Gary Weissmann and Roberto Ibarra Ways to Change Your Teaching Activities to Help Our Diverse Student Body to Thrive Gary Weissmann and Roberto Ibarra University of New Mexico Introduce selves but note that they don’t introduce each other….

Our Path for the Next Three Days Day 1: Who am I and how does that influence my teaching? Cultural Autobiography – foundational for next days. Day 2: Who are my students? Where are they coming from? Multicontext model of diversity Day 3: My classroom mode: How can I enhance full participation from a diverse group of students? Applying the Multicontext model

An Example of Context in the Classroom Accelerate NM 2014 Student Learning Outcomes & Context Diversity

Three-Pronged Approach Low Context Computer Learning - ALEKS Multicontext classroom sessions High Context application – program robots

Mathematics Content Mastery Pre- and Post-Test AVG AVG. 2015: Pre-test = 21% Post-test = 70% Pass rate = 96% 2014: Pre-test = 14% Post-test = 70% Pass rate = 84% 2013: Pre-test = 22% Post-test = 70% Pass rate = 82% URM students were 3 times more likely to pass their math courses than their majority counterparts Students enter the program with similarly low levels of content mastery, and complete at an extraordinarily high pass rate. In 2015, more than 2/3rds of the students earned A’s or B’s. Send to Mike!

Achievements In 2014 Accelerate NM Instructors Closed the Gender/Racial-Ethnic Achievement Gap within Mathematics in roughly 50 Hours Time in ALEKS

Context Diversity and the Importance of Robotics (the application) Students who participated in the robotics lab ended the course with higher scores than their non-Accelerate peers.

VIDEOS ADD HYPERLINKS !!!! (GARY)

Other Observations of Contextual Techniques and Validation Accelerate Program and context Standardized testing (do’s and don’ts) Engineering programs

What does context framework mean for classroom work and activities? Discussion What does context framework mean for classroom work and activities?

Discussion Awareness of Context Diversity at Play and an Example activity to revise – Systems Thinking What comes next: Slides from an excellent exercise on systems thinking – let’s analyze this SERC activity.

In your group, answer the following questions: What is a system? What do you think makes a system different from a bunch of stuff?

What do you see in this photo? Expect to see: lake, water, mountains, snow, sky, tufa, rocks, kayaks, people, plants, etc.; some may correctly identify it as Mono Lake Things to point out/ discuss: Observation vs interpretation/ inference –(key science process understanding) – make sure they focus on observations Photo by Dawn Ellner (CC BY 2.0)

What do you see in this photo – how would you have answered this question?

What do you see in this photo? Photo by Jason Morrison (CC BY NC-2.0) Photo by Genthar (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Photo by djmapleferryman (CC BY 2.0) Nesting swifts: https://flic.kr/p/4YPmFB Pahoa Island: https://flic.kr/p/aXA3fk Brine shrimp: https://flic.kr/p/5kntfS

In your group (10 minutes) Pick an element from the list Research your element www.monolake.org is a good place to start Prepare to explain your element to others (highlights)

In your new group (10 minutes) Write the name of each element on a post-it Connect elements that you think are related Label your connections with processes you think may relate the two elements You have just created a diagram of a part of the Mono Lake system. What do you think is its function? Water Tufa towers

What do you see in this photo – now, answer this in a Multicontext manner?

In your group (10 minutes) Pick an element from the list Research your element www.monolake.org is a good place to start Prepare to explain your element to others (highlights) How do these questions fit into the Context Diversity Framework? High, Low, or Multicontext? Why?

In your new group (10 minutes) Write the name of each element on a post-it Connect elements that you think are related Label your connections with processes you think may relate the two elements You have just created a diagram of a part of the Mono Lake system. What do you think is its function? Water Tufa towers What is going on in terms of the Context Diversity Framework in this exercise?

Discussion

In a small group: Discuss and evaluate: This exercise in terms of Context Diversity; and how would you revised it to broaden the Multicontextual framework. Critique the evaluations relative contextual framework with each other. Offer suggestions for improvement See the Learning Community Questions page to help in this exercise.

Sharing your Revisions Now, share how your group evaluated this exercise and how you revised it to broaden the Multicontextual framework. Critique the evaluations relative contextual framework with each other. Offer suggestions for improvement See the Learning Community Questions page to help in this exercise.

End of Program Evaluation Please take time to connect to the final evaluation link on the program page. We appreciate your candid comments. They help us improve the workshop for future offerings.

Thank you!!!