Project MINDSET:
Innovative Education
By Kenneth Chelst, Thomas Edwards, Robert Young,
Karen Keene and David Royster
OR/MS Today August 2008
Jamie-Leigh Csizmar
Professor Shilepsky
Math 308
Dec. 8, 2008
Imagine
*A world in which college freshmen know and understand
multi-step problem solving to be the norm
*A time when word problems are considered to be no problem
*Students understand sensitivity as something to be analyzed
and not just a personal characteristic
This is the world that Project MINDSET is trying to
create!
What is Project MINDSET
Project MINDSET is a project designed to develop, implement
and evaluate a two-semester course for high school seniors based
on the mathematics of operations research and industrial
engineering
MINDSET stands for Mathematics Instruction using Decision
Science and Engineering Tools
Partner Universities working on it right now are North Carolina
State University, Wayne State University, and University of
North Carolina- Charlotte
Why?
Two forces cause need for more proficient math courses in
high school
1) The minimum state standards needed to obtain a high
school diploma
Many are trying to implement a four year math
requirement to graduate and a math course is
needed that is relatable to students
2) State university admission standards or expectations to
be competitive
A problem solving approach to math will better
prepare students for college level courses
The course will be designed to address the national deficiency in
mathematics
EX) On the 1996 and 2000 National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), only 24 percent of American 12th-grade
students were able to correctly solve a multi-step problem
involving multiple operations.
An army bus holds 36 soldiers. If 1,128 soldiers are
being bussed to their training site, how many buses are
needed?
23% answered correctly while 29% answered with “31 remainder 12”
Problem lies in Multi-step problem solving and interpretation of
results, which is not being properly addressed at the current time
How to be Successful
*Most important – the teachers who implement it
Training in delivering the text and altering
pedagogical strategies
*Project committee will create a web-based teacher support
system allowing for all teachers participating to have a
community to reference
will supply lectures, quizzes, FAQ’s
*Traveling Help Team – a “rapid response” group that will
go to classrooms to help both teachers and students
Challenges
*Each state has different standards and so the project has to be
tailored in a way that makes it easily adaptable to all sorts of
standards
Article suggests beginning with a mathematics professor to
teach the teaching strategy
They can teach their students about it and methods to
use and then within 5 years 25,000 students can be
learning OR/IE in high school!
Education courses taught in college will reach 20 new high school teachers who can
teach two sections, or 50 students per year. Five schools of education in your state
teach 100 new teachers a year, who in turn teach 5,000 more students = 25,000 in 5
years
Project MINDSET would reach home with both college
bound and non-college bound students because of its real
world contexts
It will bring a wide range of applicable examples to
students that may have been lacking in other classes
Is it the right time to implement this in your school?