Q
A
When will I ever use this?
A math course
with real
ANSWERS!
PROJECT PERSONNEL
INVESTIGATORS
Dr. Kenneth Chelst I Co-Principal Investigator
Professor, Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, Wayne State
University
kchelst@wayne.edu
Dr. Thomas Edwards I Co-Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, Teacher Education Division, Wayne State University
t.g.edwards@wayne.edu
Dr. Karen Keene I Co-Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Department of Math, Science & Technology Education, NC State
University
karen_keene@ncsu.edu
Dr. Karen Norwood I Co-Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, Department of Math, Science & Technology Education, NC State
University
karen_norwood@ncsu.edu
Dr. David Pugalee I Co-Principal Investigator
Professor, Center for STEM Education, UNC Charlotte
David.Pugalee@uncc.edu
Dr. Robert Young I Principal Investigator and Project Director
Professor, Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering,
NC State University
young@ncsu.edu
PROJECT MANAGERS
Dr. Molly Purser I Project Manager
Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, NC State University
mfpurser@ncsu.edu
Jay Johnson I Project Manager
Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, Wayne State University
j.johnson@wayne.edu
MINDSETProject
Mathematics INstruction using Decision Science and Engineering Tools
WWW.MINDSETPROJECT.ORG
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation,
Directorate for Education and Human Resources,
Project DRL-0733137
WWW.MINDSETPROJECT.ORG
PROJECT OVERVIEW
MINDSET
Mathematics INstruction using Decision Science
and Engineering Tools (MINDSET) is an NSFfunded collaboration between mathematics
educators, engineers, and mathematicians at NC
State University, Wayne State University, and UNC
Charlotte. Partnering with high school teachers,
the MINDSET project team is working to create,
implement, and evaluate a new curriculum and
textbook. The intent is to reinforce standard
mathematics concepts using math-based
decision-making tools from Operations Research
(OR) and Industrial Engineering (IE) for a noncalculus fourth-year mathematics course. The
curriculum is presented to high school students as
a series of real-world problems with the purpose
of making the underlying mathematics more
relevant to them. The goal of MINDSET is to
improve students’ mathematical abilities and
attitudes by building on skills learned in Algebra II
in relatable problem contexts. Over 60 teachers in
Michigan and North Carolina have adopted a new
MINDSET: Will you?
The course is comprised of two semesters, one
semester of deterministic content and the other
probabilistic. Both use algebra as a prerequisite.
Techniques covered in the deterministic curriculum include linear programming, the critical path
method, facility location problems, transportation
problems, and multi-criterion decision making. In
the probabilistic curriculum, topics include probability distributions, decision trees, Program
Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), Markov
chains, and queuing theory. But…MINDSET is
different! These techniques and tools are woven
into real-world problem contexts, where the
student starts with the contexts and proceeds to
math skill development.
MINDSET is a cutting-edge curriculum designed to
make mathematics more interesting for students.
SAMPLE PROBLEM
SAMPLE PROBLEM CONTEXTS
• Skate board manufacturing
• Choosing a college
• Buying a used car
• Minimizing water pollution
• House renovations
• Assignment of sport relay teams
• Locating emergency service centers in Tornado Alley
• Transportation logistics
• How fast rumors spread
• Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) overtime
• Quality control in manufacturing and service
• How to choose a cell phone plan
• Waiting in line and customer service levels
Every excited teacher touches the lives of more than a
thousand high school students over a career! Here’s
what a few teachers had to say about their experiences with MINDSET:
“My students picked up on Excel quickly. One student even
told me that the material was annoying because usually they
aren’t taught to think and this stuff made them think! It
challenged my students. Wonderful!”
“I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. I am not sure exactly
what I expected, but it was much more interesting and
thought provoking. I hope the course will actually encourage
the higher level thinking that we always hear about.”
“The project team shows a genuine interest in making the
materials teacher-friendly and student-accessible.”
Malawi is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Its
population of 13,000,000 lives in an area about the size
of the state of Pennsylvania. Malawi’s economy is
largely based on agriculture and much of its population
is impoverished. As a result, the diets of Malawian
children are frequently deficient in essential nutrients.
The deterministic technique of linear programming can
be used to design a diet that meets all nutritional
requirements while keeping the intake of calories at a
minimum. In this case, each nutrient under consideration acts as a constraint. The total number of calories
is the objective function. The key nutrients, minimum
daily requirements, and information about the foods
available to the Malawians (maize flour, tangerines,
pigeon peas, matemba fish, potatoes, and Chinese
cabbage) are provided in the problem statement.
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This problem is complex due to its magnitude: 6
decision variables and 22 constraints; however, it can
be solved quickly using Excel with Solver. The below
figure shows a portion of the Excel formulation for this
linear programming-minimization problem. Obtaining
the solution is just the first step. In the MINDSET
curriculum, you’ll find several questions following each
problem that encourage your students to interpret the
results in an analytical way.
SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS
• Workshops offered each summer
• Full-service project website
with tons of resources and an
interactive discussion forum
• Web access to supplementary
materials including homework
problems, test questions,
presentations, and teacher notes
• Live-support help desk
• In-class visits from professors
and graduate teaching assistants
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For more information about how you
can become involved in MINDSET or if
you’d like to attend an upcoming workshop, please email
mindset@ncsu.edu
FIG 1: Portion of Excel Formulation