The University of North Florida has landed two federal grants totaling $2.8 million to help improve civics education and neuroscience research at the Southside Jacksonville campus.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded the UNF Silverfield College of Education and Human Services a three-year grant worth $2.1 million. The funding will be used to establish a Cultivating Comprehensive Civics Education Professional Development Program to enhance civics education on the First Coast and beyond.
UNF will partner with Duval County Public Schools and the University of Central Florida Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government to develop regional reach for the program with some 90 civics teachers. Most of those teachers will come from “high-need schools” and cover a series of professional learning opportunities over a year.
“Civics education is about more than memorizing dates and facts, it’s about helping students engage deeply with ideas, texts and issues that shape our democracy,” said Diane Yendol-Hoppey, professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum at UNF. “This grant allows us to support teachers in creating classroom spaces where inquiry, analysis and civic responsibility are at the forefront.”
The program will emphasize foundational studies, such as elements of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and aim to increase student performance on the Florida Civic Literacy Exam.
“I’m thrilled to partner with UNF and the Lou Frey Institute on this transformative investment in our teachers and students,” said April D. Slade, Director of K–12 Social Studies for Duval County Public Schools. “By building a sustainable pipeline of expertly trained civics teachers, we will expand access to rigorous instruction, improve performance on key benchmarks and deepen students’ sense of civic responsibility across every neighborhood we serve.”
In another federal grant, UNF received $740,000 in National Institutes of Health funding that will be used to investigate neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. The research is designed to provide some breakthroughs in therapy.
UNF Assistant Professor Szymon Ciesielski with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is overseeing the project that will look into the “molecular machinery” of elements involved in those conditions.
