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Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Interdisciplinary

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Full-Text Articles in Education

A Tale Of Four Departments: Interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Communities Informing Mathematics Education, Bryan D. Poole, Caroline Maher-Boulis, John Hearn, Jason Robinson, Patricia Mcclung, Amanda Jones Jan 2022

A Tale Of Four Departments: Interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Communities Informing Mathematics Education, Bryan D. Poole, Caroline Maher-Boulis, John Hearn, Jason Robinson, Patricia Mcclung, Amanda Jones

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

As a result of the Curriculum Foundations Project and the SUMMIT-P consortium, faculty from four different departments at Lee University created a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) with the goal of improving students’ attitudes toward undergraduate mathematics courses, including students’ perception of the utility of mathematics in their lives and the feelings of anxiety that they experience in these courses. The interdisciplinary collaborations resulted in introducing novel activities and manipulatives in various mathematics courses (Introduction to Statistics, Concepts of Mathematics I and II, and Algebra for Calculus). This paper first describes the efforts of creating the inter-departmental FLC. Second, it discusses …


Using An Interdisciplinary Case Study To Incorporate Quantitative Reasoning In Social Work, Nursing, And Mathematics, Elizabeth Post, Mischelle Stone, Lauren Cavner Williams, Mary Beaudry Jan 2022

Using An Interdisciplinary Case Study To Incorporate Quantitative Reasoning In Social Work, Nursing, And Mathematics, Elizabeth Post, Mischelle Stone, Lauren Cavner Williams, Mary Beaudry

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Through the national consortium, SUMMIT-P, Ferris State University faculty collaborated to develop and scaffold mathematics and quantitative reasoning across disciplines to reduce math anxiety. Participants in this collaborative group included faculty from social work, nursing, and mathematics who developed a case study on a Hurricane Katrina scenario that necessitated calculating the need for emergency shelter, water, food, and medicine, and as a response to the potential for a Malaria outbreak. This particular case study allowed faculty to use the lens of social justice to teach mathematical concepts and provided an avenue for nursing and social work students to engage in …


Improving Student Knowledge Transfer Between Mathematics And Engineering Courses Through Structured Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: A Summit-P Initiative, Laura Ellwein Fix, Afroditi Filippas, Maila Brucal-Hallare, Rebecca Segal Jan 2022

Improving Student Knowledge Transfer Between Mathematics And Engineering Courses Through Structured Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: A Summit-P Initiative, Laura Ellwein Fix, Afroditi Filippas, Maila Brucal-Hallare, Rebecca Segal

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Student learning across STEM disciplines has been shown to increase with greater integration of applications in mathematics courses. One challenge of this effort is that identical constructs are often presented differently in the partner disciplines than in the mathematics courses. This leads to student confusion and an inability to transfer critical knowledge in their disciplinary courses, even for students who have mastered the mathematical paradigms. An interdisciplinary team at VCU consisting of mathematics and engineering faculty has worked to improve the knowledge transfer required for the integration of applications in the Differential Equations curriculum. This work is part of the …


Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy Williams Phd Jan 2020

Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy Williams Phd

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The SUMMIT-P project is a multi-institutional endeavor to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the teaching of undergraduate mathematics courses in the first two years of college. One goal of this work is to establish collaborative communities among the institutions involved. As part of the project, institutions visit one another on site visits that are structured according to a common protocol. The site visits have been valuable to the project. Participating institutions report the exchange of actionable ideas and feedback; members of the grant leadership team have used the site visits to direct the overall project, and evaluators have …


Curricular Change In Institutional Context: A Profile Of The Summit-P Institutions, Mary D.R. Beisiegel, Suzanne I. Dorée Jan 2020

Curricular Change In Institutional Context: A Profile Of The Summit-P Institutions, Mary D.R. Beisiegel, Suzanne I. Dorée

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

There is a national call to improve the mathematics curricula in the first two undergraduate years to improve student success and engagement. But curricular change happens in an institutional context: Who are the students, and what do they need to succeed? What is the climate for change? Does the department regularly revise its courses and curriculum? Is it common for different departments to collaborate on curricular change? What supports or obstacles does the department, college, or university have for changing the curriculum? Who are the institutional stakeholders, and what practices build their buy-in? In the SUMMIT-P project, nine different institutions …


Integrative And Contextual Learning In College Algebra -An Interdisciplinary Collaboration With Economics, Choon Shan Lai, Glenn Henshaw, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone Jan 2020

Integrative And Contextual Learning In College Algebra -An Interdisciplinary Collaboration With Economics, Choon Shan Lai, Glenn Henshaw, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Many students consider mathematics too abstract and useless for their academic and career goals. Meanwhile, instructors in quantitative disciplines such as economics find many students mathematically underprepared for their courses. The disconnect between students’ perceptions of the utility of mathematics and their life and career may have contributed to some of the under-performance in learning mathematics. Addressing this problem requires collaboration across disciplines to develop an understanding of each other’s needs, more specifically to develop an integrative platform that allows students to apply mathematical skills in interdisciplinary contexts (Ganter & Barker, 2004). We collaboratively designed and implemented an integrative platform …


Structured Engagement For A Multi-Institutional Collaborative To Tackle Challenges And Share Best Practices, Rosalyn H. Hargraves, Stella K. Hofrenning, Janet Bowers, Mary D.R. Beisiegel, Victor Piercey, Erica Slate Young Jan 2020

Structured Engagement For A Multi-Institutional Collaborative To Tackle Challenges And Share Best Practices, Rosalyn H. Hargraves, Stella K. Hofrenning, Janet Bowers, Mary D.R. Beisiegel, Victor Piercey, Erica Slate Young

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

A National Consortium for Synergistic Undergraduate Mathematics via Multi-institutional Interdisciplinary Teaching Partnerships (SUMMIT-P), funded by the National Science Foundation, is a multi-institutional consortium with members from twelve institutions. The consortium adapted two protocols developed by the School Reform Initiative to: 1. provide advice on challenges or dilemmas a consortium member is facing and 2. share project successes with consortium members. The two protocols—a Modified Descriptive Consultancy protocol and a Modified Success Analysis with Reflective Questions protocol—provide a structured format for these discussions. This paper provides an in-depth description of the two protocols and how they have been used for this …