Collaborating for Success: Building communities to increase success and participation within our programs

During this full-day workshop participants will explore the barriers to entry, completion, and success for students in the sciences. Facilitators will provide strategies to broaden participation within programs, improve success rates in classes, and grow the science community within and between institutions.

Workshop Date: November 3, 2017

Workshop Location: Suffolk County Community College, Brentwood, NY

Introduction

This is the fourth annual workshop in the SAGE 2YC local 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 demographics 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

  1. Establishing a regional network of science educators to share educational resources and opportunities
  2. Develop regional plans to broaden participation in the sciences
  3. Develop strategies to support and encourage success of all students in the sciences

This Year's Focus

Growing Our Programs

Growing Our Programs: A number of authors have quantified the factors influencing student willingness to major in and persist in science programs. In order to increase participation in the sciences, community colleges must not only recruit students into existing programs but also provide necessary resources to address academic deficiencies while easing the effects of external student stressors.

Retaining our Students

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?

Expanding Opportunities and Preparing our Students for Transfer

Transferring to another institution can be a stressful event for community college students. Adjusting to larger class sizes, their new institution's culture and norms, and a sense of increased anonymity among peers can make the first few weeks of a new semester challenging for anyone. Add to this the fact that transfer students often must make these adjustments while also taking on more challenging and time consuming upper-level courses, and the first few weeks of a new semester can make or break a transferring major. During this workshop we will explore ways in which departments can expand educational opportunities within their program while easing the stress for transferring students.

Costs

This workshop is free to participants.

Meals

Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided to participants

Registration Deadline:

Please register by October 23, 2017.

Workshop Conveners

If you would like further information about the workshop, please contact one of conveners listed above.

This workshop is part of the Supporting and Advancing Geoscience in Two-Year Colleges: Faculty as Change Agents project and is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education through grants DUE 1525593, 1524605, 1524623, and 1524800.

Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.


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