Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Stretching Maths and Minds
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Brigitte LahmeDepartment Chair: [email protected]
Nick DowdallStretch Coordinator: [email protected]
The Math and Stats at SSU
• SSU has about 9000 students, 1900 incoming first-year
• Designated an HSI with 31.2% Latinx students in 2018
• About 500-600 Cat III and IV students will take G.E. level Stretch math in Fall 2019 (Previously Remedial Alg I and/or II)
• The department has 13 TT faculty and 20+ lecturers
Overview of Stretched GE Classes
Math 131A/B: Finite Math for Business
Math 150A/B: College Geometry (Transformational)
Math 161A/B: Calculus 1
Math 165A/B: Elementary Statistics
The Structure of Stretch
• Year Long courses - Fall/Spring - double the units
• Class sizes at 30
• Semester 1 is Cr/NoCr → Cat II (Remediated)
• Semester 2 is graded → B4 credit
• GE content throughout the year
• Learning Community Mentors with weekly out of class meetings
Active Learning Pedagogy
● Collaboration and
Cooperation
● Critique and appreciate the
work of others and receiving
feedback
● Chance to revise work
● Instructor facilitates the space
● Mini lectures as needed
Project Focused
Need additional pictures
● Big and small
● Makerspace
● Term Projects
● Re-imagine exam content
A Learning Community that extends beyond the classroom
● Using Supplemental
Instructors
○ SIs mentor the students
○ Participate in every class
○ Tutoring sessions
○ Do not grade work or
discipline students
● Assignments and Projects that
encourage (require)
collaboration, student critiques,
and revising
Poll 1: What collaborative activities are you using?
- Group work
- Student presentations
- Team projects
- Poster making
- Think-Pair-Share
- Display student work
- Other (please describe in chat box)
Poll 2: How often do you use
these activities:- Never
- A few times per semester
- Every week
- Every class
The First Two Weeks
Creating the Space
Day 1: 45 mins Marshmallow Towers
● Fun Ice Breaker
● Collaborative process
● Uncovers hidden assumptions
● Helps to establish heterogeneous groups
● Has a natural debrief:
○ Do you believe your ideas were
valued?
○ Did you listen to others and value their
ideas?
○ What will you change in the future?
Watch TED talk with Tom Wujec for more info
Day 2 Hook Problem
● Collaborative exploration
● Multiple Solutions
● Solutions not immediately obvious
● Does not require too much specific
knowledge
Students exploring what it
means to be a reflection
Poll: Initiating Growth Mindset
How familiar are you with Growth Mindset?
- Little to not at all
- Somewhat
- Very
- Try to instill in my students
Growth Mindset Intervention - Jo Boaler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoYDHUGIwuE
The Assignment
● Students watch video outside of
class with groupmates (could be
remote)
● Create a poster illustrating their
takeaways from video
● Display (permanently) in class
● Have each group discuss one
takeaway from their poster
Day 4: Learning Community Agreement
Be A Learner● SPEAK your truth: Value your knowledge and share it
● Speak YOUR truth: Speak from your ideas and your understanding
● Speak your TRUTH: Understand that often there is no single “right answer”, …
Assume Positive Intent● Listen and seek to understand the other perspectives and ideas being presented
● Enter into discussions with the understanding that we are all working toward common goals
Take Responsibility for Your Learning● Show up and be present
● Ask questions and make requests that support your learning and participation
Respect Our Interdependency● We are uncovering a mathematical trajectory: fill the gaps for each other
● Your work and learning depends on other’s engagement and participation. …
Appreciate the Contributions of Others● Acknowledge individual or group contributions
● Recognize members’ risk-taking, sharing, and courage in acting upon our agreements
● Students review at home
● Have group discussion
● Make decisions on what to add
● Revise the agreement
● All sign the personalized
agreement
● Display in room (possibly attach
to growth mindset poster)
Posters persisting through the semester when possible
The Phone Brain Drain
ADRIAN F. WARD, KRISTEN DUKE, AYELET GNEEZY, AND MAARTEN W. BOS
Interventions Throughout The Year
● Coordinate with advising dept
● Assign as homework
● Give a 2 week window
Upcoming intervention: Poster Campaign
● Images of students
● Messages of inclusion
and community
● Displayed around the
department
More Interventions
1. Group noticing (Early)
2. What are you good at? (Mid semester)
3. Purpose and values (Late semester)
4. One-on-ones with professor (Anytime)
5. Arts integration around social justice (Sem one and/or two)
6. Math autobiography (Semester one and two)
Poll: Which of these would you like to hear more about?
Course Design and Redesign
● Summer workshop on HIP first-year interventions
● Design teams - planning through summer
● Pilot one section of each course - revise - scale up
● Co-teaching - PD for instructors new to active learning
● Coordination - liaison between department
Course Specific Activities
Calculus 1
● Makerspace activity: Make a
Ferris Wheel
● Project Poster “Conference”
Finite Math
● Computer activities using
EXCEL
● Investment Project
Geometry
● Geogebra Projects
● Kinesthetic Learning
Statistics
● Survey Project
● Simulation Activities
Historic DFW% for Non-Stretch Classes: 2012-2018
● Remedial Algebra I 19%
● Remedial Algebra II 24%
● College Geometry 12%
● Finite Business Math 16%
● Elementary Statistics 20%
● Calculus I 31%
Initial Results for Stretch Classes Fall 2018
Overall: Cohort of 282 students with a combined DFW of 12.1%
Stretch DFW Non Stretch DFW
● College Geometry 6.1% (12%)
● Finite Business Math 12.0% (16%)
● Elementary Statistics 14.2% (20%)
● Calculus I 11.9% (31%)
Things we learned
● Make Learning Community weekly meetings mandatory
● Support instructors through frustrations and doubts with
regular meetings. Critical in weeks 4-8
● Rapid prototyping - revise-revise-revise
● Using projects effectively
A Problem to Play With: Four 4’s
Make the numbers from 1-20 using exactly four 4’s and any
operation:
15 = 4*4-4/4
From: https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/the-four-4s/
Brigitte LahmeDepartment Chair: [email protected]
Nick DowdallStretch Coordinator: [email protected]
Contact
Resources
Mindset, rich activities
● YouCubed (Jo Boaler): https://www.youcubed.org/
Marshmallow Tower:
● https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower?language=en
Quotes from SETEs
Thank you for believing in us.
She pushed us to work harder and helped us to work independently so we can
teach ourselves material to become better students in the mere future.
I like when we do test corrections because I think they are very helpful. I get to
see my mistakes and fix them which them helps me to do better on the next test
and on the homework assignments.
The instructor begins by proposing a confusing, or out of the norm problem then
asks us to figure it out though it is not bad because if he see that we are stuck he
will throw us a clue that will eventually lead us to the answer.
