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.
I'm part of the text generation, posting way too much text, my slides have too much text, I make students read a lot, and up until a few years ago "death by PowerPoint". I come to Humanizing STEM recently graduated from POCR (Peer Online Course Review). Even though I use some videos for instruction, they are third party, and not really on a topic that I created.
I'm definitely on the cusp of a breakthrough. I can see videos as a compelling method for conveying complex topics, as most of chemistry is. I have colleagues with many pre-recorded lectures that have reasonably effective classes. I would like to build up the skills and confidence to be able to make decent videos without so much of an "activation barrier" to getting started.
I'd like to leave this class with a little knowledge, a few skills, and some real confidence, that I can continue to "humanize" my STEM class, make learning easier for students, and make the whole STEM experience less intimidating. This course has given me some clues on how to make STEM more approachable. I still have mixed feelings about making STEM "too easy" or suggesting to students that deadlines don't matter, and I'm working on ways to be a better "warm demander."
The liquid syllabus helped me create a more humanizing introduction to my Chemistry class, providing basic information, a short introduction about myself, my teaching philosophy, etc. To be honest, I include this in my Canvas course in my introduction, and it's threaded into the modules, so I'm not sure I'll use it as a standalone item.
Carbon Capture was taught in Spring 2023 at San Jose State University (SJSU) with a cohort of 14 students. This course has a public URL and can be freely accessed as a reference for students in carbon capture. I chose this image as it's a simple representation of a carbon dioxide molecule, that looks friendly and not intimidating. One little molecule, present as a trace gas, keeps our planet a comfortable temperature, until we meddle in the carbon cycle.
The humanized course I'm showing is my CHEM 30A Summer Online course. I taught it last summer in a hybrid mode, this summer is going to be more "online" with pre-recorded lectures.
I learned a great deal about my students from this survey, about their academic and career goals, if they have taken chemistry before, if so when and how did they do? I ask them if they like science, and why they are taking this class. I learned that 100% of them are taking it because it's a requirement, which means that none of them would be in the class if it weren't. I also ask how their chemistry math is, if they are thinking about getting a tutor, and had they heard about our chemistry math class? It's not a surprise that a lot of students struggle with math, and it keeps coming up, but they really aren't motivated to do much about it.
This is a 2+ minute tour of the Chemistry lab in 4719. It provides a quick introduction to the layout of the lab, showing of the safety equipment including fire extinguishers, BEAP, hardwired phone, spill clean-up kit, first aid kit, broken glass container, fire blanket, rear exit door, and second fire extinguisher, a pair of fume hoods, the location for acid, base, and organic waste, the eye wash station, and the emergency shower. These pieces of safety equipment will be listed in the safety quiz. Please review the video and the captioned narrative before coming to the first lab, it will make the safety check-in go much faster!
This short video introduces chemistry math to students just starting Introduction to Chemistry and includes an overview of key topics including numeracy and computation, factor label method, "light" algebra, ratios, proportionality, and fractions, decimals and percentages, estimating, cross-checking, and an approach to learning and applying math called reason, compute, and reflect. The video concludes with an invitation to join our Saturday chemistry math study sessions where we focus on conversions, factor label method, mole calculations, help with homework and worksheets, and preparing for the final exam.
Wisdom wall with reflections on how to do well in chemistry.
Chemistry math
Time on task
Ask for help
Form study groups
Persistence matters
This site is by Robert D. Cormia 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