In teaching Muscle function, I have always used an activity where I physically demonstrate the actions to students. Students then stand and work in pairs, mimic the movements on their own body, and evaluate their partner's motions. I circulate and correct with each new motion. When doing the activity as a class, and only their partner is working with them, students think this activity is fun and interesting. The class is excited and loud.
In the Spring 2013 semester, five adjunct faculty mentees, four adjunct faculty mentors, and one residential faculty mentor completed the pilot of the innovative Adjunct Faculty Mentoring Program (AFMP). The AFMP is the research based Applied Integration component of the Adjunct Faculty Professional Development model that also includes Objective and Subjective Skills Development Workshops.
Since Fall 2003, a textbook was used in MAT220 (caculus I). For the last 4 years, handouts were created to supplement the textbook. This semester, students use only a workbook that I created. The purpose of this assessment is to document my observations in the level of engagement of students from using textbook only, slowly incorporating worksheets, to full implementation of a workbook. Most math textbooks are not designed to engage students, thus it was difficult to do so.
In my Intro to Human Com classes, students respond well to the "small-talks" that I assign throughout the course. These talks are 1-2 minute informal speeches that students deliver in front of the class. Explaining their personality test results, reporting on their cultural visits, and relating active listening scenarios are a few examples of the small-talk assignments.
Tallow sculpturing is a culinary expression of food art dating back to the 18th century. This is a medium of food artistry which is mostly classified as one of the lost arts in the culinary profession.
In order to get students more personally involved in the learning process, students are given the responsibility of choosing four debate topics that are then used to formulate the questions used in the formal debates in the course.
Through a combination of guided discussion and voting students decide as a group what they will research and debate.
The CHM 130 class is designed for students to learn through group work and discovery based activities. One of the drawbacks from this method is students ability to grasp concepts at the same pace as their peers. Many times students leave the class unsure of the core concept addressed in the class period. Videotaping lectures lends itself to student apathy during class. The solution I am persuing this semester is videotaping quick 3-5 min snapshots of core concepts and posting them on blackboard for all 9 section of the class. I am using student whiteboards as m
Using a SAAC EZ form completed during spring '12, this CAT documents improvements based upon suggestions in the original document (see attachment). For Fall '12, the grading rubric was revised, group formation was made earlier, and a group contract was added to the project based upon the document provided by a finished CAT titled "Increasing Group Accountability with a Contract". Results:
In Spring 2012 I participated in a district workshop on information literacy titled "Research Assignment Handouts: Essential Elements to Promote Student Success." I revised the handout for the group research & symposium assignment to better help students get started by suggesting resources, requiring help from a librarian, specifying which data bases to use, and providing more details about what consititutes plagiarism. I also revised the rubric to better reflect these items. I will qualitatively assess the quality of the student research and avoidance
Using SAAC’s EMCC General Education Abilities Matrix the residential librarians assessed 4 key Information Literacy competencies; Framing the Research Question, Accessing Sources, Evaluation of Information Resources and Create Original Work.
The librarians created a rubric which defined each of the 4 Information Literacy competencies and rated each on a clearly defined 3 level scale. Data was collected from 13 courses for a total of 24 sections. 346 students took part in the study.
EDU112 and MAT157 joined together for a Learning Community. In meeting course competencies for both courses, instructors developed then facilitated an Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) Project. Inquiry based learning starts with a team (in our case, partners), who have a legitimate, real-life inquiry into a situation where the solution is not readily apparent. It closely follows the model of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) but with required mathematical applications.
Students in EDU 230 questioned the extent to which discrimination exists at EMCC. They unanimously suggested this should be investigated. The author facilitated the process which included: survey creation, research into discrimination on college campuses, applying for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval (and receiving it), and applying for the Student Conference (coincidentally about a month from the start of the project) and being accepted. Students went through ethical research (CITI) training.
Barkley (2010) suggests that having members of a group read and individually sign a contract regarding their participation and behavior in the group will improve interpersonal accountability. EDU222 students are required to collaborate and submit a group case study. At the conclusion of the project, they rate each of their group members on a variety of contributing characteristics (see "Member Rating" attachment).