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  • Jay Stencel works with students from South Central College’s civil engineering program. The program just received a nearly $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to add geographic information systems courses to its civil engineering program.

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  • Suzanne L. Nordblom is SCC’s dean of engineering and construction technology.

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August 23, 2010

SCC receives sizeable grant from NSF

Science Foundation awards more money than sought

By Robb Murray Free Press Staff Writer

NORTH MANKATO — Forgive the science folks at South Central College if they’re a little giddy these days — there’s a big check coming to campus with their name on it.

SCC has been approved for a grant totaling nearly $200,000 to bolster its civil engineering program with a geographic information systems component.

The grant will allow the college to put together a series of three GIS courses that can either be added on to a student’s civil engineering program or be taken alone along with one introductory course from the existing program. Students taking and completing the four courses will receive a certificate of completion.

Implementing the program, college officials say, is important and will provide necessary GIS training to students and community members who desire skills with that technology.

But perhaps equally important is finally securing a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation.

“It’s very significant,” said Suzanne L. Nordblom, SCC’s dean of engineering and construction technology. “I see it changing science, technology, engineering and math education at South Central College.”

The grant took about a year and a half to secure. But after the Science Foundation took a look at an early draft — which asked for about $150,000 — SCC officials thought they had a decent shot at getting a grant.

Initially, the foundation told them they liked SCC’s proposal, but there were a few areas of concern. Once SCC addressed those areas, the foundation came back and told them their grant application had been approved but not for the amount requested.

The foundation wanted to give them more.

In the back-and-forth stages between SCC and the foundation, NSF officials told the college they’d need more money than they’d requested to pull off their proposed plan. Instead of asking the college to scale back its plans, they simply approved more money.

The grant totals $199,901 and will help the college develop three GIS courses.

What’s GIS?

According to Wikipedia, “the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. In a more generic sense, GIS applications are tools that allow users to create user-created searches, analyze spatial information, edit data, maps and present the results of all these operations.”

In many small towns, people end up teaching themselves how to use GIS technology. The college’s courses will provide an overview that will allow participants to more efficiently use the technology.

And for students of SCC’s civil engineering program, the GIS courses aren’t a bad add-on.

“It makes our students a little more well rounded,” said Jay T. Stencel, a faculty member who has been with the civil engineering program since it started three years ago.

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