This project is adapting, implementing, and assessing Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) materials and methods in the chemistry courses of Harold Washington College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, and William Rainey Harper College (HC) in Palatine, Illinois. The project is implementing POGIL materials in at least 13 chemistry courses, directly affecting up to 400 community college students at the two colleges.
The intellectual merit and broader impact of this project is based on the prior success of POGIL at a variety of undergraduate institutions. POGIL has been demonstrated to improve students' ability to understand scientific content, and also students' ability to practice scientific methods. The learning and attitudinal gains POGIL students have experienced are similar to gains experienced by students with an authentic undergraduate research experience, and this project may prove to be an effective way of recruiting and retaining community college students into STEM majors and, ultimately, STEM careers. Groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences make up a majority of the HWC student population (44% Black, 18% Hispanic), as well as a significant portion of the HC student population (17% Hispanic, 3% Black), increasing the broader impact of this project.
Because of this project, participating faculty are becoming qualified to address issues relating to successful POGIL dissemination, adaptation, implementation, and assessment at community colleges and with underrepresented student groups. This expertise is being shared through presentations at local and regional professional conferences, as well as being published in the relevant literature and presented at national meetings. In addition, this project is augmenting the current national POGIL Project assessment and dissemination effort by providing a significant amount of assessment data relating to two-year, minority-serving institutions and their student bodies.
