Common Intellectual Experiences – Page 3 – L4: Living Lab Learning Library

April 25, 2018

Community Survey Report

Bridget Maley

Nursing

NUR 1030 Foundations of Caring

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students will walk around their neighborhood/Zip code and survey the neighborhood looking at the conditions of the buildings, stores, transportation, and health of the community.

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

• Recognize the role of health care providers in providing a protective, supportive and/or corrective environment.
• Recognize the responsibility of the nurse as a client advocate in the health care delivery system.
• Professional/Personal Development: Demonstrate intellectual honesty and personal responsibility, discern consequences of decisions and actions, demonstrate intellectual agility and the ability to manage change, work with teams including those of diverse composition, build consensus, and respect and use creativity.

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 distributed to the students during the first class, we then discuss community nursing and health during the next 2 meeting dates. The students are expected to submit the exam by week 4. The students will probably spend about 4 hours on this assignment.

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

Preparation is the overview of the assignment, the written assignment that is given to the students, and the discussion of community, health, and the role of the nurse in both of those environments. I would say this is a low-stakes activity only because it doesn't have any weight on the students average, however it could be considered high-stakes because it is a requirement of the course and the student will not pass without completing the assignment.

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?

Right now it is just at the discretion of the professor, this is a pass fail assignment. Going forward I am going to use the writing rubric and the ethical reasoning rubric when marking this assignment.

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?

This assignment is working fairly well although I do have some students resubmit any section that was not completed properly or not addressed at all. The students seem to really enjoy this assignment because many of them have not been aware of their surroundings and just go about their business. I think it helps them to think about their neighborhoods in a new way to see how as a nurse they can offer help or assistance to the people who live in their neighborhood.

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

May 13, 2017January 4, 2018

What Is True/What Is Fake? Journalism Today

Aaron Barlow

English/Arts & Sciences

Introduction to Journalism

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Relation of a story by the professor about an encounter with an elephant (though it can be any story relevant to the instructor’s life that can be verified to some degree, at least, through research). The students are then asked to determine what truth there is in the story, if any, and to justify their conclusions. After the first class, the students are asked to search diligently across the internet for proof/dismissal of the professor’s claims. At the end of the discussion, students vote on the truth (or lack of it) of the story. If they ask the professor to tell them if the vote is correct or not, the response should be a shrug and the comment, “The question is, can you trust me?” This generally leaves the students baffled for a moment but, as the course moves on to other considerations, they generally start to understand.

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

Students are expected to come away with an understanding of the limits of classroom authority and of research itself.

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 exercise is best done early in the semester. It generally takes a full class period plus a couple of homework hours and then about half an hour of the next 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?

The professor needs to prepare relation of the story carefully, including within it enough clues for the students to be able to research the claims made. Students need to be taking notes while the professor talks and need to understand the use that will be made of those notes in the homework assignment. Before beginning to tell the tale, the instructor needs to carefully prepare the students.

Because of the nature of this activity, which lies outside of assessment structures and can be harmed by them, this is not assessed.

I have been using and developing this exercise for a decade and in a number of different classes and will continue to do so. It helps students understand the differing reactions, in terms of truth value, to different speakers in different positions. Plus, it introduces them to research tasks of a sort they generally have not encountered in other classes.

As part of a book I edited, I include the story I use for this exercise: https://www.academia.edu/888435/Elephant_Morning. When I relate it, I tell it differently, making sure to include dates, places and verifiable events as a basis for student research. The structure of the essay itself comes out, in part, from earlier uses of this exercise–but it also contains its own inaccuracies, liberties taken for the sake of the story. Every instructor has a tale or her or his own that can be used similarly.

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

May 2, 2017January 4, 2018

Telling New York Stories: Place, Identity and History

Megan Behrent

English Department, NYC College of Technology

ENG 1101

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

For this project, students will read excerpts from Anna Deveare Smith’s Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities. They will then compare and discuss Smith’s depiction of the Crown Heights riots in 1991 with newspaper depictions of these events and oral histories from the collection at the Brooklyn Historical Society. After extensive discussion of the ethical issues given expression to by the play, oral histories from the collection at the Brooklyn Historical Society as well as news of the period, students will think about conflicts in their own communities. Using Anna Deveare Smith’s theater as a model, students will create a monologue based on either an oral history they conduct themselves with someone from their community or an oral history from the archives of the Brooklyn Historical Society and write a monologue based on this research to be performed for the class.

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

Students will learn to think critically about the relationship between place and identity, a central theme of the course which is part of a First Year Learning Community. They will use place-based learning and conduct research to develop their ethical reasoning. Lastly, they will develop an understanding of creative writing and theater as a means of ethical, political and social commentary and learn to develop a creative monologue which gives expression to a these concerns.

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 a culminating project for this unit. The monologue itself will be written and performed in 3-4 classes but the research and textual analysis which inspires this assignment will take at least a month.

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

Reading excerpts from Fires in the Mirror and watching scenes from Anna Deveare Smith’s performance of these monologues will be crucial preparation as will visits to the Brooklyn Historical Society during which students will learn to conduct archival research and draw on oral histories for their monologues.

Students will be assessed throughout the project based on a customized rubric to evaluate their use of research, ethical reasoning, creative expression and presentation/performance

This project is still in course design stage.

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

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/

October 3, 2015January 4, 2018

Term Paper Peer Review

Mery Diaz https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/mdiaz/

Human Services/SPS

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/stories-of-service/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This peer-review activity is connected to the HUS 1101 term paper and is designed to strengthen student writing for the human services. In groups of four, students will provide and receive feedback on a draft of part 1 of their term paper. Each student will receive a copy of all group member drafts. With the use of an assessment rubric, each student will provide and receive verbal and written comments on content; clarity; evidence to support argument; and APA citations and references.

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

Students will strengthen writing skills.
Students will be engaged in active learning of the use of APA citation and references, and the use of peer-review journals to support their arguments.
Students will encounter greater diversity of perspective and feedback
Students will learn to the different stages of writing and refining their writing.

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 during the 5th session.
Instructors should expect to actively build preparation over the course of 3 sessions.
Instructors should expect to devote a portion of classroom time for prep and activity.

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 activity that will prepare students for a high-stakes assignment near the end of the semester.
This activity will require three sessions for students to be prepared to provide and receive feedback.
During session 2 of the semester, the instructor will devote a portion of the lecture to deliver instruction on peer-reviewed journals and book sources and APA citation and references.
During session 6, the instructor will devote time to include an in-class writing assignment where students will have brought 2 sources (other than the course textbook) with prior notice to use as they begin a first draft of the first section of their term paper.
The instructor should also discuss the term paper and rubric that will be used to assess student performance.
The peer-review will take place during the 4th session during a portion of class time. Prior to this session, students will have been prompted to bring 4 typed and double-spaced copies of their drafts with reference page. Members of the group will receive copies of rubric that they will use to review and provide feedback. The instructor should model the use of the rubric and how to provide productive and respectful feedback to peers. The group should provide a summary for the instructor on what each member will need to work on to strengthen their papers.

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.

Learning communities, Common intellectual experiences (core curriculum), Writing-intensive projects/assignments

Rubric Grading Rubric Mery Diaz L4 2015 developed for term paper. Students will use this to self-assess and peer-review.

This activity will be implemented during the Fall 2015 semester

Category: Common Intellectual Experiences

Community Survey Report

What Is True/What Is Fake? Journalism Today

Telling New York Stories: Place, Identity and History

Teamwork assignment

#TheGuide: An Academic Service Learning Project

Term Paper Peer Review

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