Icon for: Latoya Chandler

LATOYA CHANDLER

Santa Fe College
Public Discussion

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  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 9, 2022 | 11:33 p.m.

    Hello,

    I’m LaToya Chandler, faculty member for the GRRATE project. In our fourth year extension, we took time to consider ways to expand the program’s reach by improving the online portion of the curriculum along with strengthening our culturally responsive pedagogical techniques. We have also partnered with Upward Bound to host a summer course in Robotics as a way to reach students earlier with a meaningful STEM experience within our project.

    Our project thrives on active involvement in dialogue and exploring hands-on work tasks. We are looking for more ways to support students in determining how to integrate their skills into practical projects as well as developing interest in technical careers. 

    Some thoughts for discussion:

    • We would like to explore how to better reach marginalized students in STEM fields.
    • How do we engage students in exploring ways that their personal skill strengths and identities can contribute to STEM career fields related to our project?
    • How do we prepare faculty and build self-efficacy in teaching project-based courses?
     
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    Carolyn White
  • Icon for: Daniel Damelin

    Daniel Damelin

    Facilitator
    Senior Scientist
    May 10, 2022 | 12:48 p.m.

    Within the three options how much flexibility is there for students to put their own spin on the final product?

    Everyone looks very engaged. Can you expand more upon how the courses engage culturally responsive pedagogical techniques?

    Also wondering how participants are recruited to be part of the project, both students and faculty.

     
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    Latoya Chandler
    Carolyn White
  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 04:46 p.m.

    Hi Daniel

    The guitar project is the most flexible project that allows students to put their own spin towards a final product. When it came to color schemes and looks, we noticed that many students designed the look of their guitars based on their cultural backgrounds and personal interests.  We wanted to expand this opportunity for students to be able to draw from their cultural backgrounds and personal interests when designing the look of their guitar. So this year, we encouraged students to think of ways that they could connect the design of their product as a representation of themselves or their personal interests.

    There were some very diverse and beautiful product designs that resulted from this opportunity.  A common trend of guitar design products from our students were flags painted on as the face of the entire guitar body. The most common flags we have seen designed within the body of the guitar are flags of student's country of origin and LGBTQ flags. We go through a research and exploration phase, reviewing guitar shapes, graphics, colors and finishes that students may want to incorporate in their design decisions and plans. 

    We primarily target dual enrolled students for our classrooms and we decided to extend our reach to these students by offering a free guitar building workshop to high school faculty located in the rural areas that we serve. We did this as a way to strengthen our partnerships with the teachers who work directly with our prospective dual enrollment population. Our goal is to increase high school faculty knowledge of project-based learning and awareness about our program by giving them an opportunity to experience the course as the students do. We encourage faculty to place their guitar products on display in their classrooms as a recruitment tool for our program. We also partner with TRIO programs such as Upward Bound. We use their summer enrichment program period to enroll these students in a summer section of our course to receive college credit. 

  • Icon for: Ann Podleski

    Ann Podleski

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 01:43 p.m.

    Beautifully done video!!  I think the hands on activities are a good way to better reach marginalized students in STEM fields.  I know one of our challenges has been reaching students during this time of virtual learning, and I think the step by step videos within a hybrid model might be the "best of both".  I think experience project based learning is needed for us as teachers in order for us to be able to teach project-based courses.  Maybe including students and faculty as co-learners in a project based course experience would be an effective way to prepare faculty to teach project-based courses.

     
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    Latoya Chandler
    Carolyn White
  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 05:07 p.m.

    Hi Ann,

    I truly love the suggestion of including students and faculty as co-learners in the same environment! I also think that we are currently in a place where we are challenged to move away from teaching and learning as an isolated approach. 

    It might be effective to learn the framework of teaching project-based environments in a situated approach that includes the students, to help set the conditions that we truly work under within the classroom.

    Thank you for your suggestions.

     

  • Icon for: Ann Podleski

    Ann Podleski

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 05:13 p.m.

    We discovered that including students along with faculty in workshops that were planned for faculty professional development was such an awesome experience.  Often the students were helping us (they were a lot faster at picking up certain things).  And it built such a great collaboration and comfort with faculty and students that ended up helping in other aspects of academics for the students.

     
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    Latoya Chandler
  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 05:51 p.m.

    That is so very true. I often find myself learning a new way to do a task from my students.

  • Icon for: Sally Crissman

    Sally Crissman

    Facilitator
    Senior Science Educator
    May 10, 2022 | 07:02 p.m.

    You have surely found silver linings in the covid experience, finding what could be delivered online and how to use in-person time. I imagine the online resources have increased student agency and the in-person time can highlight teachers as mentors. If project-based learning is new to participating teachers, do you find evidence they find ways to incorporate the model into other courses? Project-based learning became the most engaging and empowering experiences in my science classes - PD experiences where I got to be the student and the pedagogy was modeled (and was a subject of reflection) were immensely important as I made pedagogical shifts. 

    How do you reach more students who might be reluctant to sign on. In my case, I found girls had less experience using tools etc and were more reticent to sign up for courses such as rocketry, solar car competitions, etc. I reserved spaces for girls in after school science/technology activities and a summer "science camp."  We needed to reach out to teachers and families to encourage girls to find a friend and sign up. Once involved, they were hooked and discovered their capabilities and talents. We did find article and pictures in local news sources help spread the word and encouraged participation.  I do think the need for invitation and outreach never ends! 

     
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    Latoya Chandler
  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 11, 2022 | 08:19 a.m.

    Hi Sally

    We just had our first STEM guitar building workshop this spring with teachers and a major area that was highlighted was the interdisciplinary nature of the project. As we worked through the project, our goal was to intentionally foreground the disciplines that we were currently using towards designing our guitars. We did this for teachers to engage in identifying opportunities to integrate their own background knowledge in math and science as a team, to help expand the project with new perspectives from other faculty. For K-12 teachers, we  foregrounded each design phase of PBL as we progressed through the project using the PBL Works essential design elements. We are looking forward to following up with our participants to see if they have adapted the model in some of their classes.

    I agree with the strategy you mentioned for reaching students who are reluctant to sign on. We serve rural towns where everyone knows each other. I think that reaching out to families and teachers will help us to leverage those tight-knit relationships within the community for recruitment of the program.

  • Icon for: Mark DeLoura

    Mark DeLoura

    May 10, 2022 | 08:01 p.m.

    I love that you're using videos to help teach - aside from being so perfect for the pandemic, it's very appropriate for the Tiktok/Youtube generation :) Did you consider also having the students create videos about their projects as part of the conclusion of the experience?
    Great job!

     
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    Gina Greenidge
    Latoya Chandler
  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 10, 2022 | 10:21 p.m.

    Hi Mark,

    I am very interested in having students create video artifacts of their work. We have been experimenting with Vlogging as a way for students to reflect on their projects from week-to-week. Although students are immersed in the Tiktok/Youtube generation, I noticed that they were at first reluctant towards using Vlogs within our Canvas platform for the project. As students used this form of technology more often for learning, the quality of their Vlogs improved. I wonder if we situated the Vlog activities within the platforms that students are already comfortable with using like Tiktok/Youtube, how would this increase engagement? This is a unique opportunity that is worth exploring. Thanks for your thoughts.

    I really do like the idea of having students create a video artifact as part of the conclusion of the experience.  It would be great for building a video-portfolio of student work.

  • Icon for: Zenon Borys

    Zenon Borys

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 11, 2022 | 04:30 p.m.

    I agree with others, great project!  And, building off Mark's idea of including students.  I wondered if it was possible/worthwhile to try and include students who have completed projects as mentors to other classes/cohorts.  I also thought it was great that some students hadn't used tools in a technical way and then had a great project to show for it.  That made me wonder about how their technical skills grew and if you focused/studied that aspect.  

     
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    Gina Greenidge
  • Icon for: Jennifer Kidd

    Jennifer Kidd

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 12, 2022 | 01:53 p.m.

    Smart adaptation to create the videos to support hands-on building in a virtual environment. We faced similar challenges in our project. I recall that one of our pre-service teachers that was trying to teach robotics to 5th graders over Zoom created a video to guide her partner 5th grader, but it would have been smart if we had a repository of video tutorials that she could have drawn from. Now that we are back f2f, this might not be as critical as it could have been last year, but I still think it would be worth our while to create such video tutorials. Are you finding that the need for the video instruction persists post COVID (fingers crossed!), or will your project always have a virtual implementation? 

     
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    Latoya Chandler
  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 12, 2022 | 03:33 p.m.

    Hi Jennifer 

    Thanks for interacting with the video.

    I think that we have found some value with keeping the videos available for each phase of the project. Having a repository of videos allowed several of our students who ventured ahead or who have fallen behind in the project to continue progressing through tasks independently. So I do think that the blended part of the course will stay in tact. 

    In face-to-face class, some students relied on watching the task on laptops at their workspace then performing that same task; which gave them more control over the pace of their work. Students who preferred to stay in-step with the instructor did so. But at some point through the project, all of the students end up in different phases of the work. When this happens, having video available as a reference does free me up to work with students one-on-one or in smaller groups.

    Then there are another group of students who mostly rely on instruction from instructors/peers to help them through certain tasks in the project. I think the use of the video depends on the support needs based on the  abilities of the person who chooses to use them. My students who chose to use the videos all had varied reasons for doing so.

    Our intent is to make sure that students have multiple means of representation of the content, so that they can have more than one type of opportunity to achieve access in understanding how to execute the design tasks assigned in the class. I think UDL checkpoint 3.3 is what were trying to embrace with the video support by chunking our work tasks into smaller sequences in a progressive way.

  • Icon for: Paul Adams

    Paul Adams

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 13, 2022 | 01:37 a.m.

     This is a very interesting project.  The engagement of students and faculty on joint projects and the video support is great.   Are you considering expanding into other projects?

  • Icon for: Shellie Banfield

    Shellie Banfield

    Director, Davis Center
    May 13, 2022 | 10:25 a.m.

    Paul, I work on this project with LaToya Chandler, and one road we are traveling with this project will be to turn this project into a 2 week student summer camp experience for high schoolers from our rural areas. Our goal of engaging students in STEM Technical careers early in their educational road will be through the utilization of our GRRATE project curriculum. The hands-on learning project is a way we have found students connect to science, technology, engineering and math skills. 

  • Icon for: Paul Adams

    Paul Adams

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 13, 2022 | 12:09 p.m.

    Hi Shellie,

    Thanks for responding.  I am very interested in finding out more of how you will be doing the camps for rural areas.  Do they remain in their communities to do the project with local mentors? We do some STEM camps that involve the students in coding, building devices, etc. but they have been limited to residential efforts.  I have worked some with schools on high altitude ballooning where the focus is to design an investigation and construct payload boxes back at their school.  We serve as a launch platform.  The excitement of the students is great, but I do like what you are doing for each student to have a visible product of their efforts.

  • Icon for: Shellie Banfield

    Shellie Banfield

    Director, Davis Center
    May 13, 2022 | 12:26 p.m.

    Paul, I ask that you keep my email available and keep checking with me as this project progresses. We are shooting for our camps to begin in summer of 2023. We'll have better information as we move through our work. shellie.banfield@sfcollege.edu I look forward to continuing to communicate with you with regard to our GRRATE project and other NSF projects.

  • Icon for: Chanda Jefferson

    Chanda Jefferson

    Facilitator
    Educator/Education Policy Fellow
    May 14, 2022 | 08:29 a.m.

     

    My name is Chanda Jefferson and I am so grateful to join the conversation, what an awesome project. As a biology teacher in a rural school district, some of our middle school STEM classes were taught by substitutes eliminating lab experiences for students. When students entered my high school STEM classes they were nervous about using the equipment. I love the way that this project incorporates technical skills! I am curious to know more about the rural hubs collaboration on these projects. Do all rural hubs offer the same courses? Do instructors have flexibility in the way that they present the lessons? Where I am from, Early College is usually available for advanced students, do all students have access to participating in your program? This is an awesome project and I am going to follow you all on Twitter to follow updates.

  • Icon for: Latoya Chandler

    Latoya Chandler

    Lead Presenter
    Faculty
    May 15, 2022 | 11:11 a.m.

    Hi Chanda

    Thanks for your response to this project. 

    Each of the rural hubs offer at least 1 of the 3 sections in either Guitars, Rocketry or Robotics. We rotate the sections to a different rural hub each semester so that students have opportunity to take a new section. Instructors do have flexibility in the way that they present lessons in the course and we encourage it. Faculty members that took the recent guitar workshop were mostly math and science instructors. We encouraged them to look for opportunities to integrate their own content knowledge into the projects and to share ways they could expand our existing lesson plans. Currently we are extending access to this program outside of our dual enrollment population through a 2-week summer camp experience for high school students in our areas. Our Summer Institute Camps will begin in 2023.

    We have also partnered with Upward Bound's 2022 Summer enrichment program where we will provide an 8-week course in robotics and STEM guitar building for these students. Please reach out if you have more questions about our project. I or Shellie Banfield will be happy to help anyway we can.

     
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    Chanda Jefferson
  • Icon for: Chanda Jefferson

    Chanda Jefferson

    Facilitator
    Educator/Education Policy Fellow
    May 15, 2022 | 11:26 a.m.

    Wow! I am familiar with Upward Bound and it is great that you all are working to expand your programs to reach a broader audience. I will definitely be in touch and I might have to take a trip down to Sante Fe College! 

  • Icon for: Janet Stramel

    Janet Stramel

    Researcher
    May 14, 2022 | 11:20 a.m.

    What a great project! Thank you for sharing. And to include students and faculty as co-learners is critical. 

     
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    Latoya Chandler