1. 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….

2. 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

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

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

5. 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!

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

7. 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.

8. VIDEOS
ADD HYPERLINKS !!!! (GARY)

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

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

11. 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.

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

13. 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)

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

15. 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:
Pahoa Island:
Brine shrimp:

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

17. 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

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

19. In your group (10 minutes)
Pick an element from the list
Research your element
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?

20. 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?

21. Discussion

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. Thank you!!!