Area Report for Board of Trustees
We have almost completed the second week of the quarter. Reflecting on the beginning of the quarter, Division Chairs reported that faculty are saying it’s nice to be back on campus. Questions are emerging about how the faculty advising process outlined in the new contract will work, and everyone is mindful that we are launching a new process that rests on the implementation of new software. Kudos to the leadership team of Liz Word, Shawna Freeman, and Lynn Hermanson for facilitating this work, and big appreciation to Marc Lentini and Tim Wrye for their ongoing support for these efforts. Concerns about enrollment are also being expressed.
Core Theme 1: ACCESS
Highline College will host COLLEGECON in partnership with Highline Public Schools on Saturday, November 5 from 8:30am – 1pm. We are in the process of recruiting 7-10 faculty volunteers to lead active learning workshops with students, highlighting the range of educational opportunities offered at the college. We also plan to have representation from our ELCAP program to help present additional learning opportunities to families.
Collegecon Program Description: “Discover, explore & plan your future–All 8th -12th grade students and families are invited to COLLEGECON—a free one-day learning experience for students and families. Attendees will engage in in-person, interactive workshops about college and career options, prepare for life after graduation, attend a resource fair, learn how to apply and pay for college and more. Seniors and families will also get help with college applications and FAFSA/WASFA.”
The Hub’s enrollment has tripled since spring quarter. We’re offering 13 hybrid, high-demand, general education courses this fall. 50% of our student enrollment is Running Start, and 65% of the students enrolled at The Hub reside in Federal Way, Auburn, and Kent.
MaST hosted Sea Critter Story Time by King County Library in September, a reoccurring monthly program. Approximately 60 pre-k/kindergarteners virtually joined us for stories and an educational program in the aquarium. MaST hosted the International Coastal Cleanup in September as well, including underwater clean-up with SCUBA divers and land-based trash with help from 24 divers and 48 volunteers. The event was in partnership with SR3, City of Des Moines Marina, Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market, Friends of Saltwater State Park, Seattle Dive Tours, and Washington SCUBA Alliance. Over 200 pounds of trash was collected including over 40 pounds of lost fishing gear.
Core Theme 2: LEARNING
The Math department will host the bi-annual AMATYC (American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges) Math Competition on November 3rd. This competition is held twice a year – once in the fall, then again in late winter/early spring. The top five scorers will receive a gift card. At the end of the year, prizes and scholarships are awarded to the top teams and individuals in the nation. This effort is coordinated by Terry Meerdink, and supported by many math and other Pure and Applied Science instructors on campus.
Eric Baer, Pure and Applied Sciences Division Chair, hosted a workshop” Washington State Earth Sciences Summit: Pathways for undergraduates” (https://sites.google.com/highline.edu/wa-earth-sciences-summit/home ) in Leavenworth, September 11-13th. This was the first-ever meeting of all the bachelors granting institutions and CTCs with geoscience programs to discuss smoothing transfer pathways. It was supported by an NSF grant to Highline and Whatcom Community College. Eric Baer will be co-presenting results of this workshop at the Annual Geologic Society of America Meeting in Denver Colorado in October.
Jennifer Jones (Geography) recently accompanied a diverse group of 12 students (from Highline College, Tacoma Community College and North Seattle College) on a highly rewarding ten-day “Follow the Supply Chain Study Abroad” trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The trip lasted from September 8-19, and was made possible by Highline’s Center of Excellence for Global Trade and Supply Chain Management. Six additional Highline faculty and staff members also traveled to Vietnam during that time, and met with colleagues at partner institutions. All participants were able to enjoy the amazing sights and sounds of Ho Chi Minh City, a vibrant metropolis with a larger population than Washington State.
Students learned about the increasingly important trade linkages between the US and Vietnam, and got a unique “behind the scenes” look at the global supply chain. For example, students studied how Washington State agricultural exports enter the ports and arrive at the wholesale markets in Vietnam, and saw first-hand how shoes designed by a Seattle company are manufactured in factories in Vietnam to be sold worldwide. Students were also able to connect with fellow students and learn from professors at Vietnamese partner universities.
This was a wonderful opportunity for community college students– including some who had not traveled outside of the US previously– to participate in a unique short-term study abroad experience. Students were able to broaden their knowledge of vital global trade and supply chain issues and increase their international and cultural awareness. Several described the trip as “life-changing” and many reported that they would love to do more global travel and/or work in an international capacity in the future.
Patrick Kwon, Math Department, piloted a new teaching technique developed by Dusty Wilson of the Math department. In this, students use “Escape Room” materials to learn problem-solving skills and practice mathematics to get into a treasure chest and receive prizes!
Terry Meerdink of the Math department has been successfully developing “hy-flex” classes to serve students who need mathematics classes that can either be in-class, remote, or asynchronous. As a result, she serves as an important resource for the members of her department and beyond who wish to try this additional modality.
Woody Moses of the LOGS department has been a part of the state-wide steering committee focused on climate education for community and technical colleges, called Climate Solutions. As a result of this, and funds from the legislature, he will be coordinating many different climate-related projects across campus including working with Prof-Tech departments on how to incorporate sustainability in their programs and coordinating professional development opportunities around climate change and climate justice. His goal is to make people aware of climate justice and to activate faculty and staff to get involved so we can mitigate the effects of climate change on the most disadvantaged in our society. He will, with Darry Brice, be trained in climate justice during Winter 2023. In Spring 2023, these leads will mentor ten other faculty to develop climate justice curriculum, which will then be shared across campus.
Colleen Sheridan and Lydia Garas (LOGS department) are having their classes participate in the Small World initiative. This innovative citizen-science program encourages students to pursue careers in science while addressing a worldwide health threat – superbugs and the diminishing supply of effective antibiotics. Their students first learn Biosafety Level 1 and 2 protocols and then collect soil samples and assay them for potential new antibiotics. This project required the extensive support of the Biology lab technicians Mariola Kulawiec, Heather Woodhams, and Cindy Lee.
Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY
In August, the MaST Center gained a School to Work volunteer, a part of Highline’s Community & Employment Services program who continued to volunteer through September. While volunteering at the MaST Center the student is assessed in a working environment to help obtain skills that will be used in future employment. The volunteer assists with tank maintenance, animal feedings, and facility care. September is featuring underwater photography by local divers showcasing local marine life. Interactive display, Get Schooled – the public learned about different animal groups and how animals use numbers to their advantage.
The Hub will be participating in Federal Way Public School’s Life After High School event on Wednesday, October 26th.
Woody Moses (LOGS faculty) is the co-Director of the Washington Chapter of the Northwest Association of Marine Educators (NAME). NAME serves as a nexus of marine and aquatic education in the Pacific Northwest, fosters an organizational culture that represents and respects the diversity of the Pacific Northwest, including but not limited to Indigenous and other BIPOC communities, and works to engage and respect all members and holds their interest in a meaningful way. As co-director of WA- NAME, Woody organizes several different events for educators and their families throughout the year. These include an afternoon sail aboard the Schooner Adventuress, an overnight at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and a weekend of razor clamming at Moclips, WA.
Stephaney Puchalski and Mariola Kulaweic, science lab technicians, started a “Bring Your Kids to College” Program that conducts monthly STEM workshops for children of all ages in the ThunderLab makerspace. Each event had a plethora of hands-on activities that brought many local and campus families to the college to explore science and engineering with their kids and grandkids. The first workshop, on April 22nd, had a theme of “Earth Day” that focused on global issues such as how to filter water better and clean up bird feathers after an oil spill. Feedback from attendees at the first event was overwhelmingly positive and planning for the next one began right away. At “Tinkering with Circuits” on June 4th kids explored electrical circuits using paper, Play-Doh, copper tape, electronic breadboards, conductive thread and more. On August 13th, the theme of “Dinosaur Tracks!” had kids digging up ‘bones’ to assemble into a triceratops skeleton, casting dino tracks in plaster, and trekking across campus to find evidence of dinosaurs right here on campus. Since the first event, attendance has grown – “Bubble Bonanza” on September 24th had over 30 participants – with the greatly appreciated help of faculty and students from the physics club that provided support as volunteer facilitators. Stephaney and Mariola have a schedule for the next year roughed out and would love to see more families attend future events! The next event is October 22.
Reference Librarian Allison Reibel is collaborating with the Highline Q Center and the CCIE to plan a campus scavenger hunt during 2022 LGBTQIA+ Week. Romute Barkauskaite, Gerie Ventura, and Shay Kelley-Wilder will be sharing books, information resources, and pronoun buttons with the campus community during the Highline LGBTQIA+ Resource Fair on Thursday October 13, 2022.
Division Honors and Achievements
In August, Bob Baugher (psychology) gave 5 workshops at the National Compassionate Friends Conference in Houston for Parents whose child has died. He also gave a talk to students in a Death & Dying class at the U. of Hawaii, Manoa. Finally, Bob gave a Zoom talk to people from the Bereavement Network of Hawaii.
Dr. Helen Burn of Highline’s Mathematics Department led a national webinar sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) titled “Math as Gatekeeper to STEMM.” This nationally broadcast webinar held September 8, 2022, shared opportunities for disrupting inequities perpetuated by undergraduate math instruction and highlighted findings from Dr. Burn’s NSF grant Transitioning Learners to Calculus in Community Colleges.
Lydia Garas of the LOGS department recently published a paper on the impacts of malnourishment on gene expression in the small intestine: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.894640/full . The article, published in the Journal Frontiers in Nutrition has generated substantial interest and has already been viewed over 1300 times.
Terry Meerdink has been unanimously elected the new coordinator of the Math Department. She is taking the reins from Razmehr Fardad, who served in the role for the last three years.. The department is one of the two largest on campus. Terry has been a math faculty member for 25 years and previously served as coordinator from 2000-2005. Congratulations Terry!
Aaron Moehlig (Chemistry) has been unanimously elected as the coordinator of the Physical Sciences Department. Physical Sciences is one of the five largest departments on Campus and includes Physics, Astronomy, Geology, and Chemistry. This department, with its multiple disciplines and responsibility for many lab spaces, is one of the most complicated on campus. Aaron has been a faculty member in the Department for nine years. Congratulations Aaron!
MaST Center hired Adam Schare as our new full time Lead Aquarist. Adam started 9/7 and is the primary staff person for taking care of the aquariums and animals.
Carla Whittington (Geology Faculty) has been named to the Board of Directors of the Northwest Geologic Society. The Northwest Geological Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to geoscience education and providing forums for news and insights on Northwest geology and related topics.
And lastly, I would like to call attention to this Thunderword article written by staff reporters Melany Velasco and Jamie Dueck, Students Receive a warm welcome in post pandemic return to campus.
Report submitted Oct. 6, 2022, by Vice President Dr. Emily Lardner