Digital Commons Network^™

Infographic: Out-Of-Field Maths Teaching, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

A report released by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has revealed the chance of students in Australia in Years 7-10 being taught Mathematics by an out-of-field teacher. In this infographic, we look at the findings.

Modified Ramsey Numbers, Meaghan Mahoney

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Ramsey theory is a eld of study named after the mathematician Frank P. Ramsey. In general, problems in Ramsey theory look for structure amid a collection of unstructured objects and are often solved using techniques of Graph Theory. For a typical question in Ramsey theory, we use two colors, say red and blue, to color the edges of a complete graph, and then look for either a complete subgraph of order n whose edges are all red or a complete subgraph of order m whose edges are all blue. The minimum number of vertices needed to guarantee one of these …

Gardner-Webb University Recognizes Achievements Of Undergraduate Students, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

Gardner-Webb University recently honored undergraduate students for academic excellence and outstanding service and leadership. Winners of these awards exemplify the University’s core values of faith, service and leadership in their classrooms and communities. In recognition of the award presentation, each student may choose one book for purchase by Gardner-Webb’s Dover Memorial Library.

Firefighter Problem Played On Infinite Graphs, Sarah Days-Merrill

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The Firefighter Problem was introduced over 30 years ago and continues to be studied by researchers today. The problem consists of a graph of interest where a fire breaks out at time t = 0 on any given vertex of thegraph G. The player, then, gets to place a firefighter to “protect” a vertex from the fire. Each consecutive turn,the fire spreads to adjacent vertices. These vertices are then referred to as “burned”. The firefighter also gets tomove to protect an additional, unburned vertex, completing the first round. Each vertex that the firefighter “defends” stays protected for the remainder …

Mathematical Models Of Biochemical Switch Networks, Cassandra A. Mohr

Honors Capstones

This project centers on mathematical applications to biochemistry. Specifically, the use of a dynamical system to model a special type of biochemical network and determine the effect of initial concentrations on the existence of several constant solutions. Many biochemical networks act as biological switches that are responsible for important biological functions such as cell differentiation and cell death; consequentially, the ability to better predict and manipulate their outcome is of great importance. One particularly insightful and relatively simple form of biochemical mechanism is that of the reversible substrate inhibition reaction. Utilizing basic principles of mathematics and chemistry, it is possible …

Developing An Explicit Instruction Special Education Teacher Observation Rubric, Evelyn S. Johnson, Yuzhu Zheng, Angela R. Crawford, Laura A. Moylan

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we developed an Explicit Instruction special education teacher observation rubric that details the elements of explicit instruction, and tested its psychometric properties using many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM). Video observations of classroom instruction from 30 special education teachers across three states were collected. External raters (n = 15) were trained to observe and evaluate instruction using the rubric, and assigned scores of ‘implemented’, ‘partially implemented’ or ‘not implemented’ for each of the items. Analyses showed that the item, teacher, lesson and rater facets achieved high psychometric quality for the instrument. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Principles Of Engineering, Edu 4480, Course Outline, Euisuk Sung

Open Educational Resources

This course is a laboratory-based capstone course providing resources about engineering and engineering design methodology to enable the student teacher to study the relationship among mathematics, science and engineering. Focus is on the integration of the content of these disciplines into the secondary school technology curriculum and to stimulate student interest in pursuing engineering and technology careers.

Understanding The Impact Of Peer-Led Workshops On Student Learning, Afolabi Ibitoye, Nadia Kennedy, Armando Cosme

Publications and Research

As students we often wonder why some subjects are easy to understand and requires not much effort in terms of re-reading the material, for us to grasp what it entails. One subject seems to remain elusive and uneasy for a vast majority of learners at all levels of education; that subject is Mathematics, it is one subject that most learners finds difficult even after doubling the amount of time spent on studying the material. My intention is to explore ways to make Mathematics easier for other students using feedback from students enrolled in NSF mathematics peer leading workshops, and use …

Mathematical Perceptions: Changing Mindsets In Elementary School Classrooms, Marissa M. Bartelt

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In classrooms throughout the country, you can hear students moan about the difficulty in learning mathematics. This senior capstone examines the students’ mindsets about mathematics in Monterey County through the use of literature review, classroom observations, and interview with teachers. The findings reveal that students’ mindsets can be changed over time if teachers have the right tools and appropriate training to help students.

Corequisite Mathematics Remediation: Results Over Time And In Different Contexts, Alexandra W. Logue, Daniel Douglas, Mari Watanabe-Rose

Publications and Research

Traditional mathematics remediation is based on the theory that traditional mathematics remedial courses increase students’ subsequent academic performance. However, most students assigned to these courses do not pass them, and thus cannot graduate. An alternative approach, corequisite remediation, assigns students instead to college-level quantitative courses with additional academic support, often aligned to a student’s major. Here we report the longer-term results of a randomized controlled trial comparing corequisite remediation (with statistics) and traditional algebra remediation (297 students per group). The corequisite group not only demonstrated significantly higher quantitative course pass rates, but also success in many other disciplines, as well …

Media Pembelajaran Matematika Materi Kombinatorika Berbasis Media Interaktif Pada Siswa Smk, Ana Cholila, Purwanto Purwanto, Erry Hidayanto

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

The need for variations in learning resources for students of SMK Diponegoro Tumpang and the development of 2nd stcentury technology are the basis of this development research. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of valid, practical and effective learning media for combinatoric material. This development uses the ADDIE model. The test subjects in the development of learning media consisted of expert validators, practitioner validators, observers, 5 students of class XII as group trials, and 22 students of class XII KPR as field trials. The instruments used were learning media, lesson plans, observation sheets, student response questionnaires, …

Effects Of Online Program Vs. Handheld Flashcards On Multiplication And Division Fact Knowledge Of 4th Grade Learners With Exceptional Needs, Lindsay M. Siegman

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized a time series design to investigate the effects of a computer-based math fact program called Xtramath.org vs. the use of traditional handheld flashcards. Students were given a baseline assessment before beginning the school district's method for learning basic math facts: Xtramath.org. They were tested again after 6 weeks and then began to use traditional handheld flashcards. Students were tested again to compare the results. Eight 4th grade students (5 male and 3 female) with special needs were included in this study. These students attend school in a wealthy, suburban area with a predominantly white population.

Fluency in …

Orbit Spaces Of Unimodular Rows Over Smooth Real Affine Algebras., Soumi Tikader Dr.

Doctoral Theses

Let R be a commutative, Noetherian ring of (Krull) dimension d. It is well known that the set of isomorphism classes of (oriented, if d is even) stably free R-modules of rank d carries the structure of an abelian group. This group can be identified with the orbit space of unimodular rows namely, Umd+1(R)/SLd+1(R). The prime objective of this thesis is to provide the complete computation of this group, when X = Spec(R) be a smooth real affine variety of dimension d ≥ 2 (with the assumption that the set of real points of X is non-empty and orientable). In …

Effective Techniques In Reverse Mathematics, David Nichols

Doctoral Dissertations

We develop the theory of strong reductions in the reverse mathematics zoo and show by means of novel tree labeling constructions that strong computable reduction is sufficient to separate four stable relatives of Ramsey's theorem for 2-colorings of pairs.

Music And Its Application In The Classroom, Christian Mcknight

Honors Projects

The purpose of this action research project is to determine if background music can be used to improve student test scores using the Mozart Effect. The participants were twenty-eight juniors and seniors from two Algebra II classes at Sylvania Southview High School. Each student in the study was given a control quiz, taken with no background music, followed by the experimental quiz, taken with classical music, specifically Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K. 448”, playing in the background. The mean average of the students’ first quiz was 2.7% higher than the mean average of the second quiz taken …

Klein Named American Council On Education Fellow, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Using Neural Networks To Classify Pdes, Julia Balukonis, Sabrina Fuller, Haley Rosso

Mathematics & Computer Science Student Scholarship

Major: Mathematics
Minor: Computer Science and Film

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lynette Boos, Mathematics and Computer Science

We designed two neural networks that can learn how to classify three different types of partial differential equations (PDEs). Our data consists of numerical solutions to three categories of PDEs: Burger’s, Diffusion, and Transport equations. Using TensorFlow and the Keras library, we performed two tasks – the first a binary classification of Burger’s and Diffusion equation data, and the second a multi-label classification incorporating the Transport Equations as well. Our binary classification network requires vector labels to perform efficiently. Furthermore, our tertiary classification network …

Content Validity Of A Mathematics Placement Test For A Gifted High School, Hannah R. Anderson

Publications & Research

The Content Validity of a mathematics placement test at a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) gifted residential high school is examined. Data were collected from internal and external mathematics subject matter experts (SMEs) using a card- sorting task and were analyzed using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). Results demonstrate some congruence between the two configurations, suggesting marginal evidence of Content Validity.

Mathematical Analysis Of The Duck Migration To Louisiana, Brandon Garcia

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The purpose of this project is to research the relationship between duck migration and weather patterns, more specifically trying to determine if the rainfall and temperature in a given year affects the migration patterns of ducks. Duck hunters and conservation- ists alike have observed an overall decrease in the duck population in Louisiana over the past 70 years. Though some years have seen an increase, the population has not recovered to the level from the 1950s. These observations have led to many questions about what have happened to the ducks or where have the ducks gone. Using differ- ent forms …

Leaders Like Me, Kyle F. Trenshaw, Nir Aish, Elif Miskioglu, Philip Asare

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

The Workshop Program at the University of Rochester infuses collaborative learning into a variety of introductory STEM and non-STEM courses through small, weekly, peer-led problem solving sessions called "Workshops." Decades of data from these Workshops indicate that 1) African American, Black, Hispanic, and Latinx students are less likely to attend them than White and Asian students and 2) that every additional Workshop students attend improves their final course grades, even if they only miss a single Workshop out of the 13 or 14 that are offered each semester. To address this situation, the UR Workshop Program has partnered with the …

Ring Theory Seminar | Boyles Conjecture And Perfect Localizations, April 5, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Ring Theory Seminar | Boyles Conjecture And Perfect Localizations, April 19, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Math Seminar Ocean Cleanup Project Vertical Distribution Of Plastics, April 18, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Math Biology Seminar | Nonhomogeneous Reflections Via Neumann And Robin Operators, April 9, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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Graduate Math Seminar Invertible Rings And Algebras, April 18, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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Undergraduate Mathematics Seminar Prisoners Dilemma And The Nash Equilibrium, April 11, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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Math-Biology Seminar | Covering By Stable Sub-Triangles In A Cell Cycle Model, April 2, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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Ring Theory Seminar | Minimal Reflexive Nonsemicommutative Rings, May 3, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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District-University Collaborations To Support Reform-Based Mathematics Curriculum Implementation, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Amy L. Nebesniak, Theodore J. Rupnow

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Curriculum change is inevitable in schooling. For content areas such as mathematics that are already under the national spotlight, transitioning to new curriculum materials while concurrently enacting instructional reform creates both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper discusses how partnerships between two state universities and respective neighboring school districts resulted in the creation and implementation of graduate courses for teachers targeted at curricular and instructional reform specific to each district. Common course components between both university-district partnerships were identified in the areas of mathematics research, practice, and leadership advocacy and found to be instrumental in supporting instructional reform and …

Integrating Mathematics And Educational Robotics: Simple Motion Planning, Ronald I. Greenberg, George K. Thiruvathukal, Sara T. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper shows how students can be guided to integrate elementary mathematical analyses with motion planning for typical educational robots. Rather than using calculus as in comprehensive works on motion planning, we show students can achieve interesting results using just simple linear regression tools and trigonometric analyses. Experiments with one robotics platform show that use of these tools can lead to passable navigation through dead reckoning even if students have limited experience with use of sensors, programming, and mathematics.