ECC instructor’s final exam projects inspire
Wednesday / December 16, 2015
A college student’s typical reward at the end of final exam week is a grade. A teacher’s reward is in seeing students demonstrate that they’ve learned and can apply the concepts and skills covered during the semester. But one new Ellsworth Community College faculty member has found a way to ensure that her final exams inspire above-and-beyond creativity, in some cases even creating a “pay it forward” ripple effect that doesn’t end with the final test and grades …
New ECC faculty member Wendy Valentine has taught part-time for the College for several years, but this year accepted a full-time position teaching Psychology following last year’s retirement of Professor Michael (Mac) McDonald. Ms. Valentine (and many other ECC instructors) worked diligently this semester to encourage a combination of teamwork, creativity, and service-to-others mindset among her students. The results? Some incredibly creative video projects from her Psychology students and an assortment of “pay it forward” Human Growth & Development projects that impacted not only her students’ own development, but the development of others.
“I love teaching, and I love finding ways to inspire students,” says Ms. Valentine. “In my Introduction to Psychology class, teams of students created videos that serve as educational public service announcements about things like Depression and Social Anxiety. They took the project so seriously and produced videos that demonstrate an amazing amount of thought and depth and understanding of the subject matter. In particular, one student’s work was so compelling that his classmates fully believe that he’ll realize his dream to be a filmmaker someday.”
The videos have been posted to the Ellsworth Community College Facebook page; they will be uploaded to the College’s new YouTube site when it is unveiled in January.
In her Human Growth & Development class, students were tasked with developing team projects that impacted not only their own development, but the development of others. They gave presentations about their projects and fielded questions from Ms. Valentine, her mother, and classmates during finals week.
“My dad, Mel Valentine, died in 2012, and this ‘pay it forward’ project was really inspired by his memory,” says Ms. Valentine. “My mother and a friend of my dad’s have contributed the money that finances the student projects; I contributed this semester as well. We had a team that did multiple projects with local high school students, including establishment of a Thinking Wall at the school where students could post questions and issues anonymously; they also developed an activity for a school assembly that got students engaged and helped them visually see their common ground with others. We had a group that did activities at a nursing home, and one that did a variety of projects with a church youth group. We had a team that found a variety of ways to support other ECC students during finals week with things like supportive notes, snack bags, and study tip sheets. The variety and scope of the team projects was amazing!”
In grading those projects, Ms. Valentine says she looked for whether the money was spent wisely, whether the teams also did things that didn’t cost any money, how the project impacted her students, and how the projects impacted others.
“It’s about teaching students that we can all impact others in a positive way each and every day, with or without spending money,” says Ms. Valentine. “We have a huge impact on others, and we can have a huge impact on ourselves by serving others. There’s no better way to teach and learn that than by doing something tangible like this.”
Ms. Valentine says subjects like Psychology can sometimes be dry, so these kinds of projects bring it to life for her students. “They loved it, and I know that these hands-on experiences will help them recall concepts and terms for a much longer time than if they’d just memorized for a final test.”
“After Thanksgiving the semester winds down fast and sometimes instructors and students can get frustrated,” says Ms. Valentine. “What I found this semester was that this was when my students really shined. I have so many outstanding projects to celebrate … you can bet that I’ll be doing more of this as time goes on!”