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Initial Publication Date: July 1, 2013

SAGE 2YC participant essay

Frank D. Granshaw, Portland Community College / Portland State University

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Why are you interested in participating in the workshop?

I see this as a good follow-up to the short-course by the same title that I was involved in at the 2012 national GSA conference.

What could you contribute to the workshop?

  • Over twenty years of community college teaching experience.
  • Experience with a number of efforts to strengthen geoscience education in two-year colleges (e.g. Geo2YC and Role of 2Y Colleges planning workshop 2010).
  • Experience with a number of university / community college collaborative projects (e.g. Teachers on the Leading Edge, UCORE community college REU project).
  • The perspective of an adjunct faculty. A major portion of the community college geoscience work force.

What is one example of something you have done to improve student success?
What do you know about its effectiveness?

In addition to having developing a considerable amount of on-line curricula aimed at non-science majors taking geoscience courses, I have also been active in developing urban field labs for environmental and earth science at two of our four campuses. I am currently in the midst of writing a grant to develop professional development workshops designed to infuse more sustainability related fieldwork in our STEM courses district-wide.

Do you bring additional experience or expertise important to the workshop that was not covered in the previous questions?

I am currently involved in a university / community college effort to create a virtual geoscience community. The goal of this project is to create a virtual teaching and learning community that emphasizes skill building and knowledge attainment, student retention, and professional development through Earth Science and Geology curricula across the Portland metropolitan region.

If there is other information relevant to your application, please let us know here:

Though most of my teaching experience has been part-time, I have shared many of the same responsibilities as full-time faculty including serving on subject area curriculum and other college committee, grant writing, facilities planning, and personal hiring.