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The Math You Need, When You Need It 2011:
A workshop for faculty teaching introductory geoscience

July 27-29, 2011, Highline Community College, Seattle, WA

The deadline for applications was April 8, 2011.


Screenshot of page "How do i construct a straight line through data points?"
To date, fourteen colleges and universities have successfully used the online resources encompassed by The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN). Although inclusion of quantitative skills can be difficult for a number of reasons, data suggest that students who engage with TMYN become more proficient in quantitative problem solving. In 2010, these fourteen institutions came together to brainstorm and design integration of TMYN into an introductory geoscience course. The implementation models are diverse and flexible and more information can be found examining the Implementation Plans associated with last year's workshop.

Workshop description

The workshop occurred in Seattle in the summer of 2011 to explore the flexibility afforded you by TMYN and to learn best practices for implementing TMYN into your own introductory geoscience course.

puget Sound
This NSF-funded project is designed to provide resources for both faculty and students to include quantitative skills in the introductory geoscience classroom by:

            • providing a supportive learning environment for learning mathematical skills
            • allowing students to complete modules on their own time and at their own pace
            • requiring no extra classroom time to increase quantitative geoscience content in your course

The workshop began on Wednesday evening with a dinner and concluded at lunch on Friday. Participants in this workshop:

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  • learned about the inner workings of TMYN and the testing software
  • interacted with successful implementers of TMYN
  • modified course(s) to include appropriate online quantitative content
  • designed an implementation unique to his/her course and institution
  • created a web page with an implementation plan
  • discussed student perceptions/fears of quantitative skills
  • collaborated with other participants to improve TMYN effectiveness

Workshop conveners:

Eric Baer, Highline Community College, Geology
Helen Burn, Highline Community College, Mathematics
Jennifer Wenner, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Geology

Costs

Workshop operational costs as well as room, board and reasonable travel costs for participants were covered by grants from the National Science Foundation [DUE-0920800 (Baer) and DUE-0920583 (Wenner)].

Logistics and Location

The workshop took place at Highline Community College, just south of Seattle, Washington. Sea-Tac Airport is just 3 miles from the conference hotel and meeting area, and a shuttle is available to all participants.

Workshop leaders convened on Wednesday, July 27 in the morning. Participants gathered by 5 p.m. on the 27th. The conference adjourned at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, July 29th.

Participant Selection Criteria

Workshop participants were chosen based on expressed interest in using The Math You Need resources and reflected a variety of institutions, introductory geoscience courses, student populations and geographic settings.

For more information

Contact the conveners, Eric Baer (ebaer 'at' highline.edu) or Jennifer Wenner (wenner 'at' uwosh.edu)


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