1. Plants in Community Colleges Wilson Crone Biology Department Hudson Valley Community College Troy, NY 12180

2. Overview Community college student profiles and learning styles Approaches to course format delivery used (and to be used) at HVCC Examples of labs currently in use at HVCC (hands-on) Ethnobotanical lab example (hands-on)

3. Community College Students Wide variety of backgrounds, e.g., age, life experience, academic Wide variety of educational objectives, e.g., transfer, immediate employment, career change Time constraints, e.g., work, family, commuting

4. Student Learning Styles The vast majority of community college students are not like you--they will not be future biology/botany grad students Textual learning Visual learning Auditory learning Tactile learning Mechanical/flowchart learning

5. Comm. Coll. Student Course Concerns Issues derived from W.N. Grubb, L. Badway, UC-Berkeley, http://ncrve.berkeley.edu/nccte.html Regardless whether for work or transfer goals, it’s desirable to: Demonstrate relevancy of course material Explicitly link courses for differing perspectives on same content

6. HVCC Course Formats On-campus classes come in a variety of formats: day night summer weekend Most labs are two hours long and held in undedicated biology lab spaces

7. HVCC Biology Distance Learning I Currently: Economic Botany 03074, a “plants and people” course with an environmental perspective; course overview at: http://www.hvcc.edu/academ/faculty/crone/ 3074page.html

11. HVCC Biology Distance Learning II For next spring (2001): Global Seminar Model from Cornell University: http://www.cals.cornell.edu/global/ An interactive learning community of linked national and international schools, with synchronous and asynchronous components

12. Samples of Current HVCC labs in general, there are constraints of time and resources, but the lab examples that follow involve: familiar objects or situations data collection, presentation, and interpretation hypothesis testing varying levels of question sophistication/interpretation

13. Summary Community college students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and educational objectives “Low-tech” labs that use familiar plants and/or plant objects can be a springboard for engagement and interdisciplinary learning regardless of student academic level