Dental Hygiene Community Education
Maria Dimino
Dental Hygiene
Living Lab
Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity
Students will be divided in groups of four (three groups total). The assignment will be done on open lab as an E-Portfolio. This assignment is Place Based Learning. Each group will have an underserved population. The first group will have Head Start 0-5 years of age. The second group will have the YMCA ages 6-19 and the last group will have a group home ages 20-60. They will discuss and educate daily oral hygiene. They will assess their level of knowledge and perception.
Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?
The main goal is to get them out of their comfort zone of the clinic they are in daily. Also, they will be exposed to a diverse population in need of oral hygiene education. They will create a daily home care plan for each patient. In addition, they will interview staff and see if oral hygiene is a part of their daily regimen. They will create the E-portfolio discussing the interview process with staff and the patient's perception of of daily oral hygiene practice. They also have to comment on two other student's E-portfolio.
Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?
I plan on implementing this toward the end of the semester when the students are more comfortable with their own knowledge on oral hygiene. I plan on devoting one class per month on their assignment. The out of classroom time is around three-four hours.
Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?
This is a low stakes assignment. I want the students to focus more on the communication process rather than the assignment being a big percentage of their grade. The students were instructed to interview the management staff and the patients. Then they are to create an E-portfolio with all the data collected from their assessments.
Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?
I plan on using a Value rubric and they will be mainly graded on communication (verbal and non verbal), writing skills and cultural self awareness. I developed the rubric based on the goals of the assignment and wanted to keep it focused on those three areas to grade.
Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
I have not implemented this assignment as of yet, but I plan on in the near future. I truly hope the students will enjoy this opportunity to help others that do not have access to care. I definitely plan on doing this every semester and will probably make changes as I go along. I am looking forward to this Placed Based Learning activity.
Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.
In the future if the assignment goes well I will look into getting a grant. The funds would go towards toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss.
Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab
http://www.jdentaled.org
