I hope lots of people share lots of their great ideas. As a journal founder and editor (PRIMUS) I found folks reluctant to share their great teaching ideas through article writing. Perhaps they can do so in this forum.
One thing I did years ago was to place my entire class in the role of a consultant to a visiting client (me or a colleague). They had to extract the problem information from me the (confused at times, through theatrics!) client - indeed determine exactly what the problem was with lots of extraneous information I would throw at them. They would then write up a report for the employee on the floor of the shop in a do this and do that approach and another report for the students' technical supervisor in our fictional company (me that was also). I taught this in conjunction with an English class on writing for audience as well. You can take any word problem, good examples are calculus optimization problems as the article demonstrates, and work it up.
THIS NEVER FAILS, NEVER!!!! I have had many colleagues try this over the last 30+ years and it ALWAYS WORKS FOR THEM and it will ALWAYS WORK FOR YOU. Am I making myself clear here?
I would be happy to include a pdf of the paper here, but attachments are not offered. However, should you want a copy of the paper I would be happy to send you one
OR you can use your library to get a copy with full citation at Brian J. Winkel (1990): First year calculus students as in‐class consultants,
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 21:3, 363-368 OR you can get this artlcle through the many journals MAA offers its members at
www.maa.org (makes the membership more than worth it). Aa a starter I enclose the image of the first page of the article. Try it, you will like it . . . and more importantly, your students will like it. OOPS I just saw I could upload the entire file, so here you go. Enjoy!
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Brian Winkel
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-08-2021 09:00:32
From: Manisha Ranade
Subject: IMPACT in Action - New and Innovative Teaching Strategies
What new idea or innovative teaching strategy have you tried?
What worked well or what didn't work well with your idea? Did you experience any surprises?
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Manisha Ranade
Santa Fe College
Gainesville FL
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