Program

Monday

8:30 Introductions

8:45-9:15: Introduction to the workshop (Acrobat (PDF) 3.5MB Jul16 18) - what to expect, what we will accomplish this week

9:15-10:00: Brainstorming essential math concepts for your course (small groups with similar interest)

Summary of workshop discussion (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 12kB Jul16 18)

  • Think about why math concepts are hard for students
  • Discuss some strategies for overcoming difficulties in teaching QL
  • What contexts, within your course topic, are appropriate to the math concepts you have listed?
  • Think about which concepts come up over and over (i.e., are used in multiple contexts)?

10:00-11:20:Finding appropriate places for Quantitative Literacy/Skills

  • What topics on your syllabus are ripe for quantitative problems/activities?
  • Are there topics that utilize the same mathematical concepts?
  • Do you already have some quantitative problems? How can you improve them for the students (e.g., put them in a relevant context, provide support for completing them, etc)?
  • What kinds of support (outside of class, online, in class) do you need to be able to integrate some QL into your classes?

11:20 Road Check Monday

11:30 Adjourn for the day

Tuesday

8:30: Meet in Lindley 307 for a brief overview

8:35-9:00: Best practices for teaching quantitative skills and literacy Tuesday Presentation (Acrobat (PDF) 2MB Jul18 18)

9:00-9:30: Small group discussion about quantitative problems and exercises appropriate for your course

9:30-10:00: Brainstorming about how you might use the the best practices to build appropriate content/context for your class.

10:00-11:20: Development of some "algorithms" and context-specific sample problems

  • Writing appropriate text (make sure it's in the context of your course)
  • pictures or other figures that go with text
  • Walk the students through the steps that need to be taken to arrive at an answer...

11:20 Road Check Tuesday

11:30 Adjourn for the day - Please feel free to visit the other groups' pages to "borrow" new ideas about teaching quantitative skills!!

Wednesday

8:30: Meet in Lindley 307 Overview

8:40-10:45: Work time - incorporating your new ideas into your syllabus. I have included several ideas for what you could work on, but these are in no way exhaustive. You may work with the team you worked with yesterday, with new team members, or on your own!

  • Begin to design your "dream" course.
    • Modify your syllabus to include the best practices (need not be only quantitative skills/literacy) that you discussed yesterday
    • Modify your pre-existing activities to incorporate more quantitative skills. Make sure you think about some of the best practices from yesterday morning's presentation. Tuesday Presentation (Acrobat (PDF) 2MB Jul18 18)
    • Start a new syllabus for a new course. You might want to think about using this tutorial Designing effective and innovative courses. This link takes you to the table of contents. The tutorial uses the concept of Backward Design - the concept of setting goals first and then designing your course around them.
  • Pick one or more mathematical concept(s) that is/are "essential" to the topic of your course, or close to your heart/specialty
    • Begin to design a The Math You Need-like module for a concept that is important in your class and is not available in the geoscience context
    • Write some questions that could be used in conjunction with The Math You Need
    • Design an activity or exercise around the math concept that you need/want for your class and incorporate best practices (Acrobat (PDF) 2MB Jul18 18) into the assignment
  • Begin to think about how you could incorporate the ideas that we've talked about on Monday (Acrobat (PDF) 3.5MB Jul16 18) and Tuesday (Acrobat (PDF) 2MB Jul18 18) into any quantitative aspect of your class.

10:45-11:15: Report out - Teams or individuals spend about 5 minutes talking about what you learned, an activity or course you developed, how you modified your course.

11:15 Workshop evaluation

11:30 Adjourn

This Afternoon and during Meet the Editors...Please stop by the posters and provide feedback about Teach the Earth