Digital Commons Network^™

Quantitative Literacy: A Tool For Survival, Gizem Karaali

Numeracy

In the context of a global pandemic, the need for quantitative literacy has become more urgent. QL and QL-adjacent habits of mind, such as awareness of the limitations of data and modeling, are vital tools of survival that can help people understand today's fast-changing world and make decisions about next actions, in particular in relation to the ongoing protests supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement. QL does not provide a final answer to most human questions, but it can be an invaluable guide for each individual decision maker.

Brave Spaces: Augmenting Interdisciplinary Stem Education By Using Quantitative Data Explorations To Engage Conversations On Equity And Social Justice, John R. Jungck, Jon Manon

Numeracy

In workshops and courses involving in-service teachers, participating teachers can engage in problem posing and exploration of difficult issues when they are asked to quantitatively model alternative scenarios, statistically analyze complex data, and visualize these data in multiple formats. Subsequent to these activities, discussions of sensitive issues, some even considered taboo in classrooms, can open up “brave spaces” in these teachers’ classrooms. Without coaching through elaborate facilitation strategies, the in-service teachers grappled openly with the nuances of such difficult issues and raised many alternatives involving quantitative reasoning as well as considering biological, cultural, economic, social, and political factors influencing social …

Review Of Demographics And The Demand For Higher Education, By Nathan Grawe (2018), Michael T. Catalano

Numeracy

Nathan D. Grawe. 2018. Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press). 175 pp. ISBN 9781421424132.

Grawe introduces the Higher Education Demand Index (HEDI), a new probabilistic model designed to produce more nuanced forecasts of college attendance in the US than one-dimensional predictions based on the declining number of 18 year-olds. Using HEDI, Grawe confirms that nationwide attendance at both 2-year and 4-year schools is likely to decline over the next decade, but that the nature of this decline will vary by type of institution, geography, race and ethnicity, and parental income and education levels; some …

Quantitative Reasoning In Environmental Science: Rasch Measurement To Support Qr Assessment, Robert L. Mayes, Kent Rittschof, Jennifer H. Forrester, Jennifer D. Schuttlefield Christus, Lisa Watson, Franziska Peterson

Numeracy

The ability of middle and high school students to reason quantitatively within the context of environmental science was investigated. A quantitative reasoning (QR) learning progression, with associated QR assessments in the content areas of biodiversity, water, and carbon, was developed based on three QR progress variables: quantification act, quantitative interpretation, and quantitative modeling. Diagnostic instruments were developed specifically for the progress variable quantitative interpretation (QI), each consisting of 96 Likert-scale items. Each content version of the instrument focused on three scale levels (macro scale, micro scale, and landscape scale) and four elements of QI identified in prior research (trend, translation, …

Quantitative Reasoning Learning Progression: The Matrix, Robert L. Mayes, Jennifer Forrester, Jennifer Schuttlefield Christus, Franziska Peterson, Rachel Walker

Numeracy

The NSF Pathways Project studied the development of environmental literacy in students from grades six through high school. Learning progressions for environmental literacy were developed to explicate the trajectory of learning. The Pathways QR research team supported this effort by studying the role of quantitative reasoning (QR) as a support or barrier to developing environmental literacy. An iterative research methodology was employed which included targeted student interviews to establish QR learning progression progress variables and elements comprising those progress variables, development of a QR learning progression framework, and closed-form QR assessments to verify the progression. In this paper the focus …

Teaching Quantitative Reasoning: A Better Context For Algebra, Eric Gaze

Numeracy

This editorial questions the preeminence of algebra in our mathematics curriculum. The GATC (Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus) sequence abandons the fundamental middle school math topics necessary for quantitative literacy, while the standard super-abundance of algebra taught in the abstract fosters math phobia and supports a culturally acceptable stance that math is not relevant to everyday life. Although GATC is seen as a pipeline to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), it is a mistake to think that the objective of producing quantitatively literate citizens is at odds with creating more scientists and engineers. The goal must be to create a curriculum …

Quantitative Reasoning Learning Progressions For Environmental Science: Developing A Framework, Robert L. Mayes, Franziska Peterson, Rachel Bonilla

Numeracy

Quantitative reasoning is a complex concept with many definitions and a diverse account in the literature. The purpose of this article is to establish a working definition of quantitative reasoning within the context of science, construct a quantitative reasoning framework, and summarize research on key components in that framework. Context underlies all quantitative reasoning; for this review, environmental science serves as the context.In the framework, we identify four components of quantitative reasoning: the quantification act, quantitative literacy, quantitative interpretation of a model, and quantitative modeling. Within each of these components, the framework provides elements that comprise the four components. The …

Calculus, Biology And Medicine: A Case Study In Quantitative Literacy For Science Students, Kim Rheinlander, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

This paper describes a course designed to enhance the numeracy of biology and pre-medical students. The course introduces students with the background of one semester of calculus to systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations as they appear in the mathematical biology literature. Evaluation of the course showed increased enjoyment and confidence in doing mathematics, and an increased appreciation of the utility of mathematics to science. Students who complete this course are better able to read the research literature in mathematical biology and carry out research problems of their own.