Breadth of Knowledge – Page 4 – L4: Living Lab Learning Library

April 28, 2017January 4, 2018

The ethical issue of biomedical engineering

Chen Xu

Computer Engineering Technology

BMET1101

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

In BMET1101, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology, different subareas of biomedical engineering are introduced. Discuss the new development of prosthetic arm, watch the video of mind controlled robotic arm. Ask students to research about different aspects, such as biomechanics, neural engineering, and biomedical instrumentation, medical imaging. Then move to cyborg (short for "cybernetic organism") in the novel and movies, which is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts, such as iron man, spider man, and Darth Vader. Discuss the ethical issues, such as will the artificial devices may affect personal identity and dignity, can human still be held morally responsible for their behavior when their brain has been engineered by others to function in certain way?

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

Inspire students to explore the development of technology and critically think about the limit of technology.

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?

At the end of semester. Maybe discuss some topics in one lecture, then let students do more research, revisit the topics again after two or three weeks.

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

Show some videos, and introduce the background. It’s an open-ended question, write or present as a project.

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?

Breadth of knowledge, lifelong learning, inquiry and analysis, integrate learning, ethics and value.

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?

Still in course design stage.

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.

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

April 28, 2017January 5, 2018

ARCH3610 Architectural Design VI: Community at Crossroads

Prof. Jieun Yang

Architectural Technology

ARCH 3610 Architectural Design VI

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are designing a community center plus a plug-in program of the student’s choice (i.e. gym, gallery, school, etc.) on a choice of the following two sites that are going through a rapid change of renewal and gentrification:
Site A: 45 Park Pl. in Manhattan Downtown
Site B: 625 Fulton St. in Brooklyn Downtown

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

Using the place-based learning, students are expected to familiarize themselves with the conditions of the site, including its urban qualities of circulation, transportation, constraints, and demographic as well as its history which includes recent changes to the site’s urban fabric. Students are expected to understand the stakeholders and vision involved in design process and outcome by having a specific “public” to address. Students are also exposed to ethical reasoning by thinking about the role of design profession in its participation in new developments that sometimes can create equitable public space but can also create inequity and isolation through gentrification.

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 is a semester-long project, and students are expected to present their final design solution at the final review with invited guest juries consisted of faculty members and other professional architects.
The semester is largely divided into 4 parts.
During the first 2 weeks, students focus on the site analysis that requires gathering and synthesis of information as a group.
It is then followed by another 3 weeks of precedent studies during which time each student research and dissect existing community centers and plug-in program of their choice. Through this process, each student must understand and extract useful information such as a method of programming different spaces, circulation paths that accommodate users, and its relationship to the site.
Based on the research on the site and precedent studies, students are then expected to formulate their opinion and stance on the issue through abstract design. The process starts with making of collages and models that address site, community, and plug-in program.
The last 6-7 weeks of the semester consists of continuous development of each student’s design to support their “parti” (main idea) that resonates at multiple levels of relevant topics including site, massing, interior spatial experience, circulation, building envelope, structure, users, and most importantly, the design’s impact on the community and the site.
This project uses the full duration of each class. At times, the class is formatted for a group research and activity. Most times, it works as a thesis development with students continually working on the project and the instructor giving each student desk critique. There are 5-6 informal pin-ups and presentations throughout the semester (excluding the final review) where each student is expected to share their progress and findings with the fellow classmates and instructor for their feedback.
In order to successfully complete the project, average 10-15 hours of work outside the class time is required.

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

Since the activity is a semester-long project, it is essential to prepare weekly or bi-weekly assignments to lead students through smaller manageable steps to consider all aspects of the project. Rather than giving the students a list of assignments for the entire semester, each assignment is announced through the Open Lab and meant to compound upon the previous assignment to introduce multiple aspects and considerations needed for a successful project.
Each assignment gives a clear instruction on topics to consider and deliverables. When introducing a unfamiliar topic or methodology, an overview lecture during class accompanies issuance of assignments. The students are asked to submit their assignments through maintaining their own e-blog where they post their progress. Fellow classmates are encouraged to comment, and each student is encouraged to flip back through their past posts to reflect on their progress and spot issues or topics they may have bypassed and require deep-dive.
Each assignment is weighted equally and comprise of 30-40% of the overall grade. The final submission takes on the highest stake by making up 50% of the overall grade. The project as a whole is meant to be a high-stake project, and the expectation on each student is to have a clear, thoughtful resolution of design based on their research for the final presentation. The assignments are meant to help with the process by being more forgiving to allow for a room for exploration and experimentation.

1. Review students’ creative process (initial sketches through to the final project) by means of frequent pin-ups. (Los: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14-17)
2. Assess the students’ use of professional vocabulary during oral presentations and written work.(Lo: 7, 8, 14)
3. Review students’ ability to incorporate a concept into their design work. (Los: 1)
4. Evaluate students’ ability to write descriptions of building typologies and the surrounding neighborhood and their effective use of information literacy skills. (Lo: 7, 9)
5. Evaluate students’ participation in class discussions regarding students’ written and oral presentations. (Lo: 12)
6. Review students’ accuracy with applying quantitative information to a design scheme. (Los: 10)
7. Evaluate students’ application of design precedents. (Los: 3, 9)
8. Review students’ ability to synthesize circulation, zoning, urban context, and views into a design. (Lo: 14)
9. Review students’ ability to synthesize construction types, hierarchy, and light into building design. (Lo: 15)
10. Review students’ ability to incorporate environmental systems and sustainable concepts into their design work. (Lo: 1, 2, 3, 14, 15, 17)
11. Review of group projects will be based on the completeness of the work as well as the effectiveness of the group’s teamwork and communication skills. (Lo: 11)
12. Evaluate students’ ability to diagram complex media. (Los: 17)

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/jyangarch3610sp2017/

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

April 27, 2017January 4, 2018

Grand Army Plaza observation exercise

Grand Army Plaza observation excercise

Keith Muchowski

Library Department; School of Arts and Sciences

LIB/ARCH 2205: Learning Places: Understanding the City

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Task:
Next class we will visit Grand Army Plaza where you will select a monument or memorial within the public space. Your memorial might include Bailey Fountain; the statues of Gouverneur Kemble Warren, Henry Henry Slocum, James S.T. Stranahan, Henry W. Maxwell, John F. Kennedy, Alexander J.C. Skene; or the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch.

Photograph your monument from different vantage points, with at least 1-2 putting it into the wider context of the surrounding community.

Find any information you can, either on the monument or on any accompanying signage, that may answer such questions as:

Who financed the monument and how much did it cost?
When was it constructed?
What is it made of? (stone? bronze? something else?)
How many people attended the dedication?
What is its condition?
How would you describe public interest in the site?
Did anyone ask you any questions while you were there?

Deliverables:
Upload at least three photographs to Open Lab and write a 250-300 word OpenLab entry based on your answers to the questions above. Your classmates are your audience. Be prepared to show the images and speak to your fellow classmates for 5-7 minutes next class. The OpenLab entry (with accompanying photographs) is 10% percent of your final grade. The presentation counts toward your class participation.

Grading rubric:
Students will be evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 the best) on each of the following criteria.

OpenLab entry:
Following directions (word length and proper number of images)
Relevance to the course and assignment
Accuracy of content
Punctuation and clarity
Audience appropriateness

Oral presentation:
Following directions (time length)
Relevance to the course and assignment
Accuracy of content
Diction, articulateness, audience appropriateness
Organization and ability to stay on topic

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

As per New York City College of Technology’s Learning Goals, students will:

Use the arts, sciences and humanities as a forum for the study of values, ethical principles, and the physical world.

Demonstrate social and civic knowledge [regarding social, political, economic, and historical issues].

Apply knowledge and analyze social, political, economic, and historical issues.

Demonstrate expanded cultural and global awareness and sensitivity.

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 site visit would fall in the third week of the semester with the OpenLab entry due before the next class session. Oral presentations would be on the class day after the site visit. This assignment would thus take one week of class time.

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

Over the first two weeks of the semester students will have been given a general overview of course, the instructors’ expectations, and a historical overview of Grand Army Plaza itself.

This is a low stakes assignment. Over the semester students will be doing primary and secondary research on their monument in various archives, libraries, and special collections. For this early semester assignment they are using their powers of observation.

We are using the AACU’s Ethical Reasoning VALUE rubric to assess the efficacy of the assignment. We want students to understand that there are economic, social, political, and ethical reasons why the built environment that they inhabit every day exists the way it does.

We found the assignment went well and would definitely use it again with a few changes. We had the students speak six times, with accompanying OpenLab entries, in one particular semester. My colleague and I found this to be more than necessary and would scale it it back to five or even four if we taught the course again. Also we would keep tighter limits on the allotted speaking times. It was our impression that students felt the pressure to “say everything” and so spoke for significant periods of time, sometimes as much as 25-30 minutes. A time limit should be strictly enforced for the presentations.

Please note that students will eventually be working in groups based upon their statue, monument, or memorial. One student may focus on the architect, another the dedication, a third on any renovation that may have been done, and so forth. If the course focuses on a site other than Grand Army Plaza, students may study the location in small groups across a timeline, through the evolution of such things as transportation (trails turning into paved streets, ferries giving way to bridges, the automobile supplanting the carriage, horse cars being replaced by buses, and the subway system), or by geographic area within the larger space.

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

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017

Exploring cultural differences in dental care

Anna Matthews

Dental Hygiene / SPS

Oral Anatomy DEN 1112

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

In Fall 2016, students in three sections of DEN1112 completed a term project assignment with the focus on Intercultural Knowledge and Skills assessment.
This assignment consisted of several parts.
Individually, students watched a Frontline PBS documentary “Dollars and Dentists” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/dollars-and-dentists/ ) which explores the complexity and availability of dental care in the U.S.
Next, students read the case study “Mortality associated with odontogenic infection” (Green et al., 2001) and answer accompanying questions. Students were asked to discuss the documentaries they watched in small groups. Students were provided questions for discussion prompting them to discuss their opinions regarding the status of dental health care in the U.S. as presented in the documentary. Students were also asked to share their cultural beliefs and attitudes towards dental care. Given the diversity of students in our Dental Hygiene program (over 50% of students were not born in the U.S. and speak over 20 primary/first languages), a difference of experiences and resulting opinions about health care more broadly and dental care in particular emerged in their discussions.

Individually, students wrote an essay reflecting on the Frontline documentary and the case study. Among the questions they were to address in their essay, they were asked to describe their interactions with peers in their groups and to evaluate how their own attitudes/opinions were or were not different from those of their classmates, what have they learned about other cultural beliefs/attitudes from the dialog with other students, how their own opinions have or have not changed as a result of the whole experience (watching the documentary and learning about the subject and their subsequent discussion of it in small groups).

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

1. introduce students to the complexity of dental care and its availability in the U.S.
2. connect the topics of spread of dental infection, as introduced in their Head & Neck portion of DEN1112 course, to the real-life situations leading to serious and life-threatening outcomes discussed in the scientific article (case study) and Frontline investigation.
3. work in teams to discuss the different cultural influences on how people perceive the necessity of dental care and its various aspects.
4. reflect on the whole experience by connecting all parts of this assignment in the written essay.

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 begins during week 13 of the Fall semester. The students discussed in small groups during class sessions twice for about 20 min. Depending on how long it takes students to write their 1200-1500 word essays, the activity would take at least 10 hours to complete outside of class.

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 term project is worth 10% of their final grade for DEN1112. The students were given detailed instructions for each part of the assignment and provided with the PDF of the article and a link to Frontine documentary.

In 2016, my course was part of college-wide assessment of Intercultural Knowledge and Skills. An appropriate AAC&U VALUE rubric was used for this evaluation, however, it was not used for grading. Students’ essays were evaluated based on the clarity and organization of the information, providing accurate and appropriate sources and citations (they were asked to substantiate their writing with at least two sources analyzing the topic of the video, other than the documentary itself), sentence structure, grammar and spelling.

This activity worked very well and I intend to repeat it in Fall 2017. I don’t plan to introduce any changes at this time. The students seemed to enjoy the small group discussions and according to their reflections in the essays, they learned a lot from each other as well as the case study and Frontline documentary. One student’s essay was selected for publication in the 2017 issue of City Tech Writer.

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

September 20, 2016September 20, 2016

Teamwork assignment

Anna Matthews

Dental Hygiene/SPS

DEN2315

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This assignment focused on fostering students’ ability to work in teams, in class and online. Students in my Summer session’s class were randomly assigned to one of four groups (each had 5 members) and they were asked to create a PowerPoint presentation of 15-20 slides on a randomly assigned topic (one of four possible topics), which included a group of drugs that were not covered in class (anti-fungal medications, AIDS/HIV and drugs used in management, topical and systemic corticosteroids, and anti-allergy medications). Groups worked in class to create their own OpenLab project sites and I was a member of each group together with the five students. After the sites were created, students exchanged information and resources online and communicated among each other and with me. They had 2 weeks to work on their presentations and I evaluated their progress continuously. The final presentations were uploaded by one of the students from each group to our course OpenLab site. All students reviewed the presentations from each group.

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

I have done similar activity before and the main goal of it is to provide opportunity for students to work in teams and foster collaboration. While the final products by teams were always successful in the previous sessions of DEN2315, some students complained that it was not a true team effort and some students did not participate equally and did not contribute to the team’s outcome. By observing individual students’ participation online and evaluating their contributions to the process and the final group product, I was able to grade their efforts in a much more fair way and there was no more concerns from students about the unequal share of group’s work if some had done more or less than others.

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?

Summer session 2-S is a 5-week course, we meet twice weekly in class. This assignment was due after the 4th week of the session and a progress evaluation was done at the end of week 3. We spent about 30 min in class to discuss the activity, organize students in groups and create their OpenLab project sites. The rest of work was done entirely online.

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 needed to learn how to create and manage their OpenLab sites and how to post/comment/add media and links there.
The activity is one of the 3 online assignments and it is 10% of their final course grade.

I assessed students’ work by the following:
1. their participation in class in creating the site
2. the number of posts/comments they contributed during the group’s work online
3. quality of the resources they found and shared
4. clarity and organization of their own powerpoint slides in the group’s presentation
5. appropriateness of references/citations
I did use the VALUE rubric for the assessment of Teamwork as my guide to evaluate students’ interactions. My session was part of college-wide Spring 2016 assessment (although it was conducted in the Summer 2016 session) but the rubrics were used for guidance and assessment only, not for grading individual student work.

The activity worked very well. It was a marked improvement compared to the previous times I used this assignment and allowed students to select their own groups and topics as well as divide their work by themselves. Previously, for some groups it resulted in unequal work distribution and by overseeing each group of students I was able to evaluate each student’s work individually. I especially liked that this time all students worked together very well, even though they were randomly assigned to groups. Students’ comments about their experience were positive as well.

For students’ privacy, their OpenLab project sites were for members only. Assignment description is here: group-study-assignment-2016-teamwork
Teamwork VALUE rubric is on the CityTech AIR website.

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

June 2, 2016January 4, 2018

Brooklyn Business Analysis

Rachel Raskin

Business/ School of Professional Studies

ACC 1201 – Principles of Accounting II

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

The class will be divided into groups of 4-5 students. Each group will choose a Brooklyn based company from the list provided and develop a research paper about the company. Groups will also present their findings in a 15 minute presentation at the end of the semester. The research paper must address the following issues:

– Discuss the business, the industry and the history of the company’s formation. What type of business entity was it formed as (corporation, partnership, LLC, etc.)? What are the benefits of having chosen that specific entity? What business challenges did the founders face when launching the company? What accounting challenges did the founders face when the business was first established? How did they or how might have they dealt with these challenges?
– How has the location in Brooklyn aided or inspired the formation of the business? If the business is still in Brooklyn (such as Maker Bot, Etsy, Gotham Greens, Vice Media, or Brooklyn Brewery) visit its headquarters. Try to arrange a meeting with its employees and ask relevant questions to help you in your research. If you choose Pfizer or Domino Foods, the Brooklyn Historical Society has a wealth of primary sources on these companies.
– Find a similar company in the same industry and if the chosen Brooklyn based company is not public, make sure the second one is a public company that has filed a 10-K with the SEC. Provide a description and history of this business. Compare it to the similar business discussed that was formed in Brooklyn. What similarities do the two companies have and what are the differences?
– Analyze the financial statements of the chosen public company. Perform vertical, horizontal and ratio analysis and discuss how the business stands in comparison to its competitors and the industry. Access the financial statements through the SEC’s EDGAR filing system. All other articles and data should be accessed through Morningstar.

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

I would like students to be able to analyze a company’s position based on its financial statements. They should gain an understanding of how to research a company using reliable sources such as the Morningstar Market Research platform and SEC filing system. Ultimately, my goal is for the students to be able to connect their research about the company with the financial statement assessment they perform and put forth a comprehensive and original analysis. I would like them to step out of their comfort zone to work in a group, visit the business site directly to ask employee’s questions, and be able to convey all their findings in a professional presentation.

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 is a term project. I dedicate twenty minutes a week for the groups to discuss their progress in class. Most of the work is done outside of class.

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

Prior to starting the activity I will cover the main concepts students will need to complete the project. Mainly, how to perform financial statement analysis and the characteristics of various forms of business entities. I will also introduce the students to the databases they will need in order to conduct the research.
Students will be instructed to post two drafts of the project to our class’ Open Lab site for my review prior to the final submission. They will be encouraged to use our Open Lab site as a place for group discussions regarding the assignment.

I use a points rubric based on the AACU’s Critical Thinking Value Rubric.

Overall, this project was a great learning experience for the students. The challenges the students had were making connections between the financial analysis and the context/current state of the company. To address this issue in advance, next semester I will have the students scaffold their work over a few drafts of the paper, leading to the final product.
I think the students liked working in excel to perform a complete financial analysis. They enjoyed the opportunity to apply many concepts learned in class. They also were surprised at how many companies were created right around City Tech and were pleased to know of all the potential career opportunities at these businesses. All students dressed in business attire to present their research to the class. I believe this gave them a sense of pride in their work.

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

June 1, 2016January 4, 2018

Pfizer&Erhart: Brooklyn as Center of Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Stefan Stankovic

NYCCT Soc. Sci.

Foundations of the Modern World HIS 1102

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Pfizer&Erhart: Brooklyn as Center of Immigrant Entrepreneurship
In this activity the students will find the locations from which Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart developed their pharmaceutical empire. They will find on a map the site of their first production plant in Williamsburg, but also locate their place of birth in Germany (Ludwigsburg), and place to which they return for business and family purposes.

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

Place, Persons and Innovation
To Discover the Role of Pfizer and Erhart’s Immigrant Roots and Roots Revisited;
To Chart Immigrant Entrepreneurship
To Define Crucial Junctures (Civil War) and Entrepreneurship
To Note the Changes and Possibilities (e.g. Old Pfizer Factory in Williamsburg)

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 activity will take place from the 10th till the 12th week of the course, covering the period of about 1848 to 1900

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

The preparation will entail consulting several Internet Sources, such as:

Pfizer Company History: http://www.pfizer.com/about/history/all
Mathew Brady: http://www.mathewbrady.com/
Civil War – Voices from Brooklyn: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/docs/Civil_War_Voices_from_Brooklyn.Illustrated_Prints.pdf
Ratzer Map: http://brooklynhistory.org/docs/Ratzer_map.pdf
Curbed NY: http://ny.curbed.com/2014/2/6/10146584/touring-williamsburgs-old-pfizer-building-mid-makeover

Instructions will include suggested online materials from the Brooklyn Historical Society

The activity will be low-stakes, designed for students to further develop an interest in ‘all things Brooklyn’, which in this context would entail immigrant history, social history, entrepreneurship: historical examples and current possibilities

Grading criteria will be Pass/Fail.
The best activities will be included in Open Lab course link for HIS 1102 Online.

This will be the first time the activity will be implemented, and in a newly designed online class.

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/

March 1, 2016

Luxury labels and Fast-fashion

Alyssa Dana Adomaitis

Department of Business/College of Professional Studies

MKT 1246: Textiles

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are required to compare and contrast a garment made prior to the fast-fashion (1980) era and in the fast-fashion (2000) era. The dichotomy of quality between luxury (designer, pre-fast-fashion) labels and fast-fashion labels produce different aesthetic attributes yet both are viewed as fashion. The quality must be tangible for students to experiment in order to truly understand the underlying significance about luxurious fashion and fast-fashion. By identifying extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics in a garment, students will conduct an analysis of the detail physical features and functional aspects of the garment.

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

Fashion quality is important for apparel and textiles professionals to understand. It is difficult to teach considering the prominence of fast fashion retailers, such as H&M and Zara around the city and accesible to students. Given student’s lack of experience with quality textiles, formulating teaching/learning exercise that start with this knowledge is important. Building knowledge from existing knowledge (constructivism approach) to teach has been used in apparel and textiles courses (Yaoyuneyon & Thornton, 2011) and has been found to increase student motivation and learning. Apparel and textiles instructors have been particularly interested in constructivism in the form of problem-based learning by bringing in industry-based problems to fashion application courses (Gam and Bannin, 2011).

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?

Several steps will be taken to ensure the class will compare and contrast the garments in an appropraite manner. The first step is to introduce the two garments without labels to students so no extended inferences (judgements) can be made. The first garment will be a St. John’s knit (SJK), which was made prior to the availability fast-fashion (1980s). St. John’s Knits (SJK) are high-quality and fit well (Eng, 2013), currently retailing for approximately $795 – $1095 (Online shop, 2014). The second garment will be purchased at H&M, which is a retailer known for fashion forward garments but of low quality (Dowling, 2012), retailing for approximately $9.99 to $49.99 (Ladies Online, 2014). The garments, of St. John’s and H&M label, that will be compared by students will be similar in fabric (knits), style (top and skirt), and end use (professional setting). The analysis will have students detail physical features (that are tangible) and the aesthetic and functional aspects of each garment. For the second step, students will complete a quality analyses questionnaire with open-ended questions to prompt comparison, including questions, such as (a) Which of the garments’ textiles do you think is higher quality and why? In the third step, studentswill be asked to discuss their findings as a group consisting of two students before posting on Open-lab.

The last step, step four, the instructor will inform the students the era of each garment (pre/post-fast fashion) and the label information on each garment and check with their respective postings. The instructor will then introduce a mini-lecture on the topic of Fast Fashion. Subsequently, students will be prompted to discuss the impact of fast fashion on the quality of textiles and the fashion industry.

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

The preparation needed forthis teaching/learning exercise was to assess students’ existing knowledge in a pre-survey questionairre which included: 1) To identify as many physical and performance properties of textiles for apparel that come to mind (i.e., durability, elasticity, flexibility) as learned in class lecture and 2) How do you as a students classify garments prior to or after the development of fast fashion? The pre-activity survey will ask questions to address the second objective to compare and contrast previous knowledge qulaity garments and fast fashion and quality amongst each other to post in Open Lab (1) Definition of quality apparel and fast-fashion apparel, (2) Aside from appearance, what garment features most impact decisions to descibe it as designer, pre-fast-fashion or as fast-fashion garment

High-Impact Educational Practices: Which of these practices based on George Kuh’s High Impact Educational Practices (and other innovative approaches) does this activity incorporate? Choose all that apply.

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

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Accessibility

Copyright

Creative Commons