Transcript Document
Engaging Mathematics at Roosevelt University College Algebra: Modeling the City Barbara Gonzalez and Cathy Evins Engaging 1 Mathematics Funded through the National Science Foundation’s TUES-II program, the Engaging Mathematics three-year initiative aims to significantly increase the use of the SENCER model, and other progressive pedagogies, by a national community of mathematics scholars capable of creating, implementing, and sustaining reforms in mathematics education. The project allows the National Center to apply the already well-established SENCER approach to college-level mathematics courses, with the goal of using civic issues to make math more relevant to students. The project’s two lead institutions are Metropolitan State University and LaGuardia Community College. Augsburg College, Normandale Community College, Oglethorpe University, and Roosevelt University represent the partner institutions. Over the course of the project, lead and partner institutions will enhance existing courses or develop new courses, modules, and themes. Another goal of the EM project is to offer resulting modules and courses at both their institutions of origin as well as at partner campuses, thereby benefitting partner institutions with several new courses, and providing the project team insight on how to successfully implement courses in multiple settings. The EM leadership team will work with the Mathematical Association of America to disseminate materials, modules, courses, and results to communities of interest. Additionally, updates and resources developed throughout the initiative will be made available online to all interested educators, administrators, and students. College Algebra: Modeling the 2 City At Roosevelt University we will develop a new college algebra course that couples math concepts with important social justice challenges in the city of Chicago, which may include themes like transportation, crime, water, food access, infrastructure, and demographics. The course will be “flipped,” meaning that students will learn basic algebra skills outside of class, and then spend class time applying those skills to come up with solutions to problems derived from the themes. Eventually, the course may be split into two versions: one for STEM majors and the other for business majors. Eventually, educators based in other cities may use the resources created for Chicago as a model to create similar classes at their own institutions. In order to understand how each of these components affect student learning, we will implement the changes in the stages outlined below. Timeline: Fall 2014 In Fall 2014, we will offer two sections of the traditional College Algebra course and two “flipped” sections of College Algebra using the current textbook, Blitzer’s Algebra and Trigonometry: An Early Functions Approach, and the MyLabsPlus site. The flipped classroom inverts traditional teaching methods, delivering instruction online outside of the classroom and moving “homework” into the classroom. Instead of a lecture from the “sage on the stage”, a flipped classroom involves in-class activities with the instructor as the “guide on the side.” Students watch lectures at home at their own pace, communicating with peers and teachers via online discussions. Concept engagement takes place in the classroom with the help of the instructor. Educational technology and activity learning are two key components of the flipped classroom model. They both influence student learning environments in fundamental ways.3 Instructors will administer the Student Assessment of their Learning Gains (SALG) at the beginning of the term and then at the end in all sections in order to assess and compare student learning in traditional and flipped classrooms. Timeline: Spring 2015 In Spring 2015, all sections of College Algebra will be “flipped.” Any necessary changes to course structure and assignments will be made to the course based on observations and results from teaching the Fall 2014 sections and from the SALG. In conjunction with science, computer science, and business faculty we will develop or choose problems for the course as we move towards creating separate STEM and Business sections. In order to assess the impact of adding these problems into the course, two of the sections will incorporate our “big” problems related to the city, and the rest of the sections will use the Fall 2014 flipped model. We will continue to administer the SALG to all students both at the beginning and at the end of the semester. These results will continue to inform our decisions regarding the redesign of the course. Timeline: Fall 2015 In Fall 2015, all sections will be the complete newly redesigned College Algebra: Modeling the City, with the flipped structure and the city problems. Some sections will be specifically for STEM students and other sections will be for Business students. There will be different versions of the assessments for the different sections with problems relevant to the disciplines. The mathematical course content will be the same for all sections, and it will cover all the necessary topics to be a transferable course. As we progress in these stages outlined above, we will develop a teaching manual for the course. This teaching manual will contain information on how to run a flipped classroom as well as how to choose and use the city problems. We will create a repository of our Chicago problems. The manual will detail the problem creating process and the sources of data used. This will allow other institutions and instructors to use this model to write questions and problems related to their city. Our progress and results will be disseminated to the other Engaging Mathematics partner institutions. References 1. http://www.engagingmathematics.net/ 2. http://www.roosevelt.edu/News_and_Events/News_Articles/2014/20 140515-AlgRUNSFGrant.aspx 3. http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/