For the Teaching for Prowess Summer Institute, Indian River State College (IRSC) sent four math faculty, a department chair and a student services staff member to Portland, Oregon. Excited to learn more about Building Thinking Classrooms, we started a book group with the attendees of the Summer Institute in Fall 2022 and then implemented vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPS) in a small pilot of our College Algebra classes as well as one trigonometry class in Spring 2023. At first we started with Post-it Note removable whiteboard paper, but now we have outfitted six rooms with traditional whiteboards at three of our campuses.  Course-embedded learning assistants (CELAs) are central to our implementation of VNPS. CELAs are peer tutors who are present during the class session to help with the active learning activities. In Spring 2023, we incorporated about twenty minutes or so of active learning VNPS activities in visibly random groups.  At this point, most of our faculty are only using about a third to a half of the class time with the VNPS activities; however, we are still observing a noticeable change in the attendance level and engagement in the VNPS classes when compared to the traditional classroom experience.

VNPS activities are also being piloted in SLS 1101: Student Success by our student services staff member who attended the Summer Institute.  Our student success course is a freshman-level course that is usually taught using traditional lecture methods, and course content includes topics to help students develop strong college success skills. Starting in Summer 2023, we started piloting the use VNPS and CELAs in our student success course. Groups are randomized when students enter class. Students are asked two questions related to course content, the groups then share their answers with the class, and then a class discussion follows. This fall term, the groups after the whiteboard questions are staying in their groups and working together on case studies that they share with the class and discuss. The course-embedded learning assistant (CELA) is used as a teaching assistant. Since student success is a freshman-level course designed to help students become strong college students, the CELA is an active part of the class lessons and regularly shares their student perspective of being a college student. The CELA has been an excellent part of the course because students hear a perspective from another student, not the instructor.

In precalculus and trigonometry, VNPS activities, mini-projects, and games are being piloted. While our College Algebra VNPS activities are mostly covering procedural questions, the upper level precalculus and trig classes are piloting review games such as Bingo, Trivia, and the Sum Game, as well as mini-projects incorporating various technologies such as Demos. For example, one Desmos project guides students to convert rectangular complex numbers and rectangular equations into polar form and vice-versa, using graphs created in Desmos to verify the accuracy of the conversions.

In observation of classroom structures, it is evident that students are extremely engaged. While students voiced their concerns at first with the difference between a Prowess classroom and a traditional classroom, students are taking on the new classroom environment with optimism once they implemented the practice. One student commented that they were not sure they understood what was being instructed, but the mathematical process was starting to make more sense after working on the whiteboard. With that said, it is not for everyone. Not all students engage at the expected levels of participation, and we are actively looking for ways to reach more students through our active learning activities.    

Last fall, we welcomed our first ever Promise class. The Promise program at IRSC is a last-dollar tuition program for students who have graduated from high school in our service district. The Promise program dramatically shifted our student demographic to include a higher percentage of Hispanic students. Several of our CELAs are bilingual, which has helped us better communicate with our Hispanic student population. Overall, our Prowess faculty note significant shifts in the classroom environment; by week three, more students are creating informal cohorts and talking with each other before class about college life in general. We are excited to compare the final exam scores in the Prowess sections to our traditional sections as well as overall student retention at the end of the semester.