Check for Understanding

Peer Lead Focus and Learning Review

Submitted by Muhammad Sandhu on

Peer Lead Focus and Learning Review

Monitoring student engagement and learning during class & providing feedback is tough due to lack of time. One way to do this is Peer lead learning review; it monitors engagement and provides feedback.

The class was divided into six groups of four students; one student acted as a peer leader. The peer leaders were rotated after 3 weeks, allowing each group member to act as a peer leader.

The Integration of Kahoot in CHM 130

Submitted by Nagib Balfakih on

The integration of Kahoot in CHM130 instruction will be investigated.  In this work, Kahoot will be developed to serve students in CHM130 in compound naming topic.  Students performance will be compared in naming compounds in this semester with students' performance in the last two years.  The study hypothesis stated that students in CHM130 who practice naming compound in Kahoot will score better than students who didn't practice naming of compounds in Kahoot.

Faculty and Tutor Interaction

Submitted by Rachel Aborne on

The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate an environment to determine whether or not it encourages interaction among tutors and faculty. Prior to the intervention in Spring 2020, tutor and faculty interaction was low during pre-semester meet-and-greet sessions; the sessions were conducted in a panel format with tutors comprising the audience. The Spring 2020 session, however, was held in a small-group format, and informal feedback was positive. Formal tutor survey results showed that the small groups enabled more flow of conversation as well as deeper connection.

Journaling in micro - initial data

Submitted by Bronwen Steele on

Students struggle with mastering concepts in microbiology. Journaling is a method that is documented to help students learn science courses. We implemented journaling recently and wanted to see if there is any significant impact after 3 semesters of collecting data.

Spoiler alert - nope, at least with the way we are implementing journaling currently. We are regrouping and will restructure the directions to hopefully guide students to be more successful in their journaling. 

Mastery Learning for One Exam

Submitted by Becky Baranowski on

Angela McClure and I worked on this as part of our calc I/phy I learning community.  She and I plan to re-evaluate this in the Spring and I will also try this in the other learning community.  I will be reaching out to some of my calculus colleagues to see if they are interested in trying this with some of our exams that are more "skill" based an not conceptual.  Angela mentioned possibly looking into doing something like this with vectors in PHY121.  Is this worth the time and effort with doing this?  Are students willing to take advantage of this opportunity?

Is Kahoots an effective assessment for all types of presentations and participants?

Submitted by Rosanna Short on

The FA office provides workshops for employees as well as students because Financial Aid and Scholarship processes are complex. This is especially true with Title IV FA federal regulations. EMCC FA staff are responsible for these regulations/processes and assisting students. Non-FA employees who work with students often request general financial aid and scholarship workshops so they can better service students in relation to how their roles affect the student's FA. As money is critical to EMCC students they may make decisions about their education based on the financial aid impact.

College Algebra Exam Review Sessions in ASC

Submitted by Christopher McNeal on

The Academic Success Center (ASC) provides drop-in person tutoring services for mathematics courses at Estrella. On occassion, the ASC holds study sessions for students in nearby classrooms for a more focused, enclosed tutoring session to support students with rigorous topics or upcoming exam reviews. Starting this semester, the sections of College Algebra decided to conduct two major exams and a final based on the course curriculum of MAT151. To help support this endeavor, the tutors of the ASC were prepared to assist students with these major exams. 

Peek-a-Boo!: Previewing Assignments to Set Up Student Success

Submitted by Erin Blomstrand on

Helping students find success is the goal of teaching. By adding a short preview assignment allowing students to focus on upcoming larger essay assignments in Canvas, they learn the importance of taking the time to review assignment instructions before starting in, they think about what they're being asked to do, what challenges they might face while working on the asisgnment, what resources they can access for help, and ask specific questions of their instructor. Instructors can immediately respond and clarify or realign student preceptions setting students up for success.

Content Training Sessions for ASC Tutors

Submitted by Christopher McNeal on

One of the goals of the Academic Success Center is to provide quality tutoring in the content areas of mathematics. These review sessions will contribute to this goal by helping tutors identitfy the gaps in their mathematics content. In addition, the subject material is to be reflected in what is taught in the classroom. Through MOER, the tutors are able to review and refresh math topics throughout the semester. With the content training sessions, we are able to assist students more effectively because the material is fresh in our minds!

Investigating Student Misconceptions of Integrals

Submitted by Becky Baranowski on

The purpose of this CATS is to really dive into one concept and try to figure out what students don't understand about basic integration.  Why is everything u-sub?  After each WU, I will use the information to write another WU to go further into the issues students are having.  The goal is to come up with a set of questions/problems that students have to do which "attack" a concept from multiple directions.  If I can cover the concept in many different ways and variations, I hope to fill any and most gaps students may have in their understanding of basic integration.

The effectiveness of concept-mapping in improving CHM 130 students' achievement

Submitted by Nagib Balfakih on

The effectiveness of concept mapping (CM) has been investigated in introductory chemistry students' achievement.  The researcher tested the hypothesis which stated that the implementation of concept mapping in teaching introductory chemistry will increase students’' performance.  The sample was two sections, experimental group and control group.  Both groups had taken a pretest.  The experimental group draw CM’s for the units taught.  The units included naming, moles, balancing equation, stoichiometry, and molarity.  At the end of the semester, the performance

Transparency is Important: Student Conference Improvements in 2018

Submitted by Norma Jimenez Hernandez on

We increased the acceptance rate at the Student Conference 2018 while increasing rigor by providing scaffolding and a revise/resubmit process with support structures.  Acceptance rates rose significantly from 28.7% in 2017 to 70% in 2018 with added rigor as expressed by MCCCD faculty who had attended previous conferences.  Additionally, for the first time, 9 out of 10 MCCCD colleges participated in the conferences.