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MCC Daily Tribune

TCC: HIPS Institute Follow-up Interview with Beth Clickner (MTH)

Beth Clickner (Mathematics) participated in the Service Learning strand of 2016 High Impact Practices Summer Institute for Faculty: Growing a High Impact Culture through Course Redesign.  Here are her reflections 8 months after the Institute.

How have you implemented what you learned about Service Learning at the HIPs Institute?

The HIP summer institute was instrumental in the development of the service learning project for my MTH 150 Survey of Mathematics course. I came to the institute with a good idea of what I was looking to do, but was able to nail down all of the specifics during the institute.  Throughout the week, I met with my service learning mentor, a cohort of colleagues who were also adopting service learning into their courses, and a representative from the American Cancer Society.  We discussed logistics and requirements, but more importantly the benefits of service learning.  For our students, there would be a connection formed between the real world, academia, and the student experience.  I left the institute inspired and very well prepared for the implementation of the service learning component of my course. 

What were some highlights from your class last fall?  Or, what is a highlight that you are working on now?

For each unit of my MTH 150 course, I assign a written project.  The service learning project was for the unit on statistics.  Since MTH 150 is a topics course, the statistics unit was just 3 weeks long.  I was amazed at the way this project immersed the class into the world of statistics and increased their understanding of, and appreciation for, the subject in such a short amount of time. 

Students were provided with a set of questions from the American Cancer Society on topics such as smoking on campus, resources for quitting smoking, and where students get their news.  Each group of students was tasked with designing and implementing a statistical study using the sampling techniques discussed in class, and considering the demographics of the student body at MCC.  Each group put together a paper and Powerpoint presentation of their findings.  They created tables and graphs, and interpreted their data.  Of course, the representative from the American Cancer Society was there to witness the incredible group presentations. 

From student reflections, it was clear that this was an extremely valuable learning experience.  Students commented that they now understand the amount of work that goes into collecting unbiased data, and the variety of ways in which data can be interpreted.  I also witnessed some confidence-building for many of the students who didn’t think they were capable of doing well in math when they first came into the course. 

What are your next steps with Service Learning? (I’m particularly interested in this since you have such a cool plan!!)

I am excited to continue offering MTH 150 as a service learning course and look forward to finding ways in which the statistics project can benefit our own community right here at MCC.  In fact, I’m currently working on this with a few colleagues as part of my Second Year Faculty Series.  I wish to pair my interest in service learning with my interest in MCC’s sustainability efforts. 

Eugenia Merliss
Teaching and Creativity Center
04/28/2017