Category: Professional Studies

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Teamwork assignment

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.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I 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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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Evaluating a Research Article

Evaluating a Research Article

Susan Phillip

Hospitality Management

Research Seminar HMGT 3502

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Research Seminar Assignment HMGT3502

Perceptions of the Importance and Preparedness of Interpersonal Communication
Skills of the Entry-Level Hospitality Leader: Implications for Hospitality Educators
By Jeff Lolli http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5a7c103b-b208-4719-a5af-4cb9f853a0ae%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4201

1. Read the article provided in the link above by logging into City Tech’s library’s website
2. Why do you think it is necessary to log in to the library to get this article?
3. Read the article and write a 100-150-word summary of the article that accurately conveys its purpose.
4. When was the work published?
5. Who is the audience and how do you know?
6. In what kind of research can this source be useful?
7. Does the work meet the standards to be considered an academic/scholarly source? How do you know?
8. Are the qualifications of the author appropriate for an academic article? Briefly describe the authors’ qualifications.
9. Restate the purpose of the paper in your own words. Do you think it is clearly stated? Why?
10. How can the bibliography of the article be used in research?

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

The goal of the assignment is for students to critically assess the quality of a source and the value of the source to their research.

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?

Information sources are discussed very early in the semester and the assignment follows the discussion. It is an out of class 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?

Students will have library instruction before this assignment.l

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?

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?

It works very well and I will repeat it.

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

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Brooklyn Business Analysis

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.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

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

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?

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.

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

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A Peek on the Inside: Place Based Learning at Body World Exhibit

A Peek on the Inside: Place Based Learning at Body World Exhibit

Linda Bradley

Nursing/School of Professional Studies

Phyiscal Assessment NUR 3010

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

The Bodies exhibit provides a fun and engaging way to provide the students with the ability to take abstract concepts and make them into a tangible reality. This will impact their practice and thus the thousands of people they will come in to contact for their lifetime as a nurse. There is no grade for this I would consider this low stakes.

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

Physical Assessment course includes review of anatomy and physiology, description of alterations in a system and assessment techniques which the student practice. As with most courses it does so in sections, thus providing the students with this learning experience it will:
1. analyze the connections between the organ locations and physical assessment techniques
2. understand the body’s normal and abnormal function
3. appreciate stress and lifestyle impact on the body

General Education SLOs:
Which of City Tech’s General Education Student Learning Outcomes does this activity address? Please be as precise as possible.

Information Literacy is the Learning outcome that this activity addresses: The ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

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?

1. On first day of class during introduction of the course, devote time to introduce the students to the planned experience

2. Schedule the experience toward the end of 2/3rd of the course

3. Offer the course during one of the online course days or if your department allows students to participate in learning as part of their course offsite on their own then schedule it based on your departments abilities

4. State length of experience expectations which is approximately 2 hours at the exhibit

5. Provide pre and post experience assignment documents for student’s completion

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

1. Discuss and gain consensus for this experience with fellow course faculty and Chair of your department. Decide how you will fund this experience, if this would enhance a portion of your course or would replace an assignment, low stakes or high stakes, grade or not, the class schedule and best possible time that would allow this experience to occur. This then would require that you consider this experience well in advance of the beginning of the semester to receive the maximum amount of participation.
2. Contact the Body World Exhibit group number and discuss date, time, number of students and faculty and other pertinent instructions. Ask for a Group sales account representative 866.987.9692 info@tsxnyc.com 226 W. 44th Street New York, NY 10036
3. Once you have completed your initial discussions and have gained consensus in all areas required for the success of this endeavor next steps would be to provide the students with an overview of the experience, expectations, pre-experience assignment, in class discussion and post experience assignment. Generate a list of students and faculty who will attend. Provide everyone with the required Travel Waiver. (If your students are under 18 there is specific instructions on the document)
4. Obtain final list of all attendees and all must complete Travel Waiver and submit to Evening office more than two weeks before the trip.
5. Complete and send travel waivers to of which your Chair and your Dean/Provost would sign for approval of the off campus trip
6. Faculty must have complete a current Title IX training and signed document which must be included in the forms send to the Evening office along with all of the travel waivers.
7. Meet the students at the site at the specified time (If your students are under 18 there is specific instructions on the document)
8. Enjoy the experience! But be sure to seek opportunities to turn the students attention to areas related to course content, SLOs and any other area you deem valuable
9. Provide the students with an expected due date for their 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?

Assessment of this place-based learning experience would be through:
1. I would provide the students with a question prompt within the course Open Lab site. Prior to this I would utilize the computer lab at the beginning of the course to provide Blackboard and Open Lab orientation
2. Students would then add their own question for consideration prior to the experience. I
3. Students would choose those most appropriate and post them.
4. We would then meet at the exhibit and then they would return to those questions and complete them. I would also provide them with an opportunity to provide a reflection of their experience.
5. I would use the Information Literacy Value rubric
6. This course would be a part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative.
.

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?

How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
I most definitely would repeat this experience. The challenge will be funding, scheduling and timing so that the majority of the students would be able to attend, obtaining signed travel forms in advance of the experience. The change I would make is to include more student input as noted in the assessment process indicated above.

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.

Why is this change different?
*It will incorporate student’s decisions as to what will be the area of focus related to the planned experience
*Students will be provided with an opportunity to determine the scope of the questions and key concepts before the experience and use them post experience
*Systematically analyze their own and others assumptions and evaluate the relevance of contexts when they present their positions.

What inspired the change?
* Incorporation of importance of classroom climate—adding humor and fun into the classroom
*Teaching to the needs and learning styles of the students and not that of the faculty
* Need to make abstract scientific and clinical information into tangible transferable information

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

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Diagnose the Disease

Diagnose the Disease

Maria Dimino

Dental Hygiene

DEN 1200 Principles of Dental Hygiene

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Each student will be assigned a specific medical disease from their course text book. In a two page paper they should cover a description, how it manifests in the oral cavity, its etiology, prognosis and the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment. In addition, they need one outside source from a peer reviewed journal with the latest scientific evidence to support their paper using APA citations.

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

The learning goals for the students are to conduct research from peer reviewed sources and add appropriate citations. In addition, to see if the latest scientific research supports the text book readings. They will also be able to make comparisons of relative effectiveness of alternate treatments and apply them in a clinical setting.

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 would be implemented at the end of the semester because the text book readings cover various medical diseases each week so in essence the students would need to be familiar with various disease etiologies and the manifestations in the oral cavity before they conduct their research. In classroom hours about 15 and out of classroom hours about 15.

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 students would need classroom preparation and clinical preparation for this assignment. They would need to see some etiology in a clinical setting in addition to their textbook readings in order to make the connection between oral health and systemic health. This is a high stakes assignment, there is a lot involved and it will take a semester of learning to develop a connection between the two. In addition, exposure to various patients in a clinical setting will help them better understand their research.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I would use a value rubric to do the assessment. My course is not a part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative.

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?

Currently, we are using a journal format for each student and this is not working well because the students are not interested in doing these three journals per semester. The Spring of 2017 would be the first semester that we implement an open lab assignment. I anticipate more student engagement with this assignment.

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.

Being that we are in a health related field, each student will be assigned a specific medical disease. It is the student responsibility to act as responsible health care professionals by investigating the disease and the the prescribed treatment. The results are to be presented in a two-page paper using the course text book and one outside source from a peer reviewed journal using APA citations. The paper should include a description of the condition and how it manifests in the oral cavity, its etiology, prognosis and the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment.

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

http://hypertension.cochrane.org/

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Greenmarket ingredient photo essay

Greenmarket ingredient photo essay

Alejandro Cantagallo

Hospitality Management/Professional Studies

Introduction to Food and Beverage Management

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Assume the role of a purchaser for a restaurant and visit a Greenmarket and look for a fruit or vegetable that you are not familiar with, strike up a conversation with the people at the stand and describe in detail what the products is, how it is grown, who grows it and under what circumstances. With this information write a persuasive argument for the chef about why she/he should use the product. The assignment should include research about how the food item is grown and used, a statement about why it caught your attention and details about the farm that it is grown on that should include the name and location of the farm as well the name of the person that you spoke to. This assignment is to be posted on the Openlab as a photo essay and must include at least one photo of the product and you are encouraged to post a selfie with the stand worker/farmer as well as other relevant media. Your photo essay should be between 500 words, should include at least one photo and active working links to any companies, organizations or people mentioned where applicable.

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

•To have students engage professionals about what they do and why and how
•To use various methods to research and describe something that they knew little or nothing about before the assignment
•To integrate the various sources of research to piece together a narrative that is concise
•To effectively use the openlab by posting a blog entry that includes various steps and specific formatting rules

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 assigned on the first day of class and is due on the 7 or 8th week to correspond with our classroom discussions about purchasing and defining value. I typically schedule a field trip to the Union Square Market with the intention of offering a tour and giving the students a chance to take care of the assignment. Students are welcome to visit other markets though. We will spend about 2 hours total of classroom time and students will only need about an hour of extra-class time to complete the project if they choose not to participate or miss the field trip.

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 need to either visit a market or attend the field trip. They need to have an openlab account and have requested membership to the classes site. Students will need to have a way to upload photos to the openlab. This is a low stakes assignment that ties into our broader course material as a way to enhance the conversation about food systems and food procurement/sourcing and value

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?

Yes I use the Information Literacy Rubric

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

I have not administered this assignment in its current form yet, but in the past I have seen some good results, albeit with room for improvement.

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

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Luxury labels and Fast-fashion

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.

Learning communities, Diversity and global learning (“difficult differences”)

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?

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?

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

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Site Visit, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Site Visit, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Karen Goodlad, https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/karengoodlad/

Department of Hospitality Management, School of Professional Studies

HMGT 1101, Perspectives of Hospitality Management, https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/goodlad-hmgt1101-f14/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Engage in a site visit of the Brooklyn Bridge Park as well as the surrounding community and lead discussions about tourism on the Brooklyn Waterfront as it pertains to a particular area of tourism.

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

A number of goals can be achieved through this place-based activity. Student Learning Outcomes
• Discuss scope of the hospitality and tourism industry
• Gather information from observation in regard to the hospitality industry from a local, national and global perspective
• Evaluate and apply information discerningly from a variety of sources

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 is positioned early in the semester in order to provide an example of critical observation. But it can be conducted at any point in the semester. Weather is consideration.

An entire class session (2 ½ hours) is devoted to the place-based activity. Students meet at the designated location which is in walking distance to campus, consideration is given to ensure students coming from or going to other classes can do so without concern of being late. In addition to the actual day of visit, 10 minutes is dedicated during the prior class session and 5 minutes in the subsequent class session.

Outside of class it is expected that a student would spend 30-45 minutes in preparation and 15 minutes to reflect. The information gathered can be used to support future assignments.

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

Faculty should communicate with any industry partners that may be involved in the activity. I secure the date 4-6 weeks in advance and confirm 2 weeks and 1 week prior.

Students receive instruction about the subject specific prep they must do, and are asked to bring facts about tourism as well as the Brooklyn Waterfront in particular. They are also asked to learn about the industry partners that might be involved. In this case The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and Brooklyn Roasting Company. In addition, they are told how to find the meeting location and are asked to exchange phone numbers with at least two other classmates.

The activity is low stakes but is used as a support parts for two other written research projects.

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.

First-year seminars and experiences, Collaborative assignments and projects, Open Digital Pedagogy (the OpenLab), Place-Based Learning, Brooklyn Waterfront

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?

A rubric is not used for this particular activity. Assessment is conducted through reflection.

This course is part of the Gen Ed Assessment initiative but other assignments are used (Information Literacy and Oral Communication).

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?

The first time I used this activity was 2011 and it has been an important part of the course ever since. I feel that when teaching, especially first time freshman, it is valuable to model what you expect and use scaffolding techniques.

There are challenges in all assignments and activities, for this one in particular I have found that working with industry partners needs to be done in a diligent manner.

I usually change all my assignments and activities in a small way each time I teach them. In 2014, and then repeated in 2015, I shifted to having the students come prepared with historical facts about the Brooklyn Waterfront instead of having a representative from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy lead that activity. They seem to find similar facts to the professional representative and are more engaged in the process. The activity is structured in a way that can easily include the shifting development of the waterfront and changes in our student population from year to year and class to class.

Over and over again I find that this is the first time students are at the Brooklyn Bridge Park and are seriously considering what happens on the Brooklyn waterfront. They have expressed excitement about the actual location and meeting with industry professionals. Though the immediate learning opportunity is valuable I find that when students come to me 6 months or a year plus later and say “Remember when we went to the park? That was so cool. I brought my family there to show them all the things that happen there” that the time invested in preparing for and participating in the activity will have positive lasting effects. It is a great way to support critical observation.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

Site visit advice for students: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/site-visits/

Day of assignment: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/site-visits/brooklyn-bridge-park/

Student reflection: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/category/brooklyn-bridge-park-submissions/

Student reflection: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goodlad-hmgt1101-fall15/category/brooklyn-bridge-park-submissions/

Posted on

Open Lab Food Experience Blogging Exercise

Open Lab Food Experience Blogging Exercise

Claire Stewart https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/cstewart/

Hosp. Management/ Professional Studies

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewarthmgtintlfall2014/

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are asked to eat something from the geographic region which is highlighted the week they acted as chef. They then write about the new food and describe its taste, texture, color, smell, or any unusual properties. They must document this experience and post a photo or video of this item in its various stages and how it was acquired. Next students post (or create) a video clip of a traditional song or dance, festival or religious ceremony. Or they may craft a video of a walking tour they made of their trip to an ethnic neighborhood or grocery store. Posting comments on the work of others is also required.

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

I would like to enlarge students’ view of their world, and for them to learn the differences and similarities of regional life. This is done by having the class investigate native foods, which pupils will find are inevitably tied to religion, geography and history. I also hope to develop the students’ vocabulary, and increase their ability to work in new environments with unfamiliar ingredients. The more terms, place names, and components that students are exposed to, the greater the chance that they will be able to draw conclusions about new concepts by finding similarities to what they have seen before. This assignment also works to nudge participants out of their comfort zone, asking them to try something that they may not otherwise have tasted or experienced.

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?

Every student has a different time line. I ask that their post go up no more than one week after they have acted as chef. The brigade with the day that the student will be chef is established on Week 1. Students devote a lot of time creating their week’s chef report, so I make this assignment due the week after they have been chef. I feel this way they can have more fun with the assignment, as they are no longer nervous about their performance. This assignment is ideal because there is very little lecture time at all during class. This is a production class and dinner has to be done ready in order for the dining room to open.

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 assignment is worth 10 points out of 100. I give specific instructions that students must cite their sources, and also get permission if using photos of others. Students investigate the culture of the region for which they were class chef. By the time this assignment is due, students have learned about this region, and are invested in what they come to consider “their” territory. Being chef for the day is a significant event for these students, so by tying in the assignment to this, I find students “buy in” to the activity with enthusiasm.

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.

Collaborative assignments and projects, Open Digital Pedagogy (the OpenLab), Capstone courses and projects, Place-Based Learning

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I do use a rubric that includes whether the student worked within the time line, and if they cited sources. Also if they proofread and presented themselves as professional in their online work. I did get valuable information from the Living Lab assessment workshop. I ask the student to consider who the audience for the assignment is, and what the role of the presenter is.

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 worked very well. I am repeating it in this year’s class. I also made a similar assignment in a different class and it was a true success.

This is a link to my Culinary Improvisation class, in which there was a weekly blogger.

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewartculinaryimprovsp2015/

Students take photos of their food anyway, so by creating an official class blogger I am expanding on something they already enjoy. I learned to make a cut-off date for comments because I found many students made all their comments only at the end of the semester. I now ask them to post a minimum prior to midterm, and not all on the same day or on the same topic. I would still like students to proofread their work more however. Students participated fully in this project, and I had no one not do so. I was pleased to see that classmates accompanied each other on their explorations, and I saw in their photos that they were voluntarily doing class work that was not required; they were doing it for fun. This project tries to harness students’ desire to surf the net and to see videos and make comments, and to do so in a structured environment with specific expectations.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These could be in the form of PDF or Word files, links to posts or files on the OpenLab, etc.

The link below is an example of a student blog entry from Culinary Improvisation
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewartculinaryimprovsp2015/2015/03/

I posted this link after our class went to the Museum of Modern Art. Students had various tasks assigned while there; all in hopes of them finding links between art and food.
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewartculinaryimprovsp2015/2015/03/19/museum-of-modern-art/

This is the link to the assignment
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewarthmgtintlfall2014/assignments/

This is a great example of student work
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/stewarthmgtintlfall2014/2014/09/28/a-slice-of-hungary/

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