Teaching Techniques

Discussion Topics

Resources and discussion focused on specific topics in teaching quantitative skills are highlighted in this section of the site. Our goal is to support faculty in addressing topics that are of high interest or particularly challenging. For each topic, you will find an introduction, a set of resources describing or evaluating teaching methods that have been tried in undergraduate courses, and an opportunity to discuss your experiences with this topic. We welcome your suggestions for topics or resources.

• Back of the Envelope Calculations
• Introductory Courses: Teaching Quantitative Literacy
• Introductory Courses: Strategies for Introducing Quantitative Thinking
• Metacognition
• Competancies in Problem-Solving Domains
• Modeling
• Problem-Based Approaches
• Teaching With Equations
• Technology Tutorials
• Understanding Uncertainty

Other References on Quantitative Teaching Methods

This section of the site is devoted to creating a comprehensive set of high quality resources that address methodologies for teaching quantitative skills. We are collecting resources directed specifically at the geosciences, as well as those developed by mathematicians and in other scientific and engineering disciplines that are applicable to teaching in a geoscience context. We welcome your suggestions for resources and your comments on those that we have identified. The quantitative skills email list provides a venue for general discussion of teaching methods.

Geoscience specific resources

• Quantitative Writing Assignments engages students with numbers by asking them to analyze and use quantitative data in written reports and arguments. Authored by John C. Bean at Seattle University with examples by Carleton College faculty.
• Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum Teaching with short PowerPoint presentations that guide students to build spreadsheets to solve one or more mathematical problems in the context of their courses. Written by Len Vacher, University of South Florida with example from the NSF funded SSAC project.
• Mathematics: A Simple Tool for Geologists (2000, David Waltham, Blackwell Science) This book aimed at students teaches simple mathematics using geological examples to illustrate mathematical ideas.
• Quantitative Skills Assessment In Geoscience Courses (more info) (Shah and West) A website at Columbia University with tips for teaching quantitative skills, a guide for assessing quantitative skills, and a survey of the skills in courses.
• Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 48, no 4. (Macdonald, Srogi and Stracher, 2000 (Eds.) ) and Mathematical Geology, v 32., no 2 (2000, Stracher, ed) are devoted to teaching quantitative skills in the geosciences and provide a variety of examples of effective practice.

Other resources

• The Mathematical Association of America Homepage (more info) has a wide range of Teaching and Curriculum Reform (more info) including:
  • Sourcebook for College Mathematics Teaching (1990, A. Schoenfled, Mathematics Association of America). An 80 page collection of useful advice based primarily on the work of the MAA Committe on the Teaching of Undergraduate Mathematics
  • Cooperative Learning in Undergraduate Mathematics: Issues that Matter Strategies that Work ( 2001, Elizabeth C. Rogers, Barbara E. Reynolds, Neil A. Davidson, and Anthony D. Thomas, Editors, Mathematics Association of America). Practical suggestions and strategies both for instructors who are already using cooperative learning in their classes, and for those who are thinking about implementing it.
  • Writing in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics (1998, John Meier and Thomas Rishel, Mathematics Association of America) A discussion of both how tocreate effective writing assignments for mathematics classes, and why instructors ought to consider using such assignment. This book is an argument for engaging students in a dialogue about the mathematics they are trying to learn.
• Overcoming Math Anxiety (1978, Revised and Expanded 1993, Shelia Tobias,W.W. Norton and Company) An inciteful look at why students can be anxious about mathematics and the role of different learning styles in problem solving.
• Small Group Learning in a Technical Course: Procedures, Pitfalls and Payoffs (1994, R.M. Felder and R. Brent, ERIC Document Reproduction Service Report ED 377038) Building on a description of several cooperative learning exercises that have worked well for the authors in engineering courses, this paper suggest ways to maximize the benefits and overcome the challenges of a collaborative learning approach.