This project uses the computer as a learning tool during in-class instruction on a continuous basis, beginning with the critical "gateway" courses Intermediate Algebra, Statistics, Trigonometry and Calculus/Analytic Geometry. Students will use computer software to explore concepts as they occur during instruction, to perform arduous computation, and to produce graphs and numerical tables quickly. They collaborate on real world problems and create written and graphical presentations for understanding mathematics. Project students construct mathematical meaning, learn to monitor and control their own learning, have the benefits of social interactions, and move back and forth between symbolic, graphical and numerical representations of mathematical problems and concepts. A dedicated technological mathematics classroom will be created during the summer of 1995. It will be equipped with 20 powerful networked student workstations running sophisticated software; an instructor's workstation; a capable fileserver; an overhead projector and LCD display; and Mathematica, Maple, Geometer's Sketchpad, and other useful math software. Team members will evaluate the project by analyzing student performance data, surveying student attitudes, and studying further math course-taking by these students. They will disseminate their findings through papers, presentations at conferences, and hands-on workshops in the laboratory for high school and community college colleagues in math and other scientific and technical disciplines.
