Interdisciplinary and Inquiry Based Teaching of Calculus 1 NSF-USF-STEP METHODS A STEP to Grow in Science-Engineering- Mathematics Undergraduate Degrees.

Interdisciplinary and Inquiry Based Teaching of Calculus

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NSF-USF-STEP METHODSA STEP to Grow in Science-Engineering-

Mathematics Undergraduate Degrees

TEAMDr. Kandethody Ramachandran Dr. Catherine BénéteauDr. Scott CampbellDr. Gordon FoxDr. Arcadii GrinshpanDr. Marcus McWatersDr. Jennifer Lewis

http://www.math.usf.edu/faculty/kramachandran/

http://www.math.usf.edu/faculty/cbeneteau/

http://www.math.usf.edu/faculty/cbeneteau/

http://www.eng.usf.edu/~campbell

http://biology.usf.edu/ib/faculty/gfox/

http://www.math.usf.edu/faculty/agrinshpan/

http://www.math.usf.edu/faculty/mmcwaters/

http://chemistry.usf.edu/faculty/lewis/


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University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a large, multi-campus

national Research I university with over 48,000 students.

At USF Tampa campus, there are over 30,400 undergraduates, more than 8,400 graduates, over 550 Doctor of Medicine

candidates and more than 1,500 non-degree-seeking students .

USF is ranked 8th as an 'Up-and-Comer' among the country's national universities in the 2012 edition of U.S. News & World

Report's Best Colleges edition.

USF ranks 10th worldwide among universities granted U.S. patents.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/up-and-coming


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• The STEP project at University of South Florida (http://www.math.usf.edu/resources/step/) is based on the premise that success in calculus is the gateway to success in the STEM fields.

• This project is aimed at increasing STEM graduates through intervention programs in the Engineering and Life Science Calculus sequences.

• Through this project we have developed and implemented several transportable strategies such as

one-stop extended-hour tutoring (STEM Mart, http://www.lib.usf.edu/smart-lab/stem-center/ ),

project-based teaching, and

peer leading.

• These multiple strategies have transformed the teaching of calculus at USF and are leading to increased retention and pass rates for students.

USF-STEP PROJECT

http://www.math.usf.edu/resources/step/

http://www.lib.usf.edu/smart-lab/stem-center/

http://www.lib.usf.edu/smart-lab/stem-center/


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Challenges faced

• The overall pass rate in Calculus sequence was about 50- 55% before project inception.

• Tutoring was scattered around the campus in the individual departments restricted to scattered office hours.

• In sciences and engineering, teaching was just another duty. Research on teaching methods was the issue with only Education departments.


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Project Based learning

Teach calculus through projects based on real life problems Students work with a faculty member

or supervisor in their workplace to define a problem, write and analyze appropriate equations, and write a narrative report – in essence, they write a story problem, and then answer it and write it up as a scientific report.

Motivation: Enhance the students' ability to connect mathematics with other subjects

Our solutions


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Project Based Instruction

• All the calculus II&III sections are linked to the project submission/evaluation system (CIIM-MUG), thus allowing the calculus instructors to make use of the project option in all upper level calculus sections every semester.

• Every semester updating and distributing the applied calculus project guidelines.

• Developed the website ciim.usf.edu • The summaries of the completed projects and names of

the student contributors are posted at http://shell.cas.usf.edu/math/mug/new/index.php/projects/students• Teamed the USF research faculty and Florida

professionals with strong engineering and science students who are interested in interdisciplinary research based on mathematical modeling.

http://shell.cas.usf.edu/math/mug/new/index.php/projects/students

http://shell.cas.usf.edu/math/mug/new/index.php/projects/students


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• During 2008-2014, the project option has been introduced to 89 calculus sections (with 4644 registered students) taught by 21 instructors;

• 1255 distinct projects have been submitted. The total number of subject area advisors is 394: 167 from USF and 227 external to USF from 190 companies/organizations.

• About 1000 students/year is affected by this strategy• Developed a network of subject area advisors.

These projects include majority from engineering topics, many from medical, natural sciences and other fields representing real life topics.


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Project Based Instruction Effects

• Created an electronic journal Undergraduate journal of mathematical

modeling: one + two

• Project activities have resulted in a new center (Center for Industrial and Interdisciplinary Mathematics, http://ciim.usf.edu) at USF- being directed by Dr. Grinshpan.

• So far 90 articles are published (2008-2014), http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/ujmm/

Project bank will be a source for project based teaching

http://shell.cas.usf.edu/math/mug/projectindex.htm

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/ujmm/

http://shell.cas.usf.edu/math/mug/projectindex.htm


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Project Based Instruction Effects

Many STEM students take the calculus project seriously and devote more time and efforts throughout the course than those who choose the traditional option.

Calculus retention among students who submitted projects is about 25% higher than those who did not submit a project.

Calculus projects connect students with professionals in their field, thus increasing STEM retention.

The innovative PBL model has led to the formation of increased engineering-mathematics collaborations and a mathematically enhanced engineering curricula.


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Peer LeadingProcess Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL)

In peer leader program, selected student leaders provide structured tutoring and serve as role models for other students

developed a curriculum for Engineering and Life Science Calculus 1


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Peer Leading Selected undergraduate peer leaders underwent a weekly

training session and they led weekly, 50 minute cooperative learning inquiry sessions in most of the Calculus 1 sections

Between 13 to 17 undergraduate peer leaders/semester worked with students. About 1200 students/year are affected by this strategy

Curriculum development follows the learning cycle of data exploration, concept invention, and application concept

Students discover concept prior to the lecture


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Effects

Pass rate in POGIL classes went up by more than 10% compared to current control group

Withdrawal rates went down from about 23% to about 12%, a drop of at least 11%

Several peer leaders became engaged in undergraduate research and pursued graduate studies.


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Effects

Got permanent funding from the USF for 22 Undergraduate Peer Leaders 4 graduate TAs every semester for

Mathematics. Many faculty and graduate students are

trained in this method of teachingA book: Calculus I - A Guided Inquiry was

published (July 2014) by Wiley and the POGIL press


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STEM Mart

STEM Mart is a walk-in tutoring center that provides undergraduate students in the STEM disciplines an opportunity to receive free tutoring from other successful undergraduate students selected by the program. Open extended hours (M-Th., 10am-9pm, F.,

S,10am -4pm) and weekend hours (Sun., 1pm-5pm).

About 40 undergraduate students serve as tutors for elementary level STEM courses

STEM Mart is now recognized as a successful peer mentoring model.


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STEM Mart Utilization

All together from Fall 2008 to Spring 2014 the number of recorded student visits is 25154. In fact for Spring 13 and Fall 13, a total of more than 6000 visits are recorded by more than 1600 different students.

Popular destination for calculus and physics students

Image from STEM Mart


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STEM Mart Effect

For students who visited STEM Mart 5 or more times/semester, pass rate was about 80% compared to about 69% pass rate for overall calculus students.

Student utilization of STEM Mart increased much beyond the capacity the grant money can provide

More than 175 undergrad students have served as STEM Mart tutors.


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PROJECT BASED INSTRUCTION Pass rates are over 25% higher for students who did projects compared to those who did not. The percentage of students who graduated with a STEM degree is 5% higher for students who did projects compared to those who did not.

Data Results


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LATER COURSE The pass rate of students in EGN 3343 Thermodynamics is 5% higher for those who took Calculus I since the project inception compared to those who took it earlier

OVERALL The overall pass rate in Calculus

increased from 55% in 2006 (before project inception) to 75%.


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Factors that contributed to USF’s STEP grant success

Factor 1: Coalition of faculty, administrators, and staff

Effectively managing the project starts at assembling a team of strong faculty with diverse interest and passion that the PI can work with.

Factor 2: Decentralization

• Created subcommittees based on the interests of the Co-PIs and entrust all decision and implementation aspects to that committee. For instance, we created subcommittees on Projects, evaluation, STEM Mart, and peer leading.

• In turn they became not only ambassadors but also implementers of the project methods in their departments and colleges.


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Factors that contributed STEP grant success

Factor 3: : Make students experience the benefits

• When STEM Mart started, there were not much traffic. Now for each tutor, there are multiple students attending on help topics. Sometimes, we are unable to meet the demand.

• Students can make hesitating administrators into true believers!

• Aligned our project methods with institution priorities


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Factors that contributed STEP grant success

Factor 4: Assess impact and publicize Collect data and let data speak for itself. A strong evaluation creates

believers. We believe that one of the most important aspect that enabled

institutionalization is because we constantly feed the upper administration the results of assessments.

For instance, as result of project methods, The overall pass rate in Calculus increased from 55% in 2006 (before project inception) to 75% .

This augments well with institutional priority “Student success”


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Impact on Institutional culture Peer leading is now permanently funded for many of the

science courses.

STEM Mart concept resulted in much large Science, Math, and Research Technology Lab or SMART Lab (http://www.lib.usf.edu/smart-lab/ ) is equipped with more than 300 new computer workstations to provide a hands-on learning space geared toward improving student performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related coursework.

http://www.lib.usf.edu/smart-lab/

http://www.lib.usf.edu/smart-lab/


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Impact on Institutional culture

Last academic year, USF hired 7 tenure track faculty in CAS with expertise in teaching science. One of the tenure requirements for these positions is to publish on education research.

Basically Student success became center of the university mission and culture.


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Conclusion

These multiple strategies have transformed the teaching of calculus at USF and are leading to increased retention and pass rates for students in STEM.

The project methods are relatively easily transportable to other institutions.


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• http://www.math.usf.edu/resources/step/

http://www.math.usf.edu/resources/step/


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SUGGESTIONS

Interdisciplinary and Inquiry Based Teaching of Calculus 1 NSF-USF-STEP METHODS A STEP to Grow in Science-Engineering- Mathematics Undergraduate Degrees.

Documents

teaching of calculus

projectbased teaching

calculus instructors

usfstep project slide

calculus iiiii sections

interdisciplinary research

project option

upper level calculus