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Using Teacher Feedback to Improve the Design of a Fourth-Year High School Mathematics Curriculum

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Conference

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Indianapolis, Indiana

Publication Date

June 15, 2014

Start Date

June 15, 2014

End Date

June 18, 2014

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

K-12 Engineering Resources: Best Practices in Curriculum Design, Part 1 of 2

Tagged Division

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

Page Count

11

Page Numbers

24.1347.1 - 24.1347.11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--23280

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/23280

Download Count

455

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Paper Authors

biography

Sara Hahler Louisiana Tech University

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Sara Hahler is a graduate student at Louisiana Tech University. She received her Bachelor of Science in mathematics education in 2012 from Louisiana College and is currently enrolled in the Computational Analysis and Modeling PhD program at Louisiana Tech. During her time as an undergraduate, she served as a tutor for the mathematics department at Louisiana College. Currently, she is performing research in the area of mathematics education exploring the connection between high school ACT mathematics scores and freshmen mathematic/engineering class grades.

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biography

Krystal S. Corbett Cyber Innovation Center

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Dr. Krystal Corbett is the Director of Curricula at the Cyber Innovation Center (CIC). She received her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2008/2010), M.S. in Mathematics (2012), and Ph.D. in Engineering Education (2012) at Louisiana Tech University. Through the CIC, Dr. Corbett manages various educational enterprises. Additionally, she is designing and implementing a three-part middle school elective course, STEM: Explore, Discover, Apply, which fosters excitement in STEM.

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Abstract

Using Teacher Feedback to Improve the Design of a Fourth Year High School Mathematics Curriculum(Research to Practice)This paper presents an evaluation of a high school mathematics curriculum, ‘s Advanced Math forEngineering and Science (AMES), through high school teacher feedback along with conclusions from thisevaluation. First, the reason behind creating such a curriculum is discussed, followed by a description ofthe curriculum as well as the implementation process, and lastly the evaluation then conclusionsections.The motivation for creating AMES evolved from a variety of reasons. Initial discussion and research ledthe developers to believe that a need for high school students to be fluent in specific mathematicconcepts directly connected to engineering and science existed. Beyond the desire to improve student’sgrasp of the material, the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) necessitated a curriculum thatassisted teachers in executing these standards, primarily mathematical ones but also touching onlanguage arts.The curriculum itself contains four major threads: Coordinate Systems; Vectors and Matrices;Fundamentals of Mathematics; and Conic Sections. Within each thread, a variety of units are included.For each unit, the outline is as follows: introductory activity/background, core content lessons, and acumulative activity. Furthermore, pertinent historical facts and dates are incorporated as well asactivities that require students to debate, write, or present.Implementing this curriculum is still in the early stages as this is the first year for it to be piloted.Therefore, teacher feedback was gathered via two primary methods: surveys and the recording of verbaldiscussion during working group sessions. Conclusions will be made from the analysis of this data usingthe qualitative method of ethnography due to the open-ended nature of the surveys and field notescompiled.

Hahler, S., & Corbett, K. S. (2014, June), Using Teacher Feedback to Improve the Design of a Fourth-Year High School Mathematics Curriculum Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--23280

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