Project

All EDU courses require a Field Experience (where students go into a local K-12 classroom, under the tutelage of a certified teacher). Taking students through the process to ensure their success is always a challenge, since there are a variety of factors beyond our control (Fingerprint Clearance Card acquisition - FPC -, school placement, etc.). EDU teachers have incorporated a variety of documents and strategies to help achieve a higher success rate (see attachments).

I'm very sold on the idea of using OERs (Open Educational Resources) -- they save students money, and they allow all students to have immediate access to course materials.  The downside is that some students seem less engaged with these types of course materials; I think this is because they have been conditioned to the ideas of a textbook.

Assement: Early Childhood Education Lesson Plan on Creative and Cognitive Play incorproating components from all 6 Modules of the course. I want students to include and apply the following components within their lesson plan: ​1) Early Childhood Standards; 2) creative activities; 3) safetey considerations; 4) types of play; 5) creative art; 6) creative music and movement; and 7) materials and manipulatives using one of the provided lesson plan templates.

The EDU students at EMCC strive to become future preK-12th grade teachers.  I strive to prepare my students for the reality of teaching by teaching the students to lesson plan, to provide effective instruction,  and in maintaining strong classroom management.   For the past 3 years, my students have learned the foundational skills in each area through in-class lesson plan writing and teaching their lessons to peers.  While this is valuable practice,  it is not the same as actually teaching children.   In or

Narrated instructional and demonstration videos were develped for online class CIS121AI - Macintosh Operating System. This CATS will make observations regarding the effectiveness of this apporach during the pilot semester of the online course and determine what improvements, if any, are necessary.

Culinary students are required to create a marketable portfolio for a catering business while enrolled in CUL213 Buffet Catering.  Students use buffet items from private and public luncheons in Regions Restaurant to build content for the portfolio.  Students are challenged by the provision of details, professional appearance, and organization of a portfolio that can be potentially used for sales and marketing in a catering operation due to lack of overall experience in industry.  In past semesters, students submitted their portfolios at the end of the course, with many misund

A key to fully appreciate art is understanding the creative journey and the underlying creative critical thinking which leads to the “message and meaning” of the piece.

Honors students are given the option of completing an individual or small group creative project to fulfill their honors enrichment plan.

My BIO 160 students often have difficulty identifying and locating peer reviewed resources for a disease research paper. I have worked with the EMCC librarians to show students databases, citation tools, and a discussion of peer revied versus popular articles. At this time the students used the library website and found two potential resources. To improve this process, Jennifer Wong has created a screencast that shows how to use the library website to locate resources.

The goal of these assessments was to engage students in hands on experiments similiar to a science lab.   Students always ask why differential equations is so important in STEM fields.  So, two labs were done in my differential equations class.  One was using thermometers and checking their accuracy (how long does it take for the thermometer to get back to body temperature after drinking cold water, doing jumping jacks, and chewing gum (placebo)).  The 2nd one was to verify that a mass spring system follows a 2nd order differential equation.

This assessment modifies the Democratic Decision Making assessment I developed a few years ago. It makes use of discussion boards and surveys to allow students in online and hybrid classes to participate in a democratic process to decide what topics they will study and present.

I use the dicussion feature on Canvas to guide class discussion of which topic (among choices decided upon by the instructor) they would like to study in more depth and present to the class.

The classroom communication is not alway transfer to my students correctly or to their understanding. I would like to be more clear and concise in my communication. I like to get my idea across with the first communication if possible. 

In my differential equations class, students ran an experiment on the accuracy of a nondigital thermometer.  Most directions for use of nondigital thermometers say to leave under the tongue for 2 minutes, so students tested the accuracy of this.   Three groups performed different activities for two minutes (cheweing gum (placebo group), jumping jacks, and drinking a cold refreshing beverage).  Students collected temperature readings every 30 seconds for 4 minutes.  Data was run through Logger Pro, and students analyzed data using best fit lines.

As a semester research project for BIO 160, I have students research a disease and write a paper and present with a group their research. In past semesters I have simply posted the grading rubric on the LMS. This semester I decided to present the rubric and have students practice using the rubric in efforst to increase student awareness of thier contribution to their grade. I find that students are not fully aware of thier contribution to thier grade. I am hoping that taking the time to teach students how the project will be evaluated will result in higher quality projects.

In fall 2013, Dwain Desbien and I taught MAT221/PHY121 learning community (LC).  In spring 2014, 8 of these students went on to take MAT230 with me (calculus II).  Here is some info on the LC students as compared to the non LC students.  

Challenge: Create a menu driven script that aids in adminisdtering a Linux network or server.