SUPPORTING 2YC GEOSCIENCE STUDENTS AND FACULTY IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND

Supporting the success of 2YC geoscience students at Wake Tech Community College (Wake Tech) is a priority for our eight full time geoscience faculty. As the largest two-year community college in North Carolina, Wake Tech is fairly connected to the national 2YC geoscience community, through attending national workshops, short courses, and professional meetings, during which helpful information and resources have been gathered and shared to increase student success. However, many other 2YC faculty in North Carolina are not as well connected, partly due to the high number of adjunct faculty in the state and lack of resources.

In order to increase student success and collaboration among all North Carolina 2YC geoscience faculty, Wake Tech’s geoscience faculty has hosted local SAGE 2YC (Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education in Two-year Colleges) workshops for the past two years. The workshops provide geoscience faculty at Wake Tech and other participating North Carolina 2YC geoscience faculty with a forum for sharing ideas about supporting student success in the classroom, through the transfer process, and into geoscience careers. Not only have the workshops been great professional development for our own geoscience faculty, but they have also increased collaboration and communication between 2YC geoscience faculty within North Carolina.

The two full-day workshops have explored strategies including (1) effectively teaching with technology and helping students learn to learn; (2) effectively teaching diverse students and complying with ADA requirements; (3) investigating undergraduate research, transfer pathways, and career options for students interested in pursuing geoscience beyond the 2YC; and (4) building collaboration and communication among local faculty interested in 2YC geoscience education.

Wake Tech geoscience faculty are committed to supporting student success and will continue to offer professional development opportunities to support this goal, and we look forward to further collaboration with our North Carolina 2YC geoscience colleagues in the future.