Maricopa Native Seed Library: A Multi-College Collaboration that Harnesses Experiential Learning and Community Engagement
Niccole Cerveny, Mesa Community College; Elena Ortiz, Phoenix College, Danielle Cowan, Scottsdale Community College
This project addresses a community need by engaging students in high-impact educational practices including service-learning, civic engagement, and undergraduate research. Students will learn about the importance of native plants, how to identify them, how to collect and process native seeds, and germinate/propagate native plants. Their work will form the backbone to supply the seed libraries at Phoenix College, Mesa Community College, Scottsdale Community College, and GateWay Community College who have an established seed library distribution from FY2020-2021. There will be learning opportunities in partnership with the Tonto National Forest, Arizona Native Plant Society, and the Southwest Native Agriculture Center. We will introduce students to other ways of knowing, especially indigenous ways of knowing such as connections to land and place that can be explored through native plants.
Developing and implementing a service-learning curriculum for nutrition students to facilitate societal impact through technology to innovatively address food insecurity within our campus community
Stephanie Green, Phoenix College
This project will incorporate emerging technology to convert whole and prepared foods into shelf-stable products to (1) revitalize innovative teaching and learning practices that will (2) expand collaboration opportunities for and (3) increase the value of the program. The introduction of freeze-drying methods will be a new and atypical affordance in a community college setting. Freeze-dried and shelf-stable food production is a well-established and growing market in the food industry however it is underrepresented within the food, nutrition, and culinary offerings in the MCCCD curriculum. The introduction of this technology would not only be relevant but it would also be practical and applicable. The market trends for freeze-dried food are growing as well as the trend for startups. Additionally, the costs of necessary equipment have come down in price and are affordable as consumer appliances. The democratization of this technology makes the learning prospects grounded and practical for students who want to capitalize on this type of career and technical education (CTE) learning as the low barrier to entry and increase potential for startups and homegrown entrepreneurship is more accessible.
Building a Virtual 3d Art Collection/Gallery
David Bradley and Ryan Wentzel, Paradise Valley Community College; Leroy Timblin, Scottsdale Community College
This project will create a virtual 3d gallery of objects belonging to PVCC for the purpose of instructing students in fine arts classes, art history classes, and engineering classes in how to use photogrammetry, as well as allowing the sharing of the gallery via the internet with anyone anywhere in the world. Students in the arts and engineering as well as other disciplines need to be conversant with this type of technology in order to create new uses for the technology and to be competitive in the workforce. This is an innovative use of photogrammetry for fine arts uses and will provide a valuable experience for students.
Screen Dances: An Innovative Response to a Pandemic
Sonia Valle, Paradise Valley Community College
This project will focus on an innovative approach to dance making and embrace a new dance genre known as Screen Dance. Screen Dance is a unique cinematic experience that merges cinematography and choreography. It is a new and innovative visual language, which was amplified by the current COVID-19 pandemic. With the inability to come together to perform live in a theatrical setting, screen dances provided an alternative and made it possible to present dance in a virtual setting. Screen dances incorporate video editing techniques to polish and present dance as a dance film in which dance plays a central role. This project is important for student success because we need to prepare dance students with new and emerging technologies that eventually will provide an edge to their education and artistry.