Key Components for Assessing 2005-2006 Pilot NAC at SU:
Three exploration activities for students, insertable into courses as modules which enhance quantitative reasoning skills in real-world contexts.
"..my wife instructed me to tell you that she loved the percent package you put together. She happened to see a copy on the desk at home, started reading it, and couldn't put it down (she has a MS in biology, and has taken loads of statistics and a bit of calculus, so she comes to this with quite a bit more background than do I!). In any event, she thought that it was a masterful piece of instructional writing, and that it should be widely published and used. She hasn't seen the oil [student activity] yet (though she asked me to bring it home), and I'm sure that she'll like it even more. Thanks for letting me be part of this"-Dr. Mike Lewis, Dept of History Extended multi-part mathematical exploration: Mastering Percents: A Quantitative Literacy Exploration [in html; about 9 pages long] Version of Mastering Percents: A Quantitative Literacy Exploration with solutions and discussion [in html; about 11 pages long]
Summary The two mathematical explorations below are content-specific QL modules designed to help students gain deeper understanding into the specific content matter covered in their respective (Sociology and History) courses.
This QL activity on the other hand is more general-purpose. It can be used to help students get themselves up to speed on percents and proportional reasoning. This stronger mastery among students can, in turn, be used either directly or indirectly to enhance content-specific learning goals.
It can be used directly, later in the non-mathematics course where proportional reasoning and high levels of mastery of percents and some of their lesser known subtleties are used to gain insight into the content-specific material being studies in the course. This module can also be used as a first of series of two of more QL-based modules, the latter of which link directly to the content and learning goals of the course in question.
Extended multi-part mathematical exploration: Budgeting and Percents: It's all Relative [in html; about 7 pages long] Version of Budgeting and Percents: It's all Relative with solutions filled in. [in html; about 7 pages long]
Summary Produced for Spring 2006 Sociology 101 taught by Dr. Diane Illig. The course content includes focusing on areas such as (socioeconomic) class and budgeting. QL-based analysis is used to provide a whole array of lenses through which to examine how (and to what extent) socioeconomic background affects how expensive things look, the rate at which things become more expensive, and the constraints within which choices must be made: both general choices (e.g. regarding commuting to work) or budgeting choices in particular.
Extended multi-part mathematical exploration: Rock Oil, Rock Oil, everywhere Let's pause& accord to think.. (With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge) [Activity in html; about 9 pages long] Version of Rock Oil, Rock Oil, everywhere Let's pause & accord to think.. with solutions and extended discussion. [In html; about 12 pages long]
Summary Produced for Spring 2006 History 389, U.S. Environmental History, taught by Dr. Mike Lewis. Course content included fossil fuels and natural resource depletion. Engaged, well-informed citizens in a democracy, whether engaged through elections, civic organizations, or 'activism' must have quantitative tools to comprehend, analyze, and communicate about such matters as the amount of oil the world uses, extraction rates, and peak oil. This extended multi-part QL module explores these issues and strengthens the above quantitative reasoning abilities and skills among students.
Note: Electronic versions of the solutions handouts listed above are available, upon request, from instructors (must email from instructor's account).
II. Summary of Pretests/Posttests given to students
- 67% of students in the History class indicated they "learned some new mathematics" and/or "successfully refreshed" previous knowledge, via the general Percents module (agreement as "yes" or "somewhat" on survey form). 54% of Sociology 101 students indicated likewise.
- 47% of students in the History class (and 54% of students in the Sociology 101 class) indicated they were more comfortable with percents than they were before the activity. It is likely this is due to two countervailing forces at play: the students were more comfortable with the easier percents material at the end of the activity than at the beginning; however, the latter portions of the activity contain material more advanced than many students even realized exist about percents, thus some students realized there is much more our there to master than they had previously realized.
- 73% of the History students (and 57% of Sociology 101 students) indicated they thought "The math [they] learned or reviewed/refreshed during the Percents activity might be useful..in the future" as they study, take more courses in, or read articles on material related to their discipline.
- For the activity on "rock oil" (petroleum), 53% of the students in the U.s. Environmental History course indicated they learned some new mathematics or successfully refreshed previous knowledge, through the activity; 53% are more comfortable after the activity than they were before; and 67% indicated the math they learned would likely be useful to them in future studies, courses, or articles on environmental history.
- For the activity on Budgeting, 73% indicated they learned some new mathematics or successfully refreshed previous knowledge, through the activity; 69% stated they were more comfortable after the activity than they were before; and 60% indicated the math they learned would likely be useful to them in future studies, courses, or articles in sociology
- Some 42-45% (Sociology 101) and 33-40% (U.S. Environmental History) students were willing to call the activities "fun/engaging" (lower numbers in History despite a higher rate -- 73% rather than 57% -- in History than Sociology of students stating the information they "learned/reviewed" through engaging in the activity would be useful to them in the future). There were indications that the activities were too long for the time instructors were able to schedule during this first semester piloting (a single class, with homework/discussion followup).
In addition, due to a death in the family one of the participating instructors had to have a substitute instructor administer the activity, and the participating instructor in question indicated the substitute instructor did not fully follow the directions in terms of giving students background before administering the activity.
III. Summary of Responses to questions, and Narratives from[To be added later when fully received from participating instructors]
IV. 57 minute video of Dr. Mike Lewis discussion follow-up to Oil activity in Hist 389 (Taped 5/9/06) available in MiniDV and VHS.
Original proposal (Note: as the project evolved it became clear that it was premature to have an outside evaluator -- using one was planned in the original proposal -- while the pilot was limited to two courses and three activities, so other forms of assessment, including the above, were used instead of an outside evaluator).