Multiple Semesters – L4: Living Lab Learning Library

June 27, 2024

NUR 1130 Clinical Assignment case study

Kalliopi Parginos

Nursing/New York City Tech College

NUR1130

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Interactive Case study on Type 1 Diabetes with short answers

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Top 5 Ways Nurses Can Improve Critical Thinking Skills
Case based approach
Practice self-reflection
Developing a questioning mind
Practice self-awareness in the moment
Use a process

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?

The Importance of Enhancing Critical Thinking Behavior
Independence of thought
Impartiality
Perspicacity into Personal and Social Factors
Humble Cerebration and Deferral Crisis

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

review the case study
answer the 4 questions
Choose the correct answer for two multiple choice questions

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?

Grade the questions
Plan to include it future clinical sessions either on the pre or post conference with the students

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?

6/6 students completed the questionnaire
The case study will be repeated on the fall semester 2024
Plan to incorporate it different interactive case studies
Students work as a team

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.

Rubric: Critical Thinking Value Rubric was utilized

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

January 20, 2022

Reading, Diversity & Global Learning Student Project for English 1101 & 1121

Prof. Nadine (Weinstein) Lavi

English Department at NYCCT

English 1101 & 1121

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students will examine an historical text, Alfred Schenker’s Secret War Diary, 1941-43 for:

A. 1. Analysis: Understanding of the context, content, spirit, and message
2. Place-based learning: Discovery & research of the names and places mentioned in the diary

B. 1. COMPARISON of a comparable, current event in terms of ethics, ethnicities, discriminatory issues, cultural understanding.
2. Place-based learning: Discovery of places related to the comparable event

C. HIEP: Diversity & Global Learning
Students will explore the cultural sensitivities/insensitivities of the primary text (diary) and the comparable historical or current event in a place-based context or otherwise (analytical – report/research paper, visual – PowerPoint presentation)

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Students will a. engage with the primary text for discovery and analysis of its themes, names, places, and events to learn about it from a firsthand account and to challenge their own assumptions and perceptions, b. research and analyze a second historical or current event with similar themes (oppression, cultural prejudices, racism, genocide, etc.) to question and examine their assumptions and perceptions about it, c. determine how it affects them and their lives.

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?

A mid-semester initial research gathering could qualify as a low-stakes assignment. Students can then do a Part 2 of a PowerPoint presentation with visuals about names and places in the diary and the comparable event. Students may then elect to add to the PowerPoint and/or write a report or research paper as an end of the semester high stakes assignment in lieu of a Final Exam (or use another text for that instead).

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Students will follow a guided modeling of research by me, their professor, of either a similar event or something from the diary, and then have to do their own research about the diary and their comparable event.

A place-based component could involve locating places that were mentioned in the diary based on a theme, e.g. a. all of the bars where the Jewish Militia invited the Gestapo to get them drunk before they did the "actions"- rounding up and killing Jews, b. cross referencing various names of people and places that are mentioned in the diary to find out as much information as possible about specific figures or places, and c. doing the same for a local (NYC-based) place-based event, e.g. all of the bars where Mafia met to plan hits, or slave-based locations (slave auctions, cemeteries, etc.)

The Reading Rubric from CityTech would be handed out to the students to use as a guide.

They would have to incorporate the answers to four questions assessing their experience in the PowerPoint presentation or report or research paper:
Students will incorporate 4 KEY QUESTIONS into the REPORT or POWERPOINT to show how the analysis, research, and discovery about Alfred Schenker’s Secret War Diary, 1941-43 and the COMPARABLE HISTORICAL/CURRENT EVENT impacted them:
1. What assumptions did I originally have about a. the Holocaust and b. the Comparable Historical/Current Event I have researched and analyzed?
2. What did I learn about each one?
3. How have my ideas/perspectives about each one changed?
4. How does this affect/impact me personally in terms of relating, values, my life, my vision?

Having used this text as a primary source for several semesters, I have found that the students respond to it, but by adding a new dimension of 1. a comparable event for them to research that is either historical or current, that is 2. also place-based (e.g. in NYC), it would make it more immediate and have a greater impact, but I will have to wait and see how it goes.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

June 12, 2020

Understanding Animations and Films Through a Deeper Cultural Understanding

Crystal Kim

Entertainment Department

Sound for Multimedia

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are to choose the following:

1. An animation scene that has the original language used with English subtitles and with a version with English language recorded or dubbed over. Compare and contrast the mood, emotions, and character's thoughts between the languages used.

2. Choose a film where a different language other then English is spoken. Interpret the mood, emotions, and character's thoughts. Research of cultural values of language used will be needed to compare and contrast the cultural mood and emotions and evaluate how much of it is universal

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

I like for budding video and audio engineers to understand the making of animations or filmmaker's intentions further which includes understanding the culture and language that an animator and filmmaker uses. As animations, particularly ones used in Japanese, and foreign films are becoming universally popular, the foundation of how these videos or films are made are important to understand for anyone looking to take on any role in the film industry. This allows the students to be more culturally aware of people outside of customs they are used to, and to see the comparisons and contrasts. For production purposes, a deeper understanding of the foundation can aid with audio production for recording and film directing.

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 will be introducing it before they do their midterm projects so they have an understanding of the basic foundation before they produce their midterm projects.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Doing some research of the culture and the cultural values in a language will be necessary to do the assignment. The students are to find what is idiosyncratic to a culture and common cultural themes used in animations and/or films for a particular culture and language. The activity is somewhat high stakes since I see students resonate with this sort of activity as most students tend to be very observant in analyzing a group with an identity and how it relates to their own.

I used the knowledge and skills area from the intercultural rubric. Within the knowledge section, the activity is to fulfill the cultural worldview frameworks and under skills, the activity is to fulfill the empathy and verbal & non-verbal communication section. Therefore, I use a value rubric. And my course is not part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative.

I was not able to use the assignment in my classrooms as I was not given any classes to teach for the semester. I think this assignment will go very well for every semester I teach the class. The challenge I see are students not doing enough cultural research before doing the assignment, particularly if one were to choose a foreign film scene since it takes of course so many years to really understand a culture. Unfortunately, I am not able to assess if students have enjoyed the assignment yet as I have not had the opportunity to give the assignment.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/multimediasound/understanding-animations-and-films-through-a-deeper-cultural-understanding/

June 12, 2020

Increasing Students’ Intercultural Knowledge and Competency

Elizabeth Parks

Architectural Technology

Design IV

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

As part of their design of a new museum building located on the CityTech campus, students are asked to select a theme for their collection that is drawn from their own culture. This gives them an opportunity to perform research to select exhibits and then to share what they have learned with their classmates.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The goal is to increase their own understanding of their cultural heritage and to develop an attitude toward what they have learned. The process of developing an attitude introduces an external framework to their knowledge and they can use that framework to drive the strategies they employ in their design process. The studio setting of the classroom allows the process and the results to be shared with all the members of the class.

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?

The design of the museum is completed in approximately 11 weeks during a regular semester.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

When the project is introduced the students are told that they will chose the theme and content of the museum exhibits. They are asked to reflect on their cultural backgrounds and come up with a theme drawn from their experience or understanding. They are asked explicitly "What do you want to teach visitors to your museum?" For some students the choice is high-stakes, but the selection of a theme is not graded. The theme will influence the design strategy that they use in the creation of the building, and it is hoped that the passion they feel for their theme will further engage them in the design process. However, even students who have a more neutral stance toward their theme are able to successfully complete the project.

The students are asked to reflect on their projects, the process and the outcome. And they are asked to respond to the reflections of their peers. The revised assignment, using cultural -based themes for the design, is being taught in the Summer 2020 session and will be integrated into the Fall 2020 semester as well. For the summer session the reflections will be graded as part of the class participation, with a low stakes impact on their grade. The results will be reviewed for Fall 2020.

I was inspired by several students from earlier semesters, who chose to use very personal themes instead of the History of New York , which was part of the original project brief. Those students were engaged very productively in the design process which resulted in very interesting projects. Summer 2020 is the first semester that the cultural theme has officially been part of the project description. I was initially leery about asking students to be ambassadors for their cultures but the response has been very positive so far. About half the students have chosen emotionally charged themes involving topics of colonization, immigration, segregation, and stereotypes. Others have a more neutral position toward the material, but recognize that proposing a museum dedicated to Nubian culture is a statement in its own right.

The following is a link to my portfolio on open lab which contains the presentation of the revised assignment created as part of a Gen Ed Living Lab workshop during the Spring 2020 semester.
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/eparks-portfolio/teaching-portfolio/syllabi-assignments/

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/eparks-portfolio/teaching-portfolio/syllabi-assignments/

June 9, 2020

French for food etiquette assignment

Khalid Lachheb

Humanities Department

French for food and culture

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Eating and drinking is a crucial part of French culture and social life. There are rules and codes to be aware of.

Students will work in groups and will participate in role play exercises. They will write read and order from menu to order food and drinks, bread, cheese and wine by using the appropriate French vocabulary.

In order to fulfill cultural interaction learning outcomes students will be exposed to a wide range of authentic material. They will watch and analyze two/three videos shown in class or as assigned homework.

This activity will try to benefit from the Placed-Based Learning approach as applied to many other disciplines.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

After studying the culture dimension of French food, students will be aware regarding the fundamental relationship between language and culture.
Students learn:
a. to "construct" their knowledge from experience they bring to the
learning situation inside the classroom.

b. to derive meaning from experience, as well as gather information
from observation.
c. to use awareness of cultural differences to bridge cultural and linguistic
barriers.

Students will use the appropriate French terminology in this context.

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?

This assignment is an introduction to the course program. Students should know general French food etiquette before engaging in serious learning contexts.
This work will be assigned during the 3-4 first weeks of the program.

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 stake activity.
Will coordinate with hospitality department to identify the appropriate French restaurant as place-based learning for this activity.
Will plan to achieve the “field trip” during the class time.

I will be using AACU’s rubric called “Intercultural Knowledge and Competence”.

This activity will help students:
To communicate across cultural and linguistic barriers, and to
demonstrate expanded cultural and global awareness and sensitivity.

And will includes High-Impact Educational Practices:
1. Collaborative Assignments and Projects.
2. Diversity/Global Learning
3. place–Based Learning

This is new activity will be assigned during the Spring 2021.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

May 29, 2020

Design Your Own Culture

George Larkins

Communication Design

Motion Design

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

It is for students to become aware of people of diverse cultures who are doing design work that students hope to do themselves. And to invite them to question why the creative work of people of color is not recognized for their contributions to the design world.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

This will also give students insight into the possibility of a place to start when looking for a career.
Current research shows very few people of color are represented in the design field at all levels. And too often, their work has been obscured or taken credit for or they were asked to remove the attribution.
This assignment addresses cultural self-awareness
And knowledge of cultural worldview frameworks on the rubric.

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?

This will be an introduction to the class in the first two weeks. A minimum of two weeks will be devoted to this project. Students should be prepared to spend two to three hours of research out of the classroom.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

In order for students to be successful. They must be prepared to spend at least two hours of research time before any production can be they will be able to move forward.

Discover at least five people from an underrepresented cultural group in the design world and be prepared to share their work with the class. Students will be asked to choose one of the five and analyze influences on that person’s design. Students will create a design campaign in the style of that designer celebrating an aspect of their culture. The campaign will include a combination of print, web, and video spots.

n/a

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

May 27, 2020

Structure for Architects – Student Video Lessons

Ramsey Dabby

Architectural Technology Dept / City Tech

Structures 1

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Activity Description
The overriding mission of the college experience is to help City Tech students succeed in the classroom and beyond, by imparting an enthusiasm for lifelong learning. This enthusiasm can be dampened for City Tech’s multicultural population by the cultural obstacles many students face. The concept for this proposal is to enhance the student experience for a course titled “Structures” in the Architectural Technology Department, by stimulating an enthusiasm for this particular area of their studies. The idea encompasses a visual and intuitive approach within the classroom, combined with place-based learning outside the classroom. Aside from conveying technical knowledge, the intent is to create student awareness of cultural barriers that will help them navigate the complexities of today’s world.

Barriers
In a multicultural setting such as NYC in general and City Tech in particular, cultural divides abound. They can be obvious like nationality and religion, or more subtle like age and personality. They can also occur within the profession between its white collar “architectural” and blue color “construction” sides. Caught up in day-to-day problems, we (both students and instructors) tend to overlook these divides that create tensions and stresses in relationships.

Background
Structures is a branch of architectural study dealing with the engineering side of how buildings stand up. Architectural students, as conceptual thinkers, tend to be intimidated by the technical aspects of engineering and tend to “turn off” to their engineering courses. Added to this inherent aversion are the cultural barriers many City Tech students face such as language, family responsibilities, and deficient social support systems. For many, this also includes having to learn a new system of engineering units used in the US – the imperial system in place of their more familiar metric system. In short, the challenge is to address and overcome these cultural obstacles and create an enthusiasm for a course that holds the potential for dread in many architectural students.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Goals
The goal is to engage students and create enthusiasm for a course in Structures that will serve to further their undergraduate technical knowledge and professional lives upon graduation. This will be done through strategies for both classroom and place-based learning.

Classroom Learning
Conventional structural textbooks tend to be wordy and lacking an intuitive approach to the subject matter. These textbooks present a challenge to City Tech’s multicultural architectural students. Course material will be communicated across cultural and linguistic barriers by conveying structural principles in a visual, intuitive manner through discussion, dialog, and physical “props”, rather than formal “lectures”.

A key component of classroom sessions will be a series of short, five-minute student videos highlighting the essentials of structural principles. Students will be teamed to prepare these videos in discussion format, among themselves and their instructor, supported by physical props. The precedence for these videos is an experimental one I had prepared, without rehearsal and just for fun, to which students enthusiastically responded, overwhelmingly endorsing the concept and asking for more like it.

Place-Based Learning
The classroom experience will be complemented by visits to architectural offices and construction sites, where students will not only will see the professions in action, but also observe the general cultural distinctions and personalities of the two sides of the profession. A goal of these visits to create an awareness that technical knowledge does not work in a vacuum, and that an understanding the interrelationships of personalities, influenced by culture, is an essential part of a successful professional experience.

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?

The strategy is intended to be used throughout the semester. Classroom time will be approximately 10 minutes per session. Two place-based learning field trips will be conducted for a total of approximately 8 hours per semester.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

See above.

Assessment will be conducted by student essays reflecting on questions such as “why do I like this?” and “what is it that helps me learn?”

Lead discussion on ways to learn without cultural coding; record outcomes of discussions.

The experimental video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4d3eDq_7pw

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

May 9, 2016January 4, 2018

#TheGuide: An Academic Service Learning Project

Laura Westengard

English/School of Arts and Sciences

English 1101, Freshman Composition

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This academic service learning project asked students to create a public OpenLab site to be used as a guide for the City Tech campus and the surrounding community, including the Brooklyn Waterfront. The client/audience for the OpenLab site was the City Tech community, including new and existing students at City Tech, faculty and staff, and friends and relatives of City Tech students. The students were asked to create the webpage itself, design the layout and visuals, and contribute three major essays from English 1101: College Skills, City Tech Places, and Local Grub.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Write clearly and coherently in varied, academic formats (such as formal essays, research papers, and reports) using standard English and appropriate technology to critique and improve one’s own and others’ texts (Writing and Reading Processes, Knowledge of Conventions)

Demonstrate research skills using appropriate technology, including gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources (Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing, and Researching)

Support a thesis with well-reasoned arguments, and communicate persuasively across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media (Rhetorical Knowledge, Composing in Digital Environments, Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing, and Researching)

Formulate original ideas and relate them to the ideas of others by employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation (Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing, and Researching, Knowledge of Conventions)

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?

This was a cumulative project that spanned the entire semester. The students created and launched the final site as an end of semester event, but the smaller assignments throughout the semester were all designed to contribute to the site. It is difficult to quantify the in-class and out-of-class time devoted to the activity because the scaffolded structure.

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 project was part of a First-Year Learning community partnership (Profs. Goodlad and Akana, Hospitality Management). Profs. Goodlad, Akana, and I introduced students to the assignment at the beginning of the semester with a handout. In my English 1101 course, each smaller assignment was designed to contribute to the site, and I reminded students of this throughout the drafting and revising process. After invention, drafting, and peer review, I gave students feedback and a grade on their essay. Then they were required to meet with me to discuss their strategy for revision, with the audience of #The Guide in mind. We spent about two class meetings designing, naming, and structuring the site itself. Students suggested ideas and voted on them, and they appointed certain class members to contribute graphics and images for the site. After revising their essays, students posted the essays on the website using the categorization that we had determined as a group. At the end of the semester, students wrote a brief reflective essay that discussed their experience working with a client, working with peers, the process of writing and publication, lessons learned, and a self-assessment. Their participation and reflection held moderate weight in the course but were not extremely high-stakes, but the cumulative weight of the essays themselves was significant.

Students’ individual essays were assessed using the English Department’s 1101 rubric along with the basic features of the specific genre (listed in the textbook St. Martin’s Guide to Writing). I did not use a VALUE rubric.

Rubric Assessment Categories: Content, Structure, Sophistication of Language, Mechanics

Basic Features for Explaining a Concept: A Focused Explanation, A Readable Plan, Appropriate Explanatory Strategies, Smooth Integration of Sources

Basic Features for Profiling a Place: Detailed Information about the Subject, A Clear Organizational Plan, A Role for the Writer, A Perspective on the Subject

Basic Features for Justifying an Evaluation: A Well-Presented Subject, A Well-Supported Judgment, An Effective Counterargument, A Readable Plan

Peer-review workshops

Informal oral and written responses to invention materials and drafts

While the students did not see the relevance of their work at the beginning of the semester, they grew increasingly invested in the project as they realized the great service they were offering to their community. By the end of the semester, the students exhibited pride in the work that they accomplished and many articulated the desire to continue to contribute to the project in future semesters.

The activity was a large-scale endeavor, but because I scaffolded the assignment from the beginning of the semester it was not overwhelming. I plan to repeat it again in some form. In future semesters, students will not have the opportunity to create the site from scratch, but they can work together on revision and supplementation.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/theguide/

Category: Multiple Semesters

NUR 1130 Clinical Assignment case study

Reading, Diversity & Global Learning Student Project for English 1101 & 1121

Understanding Animations and Films Through a Deeper Cultural Understanding

Increasing Students’ Intercultural Knowledge and Competency

French for food etiquette assignment

Design Your Own Culture

Structure for Architects – Student Video Lessons

#TheGuide: An Academic Service Learning Project

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

Support

Accessibility

Copyright

Creative Commons