Student Involvement

Looking for an immersive learning opportunity? The BBC Fellows program is now recruiting undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines for the summer 2013 term.

Earn credit and professional experience in a semester-long project with a team of students from across campus.  

Find your fit for an immersive learning project. There are a variety of ways that it could fit creatively into your course work.

Submit an online application for the program.

A $1,000 scholarship is available and will be granted to one student from each team based on leadership skills and experience.  Your application to the program will also serve as your scholarship application. 

Summer 2013 Projects

Summer Session II

A Centennial State Park Tour Explored through Visitor Smart Phones

This project is intended to serve as a model tour in the state parks in honor of the centennial celebration of the establishment of the state parks and the bicentennial of Indiana statehood. Students will create a phone application using GPS software that helps visitors to the state parks learn about the history of the park through a combination walking and driving tour. Visitors will access interpretive kiosks through their phone for audio content about the history of the state park. The partner is the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of State Parks and Reservoirs. Students from animation, anthropology, computer science, education, English, history, journalism, music composition, telecommunications, and related areas are encouraged to participate. For more details about this project, contact Ron Morris, Department of History. Apply now! 

Fall 2013 Projects

An Environmental Investigation & Multimedia Presentation of Riparian Zone Management and Sediment Erosion Along the White River

Scientists study complex processes but often find it difficult to communicate those concepts to a lay audience.  Journalists may struggle to comprehend advanced terminology and jargon that they must simplify for their target audiences. This interdisciplinary project will focus on gaining and utilizing the skills needed to understand and report scientific data to society. Student-led investigations will ultimately provide scientific data on local water quality within the unique context of real-time media content to communicate those concepts to a lay audience. We are seeking students who have interest or experience in, but not limited to, geological sciences, natural resource management, water resources, ecology, science communication, digital storytelling, web development, computer-assisted reporting, journalism graphics. For more details about this project, contact Lee Florea, Department of Geological Sciences, or Adam Kuban, Department of Journalism. Apply now!

Ball Family Documentary

It is rather hard to venture anywhere in Muncie and not hear of the Ball family name, not see an artifact of the family legacy, or even to not meet a descendant of one of the original five brothers!  However, the specific story of their history is often overlooked, forgotten, or ignored by the general population. This immersive learning project will refresh the public’s mind by producing an updated documentary about the family.  Through this documentary, the residents of Muncie will have a stronger knowledge base about this aspect of their city’s history but also an appreciation for the lasting legacy of the Ball family’s philanthropic activities.  This immersive learning project is looking for history and anthropology students to assist in the research for the documentary. For more information about this project, contact Chris Flook, Department of Telecommunications. Apply now!

Food for Thought

Do you like to tell stories with text, photos, audio, and video? Now you have a chance! Take a bite out of central Indiana's unique dining spots in Food for Thought. Students will research, report, write and produce multimedia projects that highlight the hidden dining treasures across our area. Open to NEWS (News 397), TCOM, JOURN, and other students who are interested in finding new ways to tell stories about something we all do - eat! The audience will potentially get a taste of your work on Indiana Public Radio and student media. For more information about this project, contact Terry Heifetz, Department of Telecommunications. Apply now!

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting for Ball State University

Sustainability reports present the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an organization. This project will enable you to continue Ball State's sustainability reporting tradition. Be a part of a selective team that will prepare the university's fourth sustainability report in accordance with the most widely used reporting framework. This year's team will apply the newly released GRI G4 guidelines. Ball State, along with multinational corporations and nonprofit organizations, is reporting its impacts in order to measure and monitor its sustainability impacts. You can view the previous BSU reports here. For more information about this project, contact Gwen White, Department of Accounting. Apply now!

Grace Episcopal Church: Connecting Congregation and Community

Help Grace Episcopal Church of Muncie, Indiana develop a strategy for engaging the community. This project will provide the church with strategies, ideas, and fresh insight into how to improve church visibility. The semester’s goals are to create a brand for the church, connect it with its surrounding neighborhood, make it a “destination” for members and nonmembers, promote activities within the church, and tell the stories of church members and programs. Students will learn the unique facets of promoting a faith-based entity, branding strategies, social media, and how to build bridges within a community. For more information about this project, contact Peggy Fisher, Department of Communication Studies. Apply now!

The Lenape on the Wapahani: Documentary

The Lenape tribe have been memorialized in place names throughout Indiana, but their history and origins are often unknown. This immersive learning project hopes to change this by developing a documentary about the Lenape’s time in Indiana during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By combining content collected from museums, historical societies, and libraries with interviews by historians and current members of the tribe, this project team will create a narrative exploring the Lenape’s significance and contribution to American history, and more specifically east central Indiana history. Students in history and anthropology are needed to complete this project team. For more information about this project, contact Chris Flook, Department of Telecommunications, or Ron Morris, Department of History. Apply now!

Nature Play: Into the Woods with Design Thinking

Regular physical activity in natural environments can lead to fewer health concerns, increased energy, and gains in children’s cognitive development. Also, children who play in and explore natural environments adapt conservation and sustainability values as adults. This project will create a nature-based playscape for 300 children and staff at the Head Start early childhood education program in Muncie, and to develop workshops for the training of educators and designers in the use and construction of these play environments. Student team members are needed from: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, NREM, Elementary Education, Telecommunications, Family Studies, and Construction Sciences. This interdisciplinary team of students will guide the design and build, as well as document the process of creating innovative simulations, workshops, and activity settings. The nature-based outdoor play environment will offer opportunities for students, teachers, adults, and children to gain a better understanding of the benefits of, and strategies for, reconnecting children with nature. For more information about this project, contact Pam Harwood, Department of Architecture. Apply Now! 

Values through Sport

Do you have a passion for sports and kids? If so, the Values through Sport immersive learning project might be a good fit for you. We will spend the last part of the semester piloting the program with a local youth league. We are seeking students with experience in community sport, child development, coaching, or community based programming. Students from early childhood education, elementary education, psychology, sociology, anthropology, business, child development, child life specialist, exercise science, physical education, social work, and minors such as coaching and leadership studies and any other areas are encouraged to apply for this team. For more information about this project, contact Lindsey Blom, School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science. Apply now!

Vietnam Veterans Memorial: narratives of landscape, space + meaning

Dedicated in 1982, Maya Lin’s design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial created an iconic American landscape that has had unprecedented influence on contemporary commemorative design, both nationally and internationally. It is the first modern-era memorial made with the intent ‘to heal a nation,’ and can thus be considered a uniquely inspirational therapeutic landscape. This project will focus on two areas. One: educating the public about contemporary landscape architecture, using the Memorial as a dramatic and successful model. Two: documenting the untold stories of the Memorial’s realization in a series of interviews with important contributors. Working in collaboration with key individuals from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the Cultural Landscape Foundation, and in partnership with Ball State’s Digital Publishing Studio, students will create and publish visual narratives for use by visitors on site at the Memorial in Washington DC. We are recruiting students from landscape architecture, architecture, planning, history, journalism, telecommunications, digital storytelling, film, marketing and management, and art. This is a two semester project (3 credits in fall; 3 – 6 credits in spring); preference will be given to students who can participate both semesters. For more information about this project, contact Carla Corbin or Martha Hunt, Department of Landscape Architecture. Apply now! 

Check out Olivia's BBC experience: