Mathematics

In calculus I, summation notation is introduced for finding area under a curve using an infinite number of rectangles. From Fall 04 to Spring 15, I utilized a Power Point to introduce the concept. A lecture would be given with interactive moments throughout the lesson. Students would try problems on their own and in teams. The scores on the exam averaged a mid to high D. Approximately 40% of the class would show little to no work on summation problems. Each semester, the lesson would be updated. Yet, exam scores stayed at a D average with no improvement on summations.

Note: This CATS is being submitted by Rebecca Baranowski, Michelle Breaux, Teri Graham, Sarah Lockhart and Luvia Rivera. In summer 2015, these math faculty attended the Johnson & Johnson Cooperative Learning Institute at SMCC. One of the suggested activities for increasing cooperative learning is to put folders on the tables at the beginning of class. Inside of the folders is a warm up for students to work on together. The institute suggested having only 1-2 sheets of paper in the folder to "force" students to talk to each other about the documents in the folder.

For several years now, I have students write lab reports in calculus I, II and differential equations. The set of directions given to students on what to include in the lab report were ones that I created. Every semester, students would ask follow up questions on what to include in their document. Students constantly missed points for missing information/data or not being detailed enough. This past semester, I decided to see if chemistry faculty had a lab report template, and they do! So, Dr.

Beginning Spring 2016, new E-Learning courses require students to submit the ELSO E-Learning Student Orientation badge. Previous courses have linked to the "Learner Responsibilities Orientation." The same online survey (quiz) used in the MAT182 Hybrid will be used to measure if students "understand" the Getting Started assignments in the MAT212 Hybrid (new) versus the MAT182 Hybrid (old). The survey asks students to “check” the competencies they understood before the module, and to “check” the competencies they understood after the module.

In the flipped classroom, we spend the majority of class time working in groups at the boards.  I typically only change groups a couple of times in the semester.  My goal for Spring 2016 is to change groups at least twice each class session, meaning that students will work in at least 3 different groups each time the class meets.  Since this hybrid class meets 13 times (excluding 2 days for Midterm and FInal), this means that the students will work with at least 26 different groups.  This will force the students to work with nearly everyone (if not everyone) in the class

The beginning of the course is dedicated to helping students become familiar with the Canvas system, and the specific requirements for submitting online assignments for the class. The requirements for submitting online assignments for this class may be different from other online classes students have had. Especially since MyMathLab isn’t used. In-class and out-of-class practice will prepare students to submit online assignments and check their grade. An online survey (quiz) will measure if students "understand" the Getting Started assignments.

Calculus III covers material from calc I/II, but in 3D.  One part of calc III is to graph in 3D.   A program called Maple is used to draw the graph, then students draw this on their exam.  For 6 years, a lecture approach was used to cover this topic.  Overall, students did not do well on this part of the exam (approximately C-D average).  Students had no comprehension as to why the graph looked the way it did and were not able to draw basic shapes.

At the beginning of each class I post 3-4 questions on the board to review the previous day's information.  This also allows time for me to take attendance and set up the classroom for the days activity. I would allow about 10 min. for this activity and then have students present their solution.  I did not collect the papers.  There was not much accountability and some student's would purposefully come in late to avoid the work.  

The goal of these assessments was to engage students in hands on experiments similiar to a science lab.   Students always ask why differential equations is so important in STEM fields.  So, two labs were done in my differential equations class.  One was using thermometers and checking their accuracy (how long does it take for the thermometer to get back to body temperature after drinking cold water, doing jumping jacks, and chewing gum (placebo)).  The 2nd one was to verify that a mass spring system follows a 2nd order differential equation.

Students in MAT 182 seem to constantly struggle with the graphing section in the course. I have added days in for practice, given worksheets and still results seem to be lower than I was expecting. This current semester I continued with the practice worksheet that has 10 graphing problems where they are to use a table to help them graph, identify amplitude, phase shift and period, as well as of course graph the function. However, this semester I tried giving them two separate packets where all I did was change the numbers around and change a few numbers in the function.

I utilize several techniques to assist my students with their anxiety and "fear" of math.

Students in MAT156/157 preparing to be elementary school teachers sometimes struggle to think of ways to make learning math creative and fun.

This fall I compared (Like Becky Baranowski had done for Calc 2) students coming from the PHY 121 traditional class versus those in PHY121/MAT221 Learning community on the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism. While the numbers are small (n=12 from LC and n=10 from traditional) it was interesting to compare. Both groups had essentially the same pretest score (LC 18.2% and Trad 18.3%) but differed on the post test (LC 67% and trad 52%). Since the numbers are small I will be adding the students from this spring semester to try and get more statistically reliable numbers

I do this in my dual enrollment math 151 course at Buckeye, but I have not done at EMCC.  You could hand out graph paper, if you do not have graph paper.

(1) I have every two rows slide their desks together. Then I have one student from each row to get one small graphing whiteboard, 1 eraser, and 1 marker for each group in their row.

I use this in my high school classes Algebra classes, I might have used it one time once in a summer math 121 course.

(1)I first everyone get out two pieces of paper. I  want everyone to make up two binomials and multiply them. I do reguire them to make sure that the binomial terms do not have a common factor. I also tell them to not use any numbers larger than 10.

(2)Then I want them to double check their answer and write it on the other sheet of paper and number it as problem #1. 

(3)Then I have them repeat the process at least one more time.