Natural Sciences Department OER Project

Project Overview

This project involves developing OER in gateway and Pathways courses to replace the textbooks and publishers’ online platforms that currently are used. These courses are Program Core or Pathways Required core courses for all three majors at Natural Sciences (NS) department including Biology, Environment Science and the new major, Physical Sciences, as well as Liberal Arts Math and Science major. Offering these courses by the NS department is the initial step towards building complete OER/ZTC Achieve the Dream degrees in future. Faculty coordinators in each discipline will adopt, develop, and customize textbooks and lab manuals for these courses and develop new interactive assignments.

During 2021, piloting new OER materials will continue. The assessment on the effectiveness, students and faculty satisfaction will be collected and used to make appropriate recommendations and modifications.

This project is funded through a grant for OER from the Office of Academic Affairs.

Project Team

The Principal Investigator is Maria Entezari. The 2020-21 Project Coordinator is Marta Kowalczyk. The chair and faculty from three disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology) are developing open textbooks, laboratory manuals, homework and assignments. They are supported by the Library Department. Project members and contact information.

Project Reports and Assessment

Outcomes and impact will be reported at the end of the grant. For information on other CUNY OER grants, read the New York Open Educational Resources Funds CUNY Year One Report and CUNY Year Two Report.

Project outcomes:

  1. This Natural Sciences Department Open Educational Resources Portal
  2. Zero-Textbook-Cost (ZTC) Courses (listed below)
  3. Use and creation of open-licensed course contents
    Browse the ZTC and OER courses:

helmut eppich galaxy 7
Eppich, Helmut.Galaxy 7. ©.1994 LaGuardia Community College. Photo by Dina Pizzarello.©2020.

Project Calendar

Fall II, from January-February 2021

Spring I and II, from March – June 2021

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