Program Evaluation of the Manatee County YMCA,” also delves into how small, group-fitness dynamics impact the drive for fitness, health and wellness and facilitate character development. He’s also examining how sport, particularly non-competitive sport, promotes healthy lifestyle standards and leadership values for youth, including at-risk youth.

“It was encouraging to see the range of research ideas from faculty representing several departments,” said Dr. Denise Davis-Cotton, director of the PAInT Center, which is based at USFSM. “I hope that the PAInT Center will be able to fund more of these research grants in the future.”

Dr. Sandra Justice, USFSM’s director of research, said of the grants: “PAInT awards are critically important as they provide seed funds so that faculty can generate much needed pilot data, paving the way for competitive extramural grants.”

She continued: “These PAInT Pilot Research Grant projects align with the center’s purpose, to increase knowledge and research of arts-integrated instruction, provide analysis of arts-integrated programs statewide and to partner with arts and educational organizations to grow arts-integrated programs in Florida schools.”