1 Geoscience Education I: Things That Work in Field and Classroom

Sunday, 31 October 2010
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 201

ASYNCHRONOUS, ON-LINE RESOURCES TO REMEDIATE MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: FIVE INSTITUTIONS' SUCCESSES WITH THE MATH YOU NEED, WHEN YOU NEED IT

Paper number: 1-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:45 AM – 9:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

Increasingly, first-year college students arrive needing mathematical skill remediation; yet, skills used in geoscience courses are not covered in one single course. Asynchronous, online, student-centered materials may represent a solution to the difficulties that geosciences instructors often face in including quantitative content. Pilot studies of The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN; serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed) at Highline Community College and University of Wisconsin Oshkosh suggested that the asynchronous, online, modular nature and wide-ranging geoscience context of TMYN provided significant flexibility to include quantitative content in introductory geoscience. In an effort to expand the use of TMYN, three new institutions (McHenry County College, Fort Lewis College, and Adams State College) and the piloting institutions successfully integrated TMYN into five courses in Spring 2010. Results from these implementations of TMYN reinforce the conclusion that these quantitative modules are flexible and effective. Using lessons learned from pilots, implementations were designed to reflect the nature of the student population, course type and instruction style. In order to successfully remediate quantitative skills, instructors were encouraged to integrate TMYN with geologic content. Because TMYN provides flexibility to accommodate variations in student ability and motivation, each instructor designed an implementation that could best serve his/her students.

We present data from institutions that successfully implemented TMYN in Spring 2010. Success was measured using changes in pre- to post-test scores, participation/completion rates and student attitudinal data. In general, completion was high for asynchronous, online tutorials (29-100%). Students' geologic problem-solving skills increased with post-test scores generally higher than pre-test scores. Student survey responses from all implementations indicate that students perceive the modules as helpful. Based on the successful implementations at a variety of institutions, TMYN is a promising solution to the difficulties of teaching quantitative material by providing a flexible modular learning environment with problems that are contextually framed in introductory geoscience subject matter.