Team Activities

Individual Accomplishments

Diondra Demolle

I have:

  • Incorporated active learning strategies (Exam Wrappers, Minute Papers, Worksheets, etc.) into my synchronous, online classes
  • Rewrote student learning outcomes to include higher level Bloom's Taxonomy to meet transfer expectations and improve student success.

Next steps: Complete work to broaden participation by posting a video/link on the department's social media and web pages. Connect with local 4-years to create curriculum maps for transfer pathways.

Karen Menge

I have:

  • Incorporated some active learning strategies such as: think-pair-share, turn and talk and polling in my classes.
  • Used exam wrapper in classes to illustrate to students that they can monitor their learning.
  • Thought about ways to incorporate more metacognitive learning strategies in my classes.

Next steps: Implement a learning strategies inventory for all my classes. Continue to try and recruit students to our program.

Team Accomplishments

Strengthening our Department/Program

Accomplishments/Action Plan:

  • Increase enrollment by 5% in GEOL 101, GEOL 131, and SCIE 141.
    • Due to the pandemic, the college has seen an overall decrease in the number of students enrolled. The college has also discontinued its registration event, where we had hoped to recruit more students.
  • Create a degree plan to increase the number of students that transfer to local 4-year institutions.
    • We met with advisors to discuss transfer pathways and how the Associate of Science in General Studies degree should focus more on the student concentration.

Our goals may be delayed, but they are certainly not denied. We will continue our work throughout the next school year. We are now better prepared to operate during a pandemic.

Next Steps: Meet with Physical Science Department Faculty and advisors to review and explain the flowchart for a degree plan.

Developing our Campus Community

Engaging our Colleagues:

  • In our first workshop STEM faculty actively participated and engaged with colleagues in innovative and proven active learning strategies for virtual and online class settings.
  • In our second workshop we looked more in-depth at the active learning strategies that were presented in the first workshop and had participants design some of the strategies for use in their respective courses.
  • In our third workshop we discussed the metacognition strategies that are presented in the book "Teach Students How To Learn".

Our first workshop was a success, we had 9 STEM faculty participating. Participants quotes included:

  • "I found the workshop to be well presented, concise. It gave me some good suggestions for active learning activities that I will try to incorporate into my own classroom."
  • "I thought the workshop was really well done and helpful to instructors. The facilitators did a great job communicating and answering questions."

Next Steps: Diondra and I will continue our work through hosting workshops for faculty in both active learning and metacognition strategies to demonstrate how student performance can be improved in their classes by incorporating these strategies.

Team Members

Diondra DeMolle

Diondra began her teaching career at Delgado in 2011, where she is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and currently the chair of the Physical Science Department. She is the 2018 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award given by NISOD (National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development) and past Program Chair of the 219th Two-Year College Chemistry Consortium Conference, titled "Creativity, Collaboration, and Customization in Chemical Education." She has successfully created a learner-centered classroom with the implementation of modules, worksheets, and engaging activities for students.

Courses

Diondra teaches Introductory Chemistry I and II (in-person and online), General Chemistry I and II, Physical Science I and II, Water Distribution I-IV, and Introduction to Chemical Technology.

Karen Menge

Karen has been teaching at the college level for 27 years and is an Assistant Professor of Geology and Environmental Science at Delgado. She has also taught summer STEM classes in geology for high school students in the metro New Orleans area. She established a Delgado chapter of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium Marine Science Club and is the faculty sponsor for this club. Beyond the classroom, Karen is working with the City of New Orleans to studying subsidence and water quality of the Lafitte Greenway, where Delgado students are able to experience field work on this important green infrastructure.

Courses

Karen teaches Physical Geology, Environmental Science, Environmental Soil Science, Natural Disasters, Physics, and Physical Science I and II.

Institution

Delgado Community College is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Delgado serves over 20,000 students every year. Over half of them are 25 or older, 48% are black or African-American, and more than two-thirds are women. Three-quarters of first-time students receive Pell grants.

Program/Department

The Physical Science Department includes 11 full-time faculty and 1 adjunct faculty who teach courses in Astronomy, Chemistry, Environmental Policy/Studies, Environmental Science, Geology, Physics, Water and Wastewater Technology, and Chemical Technology. The college offers two degrees that would allow for a concentration in Physical Sciences: Associate of General Studies and Associate of Science (Louisiana Transfer). The latter allows for matriculation at a four-year institution for students to continue with a major in geology or chemistry.

The Physical Science department is part of the Science and Math Division, which also includes Biological Sciences and Mathematics.

Institutional demographic data is from IPEDS the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, U.S. Department of Education, typically for the 2018-19 year as available.


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