Class Integration and Club Model Benefits, Limitations, and Special Considerations Class Integration Model: Benefits Builds grade accountability into students participating in the program therefore providing a strong means of accountability to support individual student retention in the program. Serves as a means to have a set day, time, and location during which students come together at least once per week or more during which students focus entirely on the EnvironMentors project. Building continuity in meeting time, location, camaraderie, and team spirit among the EnvironMentors student cohort is vitally important to maintaining individual student retention over the course of the academic and EnvironMentors program year. The class integration model automatically supports this continuity. For Student Coordinators, the class integration model offers you full support and partnership with the lead teacher, therefore providing you an additional support to maintain students’ participation in the program. Limitations Due to scheduling constraints, the class integration model cannot insure that all the students enrolled in the class will strong interest in science and the environment and commitment to working with a mentor in the program. Special Considerations Do everything possible to enroll only those students with a demonstrated interest in science and the environment into your class. This can be done by including EnvironMentors in the course title, or meeting with the incoming students before the year starts to explain the EnvironMentors Program. Make sure that students understand the expectations of the EnvironMentors from the beginning. EnvironMentors Club Model Benefits Provides a means to identify and enroll only those students who demonstrate strong interest in science and the environment into your “EnvironMentors Club”. Students essentially volunteer to join the “EnvironMentors Club” and participate in all of the activities, field trips, and workshops, and meet all of the EnvironMentors Project assignments inherent in the program. Students demonstrate an intrinsic motivation to their involvement in the program. Limitations
No grade accountability for a long term project may hurt voluntary student enrollment. Therefore students lack extrinsic academic motivation to maintaining their participation in the program over the full academic and EnvironMentors program year. Motivation and participation are high during the fall when students participate in enjoyable activities such as field trips. Participation routinely drops after the winter holiday when students have to actually get to work to complete their Background Research Paper, and conduct their experimental research. Special considerations: Do everything possible to identify a determined meeting time and location when and where students will meet at least once per week. This will help to build continuity, camaraderie, and team spirit among the EnvironMentors student cohort and therefore help to maintain individual student retention over the course of the academic and EnvironMentors program year. Do everything possible to help foster students’ relationship with their mentor. If the relationship between the student and mentor is strong, they will be positively motivated to do well in the program in order to work well with their mentor. If the relationship with the mentor is strong, they will also be motivated by not wanting to disappoint their mentor. Overall importance of developing cohort of students who demonstrate true interest in science and the environment and are exhibit true commitment that they want to be involved in the program.
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