SoftChalk Challenge honorable mention winner at SPC

Judy Macdonald, an adjunct instructor in St. Petersburg College’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program and Clearwater faculty tutor, was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2013 SoftChalk Lesson Challenge.

Macdonald entered the contest after creating SoftChalk lessons to provide a more enriching experience for her students. The challenge began with a student who was struggling in her class. Finding that the student learned best auditorily, she thought she could help him by adding video and audio to her lessons. To learn more about those tools, she attended SPC Web & Instructional Technology Services (WITS) learning events, first on audio and video and then on other tools that would help her support this student. She soon found that these strategies were a beneficial resource for all of her students. She ultimately chose to use SoftChalk since it incorporated not only audio and video but other interactive elements that reinforced the students’ learning and gave them immediate feedback.

Macdonald then approached the Center of Excellence for Teaching and Learning (CETL) at SPC and was awarded a mini-grant to create more lessons to share with other faculty and students. As a result of both the training and support of the WITS Instructional Design Technologists and the grant from CETL, Macdonald has created a collection of self-paced English language lessons.

Learn more about the SoftChalk Challenge and to view Macdonald’s entry.

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Earth Day events at SPC

Earth Day volunteers work to clean up Habitat Park at the Seminole Campus.

Volunteers remove Brazilian pepper trees on the Tarpon Springs campus.

Various SPC campuses recognized Earth Day this month with events ranging from cleanups to a tree planting.

The Tarpon Springs Campus celebrated Earth Day on Saturday, April 20. About 30 students participated. Part of the group picked up trash in a natural Sandhill Crane site on the campus and along U.S. 19.

Another group from Tarpon Springs cut down Brazilian pepper trees on campus. The trees are an invasive, exotic species detrimental to Florida’s ecosystems. The Earth Day celebration was led by Assistant Professor Kelli Stickrath. Pizza lunch was provided by the campus’ Student Government Association.

At the Seminole Campus, a tree planting ceremony was held on Monday, April 22. A group also gathered on April 20 for a Natural Habitat Park cleanup.

Earlier in the month, SPC Downtown held an Earth Day seminar to teach people about recycling. Those who pledged not to waste the Earth’s resources, received a SPC Downtown aluminum bottle.

The Clearwater and St. Petersburg/Gibbs campuses held quad events this week. Clearwater was host to Dr. R.E. Cycler. With initials that stand for “Robotic Environmentalist,” the robot greeted people and crushed and recycled cans. It was the first time the robot, sponsored by the Engineering and Science and Adventure clubs, was on display in the Tampa Bay area.

See more photos on the college’s Facebook page.

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National biological honor society to launch new SPC chapter

Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society, dedicated to improving the understanding and appreciation of biological study and extending boundaries of human knowledge through scientific research, will start a new chapter at St. Petersburg College. The TriBeta chapter’s installation ceremony will be held on May 2 at the Clearwater Campus.

Since TriBeta’s founding in 1922, more than 200,000 persons have been accepted into lifetime membership. More than 553 chapters have been established throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The society is for students, particularly undergraduates.

Sixty students in the college’s baccalaureate program for biology have been invited to become charter members of the new Tau Delta Tau chapter at SPC. The installation ceremony starts at 7 p.m. in the Arts Auditorium on the Clearwater Campus with a reception to follow. Dr. Lee Sutton, District Director for Region 1 of the Southeast Division of Beta Beta Beta, will officiate the installation ceremony. All are welcome.

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SPC’s Clearwater Campus remembers Bill Hall

Bill Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A ceremony was held Wednesday, April 17, at St. Petersburg College’s Clearwater Campus dedicating the Critical Thinking Bench in honor of Bill Hall.

The bench is located in front of the new Ethics and Social Sciences Building and provides a view of the campus quad.

Hall’s mother attended the ceremony along with more than thirty others, including students and members of faculty and staff. Hall, a longtime Senior Instructional Specialist, died last August.

Hall began working at St. Petersburg Junior College in 1988 as a part-time Instructional Assistant in the Learning Support Center. He became a full-time employee in 1990 teaching writing and reading labs. An alumnus of SPJC, he was a finalist for the college’s prestigious Apollo Award in 1989.

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Robotic visitor to give eco-friendly lessons

Think of Dr. R.E. Cycler as a real-life WALL-E of Pixar fame. Neither is human. Both run on solar panels and teach people about sustainability and being eco-friendly.

Dr. R.E. Cycler is the name given to a robot from Florida Robotics Inc. of Orlando, which will be spending most of April 22 at St. Petersburg College’s Clearwater Campus in recognition of Earth Day. With initials that stand for “Robotic Environmentalist,” it will be stationed on the campus’ quad to both “greet” people and crush and recycle cans.

This will be the first time the robot has been on display in the Tampa Bay area, said John Williams, a Natural Sciences instructor at SPC.

The Engineering and Science and Adventure clubs are co-sponsoring the robot’s visit, said Williams, the faculty advisor for the Engineering Club.

SPC Earth Day events Habitat Park Cleanup – Seminole Campus – April 20 from 9 a.m. to noon Debris Cleanup – Tarpon Springs Campus – April 20 from 9 a.m. to noon Quad Event – St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus – April 25 from noon to 2 p.m. * Learn more about getting a bachelor’s degree in sustainability management from SPC.

“We just thought it was a unique thing to do,” Williams said. Not only does Dr. Cycler promote the recycling effort and Earth Day but renewable energy.

Meeting Dr. Cycler should be an experience. Standing about 5-feet-tall, it talks and blinks its eyes while crushing a 12-ounce aluminum can down to about an inch thick in approximately 30 seconds. All of the recycling process is visible through the robot’s see-through “stomach.” Plus the robot breathes, sort of.

When you feed it with a can, it blows out a minty-smelling breath, Williams said.

Free drinks and snacks will be provided at the Dr. Cycler meet-and-greet. The robot will be at the campus from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. The event is open to the public.

Watch Dr. Cycler on YouTube.

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Project teaches students how to become a ‘Polished Professional’

Students from the Downtown and Clearwater campuses met with Tampa Bay area professionals in the first annual Polished Professional Project held in March.

A group of St. Petersburg College students last month took part in the first annual Polished Professional Project, a program designed to offer information that will help them become respected business professionals.

As part of the inaugural event, students visited four Tampa Bay area organizations on March 15. The visits offered them an opportunity for self-development by identifying and polishing skills needed to succeed in the workplace. Students visited:

• Tech Data Corporation
• Clerk of Circuit Court
• C1 Bank
• City of St. Petersburg

Professionals from various industries shared valuable insights with students about organizational values and norms as well as information about the factors that impact a person’s professional image. The open discussions also delved into the steps needed for building better business relationships across industry lines.

The program offered a great way for students to gain an understanding of the environment surrounding certain fields of expertise, said Pablo Gonzalez, a student at SPC Downtown Center. “I also learned that your reputation at the workplace really makes a difference,” he said.

Kathy Smith, a Paralegal Studies student at the Clearwater Campus, said, “The experience was extremely valuable. Schooling is great for learning facts. However, the test, in reality, is what one applies in real life. Getting employment is the most important test in life. These executives gave us valuable insight that will help earn extra points on the job and in an interview.”

The event was organized by Dr. Rachel Bennett, Paralegal Studies, and Marta Przyborowski, Outreach Specialist for SPC Downtown and Midtown. For more information, please contact Marta Przyborowski at 727-341-7973 or Przyborowski.marta@spcollege.edu.

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Auditions for SPC Theater Department’s summer production this month

Auditions for Neil Simon’s Fools When: April 23 – 24 from 4 – 7 p.m. Where: Arts Auditorium, Clearwater Campus What: Prepare nothing! The auditions will consist of readings from the script.

The St. Petersburg College’s Theater Department has announced that it is holding auditions later this month for its summer production of Neil Simon’s Fools.

The Plot:

Leon Tolchinsky is ecstatic. He’s landed a terrific teaching job in an idyllic Russian hamlet. But when he arrives he finds people sweeping dust from the stoops back into their houses and people milking upside down to get more cream.

The town has been cursed with Chronic Stupidity for 200 years and Leon’s job is to break the curse. No one tells him that if he stays over 24 hours and fails to break the curse, he too becomes stupid. But he has fallen in love with a girl so stupid that she has only recently learned how to sit down.

Roles available:

• Leon Tolchinsky (male) Early 20s. Bright, energetic and thinks quickly in an emergency.
• Snetsky (male) Early 20s. A very simple shepherd. He is an innocent.
• Magistrate (male or female) Age unknown. Stately and in charge.
• Slovich (male) Age unknown. The butcher. He is one sandwich short of a picnic but a very nice guy.
• Mishkin (male or female) Age unknown. A postal worker.
• Yenchna (female) Age unknown. A bit of a shrew. A good business woman. Possible Yiddish accent.
• Dr. Zubritsky (male) 30s or 40s. Very matter of fact. Thinks he has it all figured out. He doesn’t.
• Lenya Zubritsky (female) 30s or 40s. The doctor’s wife. A hard-working mother who is a bit scattered.
• Sophia Zubritsky (female) Late teens, early 20s. A lovely, simple girl. Just recently learned to sit down.
• Count Gregor Yousekevitch (male) 30s or 40s. Confused villain. He just doesn’t understand why no one likes him!

Rehearsals start May 21 and performances will be June 26 – 30. A detailed rehearsal schedule will be provided at the auditions.

For more information please contact: Scott Cooper at cooper.scott@spcollege.edu.

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Class to help quit smoking offered at Clearwater Campus

A free class to help current St. Petersburg College employees and students quit their tobacco habit starts this month at the Clearwater Campus.

The six-week course begins April 16 and runs until May 21. The class offers participants tools, such as nicotine patches, to help them succeed in quitting smoking and ending tobacco use. The class is part of a joint partnership with Pinellas County.

Contact Beth Woodbury at ewoodbury@pinellascounty.org or (727) 464-3768 to register. For more information about the course, check the SPC Wellness blog.

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April 4 symposium at SPC spotlights the ‘State of Our Reefs’

The college’s Clearwater Campus will be the site for the State of Our Reefs II, a symposium featuring the work of St. Peterburg College students and others monitoring the status of the area’s reefs.

The event, hosted by Reef Monitoring Inc., will be held on Thursday, April 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the campus’ Fine Arts Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

At the symposium, students Charles Lutz, Jessica Small and Cory Trier will present their research on marine sediments adjacent to natural and artificial reefs and the biological life in them. These studies, conducted under the direction of SPC Natural Science instructor Dr. Monica Lara, have been presented at several college Honors Program presentations. Also at the symposium:

• Slide and video presentations from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Lab in St. Petersburg showing research on the Goliath Grouper population in the Tampa Bay area
• A slide presentation from the coordinator of the Pinellas County Artificial Reef Program about the award-winning county reef building program
• Participants will be able to see some of the equipment used in ongoing research projects

The first symposium, held last spring, drew a crowd of about 150 people including divers, fishermen and conservationists. Refreshments will be served at this year’s symposium.

The start of Reef Monitoring Inc.

Reef Monitoring Inc. is a non-profit corporation formed in 2010 by a group of marine science faculty on the Clearwater Campus. The group trains local sports divers, many who are SPC scuba students, to conduct underwater surveys of local and artificial reefs. Classes are offered free at a local dive shop pool. So far, 43 divers have been trained and more than 100 surveys completed.

Lessons learned following a red tide bloom in the Tampa Bay area water in 2005 prompted the group’s formation.

Red tide is the common name for a harmful form of microscopic algae that turns the ocean a rust color. The bloom in the area water killed a large number of fish. The decomposing fish depleted oxygen levels on the sea floor, killing more aquatic life on the reefs.

After the red tide bloom, SPC Natural Science instructor Dr. Heyward Mathews and one of his marine biology students began a small research project documenting the recovery process of an artificial and nearby natural reef. For the next few years, they made fish and invertebrate counts to determine how long before these reefs returned to their previous population levels.

During this study, the two found it difficult to determine when the recovery was complete because of the lack of data prior to the red tide bloom. This helped prompt the formation of Reef Monitoring Inc.

Reef clean-ups

Surveys completed by divers trained by the group revealed a surprising number of old crab traps left on the reefs. Rope from traps on the sea floor poses a danger to wildlife and can ensnare birds, turtles and dolphins. This is what happened to the dolphin Winter, who lost her tail after she was caught in a crab trap line.

During the past three years, Reef Monitoring has sponsored four “Reef Clean-ups” and removed close to 3,000 pounds of old crab trap rope and fishing line that could endanger marine life in the Gulf. The last two clean-ups involved more than 100 local divers and more than 30 boats. Another reef clean-up is set for Saturday, May 18, and will operate out of the new Clearwater Marina downtown.

Visit Reef Monitoring’s website for more information about the organization or contact Dr. Mathews at 727-791-2679.

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Baccalaureate biology science symposium on April 1

The Honors Biology Club is sponsoring the 1st Annual Science Poster Symposium on Monday, April 1.

The symposium is an excellent opportunity for the entire St. Petersburg College community to learn more about the Biology Baccalaureate Program. Biology students involved in undergraduate research, literature reviews or other academic endeavors will present posters describing their projects. In addition, some faculty members will present information on their research interests, which is an excellent way for future students to learn about available research projects.

Please send an email to spchonorsbio@gmail.com and let us know that you are interested in attending.

The symposium will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Clearwater Campus in ES 104.

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