How it might work...

I'm sharing this process with you not so much as "what we will do," but as an example of how things can work.

In my imagining of how I would "teach" in the SUSTAIN experience, I began by imagining what I would like each day to be like as a "teacher".  I left this out of my narrative and I'm sorry I did because it was the driving for my design.

So, I began by envisioning what I want the experience to be like and it looks like this to me:

Notice my criteria under "core experiences." 

Then I began to consider the time of the SUSTAIN "classroom."  We set up a structure that looks like this:

In my model, the pre-noon time is reserved for an additional "course" that is needed for students to progress in their respective majors.  For engineering students, this would be a math course.  The hours of 12-2 have been set aside for students taking ENGL145.  The SUSTAIN cluster of courses is from 2-5 (3 hours per day) for 5 days.  Notice that this is 15 hours of face time, or equivalent amount of time to 3-4 unit lectures + a 2-unit activity;Add in the ENGL course (4-unit lecture) and you now have 16 units; Add in the additional course in the pre-noon hour and your are above the 16.  So, it it likely that any one student would not be taking any more than 4-4 unit lectures + the 2 unit activity.  But the time is blocked as so as an example and to accommodate those who might have a 3-unit lecture + 1 unit lab in the mix of the courses they are taking--the face time can be equivalent for those people.

Now, imagine that you have 100 students in the 2-5 time period.  The will be taking HIST216 + another course or 2 other courses if they are not taking ENGL45.  In my model, this 2-5 time slot would be an open studio format, where students have prepared by working on the foundational knowledge a priori. The open studio time would be used to work on projects, get assistance from peers and/or faculty on more difficult applications or concepts.  There also might be a spontaneous or planned mini-lecture for those who might be struggling with something.  They might use the time to meet in small groups about their projects or meet with the community partner on their project. Or, there may be some other activity designed by the faculty collaborators. The point is that the previous artificial boundaries between the courses that they were "taking" would be removed--the faculty and students in those previously separated courses would be talking to one another. Notice that we are talking about 3 or 4 different faculty people at this point.

This way of working would obviously require a lot of preparation on the part of the faculty, although they would not know entirely ahead of time how things would unfold.  They would have to be agile enough to make course corrections during the learning experience.  How would a faculty member prepare?  For me, the preparation looks like this. 

This all happens before the quarter starts.  Ideally, at the beginning of the quarter, I have constructed at least:

• The difference between necessary learning objectives (LO)and auxillary (step 3);
• A preliminary mapping of where LO would fit projects (step 4);
• A mapped path through resources for self-directed learning through all LOs (step 5);
• 50% of the self-paced formative assessments to check learning (step 6);
• An draft idea of the summative assessments I might use.

From having done this in the past, I know that things change as one goes. I know that students make requests in areas where they are confused. I also know that they are really happy to have the freedom to learn when they want to and access to material that takes them forward when they want. 

I've done this with an 8-unit junior level engineering course.  I must remember that students are at a higher level of capability by that time. But I also know that at the lower levels, the material is less challenging. 

In my view, the formative assessments are ideally self-paced and without penalty.  That is, a student can take them, say 3 times, and get the highest grade.  I have also found that without any grade attached to them, they would be very challenged to complete them. 

The Contraints for the Narrative

Alright all!  Imagine the following:

Imagine that we have 100 freshmen in Winter 2012 who are going to participate in 2 consecutive quarters (I've dropped one because my attention ); See below how this class shakes out.

You are the faculty member. How will you prepare for this thing to work out successfully (however you define that).  Bring a narrative of this for this Thursday if you have the creative spirit to do.  Have fun!

 I've only done 2 quarters to simplify.

Students are from all colleges: CLA (15); CSM (15); CAED (15); COB (15); CAFES (20); CENG (20)
They are engaged in groups of 5-8 in up to 15 different projects selected from the list of available themes posted on the April 15 blog entry.

Winter 2012
Courses clustered: HIST216 (all 100 students); ENGL134 (20 students); ENGL148 (25 students); COMS102 (55 students); PHYS141 (30 students); PHYS121 (40 students); PSC110 (30 students); 2 unit university activity; Priority registration for a course offered in the morning (recommend MATH)

Spring 2012
Courses clustered: ECON201 (70); ECON221 (30); ENGL148 (50); COMS102 (45); BIO114 (100); MATH142(30); MATH118 (20); STAT217 (20) STAT252 (15) STAT 218 (20); 2 unit university activity; Priority registration for a course offered in the morning

The structure of meeting:
Looks a little like the May 2 blog entry on structure.
Monday through Friday, block schedule of 3 hours 2:00-5 PM.
Hours of 12-2 are set aside for faculty who want to meet daily for an hour (e.g., ENGL148).

Tentative Matrix of Courses

Here are our results at our first cut of populating the matrix of courses that would make sense to put together. There are several outstanding questions at this point.  Our agreement was to sort of sit with this first cut and see what emerges.  This is a little like putting together a very complex puzzle...one often has to stare for a long time and the different pieces when suddenly it becomes clear how they can go together.

The outstanding questions:
1. What do we do in the disciplinary places where we don't have a known participation (e.g., MATH)?
2. How do we deal with the famous "upside-down-curriculum" that embeds early, specific, disciplinary courses into the freshman year? In these cases, it appears that students will either not be able to participate or that they will have a substituted experience.
3. Doe the economic model still hold?
4. What do we do with the sophomore fall term?

You can click on this image for a better view in your own image viewer.

The Form of the100-Freshman Experience

We developed a series of models to consider how learning might take place in this experience. Below is a sketch of the most generic version, which can accommodate a range of activites that we might imagine taking place.

I've reframed our conversation a bit into the Kolb learning cycle. This cycle was useful for me as a framework to describe the range of things that we might undertake together.

The qualities of this model of learning are:

1. Whole set of activities is based on the Kolb learning cycle;

2. Students will be engaged in individual versions and groups versions (project) of each step in the cycle;

3. The time is structured to allow self-organization, self-direction, individualized learning ("studio") and guided instruction ("structured");

4. The faculty's main role is creating a path for self-paced learning prior to the projects (won't work for all subjects), formative and summative assessment of mastery of learning objectives, guidance/teaching as needed.

Our next step is to do the detailed work of laying out the exact courses and their sequence, beginning with a winter-quarter freshman cohort. 

Making progress-April 21 Meeting

(This is a posting by Liz,...I was sadly not there).

We had a really great meeting today with the faculty collaboration. Roger helped us use the "sticky wall" to try to solve the puzzle involving.....

Course and projects
Projects and Topics
Students and Projects
Faculty and Topics
etc.......
After a lot of discussion we looked at a ridiculous project of "playing basketball for 2 hours a week" to see if even such a seemingly meaningless project could incorporate the topics from our course. A bit of a disclaimer in case someone misunderstands this example. We want to have students working on meaningful community based projects like described on our SUSTAIN SLO blog, and we are not saying Basketball is meaningless. This is just an illustration.

We all became energized around this. Below are some really great contextual examples around basketball.

Physics - acceleration, motion, collision of elastic and non-elastic objects.
Math - varying rates of movement. Balls traveling in a parabola. Maximum and minimum points using derivatives

Statistics - Free throw percentages, is there such a thing as a "hot" shooter? Probability of making a shot from different points on the floor.

Economics - Diminishing marginal returns, opportunity cost, consumer choice model, institutionalization of basketball, wage comparisons

English composition - Anything mentioned in economics can be formed into an argument, Analyze the voice, Analyze trash talk.

Communications - verbal and non-verabl communications, strategy of movement

Audience analysis, who sits where and why (i.e. Jack Nicholson)

Next week we will discuss various models of illustrating the interplay between course, students, time, projects, faculty, and anything else that matters. There are many ways to look at this, a request was made of the group in general to bring your favorite model to share.

I think we are making progress.

Range of Possible Community Projects

These are some of the projects that are emerging in partnership with community agencies.

USDA Grant Partnership with the Food Bank for Hunger Free Communities
The Food Bank and non-profits involved in HEAL-SLO, the County Health Department, Cal Poly, and the local farming and business community have received a planning grant to assess local hunger needs and resources, and establish a coordinated strategic plan to meet the needs of those who suffer from food insecurity. potential disciplines needed: Sociology, geographic information systems, statistics, Spanish, Agriculture, Nutrition, Journalism, Graphic Design, Economics, Kinesiology, Food Science, Dairy Science

Trial Site for Sustainable Living
A group of Cal Poly faculty and students are working with the administration to establish a physical site dedicated to testing permaculture and other alternative technologies. potential disciplines needed: engineering, agriculture, ornamental horticulture, agribusiness, biology, architecture, Art and Design, Food Science & Nutrition, religious studies, philosophy, psychology, anthropology

Live Classical Music in Public Spaces
The San Luis Symphony is interested in supporting arts education and culture. There is interest in creating the possibility of live, small but high-quality free public performances that enrich our community awareness of the performing arts. What would it take for this to happen? potential disciplines needed: art and design, music, theatre and dance, journalism, English, marketing, graphic communication, psychology, education

Aquaponic Development of Local Aquatic Protein Sources
Aquaponics is a method to produce aquatic protein and plant food sources in a symbiotic sustainable environment. There is a small interest group who desires to develop and trial local aquaponics systems. potential disciplines needed: Biology, Crop and Soil Science, Food Science and Nutrition, statistic, chemistry, sustainable agriculture, engineering, marine biology

Biochar for Reducing Atmospheric CO2 Content & Improving Soil Properties
Biochar is the product of combusting biomass. It captures and stores atmospheric carbon dioxide while increasing the soil fertility and improving its capacity to filter water. There is an interest group in further developing biochar for local use. potential disciplines needed: Biology, Crop and Soil Science, physics, chemistry, engineering

Gleaning System for the Food Insecure
Each year, tons of local food is left unharvested while tens of thousands of people in our community qualify for food stamps. There is a group of individuals who have begun to conceive of and develop a local gleaning system with local farmers to provide food for the food insecure. potential disciplines needed: Art & Design, Graphic Communication, marketing, economics, computer science, geographic information systems, engineering, statistics, agriculture, journalism, psychology,

Re-Skilling for New Local Economies
Within our community, there are elderly populations that posses the knowledge of preserving food, hand crafting clothing and other skills. These skills are being lost to emerging generations. There is interest in designing how we might learn these skills and create new local economies. potential disciplines needed: gerontology, agriculture, sociology, journalism, engineering, graphic design, political science, history, fruit science, food science and nutrition, accounting, statistics

San Miguel Community Partnership for Sustainable Development
San Miguel faces long-term water scarcity issues along with socio-economic challenges. A growing partnership with key San Miguel agents is envisioned to begin systemically addressing the long-term community goals through trial sites within the community. potential disciplines needed: Viticulture, engineering, agriculture, watershed management and hydrology, tourism planning & management, ethnic studies, statistics, soil science, political science, education, statistics

Latino/Latina Success in K-12 & Beyond
Cal Poly is surrounded by Latino communities, yet its student Latino/a population is less than half the state population. This group is interested in systemically working toward equitable educational outcomes. potential disciplines needed: education, ethnic studies, Spanish, math, chemistry, physics, statistics, sociology, geographic information systems, political science

Natural Resources Management
This area is rich with wildlife and land, much of which would benefit from greater attention and management.  For example, there are small bodies of water in Morro Bay that would benefit from experimentation with "living machines" to reverse their eutrophication. There is also a need to work with local agencies to enable fewer wildlife deaths through better design and management of human/wildlife habit intersections. potential disciplines: botany, biology, geography, engineering, chemistry, journalism, political science, art and graphic design, English.

The Intent + Alternative Learning Resources

We are now in the process of considering the design of the learning experience.  We need to detail out 3 critical areas: the form (or structure), the process of learning, and the materials that would be used to learn.  We are to consider these inside the intent of the 100-frosh immersion initiative.

The intent of what we are doing is to add value to the students' learning experience in four critical areas (the underlined items are the four essential learning outcomes of an educated person in the 21st century, according to the American Association for Colleges and Universities):

• Integrative learning within an interdisciplinary setting;
• Focusing on sustainability as a way to gain knowledge of human cultures and the natural world;
• Learning in the context of community-based projects as a means to cultivate personal and social responsibilities;
• Develop the capacity for systems thinking as an intellectual and practical skill.

Potential Resources for Process and Material in some cases
If you're teaching something that is kind of "linear," where one concept builds on the next, or there are foundational skills that enable higher-level skills, you might want to consider the following resources.
www.saylor.org - complete courses for college
www.openculture.com - educational media managed by Stanford University
www.khanacademy.org - short video clips for learning a range of topics
www.oercommons.org - a searchable database of learning materials
www.oli.web.cmu.edu - higher education course designed by content experts and learning scientists
www.hippocampus.org - higher education courses with video clips and closed captioning
i tunes university - a compendium of podcasts from places like Stanford, MIT, Yale, Oxford + more