This site provides examples of instructional resources created in the Humanizing Online STEM Academy, a professional development program funded by the California Education Learning Lab and administered by the Foothill DeAnza Community College District.
Where I Was: I have taken a few equity focused faculty learning communities (FLC), so I was not necessarily a complete beginner when I started this course. However, I still feel like there is so much that I have to digest, reflect on, and learn as I continue my exploration of STEM education.
Where I Am: After completing the Humanizing Academy, I feel like some of the concepts I've been digesting from other FLC's have become more clear. Thus, making plans for future courses more solidified. I also, was able to lean a lot of really great resources to help my lessons have more effective active learning. Finally, this courses focus of humanizing STEM was absolutely outstanding. It made me feel like small changes can be just as powerful and large ones.
Where I'm Going: In the next 6-12 months, I imagine myself implementing a lot of these strategies into a variety of my courses (not just the one I focused on for this FLC). I also imagine myself sharing what I have learned with other instructors and hopefully inspiring more change in other STEM online courses. Finally, I hope to continue to take amazing courses like this one to continue my journey as an educator of STEM.
I'm excited to share my liquid syllabus with my students next semester! I had such a great time making it and hope that it helps students establish earlier trust in me to support their learning the entire semester. Overall, I hope that my liquid syllabus really illustrates my first goal with them is one of safety, not in learning outcomes.
The course I worked on in this FLC is a upper division GE course, focused on the anatomy and physiology of child development. Originally, I was thinking of using an illustration showing a concept we'll learn during the semester. However, I didn't feel like anything I looked at would be considered welcoming. As such, I decided to pick a picture of a happy smiling child. I love the way it looks and I hope it makes my students feel more positive clicking on the course card!
The first thing you see on my canvas homepage is a large welcome sign! Following that is a photo of me and my basic contact information, course navigation, start here links, and finally a getting to know me video. For my homepage I keep it pretty simple to get them started so they hopefully don't feel a rush of anxiety as soon as they open the course. From there, I have them go to an introductory module to get them acquainted with all course logistics. I hope that my canvas homepage serves as a kindness cue by providing a warm welcoming environment that also provides easy access to all the content they need to be successful.
My getting to know you survey focuses on getting to know important information on how to make my students comfortable, supported, and valued as a part of our educational dynamic. I hope that the questions I ask continue to illustrate to my students that they can trust and count on me to support them though all the highs and lows a semester can throw at them.
My ice breaker focuses on joy and connection. First, I have students reflecting on what brings them joy in their everyday lives. Once they share with the rest of the course, they then find people who have similar joys and comment on those posts to connect with other students. I hope that this ice breaker can break down barriers early on in the semester and allow students to begin to learn together (not alone).
This bumper video introduces canvas gradebook to my students. I made this video because my campus is adopting canvas this coming fall and I want to make sure all my students feel comfortable with the software change. I will likely make more bumper videos like this one to make the transition as easy as possible.
This micro lecture will be used in my introductory unit, introduction to science and how it works. Some of the most important terms and concepts used by ALL scientists are largely unclear and confusing to a lot of people. In this unit my goal is to start breaking down those barriers so when we begin using these terms, and identifying them later on, that we have set a strong foundation to instill confidence in my students. To make sure students are clear on the objective of the microlecture, I made my first slide the SLO it is supporting.
This site is made by Rachel Schleiger and is shared with a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 license. Creation of this content was made possible with funding from the California Education Learning Lab.