Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Find, Process, And Share: An Optimal Control In The Vidale-Wolfe Marketing Model, Michael C. Barg

CODEE Journal

The Vidale-Wolfe marketing model is a first-order, linear, non-homogeneous ordinary differential equation (ODE) where the forcing term is proportional to advertising expenditure. With an initial response in sales as the initial condition, the solution of the initial value problem is straightforward for a first undergraduate ODE course. The model serves as an excellent example of many relevant topics for those students whose interests lie in economics, finance, or marketing. Its inclusion in the curriculum is particularly rewarding at an institution without a physics program. The model is not new, but it was novel to us when a group of students …

My Experience Teaching General Chemistry To A Student Who Is Visually Impaired, Katherine M E Stewart

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This paper summarizes my experience with teaching a first-year, General Chemistry course to a visually impaired student. This includes accommodations and modifications for both the lecture material and the laboratory. Included are also examples of formats and syntax for txt-based quizzes, tests, and laboratory reports, as well as other general accommodations for both the student and the service dog.

An Interpolation Process On The Roots Of Ultraspherical Polynomials, R. Srivastava, Yamini Singh

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The paper is devoted to studying a Pál-type interpolation problem on the roots of Ultraspherical polynomials of degree n-1 with parameter k+1 on the closed interval -1 to 1. The aim of this paper is to find a unique interpolatory polynomial of degree at most m equal to 2n+2k+1 satisfying the interpolatory conditions that is, function values of the polynomial of degree m at the zeros of the function values of the ultraspherical polynomials and the first derivative values of the polynomial of degree m at the zeros of the first derivative values of the ultraspherical polynomials.We will use the …

Experiences Using Inquiry-Oriented Instruction In Differential Equations, Keith Nabb

CODEE Journal

Student-centered instruction can be a challenging endeavor for teachers and students. This article reports on the use of the Inquiry-Oriented Differential Equations (IO-DE) curriculum (Rasmussen, 2002) in an undergraduate differential equations course. Examples of student work are shared with specific reference to research in mathematics education.

Teaching Differential Equations Without Computer Graphics Solutions Is A Crime, Beverly H. West

CODEE Journal

In the early 1980s computer graphics revolutionized the teaching of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Yet the movement to teach and learn the qualitative methods that interactive graphics affords seems to have lost momentum. There still exist college courses, even at big universities, being taught without the immense power that computer graphics has brought to differential equations. The vast majority of ODEs that arise in mathematical models are nonlinear, and linearization only approximates solutions sufficiently near an equilibrium. Introductory courses need to include nonlinear DEs. Graphs of phase plane trajectories and time series solutions allow one to see and analyze the …

The Effects Of Motivation, Technology And Satisfaction On Student Achievement In Face-To-Face And Online College Algebra Classes, Hanan Jamal Amro, Marie-Anne Mundy, Lori Kupczynski

TxDLA Journal of Digital Learning

Demand for online learning has increased in recent years due to the convenience of class delivery. However, some students appear to have difficulties with online education resulting in lack of completion. The study utilized a quantitative approach with archival data and survey design. The factors of demographics, motivation, technology, and satisfaction were compared for face-to-face and online students. MANCOVA tests were performed to analyze the data while controlling age and gender to uncover significant differences between the two groups. The sample and population for this study were predominantly Hispanic students.

Motivation and Technology were non-significant, but satisfaction was proven to …

Motherhood And Teaching: Radical Care, Ksenija Simic-Muller

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This essay is a personal reflection on how I leverage my positioning as a caregiver in my roles of a mathematician, teacher, and mother, to advance a vision for a more just and equitable society. I argue that care at home and in the classroom takes similar forms, and can be liberating instead of oppressive.

Calculus Of The Impossible: Review Of The Improbability Principle (2014) By David Hand And The Logic Of Miracles (2018) By Lásló Mérő, Samuel L. Tunstall

Numeracy

David J. Hand. 2014. The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day (New York, NY: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 288 pp. ISBN: 978-0374175344.

Lásló Mérő. 2018. The Logic of Miracles: Making Sense of Rare, Really Rare, and Impossibly Rare Events (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press) 288 pp. ISBN: 978-0300224153.

David Hand and Lásló Mérő both grapple with the occurrence of seemingly impossible events in these two popular science books. In this comparative review, I describe the two books, and explain why I prefer Hand's treatment of the impossible.

A Numerical Method For Functional Hammerstein Integro-Differential Equations, L. Saeedi, A. Tari

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, a numerical method is presented to solve functional Hammerstein integro-differential equations. The presented method combines the successive approximations method with trapezoidal quadrature rule and natural cubic spline interpolation to solve the mentioned equations. The existence and uniqueness of the problem is also investigated. The convergence and numerical stability of the problem are proved, and finally, the accuracy of the method is verified by presenting some numerical computations.

It’S Raining : Remotely Accessible Instruments In Nanotechnology To Promote Student Success, Jared M. Ashcroft, Atilla Ozgur Cakmak, Jillian Blatti, Esteban Bautista, Vanessa Wolf, Felix Monge, Dwaine Davis, M. Josefina Arellano-Jimenez, Raymond Tsui, Richard Hill, Anthony Klejna, James S. Smith, Gabe Glass, Timothy Suchomski, Kristine J. Schroeder, Robert K. Ehrmann

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Remotely Accessible Instruments in Nanotechnology (RAIN) is a community of educators that aims to bring advanced technologies into K-12 and college classrooms via remote access. RAIN's mission is to facilitate the study of nanoscale science by lowering barriers for instructors to deliver relevant educational activities for younger students interested in learning about nanotechnology across traditional STEM fields. Additionally, RAIN engages the next generation STEM workforce with a connection to experts, tools and institutions where cutting-edge research is being performed. This resource is particularly vital for underrepresented and minority students, especially those attending institutions that cannot provide on-site access to advanced …

Models As Weapons: Review Of Weapons Of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality And Threatens Democracy By Cathy O’Neil (2016), Samuel L. Tunstall

Numeracy

Cathy O’Neil. 2016. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (New York, NY: Crown) 272 pp. ISBN 978-0553418811.

Accessible to a wide readership, Cathy O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy provides a lucid yet alarming account of the extensive reach of mathematical models in influencing all of our lives. With a particular eye towards social justice, O’Neil not only warns modelers to be cognizant of the effects of their work on real people—especially vulnerable groups who have less power to fight back—but also encourages laypersons to take initiative …

Why I Believe People Need Painting By Numbers, Jason Makansi

Numeracy

Jason Makansi.2016. Painting By Numbers: How to Sharpen Your BS Detector and Smoke Out the Experts (Tucson AZ: Layla Dog Press). 196 pp. ISBN 978-0998425900.

This piece briefly introduces my Painting By Numbers, which aims to take the core messages of the QL/QR community from academic and professional circles to the rest of the citizenry. I describe the book in the context of the critical need for the most basic numeracy tools to help consumers of news, information, and analysis—delivered through traditional and contemporary social media outlets—determine where a reported numerical result lies on the scale from utter nonsense …

Quantitative Map Literacy: A Cross Between Map Literacy And Quantitative Literacy, Ming Xie, H. L. Vacher, Steven Reader, Elizabeth Walton

Numeracy

We define quantitative map literacy (QML), a cross between map literacy and quantitative literacy (QL), as the concepts and skills required to accurately read, use, interpret, and understand the quantitative information embedded in a geospatial representation of data on a geographic background. Long used as tools in technical geographic fields, maps are now a common vehicle for communicating quantitative information to the public. As such, QML has potential to stand alongside health numeracy and financial literacy as an identifiable subdomain of transdisciplinary QL.

What concepts and skills are crucial for QML? The obvious answer is, “It depends on the type …

Connecting The Arcs Motivational Model To Game Design For Mathematics Learning, Mario J. Toussaint, Victoria Brown

Transformations

Students’ performance in mathematics at all levels of education have not markedly improved for the past few decades. Stakeholders at tertiary institutions have been attempting to remedy this situation by implementing various types of intervention programs designed to increase students’ success in mathematics courses. Technology has been the primary method adopted by many educators to foster student engagement in mathematics. This paper describes an intervention program that uses the ARCS model to develop a serious game intended to increase students’ motivation and engagement in a mathematics course.

Teaching Chemistry In A Spiral Progression Approach: Lessons From Science Teachers In The Philippines, Joymie R. Orbe, Allen A. Espinosa, Janir T. Datukan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

As the Philippines moves towards implementing the K-12 curriculum, there has been a mismatch in teacher preparation in science. The present teacher education curriculum prepares science teachers to specialise in a specific field (e.g. integrated science, biology, chemistry, and physics). However, in the K-12 curriculum, they are required to teach all the sciences in a spiral progression approach. Hence, this study analysed the experiences of science teachers in teaching chemistry in the K-12 curriculum in order to identify their challenges and how they are overcoming them. Findings suggest that the teacher’s content, pedagogy, and assessment in chemistry are problematic; specifically, …

Perturbations Observed In The Orbital Elements Of The Spectroscopic Binary 57 Cygni, Kenneth W. Mclaughlin, Janak Panthi

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

We present spectroscopy that confirms periodic Doppler-shifts along with photometry that reinforces a lack of eclipsing in the double-lined spectroscopic binary 57 Cygni. Our spectroscopy concentrates on a range encompassing H-alpha and the helium 667.8 nm line, where we find Doppler-shifts of both stars resolved in the helium line but less so in the broader H-alpha profile. Although we find the radial velocities derived from both lines reasonably consistent, we retained only the helium-line derived velocities for sinusoidal curve-fits to the orbital dependence. The fit-amplitudes specify the ratio of the stellar masses as 1.03 ± 0.05, in agreement with previous …

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Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.