1982 Maurice Ewing Medalist

The Gender Gap in Stem Attainment

Using a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study examined the perspectives of Latino parents and their involvement in the decision of their child to enroll in an advanced mathematics course in sixth grade. Since enrollment in Algebra I in high school is said to be a strong predictor of college attainment and with the growing number of Latino students across the nation, this study has the potential to help district and campus leaders establish whole-school systems for communicating with Latino parents to encourage their children to enroll in advanced mathematics courses at earlier grades. Participants in this study included four sixth-grade students enrolled in an advanced mathematics course, four enrolled in regular mathematics, their mother or father, two mathematics teachers, a school counselor, and two district administrators. Data analyzed included audio recordings of semi-structured interviews of each of the participants. The findings suggested that the district has proactively developed a systematic process of creating that includes six data points to create a student profile of students that will do well in advanced mathematics. This process is helping the district close the gap between total Latino school enrollment and the enrollment of Latino students in advanced mathematics. The findings also suggested that specific communication with parents about the importance of enrollment trajectories might influence the enrollment of students into advanced mathematics courses at earlier grades.

The existence of a widespread and simultaneous virus outbreak in various parts of the world, has an impact on all human activities in various sectors of life. This epidemic demands many changes in all fields, including education. Like it or not, learning that was initially carried out in a real classroom must be carried out online (online). Facing this very drastic change encourages educators and students to continue to adapt and innovate in the use of various digital-based learning methods. The need to know the perceptions of students in learning mathematics is very important. Through this, educators can evaluate the learning process that has taken place and elaborate on students better. Moreover, mathematics is a science that will continue to develop following the times and technology. This research is a qualitative qualitative research that aims to obtain an overview of students' perceptions of online learning, especially subjects in the field of mathematics. The case study was conducted in the 2021/2022 academic year. The subjects of this study were 2nd year students majoring in informatics engineering at a private university in DKI Jakarta. The results of this study are 94% of students prefer mathematics course lectures that are conducted face-to-face compared to learning through WAG, telegram, LMS, or google classroom. 50% of students who were asked about the difficulty level of learning mathematics courses through video conferencing thought that the difficulties they faced were in accordance with what they imagined. Likewise with the level of difficulty in learning mathematics courses through WAG, google classroom, or telegram, 49% of these students did not feel that learning was more difficult than they imagined. In such conditions, if asked to provide recommendations regarding what online learning media is suitable for mathematics courses, 72% of them recommend video conferencing media which allows lecturers and students to gather and meet in the same online room. After the research was conducted on students' perspectives on online mathematics learning, it was found that the comparison of students with positive and negative perspectives was quite balanced. There are 33 respondents who have a positive perspective. There are 34 respondents who have a negative perspective. Some others, 11 respondents who are neutral towards the learning.The existence of a widespread and simultaneous virus outbreak in various parts of the world, has an impact on all human activities in various sectors of life. This epidemic demands many changes in all fields, including education. Like it or not, learning that was initially carried out in a real classroom must be carried out online (online). Facing this very drastic change encourages educators and students to continue to adapt and innovate in the use of various digital-based learning methods. The need to know the perceptions of students in learning mathematics is very important. Through this, educators can evaluate the learning process that has taken place and elaborate on students better. Moreover, mathematics is a science that will continue to develop following the times and technology. This research is a qualitative qualitative research that aims to obtain an overview of students' perceptions of online learning, especially subjects in the field of mathematics. The case study was conducted in the 2021/2022 academic year. The subjects of this study were 2nd year students majoring in informatics engineering at a private university in DKI Jakarta. The results of this study are 94% of students prefer mathematics course lectures that are conducted face-to-face compared to learning through WAG, telegram, LMS, or google classroom. 50% of students who were asked about the difficulty level of learning mathematics courses through video conferencing thought that the difficulties they faced were in accordance with what they imagined. Likewise with the level of difficulty in learning mathematics courses through WAG, google classroom, or telegram, 49% of these students did not feel that learning was more difficult than they imagined. In such conditions, if asked to provide recommendations regarding what online learning media is suitable for mathematics courses, 72% of them recommend video conferencing media which allows lecturers and students to gather and meet in the same online room. After the research was conducted on students' perspectives on online mathematics learning, it was found that the comparison of students with positive and negative perspectives was quite balanced. There are 33 respondents who have a positive perspective. There are 34 respondents who have a negative perspective. Some others, 11 respondents who are neutral towards the learning.

A Survey of the Current Status of Visually Impaired Students in Secondary Mathematics, by Donald W. Rapp and Audrey J. Rapp, originally published in the February 1992 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 86, pp. 115-117. When I was asked to take on this project and pick one single article that mattered to me, I found it to be very difficult. I have read The series editor of This Mattered to Me is Stuart H. Wittenstein, Ed.D., superintendent of the California School for the Blind. hundreds of articles from the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) that have had an impact on my professional career. Like many in the field of visual impairment, I have an array of professional teaching and research interests. Thus, picking just one article on one area of was quite difficult. After much thought, I decided to go back to my roots as an educator: secondary mathematics. My first job was at the Alabama School for the Blind as its secondary mathematics teacher, and it was during my time there that I began a never-ending search for any and all information related to teaching mathematics to students with visual impairments. During this search, I discovered the JVIB article, A Survey of the Current Status of Visually Impaired Students in Secondary Mathematics, by Donald W. Rapp and Audrey J. Rapp, which included the findings of a questionnaire that was answered by teachers of students with visual impairments. Timeless research When I first read the Rapp and Rapp article, it was already eight years old, but it was the only data that existed at that time that discussed the types of mathematics that were being taught to secondary students with visual impairments. The authors conducted a simple survey of teachers of students with visual impairments in six New England states. The survey included questions on which secondary mathematics courses the teachers' students were taking, how the students were aided in their general education mathematics courses, and what tools they utilized. The most profound aspect of the article was the finding that of the 40 students who were reported as using braille as their primary literacy medium, only 19 (over half) were not enrolled in typical secondary mathematics courses. From this finding, one can surmise that either a large proportion of the students studied had cognitive disabilities in addition to their visual impairment that inhibited their abilities to take secondary mathematics courses or that their IEP (Individualized Education Program) teams did not push them to enroll in higher mathematics courses. Although cognitive disabilities may have ruled out higher mathematics for a number of these students, I suspect the latter is true. In my experience in the field of visual impairment, unfortunately, I do not believe that conditions have improved since this article was published. Let this study serve as a reminder that students who are blind need to be encouraged to enroll in higher mathematics courses. The article also highlighted the need for increased teacher training in braille. I was moved by the fact that 73% of the teachers who responded to the survey expressed interest in a workshop to review concepts of algebra, geometry and algebra II, with application of the Nemeth Code (p. …

Opportunity gaps between minority and white students and between genders has thus far prevented the concept of an equitable school with equitable opportunities. One important measure of educational equity is participation in Advanced Placement (AP) classes. If both the overall availability of AP courses and achievement within AP courses are increasing while certain subgroups of students, specifically Latinx students, are still lagging far behind in terms of enrollment, more needs to be done to address possible reasons for the disparity. The purpose of this study is to examine innate and environmental protective factors possessed by Latina high school students at an urban high school in New England as they contribute to the resiliency that allows them to stay in a track where they can eventually enroll in Advanced Placement (AP) mathematics courses. Using Resiliency Theory, this narrative study sought to answer the following central research question by interviewing high school Latinx students who have persisted and succeeded in an AP mathematics course: What are the innate traits and lived experiences of Latina students who have successfully completed an AP level mathematics course that have helped them to develop resilience? Findings from this study identified several innate protective factors, including math confidence and knowledge of the Advanced Placement system and several environmental protective factors, including having supportive family members, at least one supportive teacher, a cohort of with whom students to travel from class to class, and being singled out for a specific academic trait, that contributed to their enrollment in in Advanced Placement (AP) mathematics courses. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.--Author's abstract

New Undergraduate Degree in Statistics at the University of Missouri

Since the entrance of the graduates of technical high schools to engineering programs is hindered, in application, the graduates of general or science high schools only are accepted to engineering education. For these students, four years are not sufficient to teach the basic and the related application courses of the profession. Looking at the existing curriculum of mechanical engineering, it can be seen that in the 1st Year, the physics and chemistry courses repeat the content of the ones given in high school education. The current approach considers the students as they come to university with inadequate and incomplete knowledge and therefore not ready to follow the engineering science courses. This approach underestimates and denies the high school education contrary to the main objective of its curriculum. The main objective of high schools (secondary schools) is expressed in the Laws and Regulations with such a statement: “General high schools do not prepare students for a specific profession but rather for higher education”. Today, the existing curriculum of Mechanical Engineering is to be renewed by some new science and application courses to satisfy the demands of labor market. However, the total course credit limit prevents such a renewal. In the face of this dilemma, the answer to this question becomes important: Should the university really repeat high school physics and chemistry? In science high schools and in science branch of general high schools the science and mathematics courses have the major importance. The students are well educated on physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. They are provided with the necessary science and mathematics background that is required in engineering education. Although only the well-educated graduates of science and general high schools are admitted to engineering programs and the students are already ready to follow the engineering science courses thanks to their high school background, unfortunately in some universities (in Turkey in all) science courses part of engineering curricula is filled by physics and chemistry courses with the same content of the ones taught in high school.

Monte-Carlo methods is the generic term given to numerical methods that use sampling of random numbers. This text is aimed at graduate students in mathematics, physics, engineering, economics, finance, and the biosciences that are interested in using Monte-Carlo methods for the resolution of partial differential equations, transport equations, the Boltzmann equation and the parabolic equations of diffusion. It includes applied examples, particularly in mathematical finance, along with discussion of the limits of the methods and description of specific techniques used in practice for each example. This is the sixth volume in the Oxford Texts in Applied and Engineering Mathematics series, which includes texts based on taught courses that explain the mathematical or computational techniques required for the resolution of fundamental applied problems, from the undergraduate through to the graduate level. Other books in the series include: Jordan & Smith: Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations: An introduction to Dynamical Systems; Sobey: Introduction to Interactive Boundary Layer Theory; Scott: Nonlinear Science: Emergence and Dynamics of Coherent Structures; Tayler: Mathematical Models in Applied Mechanics; Ram-Mohan: Finite Element and Boundary Element Applications in Quantum Mechanics; Elishakoff and Ren: Finite Element Methods for Structures with Large Stochastic Variations.

Increasing the number of students choosing a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career is a national educational priority. One way thought to increase interest in STEM is with advanced STEM courses in high school, especially Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Using data from 15,847 college undergraduates, we investigated the relationship between participation in AP mathematics courses (AP Calculus and AP Statistics) and student career interest in STEM. After controlling for covariates, the strongest effect ( d = 0.13) showed that students who took AP Calculus had a modestly higher career interest in engineering and mathematics/computer science. However, the relationship between most AP mathematics courses and most STEM career outcomes was negligible. Most differences in outcomes between AP and non-AP students are likely due to preexisting differences between the two groups.

Note from the EditorsToo often, biology has been considered by both students and faculty as the ideal major for the scientifically inclined but mathematically challenged, even though the advantage of quantitative approaches in biology has always been apparent.Increasingly, biologists are utilizing mathematical skills to create simulations or manage and query large data sets.The need for basic mathematical and computer science (CS) literacy among biologists has never been greater.But does this require a fundamental change in the organization of the undergraduate biology curriculum?What is the utility of math/CS in different areas of biology?How can we best provide math/CS instruction to biologists so that the utility is appreciated?Do all biology students require a stronger math/CS foundation, or only those interested in research careers?Given the speed at which technology changes, what is the best preparation?Three different points of view are offered below.Dr. Roger Brent, President and Director of the Molecular Sciences Institute, reflects on the "innumeracy" common among biologists and argues that significant insights into biological problems may be gained from better mathematical intuition.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematics ability and efficacy of Florida preservice agricultural education teachers. Results indicated that the preservice teachers were not proficient in solving agricultural mathematics problems. On the other hand, the preservice teachers were efficacious in personal teaching efficacy and personal mathematics efficacy, and moderately efficacious in their mathematics teaching efficacy. Additionally, the associations between mathematics ability and mathematics coursework suggest that preservice teachers that completed an advanced mathematics course in high school and/or college scored higher on the mathematics assessment than preservice teachers that completed a basic or intermediate mathematics course in high school and/or college. However, only a small percentage of the preservice teachers completed an advanced mathematics course in high school and/or college. Based on the data collected in this study, the teacher education program at the University of Florida may need to further evaluate its mathematics coursework requirements.

What are the most common motives invoked by 9th graders when asked about their plans to take (or not) more mathematics courses during high school? How do beliefs about math course-taking affect students’ actual planning? To what extent is planning of math course-taking associated with high school students’ socio-demographic backgrounds? The study employs data from the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 to examine the issue of persistence in math course-taking during high school. The study shows that almost two-thirds of 9th graders plan to do math during all their high school years, although intentions to persist in math vary across racial and especially socioeconomic backgrounds. The study also demonstrates the importance of belief constructs such as math identity, internal motivation toward math learning and math utility on math course-taking planning. A better understanding of students’ motives to engage in high school math may help develop classroom practices that emphasize the long-term benefits of math learning.

Although the mathematics foundation program was introduced in Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) half a decade ago, there has been no evaluation or assessment of the program. The aim of this study was to evaluate the students’ performance in the Mathematics foundation course in SQU and to examine the predictive value of a student’s high school performance for success in the math foundation course. The study considered a sample of 551 students who took the math course (MATH2107) during 2014 Spring semester. More than 95% of the students were admitted to SQU with a high school score of 80 and above. The analysis revealed that, in general, female students were admitted to SQU with a significantly higher average high school score than the male students. The findings indicate a very unsatisfactory performance of the students in the mathematics foundation course as the mean GPA was 1.66 and more than half (59%) of the students obtained a GPA less than 2 (i.e. below grade C), of which 14% failed and 35% obtained grade D. Female students outperformed male students in the mathematics course. High school mathematics performance, gender and cohort of students were identified as significant predictors of success in the mathematics foundation course. To increase the success rate of the mathematics course, the high school curriculum needs to be aligned with the University standards and the admission authority should continue to give more attention to high school mathematics scores along with overall high school performance while making admission decisions for the College of Science in SQU.

Mathematics coursework a student completes in high school often directly affects their subsequent post-secondary education and career opportunities. In recent years, in a push to prepare a larger number of students for post-secondary education and career opportunities in Idaho, state initiatives have focused on addressing mathematics preparation in the middle grade years to increase the number of students completing an advanced mathematics pathway in high school, including the Advanced Opportunities Initiative to support financial costs of advanced coursework. Starting 2011, each year of the initiative has seen annual increases in students participating in dual credit and Advanced Placement (AP) coursework. This study addresses the academic outcomes of school, district, and state efforts aimed at increasing mathematics achievement in Idaho by analyzing transcript and state assessment data for annual cohorts of students who completed Algebra I or higher in Grade 8. Outcome measures include Grade 10 state achievement test scores, continuation of advanced mathematics course pathways, and completion of dual credit and/or AP courses. Findings suggest inconsistent mathematics achievement for advanced students as they complete high school mathematics courses.

This study explored the mathematics course placement process for incoming students in an all-boys Catholic high school. The sequential nature of mathematics significantly impacts students’ opportunity to learn; moreover, the mathematics course taken by a student during ninth grade can have far-reaching effects. Previous studies have found that ninth-grade students enrolled in Geometry, rather than Algebra 1, have a greater chance of completing advanced mathematics courses and experiencing increased mathematics success. Thus, adequately prepared students should be placed in Geometry whenever possible. To aid this effort, this study investigated whether a relationship exists between course placement criteria and future mathematics achievement. The study sample was comprised of students who graduated from the subject high school between 2015 and 2019 (N = 1067). The placement criteria examined were Acuity Algebra Proficiency Test results, High School Placement Test mathematics scores, and eighth-grade teacher recommendations. ACT mathematics scores were used as measures of success; binary logistic regression was utilized to determine strength of association between placement criteria and future mathematics achievement. Results indicate that Acuity test performance is strongly associated with future mathematics achievement, while combinations of placement criteria are more effective than individual course placement measures. Implications for further research are discussed.