Each student in the Fall ’08 Geography 360 was assigned a small group of Sagan National Colloquium students (taking the Colloquium for .25 credit) to assist with their project.
The results were mixed: some of the SNC students were engaged and helpful, others disengaged or even absent from the projects.
Working with and managing people is a skill that takes quite a bit of experience. Most college students don’t gain such experiences in college. Thus look at this as a potentially useful skill you are learning.
I asked the Fall ’08 Geography 360 students to send me a few comments on their experiences working with the SNC students. Those comments, mostly unedited, are below. Hopefully these comments might help students in the Spring 2009 Geography 360 course.
Please review these comments and let me or Paula Travis know if you have any questions whatsoever.
Molly Verhoff: In the beginning with my group of six it was a nightmare because no one would respond on time, some people never responded, and everyone had conflicts with their schedule. After the first few meetings some people dropped out and others had never responded so I stopped contacting them. This left me with 3 students and it was manageable. I made a Facebook group and sent out a group message with meeting times and reminders. One of the girls had a sports conflict for a lot of our meetings so I had her come when she could and gave her an alternate assignment (research on us landfills and recycling) so she could still get credit.
I don’t have any great advice to give. I know two girls in my group went to the same high school so they liked to come to the meeting because it was the only time they saw each other in college. I guess one thing that is good is to learn if any of them are friends because they can remind each other of the meeting times. I would also recommend a Facebook group because it makes contacting everyone really easy and they won’t delete it like an email.
Sydney Fitzpatrick: Working with students in the Sagan National Colloquium course was an educational experience. Trying to get multiple people together who had varying interest in the project was difficult and tedious. Students did not realize that they would need to do more work than what could be done sitting at a computer. I told any student that wasn’t interested in the project to let me know immediately so I could stop trying to involve them. When actually gathering data and talking to people needed for the project, it was very hard to find a time that fit their schedule, so I gave up and told them when I was doing things and that they had to come to one of these activities to get course credit. Since working with the students face to face seemed to pose a big problem, I gave them assignments that had to do project and then asked to meet with them individually to discuss what they did. I have met with one student but have yet to hear from the other two. Although they all seemed interested in trying to make biodiesel, they thought that they would be able to jump right in and start producing biodiesel. They really don’t want to deal with all the preparation that goes into a project that could become very big.
I think that in order to improve retention, communication and involvement; the students need to be better informed about the projects up front before being assigned to them. We were very rushed to pick a project and give a proposal that would inform students what we hoped to be accomplishing. SNC students should be well informed on the time and activity commitment that they need to put in. I would also try to advertise the SNC class to upper classmen. Older students know how to better manage their time, and they have a better idea of what they are interested in and might want to get involved in. And my advice to students that are heading the projects to try to work with the students, but don’t put all your effort into try to get them involved. Just do the project with or without them.
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Posted by John Krygier 
