By Joseph McClain
Dozens of geoscience instructors across the nation gathered at William & Mary recently to discuss ways to enhance student success in earth-science programs at America’s two-year colleges.
The workshop, held July 17-20 on the William & Mary campus, was the latest offering of an collaborative initiative known as SAGE 2YC: Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education in Two-Year Colleges.
Lynsey LeMay is an example of the type of instructor that benefits from the content available through SAGE 2YC programming. LeMay is a geology instructor at Thomas Nelson Community College, teaching physical geology, historical geology and oceanography classes. She’s also a double alumna of William & Mary, a 2002 product of the Department of Geology who received an M.S. in 2007 from the university’s School of Marine Sciences at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. She also serves as president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Geo2YC Division.
Between sessions at the “Supporting Student Success” workshop, LeMay explained that, like many other two-year college instructors, she has to work to point out the relevance of earth sciences to students at Thomas Nelson. Once the students are enrolled in a class, she often has to deal with another concern.
“One of the issues that comes up a lot is ‘Oh, this is harder than I thought. You guys really use math!’ There is a misconception about the rigor that is required,” she said. “Geology is more than rocks!”
SAGE 2YC uses a combination of workshops and web-based resources; many of the workshop presentations are posted on their website.
Participants in SAGE 2YC workshops discuss topics ranging from how to get students interested in taking geoscience courses to practical suggestions for helping student learn how to learn. “Supporting Student Success,” the William & Mary workshop, featured a number of sessions that focused on classroom skills. Among the presenters were a number of William & Mary faculty, including Katherine Kulick of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and Cheryl Dickter, Josh Burk and Janice Zeman of the Department of Psychology.
Excerpted from: http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2013/sage-2yc-excellence-in-earth-sciences-at-two-year-schools221.php
