UTILIZING SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTORS (SIS) IN A GEOSCIENCE PROGRAM AT THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEVEL

The use of Supplemental Instructors (or SIs) can increase student success in an introductory Physical Geology lecture and laboratory lab environment. An SI is a student who completed the course with a high grade that conducts interactive study sessions with the lecture and/or lab class. In the first three years of the program, all of the SI leaders have been geoscience majors.

A variety of activities have been implemented as part of the program by the SI leaders. Review sessions before both lecture and lab exams were done for each of the three major units. These sessions could include practice quizzes, mock lab exams, and content review games, such as jeopardy, pictionary, name the environment or “grab bag”. A major part of the student work for each unit is the problem set, which is an assignment includes essay questions which are researched, turned in and graded, and returned with feedback to the students from the class instructor. The SI leaders would help identify what is expected on these assignments, and hold study and review sessions for each one throughout the semester. These essays are usually a part of the exam for each unit as well. Finally, in between the exams and problem sets, SI sessions would focus on developing an understanding of specific geologic concepts. This was accomplished through content reading typically coupled with an activity or game.

Int he three years where the SI program has been used, the success rates of the students who attended these sessions were exceptional. As expected, if a class had minimal participation, the success rates were much lower. Furthermore, in cases where only one section of the geology class had an SI leader, the class with the SI achieved a better success rate overall.