Four employees at Lone Star College-North Harris have recently been awarded program funding through the Student Success Inquiry Initiative (SSII) grant. The winners for the 2014-2015 academic year are Dr. Jack Hernandez, John Maynard, Gwen Vastine and Jennifer Welsh.
The goal of the Student Success Inquiry Initiative (SSII) is to encourage faculty to utilize student success data to develop targeted instructional interventions that address specific classroom practices, faculty training needs, tracking student progress, or other interventions to improve student success.
“It is exciting to see the increased interest faculty and staff have taken in applying for the grant,” said LSC-North Harris Dean of academic affairs, Anne Albarelli. “During the first year of availability, there were six applications for a total of $45,553. During the second year, 15 applications were submitted for a total of $118,544.”
The projects selected for funding this year include the purchase of models for the Anatomy Learning Center (ALC) at LSC-Greenspoint Center, the creation of animated tutorials for formal logic students, career interest assessments for Spanish-speaking populations, and embedding "flipped" videos into the ALEKS web-based math mastery curriculum.
The grants were awarded based on the applicants’ clear explanation of how students will be impacted, a description of the trends observed in the student success data that prompted the project, and how the effectiveness of the project will be assessed including specific data to be collected and how it will be analyzed and/or utilized.
“One of last year’s awardees, Professor Ellen Turnell, flipped Beginning Algebra, Math 0308, which required students to watch pre-recorded lectures outside of class, while class time was spent focusing on actually applying the knowledge. The materials developed include video lectures, guided notes, and a class workbook. This project impacts developmental math students not only in the flipped classroom, but any student taking MATH 0308 as they can access the materials online. In fact, instructors and students in the college prep math classes at Aldine and Spring ISDs have taken advantage of this resource to supplement the high school class,” added Albarelli.
Each of the grant winners will have the opportunity to present the results of their initiatives at the fall 2015 Lone Star College Faculty Institute.
Lone Star College-North Harris is located at 2700 W.W. Thorne Drive, one-half mile south of FM 1960 East, between Aldine-Westfield and Hardy Roads. For more information about the college, call 281.618.5400 or visit LoneStar.edu/NorthHarris.
Lone Star College has been opening doors to a better community for more than 40 years. Founded in 1973, LSC remains steadfast in its commitment to student success and credential completion. Today, with almost 83,000 students in credit classes, and a total enrollment of more than 95,000, Lone Star College is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area and one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the nation. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., is the chancellor of LSC, which consists of six colleges including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, LSC-Tomball and LSC-University Park, seven centers, LSC-University Center at Montgomery, LSC-University Center at University Park, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. To learn more visit LoneStar.edu.
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