The Center for Teaching and Learning honors excellence in teaching and learning by spotlighting faculty members' innovative teaching practices, publications and presentations. Faculty members are encouraged to share information with colleagues and the community by e-mailing Sandy at szak @jeffco.edu with information for the Faculty Spotlight.

Sean Birke, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, relates chemistry to students by using a variety of teaching activities and techniques. For example, Professor Birke uses “narrated modeling,” a teaching technique that helps students learn mental skills that aren’t easily observed.  When solving problems on the board, he speaks aloud his thought process and asks students questions to prompt them to tell him what to do next. For instance, while working a problem on the board, Sean asks, “What is the limiting reaction and the threshold yield?” When necessary, he leads students to the answer by asking a simpler question, such as, “What does limiting mean?” Professor Birke also utilizes informal small groups to have students work together to address the steps of problems. This encourages cooperation among students, one of the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education identified by Chickering and Gamson.

At the end of the semester, Professor Birke challenges students to make analogies between chemical processes and food items. Students bring the food items, and written rationales connecting the food items to chemistry concepts, to class. Oreo cookies represent an ionic bond (an electrical attraction between two oppositely charged atoms or groups of atoms), cinnamon toast represents a heterogeneous mixture (substances that do not have uniform composition and properties throughout), and a series of cakes represents the evolution of the atomic model (Democritos/Dalton - Thompson's plum pudding model - Bohr's planetary model - Schrodinger's quantum mechanical model). Students celebrate the semester and review for the final exam while enjoying the food. (For another example of metaphors in the college classroom, read The Power of Metaphors.) These three teaching strategies illustrate Professor Birke’s respect for students’ different ways of learning, another principle of good practice in undergraduate education.

Dora Mitchell actively engages students in her science lectures through a variety of techniques. Dora provides students with “macro signals” about the organization of her lecture. She signals students with statements such as “Today we will cover,” “We’ve already talked about,” “Look back in your notes,” and “The next thing we need to look at.” Dora also routinely connects new information to students’ prior knowledge and situations that spontaneously arise in class. For instance, she relates the concept of forced expiration to a kitten meowing in the class (class of vet tech students) and relates cortisol’s function of helping us to deal with stress to studying for finals and animals at the zoo hiding from visitors.

Dora uses a variety of examples, which ensures that the diverse learning styles of students are accommodated. To help students remember insulin’s role in regulating glucose levels, Dora draws a graph on the SMARTBOARD (appeals to logical-mathematical and spatial intelligences); shares the custom, used in some countries, of tasting urine for sugar to diagnose diabetes (appeals to linguistic intelligence); and tells a story about cleaning up a linoleum floor after the family dog has had an accident (appeals to interpersonal intelligence), noting that if the urine on the floor is sticky, like a sugar soda spill, you may suspect that the dog has diabetes. Dora also encourages students to think critically through the use of questions. During a discussion of uric acid formation as a means to eliminate nitrogen waste, Dora asks, “Why do people worry about bird droppings on their cars?” When discussing breathing, she asks, “In relation to the control of breathing, what do you think the Respiratory Rhythmicity Center is going to control?”

Amy Kausler, Deborah Allen and Judy Larson engage students in course content through the use of a student response system (clickers). Multiple choice questions about course content are integrated into PowerPoint presentations. After students click in with answers, a chart displays the percent of students who selected each answer.

On questions where there is no consensus, students are encouraged to explain why selected answers are correct. This is typically done informally, with students talking in pairs. Students vote again. Often, there is a consensus on the revote. The correct answer is then revealed by the instructor. Allowing students to explain concepts to other students increases the likelihood that concepts will be retained. The clickers are also used for formative assessment purposes. Amy, Deborah, and Judy learn which concepts students are having difficulty with and address those topics again. They presented on student response systems at the 2008 Higher Education Learning and Information Exchange (HELIX) conference. Amy, Deborah and Sandy Frey will also present on clickers at two Fox School District in-service sessions for small groups of K-12 teachers in May.

David McNair provides students with an opportunity to apply critical thinking skills to course content through a Photoshop Competition. Students must create 2-3 separate pieces of work that demonstrate a company logo, a brochure or a photo correction or enhancement problem. The students must be able to solve graphic related problems and be able to write and express how the problems are solved. The competition is by no means a "pretty" picture display of work. It truly is intended to show problem solving using a graphic interface. The competition criteria are based on a problem to solve and the tools using Photoshop to solve that problem. It is a great way to tie together all the skills learned in the Intro to Photoshop and Advanced Photoshop class and display a mastery of the subject.

David is also writing a textbook, Photoshop CS3 Divide and Conquer, scheduled to be published by Pearson – McGraw Hill next November. The approach is to address subject matter topics by including a reference section and a hands-on step-by-step section for each topic. 

Dana Nevois prepares Veterinary Technology students for future employment and board exams by providing students with opportunities to be involved in presenting continuing education workshops for local registered veterinary technicians. Students develop organizational and public speaking skills by recruiting speakers and then introducing the speakers at the workshops.

Students also have the opportunity to develop workplace skills by volunteering at the APA Canine Carnival and participating in the Jefferson College student chapter of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA). Providing students with volunteering and leadership opportunities related to course content helps students learn course concepts, nurtures civic engagement and gives students experience to list on resumes.

Lisa Hollander leads the Global Education effort at Jefferson College. She is the co-director of a three-year statewide MCGE project and facilitates monthly Global Show and Tell meetings for attendees to benefit from the travel of others. Jefferson College students have presented at the Global Show and Tell meetings, providing them with public speaking experience.

Patty McDaniel promotes conservation at Jefferson College, in the local community and across the globe. She is partnering with Hillsboro High School’s Environmental Club and will utilize service learning pedagogy in her teaching during the Spring 2008 semester. She presented on conservation preservation at Primary School in Venezuela in the summer of 2007.

Bev Meyers actively engages students in her mathematics courses at Jefferson College. She presented at MOMATYC (Missouri Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges) on statewide curriculum issues and with colleague Linda Hoppe presented at AMATYC on lab activities for algebra courses. She also presented a session on classroom assessment techniques.