Museums Project Awarded Funding

University Museums Curator Adrienne Gennett is the leader of one of 19 projects selected by President Wendy Wintersteen and her senior leadership team to receive funding for the 2024 fiscal year as part of Iowa State's Strategic Plan. Enhancing Student Learning through Visual Literacy is receiving $13,123. For this project, University Museums has partnered with the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching's faculty affiliate program to enhance critical thinking and communication skills by better integrating visual literacy into student learning. Dr. William Gallus, Professor in Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, has already begun his work as the University Museums/CELT faculty affiliate.

The ability to look closely at visual material and use reasoning to make interpretations is a crucial skill needed to be an effective and adaptive learner, a critical thinker, and to better understand our diverse cultural world. Visual literacy is the ability to read and understand visual material and is something that we use each and every day regardless of the field of study. From reading statistical charts, viewing organisms under a microscope, to looking over blueprints and identifying tree species or animal breeds, having well-developed visual acuity is important in all fields. Dr. Gallus and University Museums are taking this opportunity to use the extensive permanent collection and rotating exhibitions to enhance learning across the ISU campus.