NLC Announces Innovation Grant Recipients

Northeast Lakeview College Announces Innovation Grant Recipients

Five Projects at Northeast Lakeview College receive funding from the Alamo Colleges District Foundation Innovation Grant Program.  The Faculty/Staff Innovation Grant Program encourages faculty and staff to provide innovative instruction and/or co-curricular support that positively impacts student learning, persistence, and/or completion.  Each college within the Alamo Colleges District received $10,000 to be awarded to projects that meet this criteria. 

The five projects awarded at Northeast Lakeview College include:

Nutritional Facts Analysis of Common Edible Plants of Texas

Dr. Wes Adams, Professor, Kinesiology

Amount funded: $2,125

The purpose of the project is to identify the nutritional facts of common edible plants that are native to Texas in order to provide students with nutritional information that can be used in the Wilderness Survival class taught at Northeast Lakeview College (NLC). Wilderness survival was created to offer students a basic understanding on how to survive in the wild with nothing but the resources available in nature.  There are no comprehensive publications specific to Texas and students attending this class need a resource to be used as a reference that can develop their skills. The information gathered through this project can also be shared in the Nutrition courses taught at NLC. The information may eventually be published to help future researchers in areas of nutrition and wilderness survival. 

Writing for Science Seminar

Dr. Brittany Chozinski, Associate Professor, Sociology

Dr. Megan Grimsley, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology

Amount Funded: $1,500 . 

The purpose of the project is to assist students in improving their writing, specifically in the natural, social, and behavioral sciences. There are student support services currently being offered at the college that assist students with improving their writing.  However, writing for the sciences can be a unique challenge as it requires an increased degree of objectivity, greater critical thinking skills, and the ability to synthesize evidence from multiple empirical sources that builds and supports a conclusion.  During the length of the project, faculty members from the various sciences will host workshops to address the challenges students encounter when writing for the sciences.  Five sessions on varying topics are being proposed.  The goal of the project is for students to learn how to write better for the sciences, which will make them more prepared to complete a science course (s). The project also aligns with the AlamoINSTITUTES model to help students develop skills specific to their future career fields, making them more competitive in the job market.

The Tentacles of Annexation

Sabrina Hammel, Assistant Professor, Government

Amount Funded: $2,125

This is a service learning project with the goals of coordinating a community cleanup event for the City of Converse and identifying two households, where elderly and/or disabled residents might need assistance with minor home repairs and cleanup. Additionally, the project would facilitate a community event to provide helpful information to residents of newly annexed communities in the Converse area, including the Glen and Camelot II.  As annexed communities, the session would provide the residents with helpful information on what services are now available to them and what services will eventually be offered, and discuss the timeline for annexation.  Additionally, Northeast Lakeview College will partner with Neighborhood First Alliance and the County Commissioner’s Office (Precinct 4) to provide an on-site job fair at the session.  Students enrolled in GOVT 2305 and 2306 will document the project in their portfolios that can then be used for service learning credit.  Additionally, students will actively learn how interest groups can influence state and local elections to facilitate change, and understand government’s responsibility to its citizens.

Thinking About Thinking: Improving Students’ Metacognition to Support Learning

Daisy Carmona, Academic Program Coordinator

Tracey Mendoza, Dean, Learning Resources

Amount Funded: $2,125

The purpose is to create either stand‐alone or embeddable self‐paced CANVAS modules to increase students’ awareness of how they absorb, monitor, and assess information and process it into their own knowledge base. Three to five courses will pilot Thinking About Thinking: Improving Students’ Metacognition to Support Learning (TAT 101), and student learning objectives include identifying the five strategies of metacognition, identifying order learning practices, defining weaknesses in the learning process with awareness of your own, and differentiating strengths and weaknesses in a learning process. Once the modules have been piloted and refined based on feedback from students, TAT 101 will be made available to any faculty member as embedded course modules and to any student as a stand- alone, self-paced process.

Nighthawk Garden

Robert Vaughn, Library Assistant III

Don Carrington, Academic Unit Assistant, Fine & Performing Arts

Amount Funded: $2,125

The purpose is to create two gardens on the NLC Campus both of which will be maintained by students in the Garden Club. The gardens will be used in various classes for educational purposes. The first garden will be a botanical garden and the second garden will be used to grow a variety of vegetables and herbs. During the process, students will learn personal responsibility, along with teamwork and social skills as the garden is developed. The ultimate goal is to utilize the gardens to engage with the local community.  A cross-section of courses have already been identified in which instructors will utilize the gardens in their curriculums.