The Academic Success Center provides in-person tutoring for STEM courses which includes Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Due the discontinuation of Developmental Education courses, there has been a shift in tutoring demand for Gatekeeper and STEM courses in semester Fall 2019. With the collaboration with STEM faculty, the ASC is developing and experimenting new intiatives on how to support the increase in demand of tutoring for these subjects.
The program was held during a five week summer session. Twelve students met Monday through Thursday for Math 151 College Algebra/Functions, followed by one hour of tutoring. Students also met Monday through Wednesday for CPD115, Creating College Success in STEM. Every Thursday, students had the opportunity to partake in hands-on STEM workshops and programs, meet current and/or former STEM students, meet with different community professionals to explore the different careers in STEM, and learn about the different supportive programs, such as undergraduate internships.
I am hoping that having this extra practice and group work in the long run strengthens not only their ability to do derivatives but also their algebra skills. Unfortuantely I do not have enough time in one semester to do this in every topic we cover, so I am hoping to come up with more creative ways to have them do this practice outside of class, that does not make them complain to me that I am giving them too much homework.
The purpose of this CATS is to really dive into one concept and try to figure out what students don't understand about basic integration. Why is everything u-sub? After each WU, I will use the information to write another WU to go further into the issues students are having. The goal is to come up with a set of questions/problems that students have to do which "attack" a concept from multiple directions. If I can cover the concept in many different ways and variations, I hope to fill any and most gaps students may have in their understanding of basic integration.
Please note: From speaking with faculty in the prerequisite coureses, they are incorporating reviews of rules of exponents and fractions. But, at what detail and how, I am unsure. Hopefully with the creation of SLOs and having Guided Pathways, we can come up with some activities and best practices as a group to help students understand these two concepts better. I am not happy with the idea of just accepting that students will not be able to integrate a fractional problem that requires rules of exponents. There has to be something out there to help our students
In fall 2010, I wrote a workbook to replace the $250 textbook. Please note: I do not receive royalties from this workbook. The workbook (wb) was used in the calculus/physics learning community as well as traditional calculus classes by me only. Over the years, I have made modification to the wb.
As a math instructor at EMCC for 16 years, I have always believed students must practice. They have to do 20+ problems outside of class in order to be able to DO problems on exams/quizzes. From working with physics and chemsitry faculty over the years and seeing what they do with journals, I have been hesitant to try this. "Math is different. Math is skill based, and you don't get good at this unless you practice over and over again," I would think to myself. It took me 16 years to get to this "aha" moment, and I am so excited about this.
Not all faculty have the time or nor want to teach in the calculus/physics learning community. So, how do we help faculty who teach stand alone calculus courses? Also, stand alone calculus courses do not have another instructor present to help emphasize concepts. So, Becky is teaching a stand alone calculus course in Fall 18 to see if she can cut down on some competencies, incorporate labs, and she will compare her course to other instructors who teach non-learning community calculus courses. Did Becky's class perform the same, worse or better on the common final?
The purpose of this CATS is to document a qualitative review on my experience in the 2nd semester calculus/physics learning community (MAT231/PHY131). Second semester physics covers charges, electric and magnetic fields, circuits, current (etc), and these concepts have been quite difficult for me to grasp and tie into calculus without Dwain’s help. The attached narrative provides my previous experiences, current experience, and plan for the future .
Need: Streamline 1st 4 weeks of Differential Equations. Create clearer expectations, journal instructions, MATLAB directions, problem sets, and activities. Alleviate student confusion.
For many years now, physics/chemistry faculty require students to journal after each class period (note: there are other faculty on campus who have been journaling for years, as well). In Fall 2017, a few non-phy/chem faculty incorporated journaling in their classrooms for the first time. In Spring 2018, during week of accountability, approximately 15 instructors met and discussed best practices in journaling.
My students always seem to be intimidated by the word exam. I wanted to see what and why this happens. I gave the students a "practice problem" on graphing functions based on algebra and calculus ideas. They were not allowed to work on it together, however I did not call it an exam. I wanted to see how they did knowing it was not an exam. The students performance on the "practice" was outstanding. There were small errors in the algebra but the overall concept was near perfect. Out of two sections, a total of 53 students, everyone scored 90% or better.
For the last 2 years, I have been using a question of the day to start my classes as part of a cooperative learning strategy learned from taking the Johnson & Johnson Cooperative Learning workshop. After doing this for a a year, I wanted to get feedback from students, so I included items about the questions of the day (along with other cooperative activities) on my end of course evaluation.
A prerequisite to physics is MAT182. Students need to know law of sine/cosine, and vector concepts from trig to be successful in physics. In the past, I would spend a lot of time classify triangles (SSS, ASA, etc) to help students know which "law" to use, and this was done at the end of the semester. I did not spend time using law of sine/cosine with vector applications . Students typically scored a low B on law of sine/cosine problems. In F17, I taught the "laws" and incorporated vectors in week 4 to show students real life applications.
Every semester, students perfrom poorly on the final exam for calculus I (MAT22X); the average is typically a D/F. Students are given an indepth review guide of all topics in the course along with the answer key that includes detailed steps on how to do each problem. I often make changes to my pedagogy, handouts, activities, exams, homework, and other assessments every semester. In Spring 17, two main things changed in my MAT221 course.