The need for increased numeracy among American undergraduates is well documented. Students enrolled in mathematics courses rarely see the connections between the quantitative principles they are studying and issues which arise in the other disciplines. In Fall 1995, after a two-year planning effort, the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey initiated a program designed to address these problems. Building on the success of our writing-across-the-curriculum program, the current project infuses quantitative reasoning across the disciplines. Project objectives concern students, faculty, curriculum, and research. Students develop strong quantitative skills, understand the important role quantitative reasoning plays in a variety of disciplines, and learn mechanisms to overcome mathematics anxiety and avoidance. Faculty members from throughout the college become familiar with current research in mathematics education, enrich their own mathematical backgrounds, deepen their understandings of the connections between quantitative reasoning and other disciplines, and develop classroom materials which promote student construction of meaningful mathematics. New and revamped courses which emphasize the significance of quantitative reasoning to the disciplines are added to the curriculum. Faculty members conduct research studies at the individual, classroom, and institutional level. In order to achieve these objectives, a diverse group of 24 faculty participate in a series of course development and research seminars, beginning with a series of sessions during the summer of 1996. From this group, four smaller disciplinary teams (each augmented by a student) develop and test curricular materials and approaches during the subsequent academic year. After summary sessions in May, the project culminates with a regional conference on infusing quantitative reasoning across the curriculum, hosted by Stockton in August, 1997. Besides preparing graduates to be capable members of the work force and informe d citizens and consumers, this project will contribute to a clearer understanding of the relationship between mathematical ideas and the contexts to which they are applied. In addition, the project serves as a model for other institutions who wish to integrate quantitative reasoning throughout the curriculum.
