MCCCD: Systemic Reform in Science - Phase I

Maricopa County Community College District, Tempe AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Interdisciplinary (99) The Systemic Reform in Science Phase I Project is involving faculty from the 10 colleges of the nation's largest community college system (200,000 students) in interdisciplinary activities to better prepare them for teaching students who have a wider range of learning needs than in the past. The project's overall goal is to improve student success through increased faculty use of methods, which link science courses through real-life applications. The major activity is the adaptation of content to create 20 interdisciplinary modules for science courses. Implementation of these modules is being accomplished through the Management Team (MT) whose members are the PI, Co-Pls, and nine science faculty who serve as Peer Mentors (PM) at the individual colleges. Activities are being implemented to support integration and use of the interdisciplinary modules through faculty workshops and seminars. This includes an annual 1-2 day workshop on implementing active learning in science classrooms, and the establishment of Collaborative Learning Teams (CLT) of science faculty at each college who are working together with PMs to implement interdisciplinary modules and active learning in science classrooms. Outcome objectives include: 1) increasing, by 75 % over the baseline year, the number of full-time science faculty who use approaches aligned with systemic reform and 2) bringing the overall proportion of full-time science faculty who routinely use new approaches to 50% (50 faculty of 100). This project will be guided by using the adaptation and implementation of best practice examples, many generated by NSF sponsored projects, which foster the promotion of critical thinking, problem-solving skills and creativity/collaborative learning and which are interdisciplinary/contextually relevant. Major evaluation activities are: 1) regular monitoring by the MT; 2) pilot-testing of modules; 3) and pre-post evaluation design to measure implementation levels. Following preparation of a Final Evaluation Report, project processes/outcomes and interdisciplinary modules are being disseminated through the Project's website and through presentations at selected regional and national conferences. Other plans include the generation of a multimedia CD-ROM, the dissemination of videotapes of the workshops and publications in relevant professional journals. Because of the potential for impact on the education of technicians, this project is being co-funded by the Advanced Technological Education program.