Wendi J. W. Williams

Dept of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Division of Math and Science / Physical Sciences

South Texas College

I am a geology faculty member with South Texas College in their Physical Sciences and Engineering department.  You may reach me using my STC e-mail: wwilliam@southtexascollege.edu .  I have been affiliated with NorthWest Arkansas Community College, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Lewis Clark State College, Lone Star College system, and Austin (Community) College in full time, adjunct and/or visiting capacities while raising my family. Although I have been faculty with both 2YC and 4YCU institutions since ~1996, it was when I became part of a UALR cohort to learn and implement inclusive Universal Design techniques that I began to deliberately use multi-modal delivery and student-centered learning strategies with my undergraduate and graduate students.  It is now a way of doing that I find not only better engages all learning preferences and most persons with differing abilities, but to also make me much better prepared as I meet new students every term with less and less real-time new accessibility accommodation adaptations needed. Much of what I share with others including many pre-/in-service K-12 teachers and community STEM educators (e.g. stakeholders involved with informal outreach at museums, nature centers, water stewardship, as well as part of the Texas Master Naturalists South Texas Border Chapter) and colleagues in the geosciences formal settings incorporates my over 20 years of experience with Universal Design. Please check out an interview with AGU The Bridge series at https://thebridge.agu.org/2016/10/12/q-wendi-williams-geoscience-diversity/ and the more recent NAGT Professional Webinar 28 April 2021 about inclusion at https://nagt.org/nagt/profdev/webinars/stem_inclusion/index.html for recorded / file presentation and resources in several alternative formats demonstrating how to better engage students including persons with apparent and non apparent disabilities.  I have been a NAGT Executive Councilor and continue to serve NAGT by contributing to the Advocacy Committee as well as the Teacher Education Division. I also continue to be part of the International Association for Geoscience Diversity (www.theiagd.org) leadership team and assist with representing IAGD for the AGI Inter-Society Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. As an AGU LANDInG Ambassador, I invite you to learn more at https://connect.agu.org/landingcop/home .

Workshop Leader, Webinar Participant, Website Contributor, Reviewer

Website Content Contributions

Activity (1)

Illustrating the Process of Science Using Leaf-Margin Analyses part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Share-a-Thon:Share-a-Thon Presentations
The activity is derived from a Smithsonian Institution Middle to High School lesson distributed approximately 10 years ago using Leaf-Margin Analyses on fossil leaves from Wyoming, U.S. (based on work by Dr. Scott ...

Course (1)

GEOL 1114 General Geology (Online Lecture with Hybrid Lab) part of Geoscience in Two-year Colleges:Courses
I facilitate two sections of a 4 semester unit General Geology course (lecture plus lab) in an online/hybrid format. Students take the traditional "lecture" portion online using a course management ...

Essay (1)

Promoting Student Success using Universal Design to Decrease Barriers in Higher Education part of SAGE 2YC:Workshops:Supporting Student Success in Geoscience at Two-year Colleges:Essays
I began teaching as a graduate student, and have since continued to grow in my understanding of content as well as educational design and delivery as faculty contributing to both 2-year and 4-year public institutions. Through the years I have become increasingly aware of the many kinds of diversity in my students: learning preferences, amount of college preparation, first generation college-bound, ages represented by concurrent enrollment as high school students through retirees, persons with disabilities, English language learners, and military active duty and/or veteran status. Early in my association with UA-Little Rock, Earth Science faculty joined a pilot program with the Disability Resource Center. "Project PACE" was funded by the U.S. Dept. of Ed and UALR to teach faculty to use Universal Design techniques in order to reduce barriers for the majority of students while increasing access to higher education. NCES (2013) indicates that students with some college courses or who achieve degrees become members of the workforce at higher rates. If redesigning our courses lower barriers, then our 2YC population benefits even more in the long term.

Conference Presentations (5)

Near to Us or Seemingly Far from You: South Padre Island as an Important Global Setting part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Share-a-Thon
Our curriculum team of community college students and myself will share activities developed to bring a better understanding of "sense of place" related to South Padre Island geo-ecosystems. One of the ...

Other Contributions (6)

Supporting Neurodivergent Students part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2024:Program:Round Table Discussions
Description coming soon.

Communities

On the Cutting Edge Activity Reviewer
117 activities reviewed

Workshop Leader

Workshop Participant (63 workshops)

NNCI Workshop 2022
May 2022
Earth Educators' Rendezvous 2021
July 2021
Teaching Online Introductory Geoscience Labs
July 2020

Webinar Participant (39 webinars)

Developing evaluation systems that value DEI
May 2023
A New Take on the Water Cycle
February 2023
Exploring models for engaging community college students in field research
January 2023