VALPARAISO | Eighteen Valparaiso University professors have received grants from the university for classroom tools and software, travel expenses and other activities designed to improve student learning.

Grants totaling $10,000 were awarded to:

* Carter Hanson, English, for developing a new graduate-level course on the cultural history of electronic dance music from the 1970s to the present;

* Angela Vernon and David Simpson, psychology, to conduct a survey examining the relationship between an individual's level of moral reasoning and perception of the purpose of Valparaiso's honor code;

* Zuhdi Aljobeh, civil engineering, to accompany a team of engineering students on a service learning trip to Central America next spring and collect information about water and air quality, interview community leaders and study possible solutions to a community's health issues;

* Elise Alverson, nursing, to attend a conference on dietary supplements offered by National Institutes of Health;

* Nirupama Devaraj, economics, to present research on collective action and international carbon dioxide regulations at a national economics conference;

* Del Gillispie, education, to support a service learning trip by education majors to Nicaragua during March 2009;

* Christina Grabarek, education, to present research on predicting eating disorder risk at the National Association of School Psychologists' annual conference;

* Todd Hillwig, physics and astronomy, to observe and collect data on the formation and shaping process of planetary nebulae at the South American Research Telescope in Chile;

* Jennifer Hora, political science, to present a paper on Fantasy Congress, an online drafting game similar to fantasy football, and its impact on student learning at a conference of the American Political Science Association;

* Larry Jorgensen, philosophy, to present a paper on philosopher Gottfried Leibniz at a seminar on early modern philosophy;

* Carlos Miguel-Pueyo, foreign languages and literatures, to present a paper on the meaning of the use of blue color by European Romantic writer G.A. Becquer at an international colloquium in Germany;

* Rachel Rivers Parroquin, foreign languages and literatures, to serve as an interpreter for a service learning trip to Central America during March 2009 by students from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Nursing and Engineering;

* David Simpson, psychology, to present research on religion and psychology at an international conference of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies;

* Zsuzsanna Szaniszlo, mathematics and computer science, to participate in the annual Joint Meetings of the Mathematical Societies, including a panel on undergraduate research;

* Paul Tougaw, education, to present a paper and workshop on professional and ethical dilemmas facing young teachers at the International Phi Delta Kappa Summit and to present sessions on classroom management and the interview process at the National American Association for Employment in Education;

* Jeff Will, electrical and computer engineering, to allow him and an undergraduate engineering student to travel to Japan and collaborate with faculty at Hokkaido University on deploying virtual reality technology in their teaching, as well as bringing ideas back to Valparaiso;

* Stanislaus Zygmunt and Andrew Richter, physics and astronomy, to attend a national conference of the American Association of Physics Teachers and learn more about creative pedagogical innovations and best practices in college-level physics instruction.