CC students design, build wind turbine
In an experimental class, Kalamazoo Valley Community College (Michigan) students designed a wind turbine and built it, reports the Kalamazoo Gazette. Mach 282, a machining class, supports the Wind Energy Technology certificate program to train workers to install, maintain and service wind turbines. Students looked at existing wind turbine designs, but weren’t allowed to copy [...]
Testing for mastery of basic math
Using data to help students master basic skills is a challenge, writes Ann Dwyer, a community college math instructor, on Kitchen Table Math. Inspired by Teach Like a Champion, she started crunching numbers on the department’s final exam. She found 76 percent of questions on whole-number operations were answered correctly. The highest mastery percentages came [...]
College offers fifth-day classes
With the local school district on a four-day week, Pueblo Community College (Colorado) is offering Friday classes for students in fifth grade and up, reports KKTV News. Classes will be offered from 8 am to 3 pm on campus. “The majority of the parents who have called me are wanting their children to get more [...]
Four-year schools must aid transfers
Finally, education leaders are working to help community college students transfer to four-year colleges and universities, writes Stephen Handel, director of College Board’s National Office of Community College Initiatives, in a Chronicle of Higher Education commentary. But most four-year institutions are “silent partners” in the transfer process. California, Arizona, Kentucky and Colorado are streamlining the [...]
From community college to NASA
Seventy-five National Community College Aerospace Scholars got the chance to spend three days at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston designing a robotic space explorer and planning a business, reports Community College Times. Ashley Allman, who earned an associate degree in aeronautical aerospace engineering from Seattle Central Community College, helped design a mock company and [...]
Chef’s advice: Don’t go to culinary school
Should aspiring chefs go to culinary school? “The short answer is no,” says chef Anthony Bourdain, a graduate of Culinary Institute of America, in his new book, Medium Raw. Serious Eats explains: It’s not that Bourdain thinks culinary school is an inherently bad idea. But he warns that even a degree from the very best [...]
College starts in high school
Dual enrollment is taking off in Colorado, thanks to a 2009 law, reports The Coloradoan. Wes Borden, a ninth-grader at Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, learned quickly that high school wasn’t going to be such a piece of cake — partly because he began his year by enrolling in a college-level course. Borden is one of [...]
‘I’ve earned my way to the top’
Utility linemen start at $30 an hour in Southern California. And so do linewomen. The first all-female class earned lineman certificates at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, after four months of grueling training. “I truly enjoy climbing the poles. It’s an adrenaline rush, and I’ve earned my way to the top, literally,” Rita Romero, a [...]
‘Education pays’ even in a recession
Education Pays in 2010, reports College Board, echoing reports in 2004 and 2007. The premium for a college degree has increased with higher wages and lower risk of unemployment. In addition, college graduates are healthier and more active in civic affairs. But the recession has created skepticism about a college degree’s value, reports Inside Higher [...]
Reaching out to high-risk students
To increase graduation rates, community colleges are reaching out to high-risk students, especially Latinos, reports Community College Week. At Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), Pathway to the Baccalaureate supports students from high school to community college to a four-year university. Forty-five percent of Pathway students are Hispanic, compared to only 14 percent of the school’s [...]
