Initial Publication Date: October 14, 2008

Moving to Action

October 24-25, 2008
Central Lakes College, Brainerd, MN

Please note: In order to most effectively Move to Action, participants had an assignment to do before the workshop!

New Participants: Explore PKAL VI to learn more about this collaboration.

All Faculty Participants: Identify a content area in one of your courses that your students struggle with. Explore the PKAL website or just check the list to the left to find a Pedagogy of Engagement that will assist you with improving your class. Bring with you any materials you will need to develop a class activity including a flash drive. Computers will be available.

All Administration Participants: Your assignment is to review your campus Plan for Action. In what ways does it speak to supporting all students to succeed in STEM? What collaborations would strengthen your Plan for Action? Bring your college catalog and other materials that would aid in designing collaborations. Computers will be available; bring a flash drive.

Facilitators were PKAL Consultants Jim Swartz (Grinnell College) and Tricia Ferrett (Carleton College) along with Brenda Lyseng (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities)


Friday, October 24

4:00 - 4:15 Welcome and outline of the weekend

4:15 - 5:00 Pioneering Pedagogical Change: Examples from MnSCU

Stories from Lori Anderson (Ridgewater), Wes Boberg (Ridgewater), Michelle LeBeau (Century), Theresa Hornstein (Lake Superior), and Emily Deaver (Southwest Minnesota)

5:30 - 7:00 Poster Spotlight: Faculty showcasing their activities!

Spotlighting Jackie Lindquist (Central Lakes), Kim Loomis (Century), Craig Longtine (North Hennepin), Patrick Tebbe (Minnesota State, Mankato), Bruce Jacobson (St. Cloud State), and Minnesota State University, Moorhead

North Hennepin poster

Century poster

Quirk Dorr and Swartz

Southwest Minnesota team

Moorhead team poster

Tebbe poster

Music provided by Leon Laudenbach (blues band) enjoying music

8:00 - 9:00 Introduction of a new pedagogy: Using Skittles and M&Ms to explore experimental design, graphing, and statistics

M&M group 7

M&M group 6

M&M group 5

M&M group 4

M&M group 3

M&M group 1

M&M group 2

Saturday, October 25

8:30 - 9:15 Project context: The relationship between MnSCU, PKAL and SERC. Reviewing goals for the day.

9:15 - 9:30 Organize into project teams by discipline and pedagogy technique

9:30 -12:00 Parallel sessions for faculty and deans

  • Faculty: Project teams work on projects to be used next semester - see the Teaching Activities they uploaded!

group work - Tricia

group on SERC

Group Activity

  • Deans: Collaboration time
    • Goals for next workshop
    • Prepare for afternoon discussion on serving diverse students
    • Other opportunities for collaboration STEM deans

12:00 - 1:15 Lunch and informal networking with other campuses

1:15 - 2:15 Report out from morning sessions - what have we learned?

Bowling Ball Demo Kim Loomis

2:15 - 3:15 Success for All

Increasingly our classrooms are full of students with differing backgrounds and different levels of preparedness. How can we best support the success of all in STEM classes? Small groups will design a classroom activity or other activity that uses a pedagogy of engagement to address these issues. See results under Discussion Board!


3:15-4:00 Afternoon groups report out

Discussion of the day- What have we learned? Brenda Lyseng