Northern Arizona Audubon Society, Greenwood Fund and College partner in development of course

Members of the Northern Arizona Audubon Society have created a course titled An Introduction to Natural History Field Studies and Yavapai College has agreed to incorporate it into the curriculum at Clarkdale Campus starting September 5.

This four-session course will introduce students to the diverse habitats of the Greater Verde Valley region with special emphasis on understanding why these habitats exist where they do and the characteristic species found in each.

Participants will visit the Bubbling Ponds and Sedona Wetlands sanctuaries and other natural areas, learn about the region’s plants and animals and get a hands-on introduction to the art of birding and other aspects of natural history field studies.

The class will focus on the identification of local species and stress the interdependence of species within each habitat discussed.

Opportunities to participate in natural history studies through a variety of citizen science projects will also be discussed.

Those interested in signing up for the course can do so on the Yavapai College website. All participants completing the course will receive a $50 tuition subsidy from the Greenwood Fund. For further information, please contact Brent Bitz at birdsedona@gmail.com

Pond near Page Springs supports small population of endangered Northern Mexican Garter snake.

Why not turn loose creativity in educational design?

Yavapai Community College shows little creativity in its educational design.  This is especially true when you see the months it is closed down with no students on campus.  For example, the fall-winter break for students runs from December 14 to January 14. 

With a new President, there is hope that serious creativity may return to change the current stodgy educational paradigm where there are hundreds of hours of potential learning going unused.  However, a serious creative change in how things have always been done will, of course, require a lot of very hard work and commitment.

One of the first and easiest changes to the College’s current educational design is to begin using all the down time you find in its year-long schedule for FLEX courses.  Why not, for example, use this period in the fall-winter break as an opportunity to teach one or two credit courses not regularly offered in the curriculum in an intense compressed-format?  Or, occasionally a three-credit course. Call the period something like “Our Intense Flexible, Creative offerings.”

Studies of Colleges using intense ;short courses have shown they have advantages.  David Gooblar, writing in the Chronicle Vitae observed the following:  “Whether they are taught in the summer or at other times of the year, these short  intensified courses are increasingly a standard feature at North American universities. Cramming a whole semester’s worth of material into as little as three weeks often appeals to older students, to students with inflexible work schedules or family commitments, and to those trying to make up credits for various reasons.”

He went on to write that “In a paper published in the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education, William Kops, a professor of general studies at the University of Manitoba, surveyed the literature on compressed-format courses and found a surprising amount of unanimity.

“There’s not a huge amount of research into the quality of these courses, but what there is almost entirely supports the conclusion that they are as good as semester-long courses. Using a variety of metrics, researchers over the past 20 years have concluded that intensive courses do no disservice to students, and may ever offer some advantages. For example, students tend to be more focused, discussions deeper, and teacher-student relationships closer in compressed courses than in traditional ones.”

The College could, for example, consider Flex courses like the following: Sport and American Society, Cross-Cultural Communication, Living with Quakes,  World Music, Dance in Culture,  US National Government. Highly specialized Career and Technical Education courses could also be taught as a part of the Flex program.

It’s time to think creatively; really outside the box.  Considering Flex courses is a mere beginning.

College Administration appears to continue emphasizing and developing the west side of the County educational opportunities to the detriment of those outside the Prescott area

The disparity in development of post-secondary education between the west side of Yavapai County and the East side is obvious to the Blog when the summer 2018 college class schedule was  reviewed.  It listed summer classes that were scheduled as of April 4, 2018. It  listed 99 classes scheduled for the Prescott Campus on the west side of the County.  The same publication listed 17 classes to be offered on the Verde Valley Campus.  There was one class listed for Prescott Valley and no classes listed for Chino Valley.

The Blog is concerned that the 50 year focus of creating post-secondary educational opportunities for residents on the west side of Yavapai County to the detriment of the 70,000 residents living on the East side of the County continues despite enormous efforts by East County folks to convince board members to better distribute resources and opportunities.

—————————————————————–