Browse the pages of this site to view information on the math department textbook, individual websites hosted by several professors who teach Calculus, one of which contains a free textbook, and links to videos and other useful resources.

This site is part of an Open Educational Resources pilot program, and was completed in collaboration with Professor Miriam Deutch and her team at the Brooklyn College Library and Professors Sandra Kingan, Jeffrey Suzuki, and John Velling.

Two of the core competencies designated for The First Year Seminar Liberal Arts Math and Science (LMF 101) course are Integrative Learning and Global Learning along with oral communication. These abilities are exercised by students in the Career/Interview Presentation project. The main goal of the assignment is to promote student networking within the scientific community through interviews with an expert in the field. Also the FYS students will conduct background research about their career choices and use their findings to determine if they can be realized when interviewing a professional. The assignment is scaffolded whereby students will learn to use on-line resources to search for information about the profession and use on-line tools to material in preparation for the interview. Students will learn how to write professional emails, network and create PowerPoint slides. After the class presentation, students are asked to write a reflection in their ePortfolio on their career choice and interview experiences. The time dedicated for this project is on the order of weeks and counts for 20% (15% oral presentation and 5 % reflection) of the final grade.

The assignment Interview with a Bilingual: Case Study is a midterm, high-stakes written research paper in ELN101: Introduction to Bilingualism, a course contributing one deposit into the Global Learning Core Competency and Written Communication Ability. The assignment calls for the consideration and application of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic concepts into the discussion of individual multilingualism. By completing this assignment, students gain a deeper understanding of linguistic and cultural diversity in the US society. They learn to position issues in bilingualism against a global backdrop through the consideration of an individual bilingual journey as representative of similar histories and perspectives elsewhere. As such, the assignment asks students to approach the challenges and opportunities afforded by multilingual experience from multiple perspectives and engage with issues of diversity, identity, power, and privilege.
ELN101: Introduction to Bilingualism is a course housed in the Linguistics Program in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition. It is a writing-intensive, urban study, ePortfolio course offered in two modalities ‰ÛÒ face-to-face and hybrid. The course also fulfills LaGuardia‰Ûªs urban study graduation requirement. ELN 101 is depositing for Liberal Arts: Social Science & Humanities and four options in Liberal Arts at the midpoint for the Global Learning Core Competency and Written Communication Ability. Students in the course have typically taken the ENG 101-102 sequence and many liberal arts majors are concurrently enrolled in ENG 103: The Research Paper. The ENG sequence of courses provides an introduction to the skill of writing with power and clarity ‰ÛÒ the ability to combine vocabulary with grammatical proficiency, fluency, and cogent organization. The ELN 101 course, also attracting diverse cohorts of students from outside the Liberal Arts majors, including Business, Computer Science, and Natural Science majors, continues this task of teaching writing in the liberal arts tradition, emphasizing, in turn, the writing conventions of social sciences.
The assignment Interview with a Bilingual: Case Study takes several weeks to complete as it incorporates an authentic primary research experience for community college students. Students are introduced to the qualitative research paradigm through the case study methodology. To complete the assignment, students design an interview scheme, conduct individual interviews, analyze data, and present findings in written case study reports. The assignment is worth 15% of the final grade. The assignment in its earlier and the revised versions has been implemented in ELN 101 for a number of years. For the majority of students taking the course this is one of the highlights of the course because, typically, they interview bilinguals who have been in their lives (i.e., friends and relatives). Students report learning unexpected, new, and surprising facts and events from the lives of their intimate friends and family members. Students also report enjoying primary research experience afforded by this assignment, usually their first experience analyzing primary data in a college class. By the same token, being the first-time experience, data analysis poses the biggest challenge in the assignment and is accompanied by multiple staged assignments during which students receive ongoing feedback from the instructor.
The assignment in its final version has benefitted from the feedback of LaGuardia colleagues coordinating and participating in the Learning Matters Mini-Grant 2018-2019.
LaGuardia‰Ûªs Core Competencies and Communication Abilities

The Changing Face of Food is an assignment developed for the SCN 240 Food and Culture course tagged as a pathways course in the Urban Studies discipline and is designated Writing Intensive. The assignment also fulfills the Global Learning Core-Competency and Written Ability. It is a high stakes assignment, accounting for 20% of the final course grade and is located at the capstone level of the Nutrition and Culinary Management Program's Core Competency program curriculum map.
The purpose of the assignment is to help students explore and understand the changing food culture in the United States (US), New York State (NYS), New York City (NYC) and abroad where students cover topics related to the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) seed supplier giant, heirloom foods, major food companies that shaped food choices, organic farming, Slow Food Movement (SFM), Farm to Table initiative, food insecurity, Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program (SNAP), and Single Stop on Campus. This assignment has evolved based on feedback from the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) and the Global Learning Charrettes workshops held at LaGuardia Community College. Feedback from WID led to the provision of a letter grade to each draft reflective of the quality of work. This is particularly useful to students who do better with more concrete criteria to assess their progress. Additionally, providing clarity on the expectations for each draft served well because it was more effective to grade a smaller portion of the students work by focusing on areas for improvement rather than repeatedly having to correct consistent errors throughout the paper. Feedback from the Global Learning Charrettes, led to the tweaking of an assignment question in order to improve the ability for students to score on the rubric. For instance, in the updated assignment, students additionally explain Monsanto's monopoly on the sale of seeds to farmers in US and abroad and identify its heavy impact (such as the mass suicides of farmers in India and lawsuits regarding re-use of seeds etc.) LaGuardia's Core Competencies and Communication Abilities Main Course Learning Objectives: Research the impact of large business on agriculture. Review the impact of advertising on the US food voice/culture. Learn about the origins, and philosophy of the Slow Food Movement and its impact in the US. Explore the Farm to Table Initiative in NYS/NYC. Examine food insecurity in the NYS/NYC. Practice the use of in-text and end of paper citations in the APA format. Articulate personal thoughts and opinions through a reflection on topics researched.

One of the major components of the First Year Seminar in Natural Sciences (NSF101) is to introduce students to library research. The library orientation session exposes students to library resources such as books, videos, journals, databases. The "Choosing Your Career" assignment reinforces using the library by searching for information on a career, retrieving sources from select databases and evaluating the information found in a written reflection. Reflection questions are added to guide the student in their search and their approach to their career choice.
The goal is to integrate library literacy as part of their developing college learning skills. This assignment effectively introduces information literacy as the ability to find and use information and critically think about the information found when deciding on a career path.
This assignment consists of the following;
90-minute library orientation session (one lecture session)
followed up by library research (students' time)
initial draft (hard copy for instructor comments)
written revision (students' time)
a final written 1500-word research reflection. (deposited on student ePortfolio)
Objectives
1. Identify one science profession that interests you
2. Research the profession using library resources
3. Write a 1500-word reflection including the questions posed

By paying particular attention to the intersection of films, literature and cities, this course explores the construction of urban spaces and how they are depicted in film and literature. Through an array of primary and secondary sources, students will be exposed to the dark city and film noir, the city of love (Paris), the city in ruins and the divided city (Berlin, Belfast, Beirut), utopias and dystopias (fantastic and virtual cities), ghettos and barrios, the city as queer playground, the global city and cities in globalization. By comparing myriad writings and films about city life and culture, students will also explore the ways in which urban spaces reflect the social realities of race, class, age, gender, and ethnicity and how power relations are organized by these social differences which, in turn, produce urban patterns and processes.

This is a culminating group project for students that creates an opportunity for them to apply what they have learned about 1. child-focused public policy and 2. identifying OER resources. The project invites students to draw on research literature that has been discussed in class + identify OER resources to come up with their own public policy proposal.

ENG295 World Literatures Written in English is the capstone course for the Writing and Literature major. Students in their final year at LaGuardia take the course before many of them move on to English programs at Hunter, Queens, Brooklyn, and City Colleges. This section of the course focused on South African literature from right before the fall of Apartheid (1990) through the present. Throughout the semester, we discussed the question of individual responsibility in relation to the readings, particularly in Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's A Human Being Died That Night and JM Coetzee's Disgrace. These particular texts brought up questions of how we deal with stories of unspeakable trauma and what is the price that society has to pay in order to overcome them. The ethics of individual responsibility is central to these texts. In addition, we also had a guest speaker who visited the class and graciously told us the story of her own upbringing in Apartheid South Africa. Her descriptions of the way skin and hair became markers of racial categorization held resonance in the United States' own history of racial oppression. I thought these discussions would culminate in an in-class reflective essay that would allow the students to make connections between their own experiences and those that they read and heard about coming from the other side of the world. The glue that would bind South Africa and the United States was a poem by Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric. The concrete experience of micro-aggression captured in the small prose poem would allow the students to compare and contrast the systematic oppression of South Africa and the current pernicious and pervasive forms of racism present in our own society. This reflective essay would be an opportunity for the students to synthesize the discussions and readings from throughout the semester and bring it back to their own experience. In the end, the assignment captured all three of the dimensions found in the Global Learning Competency and expected students to demonstrate advanced the writing skills.
LaGuardia's Core Competencies and Communication Abilities
Main Course Learning Objectives: Enable students to understand evolving literary traditions in the global context. Compare and contrast historical and social periods across geo-political boundaries. Enable students to compare and contrast historical and social periods across geo-political boundaries. Reinforce and develop research and writing skills acquired in English 101 and 102. Reinforce and develop critical thinking skills needed to interpret and analyze literary texts.

This two-part assignment is one learning check for students in an undergraduate nursing course on women’s health issues. Students view/listen to class slides and review open access materials on climate change and women’s health. The assignment is designed to demonstrate understanding of the material and students’ critical thinking about possible pattern changes, its impact on women, and how nurses can intervene to enhance women’s health and well-being.

The Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) is an advanced practice registered nurse with expertise in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of specialty patient populations. In addition to direct care, the CNS role expands to other areas including research, education, quality improvement, and inter professional teamwork. Creating a detailed CNS Job description helps to clarify the role.

This assignment is designed for First Year Seminar -- Liberal Arts: Humanities and Social Science majors.
The main course objectives addressed are that students: Demonstrate engagement in the life of the college and their use of key academic support services, advisement, and co-curricular organizations and activities critical to meeting those goals. Show growing mastery of the writing, reading, and speaking skills, as well as the study and management strategies essential for college success.
The primary purposes of this written and oral report are to encourage students to discover and use the campus resources and co-curricular opportunities critical for their success at LaGuardia and to further their skill in public speaking and writing. But it also goes a long way in helping students who have trouble participating in class to speak up and to practice public speaking in preparation for the PowerPoint presentation they will give at the end of the semester. In addition, the roundtable discussion offers guided practice in active listening and note-taking, underscores the habit of interdependent thinking and learning, and fosters classroom community by giving students a chance to hear about and respond to one another‰Ûªs interests and concerns.
Scaffolding: Students are introduced to college resources in the lecture and in an ePortfolio exercise and scavenger hunt that asks them to visit the Health Center, Writing Center, and other offices where they can get help. They then attend our college club fair, Spring Fest, together as a class, and in the lecture practice using journalism‰Ûªs 5 W‰Ûªs to gather information and write a report. For the roundtable discussion, the whole class is seated in a circle and before giving their individual reports, students share tips on effective public speaking and active listening. They also are directed to fill out the attached active listening worksheet and ask at least one question, and are encouraged to be supportive of classmates. Listening, writing, and speaking are included in the evaluation of the report. (See the rubric, attached.) The idea of interdependent learning is also highlighted in a class discussion of the required text, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, as we consider what promotes the protagonist‰Ûªs success and the role that assistance plays in every hero‰Ûªs quest. Finally, students discuss the campus resources and co-curricular activities that helped them in a final reflection essay at term‰Ûªs end.
This assignment is worth 10% of the final grade. It takes approximately 2 weeks to complete. Each student presentation lasts 3-5 minutes.

Asset-based Community Assessment Project
This group assignment is based on a template that is provided within this assignment. This project provides students with opportunities to learn the values, and skills necessary for applying an asset-based approach when assessing a community.

This assignment was developed for students in SYF 101 Psychology who attend a 1-hour library session. This session is aligned with the Inquiry and Problem Solving core competency in terms of exposing students to Searching as Strategic Exploration and the Integrative Learning core competency in terms of analyzing Scholarship as a Conversation. In the first of two parts, this session will focus on building subject knowledge and finding background information in encyclopedias. Students will learn how encyclopedias can offer different perspectives on the same topic; they will also create an APA citation for an encyclopedia entry. In order to gain a better understanding of subject knowledge students will create a concept map on ADHD or a topic related to their assignment, which will also help students narrow a research topic from general to specific. After covering background information in Part 1, students will discuss the difference between news, popular, and scholarly sources as it relates to their research. Information from diverse sources will be examined as existing on a spectrum, rather than in a hierarchy. As a result, students will begin to understand scholarship as a conversation and that different sources meet different research needs. Students will also be introduced to a discipline-specific database like Psych INFO. Again, citation will be covered, this time for scholarly articles. LaGuardia's Core Competencies and Communication Abilities Main Course Learning Objectives: Students will be introduced to the concept of library academic resources Students will learn the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of information

Contemporary Issues in Curating will offer an introduction to curatorial practice, examining the processes of exhibition-making from intersectional, cultural, theoretical, and pragmatic perspectives. Since the Coronavirus has greatly altered the way we produce and consume culture, this class will consider ways in which making, showing and experiencing art beyond the “white cube” might be reimagined. The course will look at historical and contemporary examples of curatorial practices that rethink modes of accessibility and equitable spaces. As more and more cultural programs have moved online, we will question and participate in this realm using the Baruch College Art Collection to organize a digital exhibition that is then collectively designed to operate within this networked, screen-based culture.

This course will prepare you to think through and respond critically to historic and emerging cultures of curating and museum cultures. You will have the opportunity to analyze the field of curating and respond to what makes a “good” curator in the 21st century. You will not only learn to criticize but to understand why museum apparatuses of display and certain art historical cannons exist. Using the Baruch College Art Collection, you will curate an exhibition, articulating and communicating artwork for various public audiences, while understand the basics of digital software to organize an online project for which you can use in your professional portfolio.

This open pedagogy assignment is a semester-long project for an introductory general biology course for biology majors. Working in pairs or small groups, students will make a 3 to 5 minute video explaining concepts from the course learning objectives. Students will apply a creative commons license and publish their videos on CUNY Academic Works (or another appropriate platform), where they will be available to future introductory biology students as learning resources.
Learning outcomes:
At the end of this project, students will be able to do the following: Effectively teach a concept from the course to a general audience Identify and correctly cite appropriate sources for a scientific presentation (both text and images), including at least one primary source Work collaboratively with peers to create something more than an individual could on their own Incorporate your unique perspective and relate your background to the course topics Provide constructive feedback to peers

This assignment was created for a Creative Writing class called: Writing About New York.