The First Two Years of College Math:
Building Student Success
Modeling across the Curriculum
The STEM Disciplines
What are some key issues?
How is the community responding?
What curricular changes/ improvements are needed?
Peter Turner
SIAM Vice President for Education
Dean of Arts & Sciences,
Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science,
Clarkson University
pturner@clarkson.edu vpeducation@siam.org
* NSF/EHR/DUE Awards 1206230 & 1352973,
Education and Human Resources Directorate
Key issues:
Some of them
• Preparation & Readiness for STEM majors
• CU STEM admissions data
• Outdated curricula and delivery methods
• PCAST Engage to Excel
• Math 2025
• Workforce issues
• Very few “future math profs” in large core math classes
• Teach the students we have, not the ones we dream of
• INGenIOuS
• Student “demands” for relevant education
• BUT with care over “training vs. education”
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Building Student Success
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STEM
doesn’t happen
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Building Student Success
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So, what is being done?
• Multiple initiatives in the Math Sciences community
•
•
•
•
Modeling across the Curriculum
TPSE-Math
MAA-led Common Vision for Undergraduate Math in 2025
CSE Future Workshop
• Multiple curricular reports:
• CUPM Guidelines (2015?)
Greater emphasis on applied topics than previously
• SIAM Report on Undergraduate CS&E (2011)
• SIAM Report on Applied Math undergraduate programs (2014)
• Future Directions in CSE Workshop, August 2014
• INGenIOuS
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Building Student Success
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So, what is being done?
• Changing nature of both Math majors and of
“service” courses
• Modeling, computation, statistics
• Project-based learning
• Teamwork, etc.
• SIAM Undergraduate Research Online, SIURO
• MAA-SIAM PIC (preparation for Industrial Careers)
Math project
• More internship opportunities
• Implications for K-12 and Teacher Preparation
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Building Student Success
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Modeling across the
Curriculum
• Two SIAM-NSF Workshops
• August 30 -31, 2012 at NSF
• January 12- 14, 2014 at ASA
Draft report near complete
• Engage and Keep Young People in STEM,
• from K12 through Undergrad (and Grad)
Studies, and into the Workforce
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Building Student Success
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MaC I Recommendations
Four categories
• Expanding modeling in K-12
• Development of a high school one semester, or
one year modeling course (with stratified
content)
• Develop modeling-based undergraduate
curricula
• Develop a repository of materials for math
modeling instruction and understanding
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Building Student Success
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MaC II
• Three primary topic areas:
• Early grades (Rachel Levy coordinating)
• Middle/High School (Katherine Socha)
• Undergrad curricula (Jeff Humpherys)
• MaC II process:
• Developing clear list of deliverables
• Intro from Joan Ferrini-Mundy
• Keynote on Math2025, Panel on opening
afternoon advance this process
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Building Student Success
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MaC II Panel
• Used to “set the scene” and review some of the
discussions at MaC I:
• Definition of modeling
• Stand alone vs. infusion
• Setting goals for MaC II sessions
• The role of algorithms
• Modeling at different educational levels and in different
disciplinary contexts
• Assessment
Panel members: Jeff Humpherys, Rachel Levy, Katherine Socha
Moderator: Turner
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Building Student Success
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Discussion Topics
• Programs:
• Courses, Programs, Degrees, Summer Experiences,
Internships
• “Infusion” or stand alone? (“Trojan mice”)
• Materials:
• Books, Videos, Software, Posters, Websites, MOOCs?
• Informal education (MoMath?)
• Training:
• Pre-service and in-service
• Ways of interacting with teachers/ faculty/ TAs and
students (and perhaps parents)
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Building Student Success
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Some MaC II undergrad
recommendations*
• Proposal for NRC Study/Report
Response to Joan Ferrini-Mundy’s Challenge to
think about effective ways to educate students at
the crossroads of:
• Mathematical modeling
• Data science
• Information science
• Computational science
• Computational thinking
* Credit to Jeff Humpherys for some of this content
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Building Student Success
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Modeling and the Pipeline:
Attracting and retaining STEM students
A study/paper on recommended topics to address:
• How to achieve the 34% increase in Engage to Excel.
• Multiple entryways?
A non-calculus track for freshman modeling?
• Diversity
• Focus on Jobs!
• Teaching needs to match what we expect
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Building Student Success
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Two Recommendations for
Professional Organizations
• Form a SIAM Activity Group (SIAG) in Applied
Mathematics Education
• Done!
SIAG Ed was approved at SIAM Council and Board in July
Begins operation in January 2015
• Plans for First SIAG Ed conference to coincide with, and
broaden, MaC III
• SIAM Education VP needs to continue to work with
other VPs and other societies
• New VP for Education starts in January 2015, Rachel Levy
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What are “new” key areas
for undergrad math?
A modern math sciences undergraduate education should
include at least some introduction to
• Algorithms and Analysis (Data Structures, Approximation
Theory, Numerical Analysis, Computational Science)
• Distributed Computing and Big Data (MPI, Hadoop,
noSQL)
• Data Analytics (Regression, Estimation, SQL, R/Python)
• Modeling with Probability and Stochastic Processes
• Bayesian Statistics and Machine Learning
• Dynamical Systems (ODE, PDE, SDE)
• Optimization and Control
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Building Student Success
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Why?
Actual Job from CareerBuilder.com
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Building Student Success
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