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SharePost 1 - Group 2: Centralia, Flathead, Monroe, Yakima
Briefly describe one thing you do OR want to do in your work in diversity, inclusion, and equity
Post 1 - Group 2: Centralia, Flathead, Monroe, Yakima
I really want to try some other ways to get more in-class participation of all students. I already use a "clicker" type system, but I think a multiple hands multiple voices or quick around might be good things to try. I really like that these require no additional prep, I can do them on the fly, just have to remember to do them!
Our demographics at Flathead Valley Community College, mirroring the local community, lacks a tremendous amount of diversity. Our student population is primarily white, and in most of my natural resources and surveying related courses they are predominantly male. One area in which our college has a lot of diversity is the socioeconomic characteristics of our students, with a fairly high number of first-generation college students. I can relate to this class, as I was one myself, however, after reflecting on this material I realized I probably need to do more to support this group. Our college has tremendous resources to support first-generation students (e.g. TRIO), but I have failed to make a concerted effort to expose my students to these resources. I would like to provide more informal opportunities for my students to become aware of our student support services as well as provide greater opportunities to provide personal mentorship.
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In the hopes of trying to make my classroom an inclusive environment, during the first day of class I tell them that my goal is to turn them all into geology majors or at least a better understanding of our planet. I am explicit in my expectations both verbally and in my syllabus that my role/job is do everything in my power to help them all succeed in my class. I also use several different strategies like conpet tests, and think pair share techniques to allow all students the opportunity to answer questions in lecture. I also implement ice breakers on day 1 that includes telling me exactly how to pronounce your name, what you would like to be called, and something interesting about yourself. I would like to implement more meta-cognition into the first few classes so that they all begin at the same level of understanding what are good study techniques to try to make implicit rules visible to all.
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I have two tasks for myself to increase inclusion in my courses.
1. Even in small classes, it’s hard to include all students (or “get some students to participate”), and it seems this semester I have more students than usual who are shy or have social anxiety. For this reason I found the “multiple hands-multiple voices” and “quick around” techniques notable, and I plan to incorporate them in my classes to encourage more class participation. Another aspect of broadening participation is including more career information and examples of societal relevance in my courses. I want to add some scientist spotlights and bring some case studies to class. (The “Ored to Death” video is a good one because of our proximity to Libby, MT.)
2. Thanks, Tim, for describing the diversity (and the lack of it) in northwestern Montana. This semester I have had more than the usual student or two struggle with funds to purchase the required course materials. While I did tell all my students that the publisher has a free two-week trial period for their online homework system, a few students still needed additional time beyond that window to get properly set up. I need to become more familiar with the student support available for these situations—for example, learn how financial aid and the timing of it works.
1. Even in small classes, it’s hard to include all students (or “get some students to participate”), and it seems this semester I have more students than usual who are shy or have social anxiety. For this reason I found the “multiple hands-multiple voices” and “quick around” techniques notable, and I plan to incorporate them in my classes to encourage more class participation. Another aspect of broadening participation is including more career information and examples of societal relevance in my courses. I want to add some scientist spotlights and bring some case studies to class. (The “Ored to Death” video is a good one because of our proximity to Libby, MT.)
2. Thanks, Tim, for describing the diversity (and the lack of it) in northwestern Montana. This semester I have had more than the usual student or two struggle with funds to purchase the required course materials. While I did tell all my students that the publisher has a free two-week trial period for their online homework system, a few students still needed additional time beyond that window to get properly set up. I need to become more familiar with the student support available for these situations—for example, learn how financial aid and the timing of it works.
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What I would like to do is increase URM within the geology courses for both majors and non-majors at my college/MCC. If URM do take geology courses, we see significantly higher DFW rates for those students than non-URM. These issues are the focus of the MCC team in participating in this project. This week's readings have provided some insight as far as low success rates for URM related to conflicts of "low context" norms of academia vs. "high context" cultural norms.
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I would like to increase making course content societally relevant in particular by engaging students in project-based learning. I have attempted to bring societal issues into class discussions by assigning current event articles to read, summarize, ask questions, and discuss. I would like to improve my in-class discussions in general but I know that not everyone participates or is comfortable discussing in front of a whole group. I like the idea of project-based learning. This will not only give students a more in depth study of a particular topic, but it will also provide students the opportunity to share with me and their classmates what geoscience topics they are interested in learning and sharing about.
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As someone who's still pretty new to teaching, I feel like my own growth as a teacher kind of mirrors the growth of our students in their learning process. We all start out as baseline learners and progressively increase our depth of understanding. So, I think we're starting to get into areas that I've heard about and wanted to try some things, but haven't really gotten there yet because I'm just starting to think outside that baseline level. Inclusion, diversity, and equity are topics that have been at the forefront of my thoughts for some time now, so this activity has been very interesting to me. That being said, it's a huge amount of information that covers a lot of topics and I feel like I'm still processing all of this. Basically said, my brain is on overload with all of the new ideas. If I had to pick one, I like the idea of establishing guidelines for classroom interactions on day one, since this is an area that I feel I'm a little weak in.
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I've been fortunate enough to teach in places where it is relatively easy to make geoscience courses culturally relevant by tying content to local examples. However, I'm still struggling to do the same with my astronomy courses. In a city with lots of light pollution and where it is easy to forget that the night sky exists, this is a challenge. Most students simply don't have many experiences with the night sky or astronomy to draw on. Right now, day 3 of my class is centered around the question "Why Care About Astronomy?" so that students start thinking about this question right away but I'm still trying to find more ways to make the class more relevant as a whole.
I would also like to work on increasing the in-class participation of all students. While I tend to have a good level of participation, it is often the same 5-6 students asking and answering most of the questions. I am hoping to implement the multiple hands technique when we return to face-to-face teaching. I often hear students mumbling (correct!) answers under their breath, so I know they are grasping the concepts, I just need to work on doing a better job of creating an environment in which everyone feels comfortable speaking up!
I would also like to work on increasing the in-class participation of all students. While I tend to have a good level of participation, it is often the same 5-6 students asking and answering most of the questions. I am hoping to implement the multiple hands technique when we return to face-to-face teaching. I often hear students mumbling (correct!) answers under their breath, so I know they are grasping the concepts, I just need to work on doing a better job of creating an environment in which everyone feels comfortable speaking up!
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ShareHey Karen, Shannon from cohort 2 here,
I have a quick presentation that I do about quick, little preparation active learning techniques that people can do in there classrooms. If you'd like to take a look at it I am attaching a link below. It is a great idea to make these little changes to your classroom, I personally have noticed my students pay more attention and ask more question of me when they are engaged with these types of learning techniques.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10TkBNOBv5slDsMKbT0LUGxke9xV-_lPnPfVqV...
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ShareHey Michelle, Shannon here (you remember),
This is a great idea. I wonder if you have reached out to the tutoring center on your campus to see what they have in terms of support of tools to help with student metacognition. I personally have the head of tutoring at my site come in and give workshops in my class that are normally offered campus-wide, it makes sure that not just the self-selecting students are participating in these important skill-building workshops. Also, the woman who runs these workshops always bring new things to me to share with the students, like test autopsies, a technique I had never heard of but students were really interested in using.
https://www.asc.dso.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/resources/handouts/Exam%2...
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This post was edited by Sarah Nakamoto on May, 2021
Hey Hillary, Shannon from cohort 2 here,
Project-based learning is a great idea and there are so many ways that you can approach this. I, personally, try just about everything. In some classes I do presentations that include rough draft slides and final slides with notes. I do scientific posters (intro, methods, etc) where students turn in a piece every week and I am very hands-on about editing and their final project is poster session where they then grade each other while I go through each poster with each group. I also do a mineral webpage open-pedagogy project (I'm really proud of this one: sites.google.com/site/geo143mineralwebpages/home). And in one other class I do the current events like you. One things that I have found is that I get the best results if I somehow spread the project out over the entire term. Again, like you, I let the students pick what they would like to cover, but because I am really involved in editing and commenting on each project, sometimes the project end up absolutely incredible. If you want to see anything, instructional handouts and examples of student work, let me know. These types of projects, though they give me a ton of work, have been really enriching, not just for the students but also for me.
(Here is an example of a presentation from my climate change class where a student, super interested, just knocked it out of the park. And, though this was absolutely the best I have seen, it's common for students to do an amazing job on this project: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/184A8SH5AnrByHngBmoEFyYp3TgSjv1K7aoj_E...).
Hey Hillary, Shannon from cohort 2 here,
Project-based learning is a great idea and there are so many ways that you can approach this. I, personally, try just about everything. In some classes I do presentations that include rough draft slides and final slides with notes. I do scientific posters (intro, methods, etc) where students turn in a piece every week and I am very hands-on about editing and their final project is poster session where they then grade each other while I go through each poster with each group. I also do a mineral webpage open-pedagogy project (I'm really proud of this one: sites.google.com/site/geo143mineralwebpages/home). And in one other class I do the current events like you. One things that I have found is that I get the best results if I somehow spread the project out over the entire term. Again, like you, I let the students pick what they would like to cover, but because I am really involved in editing and commenting on each project, sometimes the project end up absolutely incredible. If you want to see anything, instructional handouts and examples of student work, let me know. These types of projects, though they give me a ton of work, have been really enriching, not just for the students but also for me.
(Here is an example of a presentation from my climate change class where a student, super interested, just knocked it out of the park. And, though this was absolutely the best I have seen, it's common for students to do an amazing job on this project: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/184A8SH5AnrByHngBmoEFyYp3TgSjv1K7aoj_E...).
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ShareHey Jamie, Shannon from Cohort 2 here,
I understand the feeling of being new to these ideas and a bit overwhelmed, although it may make you feel better that I just started really thinking deeply about these topics and I have been teaching in some form since I was 16. One thing that might help you get some footing is starting at your own institution. What are initiatives that your school is working on and how can you get involved (might be hard at the moment, but when we are back in the classroom)? There even might be workshops or professional development provided in-house where you can expand your practice in a really hands-on way. As for establishing guidelines, that is a great place to start in your own classroom. I wonder if it's possible for you to not only talk with students but have a poster of guidelines up on the wall that you can point to and that students can look at to remind themselves of those guidelines?
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ShareHey Zachary, this is Shannon from cohort 2,
The first thing I thought of in making astronomy relevant is to tie it to their phones. You've probably see the apps, but there are a few that are really cool and help students interact with what they are seeing, just tell them to head to one of the many places to hike around you and point their phone to the sky and report back on what they see. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jesseshanahan/2018/05/09/the-best-free-stargazin...)
And as for increasing class participation, take a look at the slides I shared with Karen above, those techniques might help you. I'm a personal fan of worksheets where students work together to answer the questions assigned. Everyone participates and I get to walk around and talk to every student, which feels like a lot lower stakes for students because they aren't the center of attention trying to answer questions. I have really long classes though (3hrs), if my classes were shorter I would do more think-pair-share, and more concept tests and muddiest point.
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I really try to make my classroom a friendly welcoming place. As Tim and Anita mentioned above we do not have a diverse campus when it comes to ethnic groups. We do however have inequity in income for the whole campus and gender inequity in the natural resources. I am also seeing an increase in students with different gender identities. I was able to help one student who was born female but identifies as male to work with our campus technology department to get a dropdown box on the student portal to indicate preferred name and pronouns for the students. Now instructors will see their preferred names on the portal so on the first day of class there will not be confusion as to the student's preference. I make a routine practice of checking with students I know face equity problems.
One thing I don't do much that I would like to improve on is to showcase a diverse array of professionals in the natural resources field. I need to be more intentional about talking about careers and the many different types of people in those fields.
One thing I don't do much that I would like to improve on is to showcase a diverse array of professionals in the natural resources field. I need to be more intentional about talking about careers and the many different types of people in those fields.
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Hi Tim-
It's Becca—it’s great that these exercises prompted you to think about the first-generation college students at Flathead. And also cool that you as a first-generation college student yourself have your own story to share about your academic path and how your experience was shaped by being the first in your family to attend college. This is a bit of an aside, but I’m finishing up as co-PI of an environmental field and career prep program for undergraduates, and one of the program components was students interacting with environmental professionals. These folks were surprised how interested the students were in their academic background and career trajectory, but many students wrote about how meeting people with whom they had something in common (whether it was cultural/family/educational/socioeconomic/etc. background) made their career goals seem achievable (i.e., if they can do it, so can I.) So the bottom line is that sharing your experience with your students will be greatly beneficial.
I’m interested in your preliminary ideas for how you envision providing informal opportunities for learning about student support services at Flathead. Would you maybe have the coordinator of a particular support program come in and talk to students?
An article that might be of interest about the impact of recruitment programs and role models on diversity in the geosciences:
Baber, L.D., Pifer, .J., Colbeck, C., and Furman, T., 2010, Increasing diversity in the geosciences: recruitment programs and student self-efficacy: Journal of Geoscience Education, 58(1), 32-42.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1164604.pdf
It's Becca—it’s great that these exercises prompted you to think about the first-generation college students at Flathead. And also cool that you as a first-generation college student yourself have your own story to share about your academic path and how your experience was shaped by being the first in your family to attend college. This is a bit of an aside, but I’m finishing up as co-PI of an environmental field and career prep program for undergraduates, and one of the program components was students interacting with environmental professionals. These folks were surprised how interested the students were in their academic background and career trajectory, but many students wrote about how meeting people with whom they had something in common (whether it was cultural/family/educational/socioeconomic/etc. background) made their career goals seem achievable (i.e., if they can do it, so can I.) So the bottom line is that sharing your experience with your students will be greatly beneficial.
I’m interested in your preliminary ideas for how you envision providing informal opportunities for learning about student support services at Flathead. Would you maybe have the coordinator of a particular support program come in and talk to students?
An article that might be of interest about the impact of recruitment programs and role models on diversity in the geosciences:
Baber, L.D., Pifer, .J., Colbeck, C., and Furman, T., 2010, Increasing diversity in the geosciences: recruitment programs and student self-efficacy: Journal of Geoscience Education, 58(1), 32-42.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1164604.pdf
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Hi Anita-
Becca here—I totally empathize with you about some student support services (like textbook loan programs) on campus being a black box. The reality for me is that I’m immersed in classes, projects, meetings, etc. to the extent that I rarely leave the building whilst on campus, so it’s embarrassing how little I know about campus programs to support students. I’m thinking about your financial aid comment and wanting to better understand how timing etc. works in order to better serve your students…..is this something that would interest your department colleagues? It would be interesting to have a financial aid staffer attend a department meeting to give an overview of financial aid at the college. I’m also thinking that at some schools, it might be feasible to have some kind of a share-a-thon where personnel from different programs/support services on campus convene informally to share with faculty what their office does and student opportunities that exist through their program.
The inequitable participation part of your response really resonated with me, especially since we’ve transitioned to “temporary remote instruction” for the rest of the semester. How about you? Are you teaching remotely? If so, any predictions about whether fostering participation equity will be easier or more challenging when meeting on Zoom?
Becca here—I totally empathize with you about some student support services (like textbook loan programs) on campus being a black box. The reality for me is that I’m immersed in classes, projects, meetings, etc. to the extent that I rarely leave the building whilst on campus, so it’s embarrassing how little I know about campus programs to support students. I’m thinking about your financial aid comment and wanting to better understand how timing etc. works in order to better serve your students…..is this something that would interest your department colleagues? It would be interesting to have a financial aid staffer attend a department meeting to give an overview of financial aid at the college. I’m also thinking that at some schools, it might be feasible to have some kind of a share-a-thon where personnel from different programs/support services on campus convene informally to share with faculty what their office does and student opportunities that exist through their program.
The inequitable participation part of your response really resonated with me, especially since we’ve transitioned to “temporary remote instruction” for the rest of the semester. How about you? Are you teaching remotely? If so, any predictions about whether fostering participation equity will be easier or more challenging when meeting on Zoom?
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Hi Jessica-
It’s Becca. I’m excited to hear that your team is interested in exploring both the lower enrollment in geology courses for URM students and the higher DFW rates in geology for students in URM groups. I believe that one of the things that you’ll be tackling as a Cohort 3 change agent is using outcomes assessment data from your college to inform the changes that you’ll be making on the course and/or program and/or institutional level. Collecting outcomes assessment data over time will also be handy in evaluating the impacts of the changes that you’re making to your courses/program/institution. The fact that you have zoomed in on 2 observable phenomena (low enrollment of URM students in geo courses; higher DFW rates for URM students) is going to be super helpful in identifying the kinds of demographic data that you’d like to extract from your institutional research office and use in your outcomes assessment.
It’s Becca. I’m excited to hear that your team is interested in exploring both the lower enrollment in geology courses for URM students and the higher DFW rates in geology for students in URM groups. I believe that one of the things that you’ll be tackling as a Cohort 3 change agent is using outcomes assessment data from your college to inform the changes that you’ll be making on the course and/or program and/or institutional level. Collecting outcomes assessment data over time will also be handy in evaluating the impacts of the changes that you’re making to your courses/program/institution. The fact that you have zoomed in on 2 observable phenomena (low enrollment of URM students in geo courses; higher DFW rates for URM students) is going to be super helpful in identifying the kinds of demographic data that you’d like to extract from your institutional research office and use in your outcomes assessment.
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Hi Christina-
Becca here. I feel like fostering a welcoming and inviting classroom environment from the first minute of the term has a positive and powerful impact on individual students and the learning community. What are some of the strategies that you employ in your classroom to promote friendliness and a sense of belongingness? So great that your institution has adopted a dropdown menu for students to indicate preferred names and pronouns—it sounds like you were instrumental in that process. We have recently adopted the same thing on our rosters at Mt. SAC, and I think that the next step is making more faculty aware that the preferred name/pronoun data are available on their rosters. Are the faculty at Flathead generally informed about the existence of preferred names and pronouns on the portal?
I’m hoping that some of the SAGE resources on careers and enhancing our students’ STEM career awareness will be useful for you as you move forward with incorporating more career stuff into your natural resources classes. And since you mentioned gender inequity in the natural resources, I also wanted to share this citation about the importance of role models in retaining female undergrads in the geosciences.
Hernandez, P.R., Bloodhart, B., Adams, A.S., Barnes, R.T., Burt, M., Clinton, S.M., Du, W., Godfrey, E., Henderson, H., Pollack, I.B., and Fischer, E.V., 2018, Role modeling is a viable retention strategy for undergraduate women in the geosciences: Geosphere, 14(6), 2585-2593.
Becca here. I feel like fostering a welcoming and inviting classroom environment from the first minute of the term has a positive and powerful impact on individual students and the learning community. What are some of the strategies that you employ in your classroom to promote friendliness and a sense of belongingness? So great that your institution has adopted a dropdown menu for students to indicate preferred names and pronouns—it sounds like you were instrumental in that process. We have recently adopted the same thing on our rosters at Mt. SAC, and I think that the next step is making more faculty aware that the preferred name/pronoun data are available on their rosters. Are the faculty at Flathead generally informed about the existence of preferred names and pronouns on the portal?
I’m hoping that some of the SAGE resources on careers and enhancing our students’ STEM career awareness will be useful for you as you move forward with incorporating more career stuff into your natural resources classes. And since you mentioned gender inequity in the natural resources, I also wanted to share this citation about the importance of role models in retaining female undergrads in the geosciences.
Hernandez, P.R., Bloodhart, B., Adams, A.S., Barnes, R.T., Burt, M., Clinton, S.M., Du, W., Godfrey, E., Henderson, H., Pollack, I.B., and Fischer, E.V., 2018, Role modeling is a viable retention strategy for undergraduate women in the geosciences: Geosphere, 14(6), 2585-2593.
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