A little taste of what we’ll be doing over summer!

CURRICULUM REDESIGN – Faculty are studying and redesigning curriculum in three major areas, chemistry, majors-biology and non-majors biology with an eye towards shortening the pathways to success for students, increasing interest in STEM fields, and closing the achievement gap for minority students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. (Ashcroft, Harman, Hsin, Igoe, Jackson, Jarrell, Rodriguez)

CERTIFICATE DEVELOPMENT – Studies have shown that minority students traditionally under-represented in STEM fields benefit from having “milestones” along their academic career path. Faculty are exploring and working to develop CTE Certificates of Achievement in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), nano- technology and certified Naturalist / Field Assistants. (Ashcroft, DiFiori, Presiado)

STUDIO / FLIPPED CLASSROOM – Faculty are developing and building on earlier work on contextualized learning in a “flipped” classroom setting, which emphasizes project-based learning. (Val Foster, Castro, Harman)

COLLABORATORY AND STEM CENTER – Supplemental instruction has been well-established as a successful strategy for increasing the success of STEM student and closing the achievement gap. Work will be done this summer to design and implement a new workspace (Collaboratory) to support a greatly expanded Supplemental Instruction Program for fall in the new Science Village. In addition, faculty and students will be working together to design a new STEM center for Science Village. (Catanese, Val Foster, Harman, Igoe, Rodriguez, Sweimeh).

STUDENT-CENTERED SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT – Faculty will be working across disciplines to establish a new, more student-friendly schedule for STEM majors. Our goal is to develop a “block” schedule that will have a minimum of conflicts among classes across disciplines (for example Organic Chemistry and Cell and Molecular Biology) which will, with only minor modifications, roll from semester to semester. This will make it much easier for students to develop and follow their educational plans. (Huber, Jarrell)

PRE-HEALTH SCIENCES LEARNING COMMUNITY – Building on the work sponsored by the SASI project, faculty will continue to teach in Learning Communities focused around courses required for entering Health Science Programs such as Nursing and Radiation Technology. Faculty will be preparing an integrated, coordinated curriculum for three classes offered in the Fall of 2012. (Jarrell, Rodriguez and Wright)

HABITS OF MIND – Faculty will explore developing a student success portal similar to the iFalcon program at Cerritos College. (Wright, Presiado)