This project involves high school, two-year college, business and industry, and 4-year university educator partners in developing a mathematics course for high school seniors with the overarching goal of improving student readiness for technical degree programs. Ongoing activities include intensive math teacher professional development workshops, and seminars and learning communities to insure implementation of the course. Partner high schools are committed to incorporating this course into their offerings and actively recruiting appropriate students for it. The course aligns with Common Core State Standards1 and Ohio's Mathematical Expectations for College Readiness and features a focus on actively engaging students in gathering, representing, analyzing, and interpreting data through activities that emphasize application of mathematics in STEM fields. The project learns from, builds upon, and expands upon a similar approach, the Skills Gap program, supported some years ago by the state of Ohio.
Intellectual Merit: Technologies, including graphing calculators, sensors, interfaces, and computer software, are extending students' abilities to gather and analyze data. The course is collaboratively designed by a group of STEM faculty, resource teachers, and first cohort teachers (to include former "Skills Gap" teachers) with input from business and industry. The high school teachers involved are participating in intensive and sustained professional development, including a two-week summer institute prior to implementation and ongoing monthly workshops during implementation. Teachers are learning: mathematical concepts by applying mathematics in STEM contexts; pedagogical strategies that enhance critical thinking and problem solving skills; effective use of technologies in teaching mathematics; and an array of assessment strategies including performance-based assessments. Anticipated outcomes include: improved high school student and teacher understanding of mathematical applications in technical fields; enhanced high school mathematics teacher pedagogical practice; recruitment of students into technical programs; and decreased numbers of students requiring remediation in college mathematics.
Broader Impact: A professional learning community of participating teachers and project faculty is being formed and teacher awareness of STEM technical careers and resources available for improving STEM teaching and learning is being enhanced. It is anticipated that at least 24 high schools with 40-48 teachers will participate in the project serving at least 1,200 students during the funding period. Overall results are being disseminated through secondary and two-year college mathematics professional associations the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), and the Ohio state affiliate of AMATYC (OhioMATYC).
