Overview and Logistics
This is the fifth annual workshop in the SAGE 2YC regional workshop series.
Currently accounting for over 50% of the nation's undergraduate population, community colleges represent a crucial pipeline to four-year colleges and the science workforce. Despite the overwhelming employment opportunities for entering students, enrollment in science programs has remained unchanged or has even decreased at community colleges.
Reversing this trend requires strong undergraduate science programs that not only attract students from all demographic categories but also provide the resources necessary for their success within the program and upon transfer or entry into the workforce. However, several barriers impact the recruitment, retention, and graduation of community college science majors, including the diverse nature of students with respect to academic preparation, economic standing, and a sense of support and career opportunities.
In this full-day workshop, we will discuss strategies departments and individual faculty can use to recruit new students, retain current students, and collaborate with others to grow our science programs and to ease transfer to four-year institutions.
Workshop Goals
- Establish a community of practice invested in teaching that supports student learning
- Effectively incorporate high-impact practices into introductory to advanced geoscience courses
- Recognize and make use of strategies that are inclusive of all students
- Recognize and make use of metacognitive strategies
- Use the backward design process to (re)design a course
Knowing our Students
Being an affective educator not only requires knowledge of content but the ability to affectively communicate and transfer knowledge to our students. Our students are not blank slates. They come to our classes with previous knowledge and understandings of the world they grew up in. It is our job as educators to provide students with the experiences they need to better develop their working model of the world.
Retaining our Students through Alignment
Many faculty struggle with students who seemingly lack the ability to complete tasks and/or transfer knowledge gained in one setting or lecture to other topics or courses. Likewise, students often complain that faculty have too high a standard or expectations do not match what is being taught. Is it possible that both points of view are correct? If so, what can we do to improve our programs and increase success rates within our courses?
Preparing our students to be expert learners:
Faculty often teach topics as we know them. Although the links between concepts seem obvious to us they are not always obvious to the students. Including metacognitive strategies and practices within our classes can help bridge the gap between faculty and student understanding and also provide students with the skills they need to become successful not only in our classes but all of their college courses.
Date and times
October 26, 2018 9:00AM- 4:00PM
Expectations
This is a participant driven workshop. Participants should be prepared to work on a specific topic/activity that they wish to improve within their current course offerings and will leave the workshop with goals and plans to improve their programs and courses.
Cost
This workshop is free to participants, thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation.
Registration
Please register for this program by October 19, 2018
Registration Form
Facilities, Directions, and Parking
This workshop will be held in room 128 of William J Lindsay building of the Ammerman Campus of Suffolk County Community College in Selden, NY.
Take the Long Island Expressway to Exit 62. Proceed north on Nicolls Road (CR97) about 2 miles to first traffic light. Turn right at the main campus entrance.
Food
Coffee and refreshments will be available throughout the day and a hot lunch will be provided.