Blogs

IMPACTful Thoughts - The IMPACT of Leaderships’ Role in Providing Professional Development

By Chris Ward posted 9 days ago
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Over the past year, we have all been taxed in various ways, but our goal has always been, and still is, to provide the best learning environment for our students. Now, with the requirements, restrictions, and many other hurdles brought on by the pandemic we are at a precipice on how to accomplish this goal. The IMPACT document suggests that this is best achieved through the second pillar of PROWESS, ownership. We are going to explore ownership this month, as it relates to how divisional/departmental and institutional leadership can take ownership using various tools such as professional development (PD) to support that goal. The IMPACT document ...
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IMPACT Plus - Five Ways to Promote Student Engagement in a Statistics Course

By Karen Gaines posted 23 days ago
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Posted on behalf of: Student engagement…we all want it, we all talk about it, we know it’s an essential part of learning and student success, but what exactly is it ? When I was asked to write a post about student engagement in a statistics classroom, I had all sorts of ideas of what can be done, but I took a step back and thought: what exactly is student engagement in a classroom? So…I’m going to get you engaged in this post about engagement. :) How would you define or describe student engagement in the classroom? What comes to mind? [Pause here and come up with an example or two before reading on.]** **In all honesty, I had ...
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Diversity Dialogue - Sister Mary de Lellis Gough

By Marilyn Mays posted 23 days ago
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Sister Mary de Lellis Gough: The First Irish Woman with a Doctorate in Maths March was designated as Women’s History Month in the United States in 1985. Six years later, the same month was chosen, not by accident, as Irish-American History Month. March 17 was already very important to many Irish everywhere as St. Patrick’s Day. What first comes to mind when one thinks of the Emerald Isle is usually shamrocks and fish and chips or, for those more concerned with erudition, scholars such as James Joyce or Oscar Wilde. But it should be noted that the country has well-known scholars in many fields, including mathematics. While there were men pursuing ...
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Diversity Dialogue - Sadie Bragg

By Marilyn Mays posted 27 days ago
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Sadie Bragg’s history as a mathematician of note is not ancient history. In the case of most community college faculty, their place in history comes not from research or work on mathematics per se, but from their efforts to reach more people with the knowledge of mathematics they need to be a contributing member of the community or to pursue a career. Dr. Bragg was President of AMATYC from 1998 through 1999 and was the first, and at this date, only African American to serve in that position. She promoted the community college here in the United States and, to some degree, globally. Sadie served on the AMATYC board from 1994 through 2001. She was president of ...
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Diversity Dialogue - David Harold Blackwell

By Marilyn Mays posted 03-02-2021
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David Harold Blackwell, First African American Member of National Academy of Science By Marilyn Mays David Harold Blackwell, an African American mathematician, was born to a railroad worker and his wife in an integrated community in Centralia, IL, in 1910. As a young student, he attended mixed schools where he demonstrated considerable intellect and, as an adult, broke many racial barriers in mathematics and statistics and related fields, including game theory , probability theory , information theory , and Bayesian statistics . He received numerous awards and recognitions, but not the least of them was being the first ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - Engaging Students in Statistics and Data Science

By Mark Earley posted 03-02-2021
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Statistics and data science courses have often been described as full of student engagement opportunities. As the information age advances, data, graphs, and statistics have become an everyday staple on every Internet and social media platform available. Our students need to be able to understand and discuss this statistical information in appropriate ways so they can make informed decisions and develop informed opinions about various issues. I believe our grand goal is always to develop more statistically literate citizens. IMPACT (2018) guides us in the implementation of student-centered learning environments that engage students: “Students should ...
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Diversity Dialogue - Lonnie Johnson

By Marilyn Mays posted 02-22-2021
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Lonnie Johnson, NASA Engineer, and Toy Inventor By Marilyn Mays, Ph.D. Lonnie Johnson talking about global energy and environmental challenges as part of the Office of Naval Research's 70th Anniversary Edition Distinguished Lecture Series in February 2016. US Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released If you are a fan of video or board games with sophisticated logic, then you probably realize that many games are developed using mathematical axioms and theorems as well as principals from physics. But how about toys? Have you heard of one that was developed by a mathematician as a byproduct of his employment? Did you ever have the fun of ...
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IMPACT Plus - Global Learning and Mathematics Literature Suggestions

By Barbara Leitherer posted 02-15-2021
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Global Learning and Mathematics Literature Suggestions Barbara Leitherer Professor of Mathematics at CCBC, Maryland bleitherer@ccbcmd.edu I took a holistic approach when I created this list of peer-reviewed publications, discussion papers, articles, and websites as I am trying to bridge the fields of global education and mathematics. You will find the research angle covered, ideas presented for globalizing the curriculum, for teaching mathematics with “cultural eyes”, and for gaining an employment edge in the ever changing work place of the 21 st century. 1. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2016) PISA 2015 ...
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Diversity Dialogues - Katherine Johnson

By Jon Oaks posted 02-10-2021
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Katherine Johnson, Mathematician, and Spaceflight Analyst Portrait of Katherine Johnson Credits: NASA “If you can see one, you can be one.” Maybe you have heard that recently. If young people have an opportunity to see someone who looks like them in an activity or profession, they are much more likely to aspire to preparing themselves for that activity. Many of us in our profession were thrilled a few years ago to learn that there was a movie released, Hidden Figures , about three mathematicians in the dawn of the space age. That the mathematicians were female and African American was more than exciting. Katherine Johnson was one of the ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - Engagement via Enriching Aha Moments

By Barbara Leitherer posted 02-01-2021
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This month we continue our theme of student engagement where we left off in January. “How can we find innovative ways to engage students in and out of the classroom, as well as engage faculty in the pursuit of improving the teaching and learning of mathematics?” ( IMPACT, p. 50). With a pandemic raging over our heads impacting the physical and economic well-being of billions of people, we are forced to see this health crisis as a large scale global problem. If we want to integrate global perspectives into the mathematics classroom in the first two years of college, then we need to be intentional. Global learning does not happen overnight. It will ...
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IMPACT Plus - The case for active, student-centered, equity focused, inquiry-based learning in college mathematics

By Karen Gaines posted 01-24-2021
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Posted on behalf of Stan Yoshinobu Instructors at two-year colleges teach a large number of students across the nation. Successful math teaching at two-year colleges is essential in student success, participation in STEM careers, and more generally contributing to quantitative and scientific literacy. In addition to academic success and just as important is the lived experiences of students. Students from all backgrounds thrive when equitable teaching practices are used. In this post I provide some highlights of evidence in support of an inquiry-based learning (IBL) framework for teaching math courses. This is not a comprehensive review of the research, ...
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IMPACT Plus - Strategies for Student Engagement

By Paul Nolting posted 01-11-2021
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A new year and semester. Many of us hope that instruction may return to some type of “normal” circumstances; however, challenges still remain in virtual classrooms and labs. Along with students taking next sequence math courses for the first time, many repeating students will need additional motivation, active learning, and academic support. Students repeating math classes have a less chance to pass it the second time and even smaller chance the third time. Promoting motivation and active learning to improve student engagement can improve success. It requires a combined set of strategies from instructors, students, and academic support labs. This blog will ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - Motivation x Active Learning = Engagement

By Karen Gaines posted 12-31-2020
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Motivation x Active Learning = Engagement Ringing in the New Year brings us a feeling of hope for great things to come. It is an opportunity to reflect on what we would like to see to improve in our lives. This year, as the curators of the IMPACT Live! pages, the Standards Committee is looking to improve the format for the Spotlight of the Month. Each quarter will focus on one of the four pillars of IMPACT while also providing an opportunity to highlight a Community from myAMATYC. For the first quarter, we will focus on the Engagement pillar. This month, we will be going back to the basics and taking a look at what engagement means. As instructors, ...
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IMPACT Plus - Equity in the STEM Pathway

By Helen Burn posted 10-16-2020
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A m ajor concern in the mathematics pathways movement is about racial equity within the different pathways. Of particular concern nationally is the STEM mathematics pathway, which for decades has suffered from underrepresentation of racially minoritized (URM) students. It’s time to double-down on our commitment to racial equity in the STEM math pathway in two-year colleges. Now more than ever racially minoritized students are suffering disproportionately under the double crisis of police violence and COVID-19 disparities. For the past five years, I have had the great pleasure to work on the NSF-funded project Transitioning Learners to Calculus in Community ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts: IMPACT of Pathways

By Karen Gaines posted 10-02-2020
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POSTED ON BEHALF OF: Ann R. Edwards and Connie Richardson Over the last decade, mathematics pathways have proven to be an effective and lasting change to the landscape of mathematics education in higher education. Math pathways provide students with course sequences that accelerate their completion of gateway college-level mathematics and that align with their academic and career goals. In addition, and importantly, learning environments of math pathways courses should support students’ identities as math learners, inviting and engaging students in the development of skills and dispositions that serve them broadly to achieve their academic ...
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IMPACT Plus - Corequisites

By Jeff Thies posted 09-22-2020
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The purpose of the Plus blog is to expand upon the information already available in the IMPACT document. In the case of corequisites, there is barely a mention of corequisites since the idea was in its infancy when IMPACT was written. Since that time, much has been researched and published about implementing corequisite courses. The following lists will help you along your corequisite journey. Research references to consider: Dana Center CAP and California Community Colleges Community College Data RAND Carnegie Math Pathways Learning Works CCRC - Tennessee Complete College America - Scaling Corequisite ...
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Reactions from Winners of 2019 Competition

By Karen Gaines posted 09-15-2020
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After the 2019 competition was completed a few of the Faculty Mentors and Students from the national winners provided the following comments: Faculty mentor comments (Dr. Wufeng Tian): The Student Research League (SRL) provides an important opportunity for our students to apply mathematical knowledge in solving a real-world problem. The competition challenges teams of students to clarify, analyze, and propose applicable solutions to open-ended problems. Along with the development of stronger interpersonal skills provided by the team-based project, SRL credentials give these students a distinct advantage when applying for future internships. The ...
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Reactions from the Grand Prize team 2020

By Karen Gaines posted 09-15-2020
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This year (2020) a team from Saint Paul College in Minnesota was named the Grand Prize winners of the 2020 competition. Their faculty mentor was Enyinda Onunwor. Here are statements from the team members: Name: Mathieu Landretti Major: Data Science Current Institution: Saint Paul College but planning to transfer to the University of Minnesota Career Goal: Data Scientist (Not sure what field) Please summarize your SRL experience: We began our project just as the world began to shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a lot of uncertainty and fear about the future, and at that time, things were quite surreal (they ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts: Implementing Corequisites to Impact Student Success - Our Journey

By Jeff Thies posted 09-01-2020
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This month we’re moving away from the deeper thought of student ownership of learning and equity towards a structural effort to support student success. Sticking with Karen’s June theme of Revolution , let’s look at the third stanza: You say you got a real solution Well, you know We'd all love to see the plan The corequisite concept is a real solution. (We think, but would like to get to “we know.” More on that later). And yes, we’d all love to see the plan, so we can adjust it to fit our local environment. Colleagues across the country have developed and shared evidence of the concept’s effectiveness. Whatever research ...
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IMPACT In Action - Standards Discussion #4

By Karen Gaines posted 08-25-2020
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How do you collaborate with your colleagues and with other disciplines?
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