Mathematics

In the past I have used a program call MyMathLab (or MathXL) to test students understanding of mathematical concepts.  One of the frustrations I always had was that students could use a "help me solve this" or "view an example" help tool to walk them through their assignments, but they never learned.  This resulted in very high homework scores, but not as good of scores on the exams.  For example, in Spring 2011, my students had a class average of 93.8% on the homework and 88% on the quizzes.  However, their midterm average was only 80.7% and the final exam average was o

Pre-post testing will be done using the FCI to look at student understanding of Newton's laws.  These will not be done for a grade as the assessment is written in common language so that it really probes student understanding.  A score above 60% is considered the threshold of Newtonian thinking.  A gain of 30% pre to post is considered a very good result from national studies done using this instrument.

EDU112 and MAT157 joined together for a Learning Community. In meeting course competencies for both courses, instructors developed then facilitated an Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) Project. Inquiry based learning starts with a team (in our case, partners), who have a legitimate, real-life inquiry into a situation where the solution is not readily apparent. It closely follows the model of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) but with required mathematical applications.