Lewis and Clark Community College

Channelization can have far-reaching and long-term impacts on stream ecology. In this study, we demonstrate that channelization is associated with lower stream quality as measured by macroinvertebrate bioindicators when compared to unchannelized streams. Citizen scientists collected the data for this study between 1995 and 2014, performing 3021 sampling events during the months of May and June across 567 Illinois streams. We found significantly lower taxa richness, EPT taxa richness, and macroinvertebrate biotic index values in channelized sites. Our findings also show prevalent siltation in channelized sites that is likely negatively affecting macroinvertebrates, along with a possible lower availability of quality habitat. We also measured stream velocity and found that average velocity did not differ between our channelized and unchannelized sites. Our findings suggest stream velocity was not a driving factor in determining the differences in macroinvertebrate assemblages, although we cannot comment on the possible change in velocity from pre to post channelization at each site. This study allows for a large dataset that covers diverse streams across the entire state of Illinois. Our work provides example and encouragement for other researchers to take advantage of the power of citizen science, and the existing large datasets available from these projects.

Community college faculty development programs need to be designed to help faculty move beyond content experience and become learner-centered instructors. The purpose of this qualitative study with a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was to explore the experiences of new faculty participating in a systematic dialogue about learner-centered instruction in a community college setting. Specifically, this research project was designed to answer the following question: How do new faculty experience participation in a semester-long faculty development program focused on learner-centered instruction? Interviews with faculty experiencing a learner-centered training program revealed common themes as well as nine stages of faculty development related to moving toward a learner-centered approach to teaching. Keywords: community college faculty preparation, learner-centered instruction, professional development for faculty, barriers to learner-centered instruction.

High bat mortality at wind energy facilities is a widely cited conservation issue, but the population-level impacts are not understood. In Illinois, the main species affected are migratory tree bats like the Hoary (Lasiurus cinereus) and Eastern Red (Lasiurus borealis).This research used deuterium isotope analysis of hair combined with ecological niche modeling (GARP: Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction) in a novel way to map the geographic extents of Hoary and Eastern Red bat specimens salvaged at a single central Illinois wind facility from 2008-2010. Hair was chosen after determining that the claw is currently a problematic tissue due to a lack of knowledge about bats' claw growth rates. Hair samples from different sample sites on the body were not significantly different from each other, and there was no significant variation among hair samples from the same body sample site. The proportions of isotopic extents of both bats' summer ranges revealed that the salvaged specimens came from areas that cover more than 50% of their summer ranges (hence, many populations). When males' and females' isotope extents were overlapped, Hoary bats had less than 50% overlapping of the sexes while Eastern Red bats had over 50%. Relationships among the salvage years and months were also examined. The percentage of overlap among specimen salvage years suggests that these bats utilize their complete range every summer. When each salvage month was examined, there was no evidence of a correlation between month of arrival at the wind facility and their summer geographic extent. This study shows the importance of specimens salvaged from wind facilities for studying both the population-level impacts of wind farm facilities and bat migratory biology.

Three teacher educators worked at a US community college with two adult education staff on a grant-supported project bridging high school dropouts from adult education to employment. The teacher educators’ apparently simple task of facilitating grant participants’ engagement with action research became confusingly challenging. The consultants engaged in ‘second-order’ action research to frame their process of reflective practice, thus deepening their understanding of the project’s complexity, the marginalization of adult education, and their adult education colleagues’ and other grant participants’ reflective practice. This shift in understanding, powered by their continuing reflective practice, precipitated a transformation of their theoretical framework. They moved from questioning the nature of their roles to a more complex understanding of their experience and identity as movement among and within overlapping communities of practice.