Conference Session

Innovative Instructional Strategies and Curricula

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jayathi Raghavan, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach; Hong Liu, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

undergraduate program in Computational Mathematics hasbeen recently approved. The trend seems to be that most of the students wishing to pursue thedegree program are engineering students interested in pursuing a dual major. The challengesfaced by the department are 1) to offer these dual majors an integrated curriculum that wouldtake advantage of their engineering background and 2) to offer a curriculum which will enablethem to complete the degree within one additional year without compromising the integrity ofthe program. In this paper, the authors discuss in detail their Computational Mathematicscurriculum and the modification of the curriculum for the dual majors.IntroductionComputational Mathematics is a multidisciplinary field that applies the

Conference Session

Integrating Mathematics, Science, and Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heublein, Kansas State University, Salina; Kenneth Barnard, Kansas State University, Salina

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

AC 2010-1846: WHO NEEDS ANOTHER APPLIED MATHEMATICS COURSE?John Heublein, Kansas State University, SalinaKenneth Barnard, Kansas State University, Salina Page 15.1373.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010  Who Needs Another Applied Mathematics Course?ABSTRACTAviation mathematics has been used for years and hence is not a new topic for discussion. In thedigital-age and with millennial students it is time to revisit the methods of pedagogy. Becausestudents have always had different learning styles this paper outlines an instructional approachthat addresses the declining mathematical skill level of the entering freshman students. Ourhypothesis states

Conference Session

Integrating Mathematics, Science, and Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brad Hunt, Norwood High School; Regina Lamendella, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Sara Garrison, Norwood City Schools; Andrea Burrows, The University of Cincinnati; Mike Borowczak, The University of Cincinnati; Anant Kukreti, The University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

research to an understandable andinteresting K-12 level. This process instills better communication skills in the STEP Fellows andbreaks any reservations of working with the K-12 environment once employed as a university Page 15.626.2faculty member. The secondary goal of Project STEP was to impact student learning by relatingSTEM content to urban city issues through the use of hands-on, technology-driven, inquiry-based projects that also relate to desired curriculum standards. Students need an understanding ofSTEM and the reasons to pursue STEM careers; over 3,000 students have been exposed toSTEM lessons in the past three years with Project STEP

Conference Session

Students' Abilities and Attitudes

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Geoff Wright; Peter Rich, Brigham Young University; Keith Leatham, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

Email Address Abstract: Many high schools nation-wide recognize the need, and are showing interest in engineering education, however, only a small percentage of those schools have been able to fully integrate an engineering component into their curriculum. The reasons for this are: lack of infrastructure, lack of training, lack of appropriate and sustainable curriculum, and lack of student interest. Paradoxically, many schools have maintained or increased the teaching of programming in their schools (Dewar, 2008). Strangely there has been little effort to correlate these two activities. Prensky (2008) stated that one of the stated core skills today’s engineer need is: an understanding of

Conference Session

Computers and Software in Teaching Mathematics

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cynthia Young, University of Central Florida; Michael Georgiopoulos, University of Central Florida; Tace Crouse, University of Central Florida; Alvaro Islas, University of Central Florida; Scott Hagen, University of Central Florida; Cherie Geiger, University of Central Florida; Melissa Dagley-Falls, University of Central Florida; Patricia Ramsey, University of Central Florida; Patrice Lancey, University of Central Florida

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

Research, evaluator for an NSF CAREER Grant, and Coordinator of Assessment for the "EXCEL-UCF-STEP Pathways to STEM: From Promise to Prominence" grant for two years.Cherie Geiger, University of Central Florida Cherie Geiger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the UCF College of Sciences and a Co-PI of the NSF-funded S-STEM program at UCF entitled the "Young Entrepreneur and Scholar(YES) Scholarship Program" as well as the NSF-funded STEP program entitled "EXCEL:UCF-STEP Pathways to STEM: From Promise to Prominence." Dr. Geiger's research interests are in the areas of developing novel materials and technologies for use in environmental remediation and degradation

Conference Session

Innovative Instructional Strategies and Curricula

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Murray Teitell, DeVry University, Long Beach; William Sullivan, DeVry University

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

lecture with little to nointeraction with the professor, curriculum or fellow students. In active learning, the student istasked with a higher level of ownership in regard to academic success. The professor activelyfacilitates learning through discussion, feedback and other interactive models and thus servesmore as a teaching mentor and guide rather than a traditional lecturer. An example of activelearning is a student providing a differential equation for a hydraulic system and then challengedto learn everything they need to know to solve it. Taking the lead from accreditation bodies,progress in a course is measured in terms of desired outcomes—skills and knowledge the studentshould possess upon completion. Achievement of the outcomes is then

Conference Session

Computers and Software in Teaching Mathematics

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Zohra Manseur, SUNY Oswego; Adrian Ieta, SUNY Oswego; Rachid Manseur, SUNY-Oswego

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

.” Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Session # 2265, 2005.5. Buechler, D. N. “Mathematical Background Versus Success in Electrical Engineering.” Proceedings of the 2004 Annual Conference & Exposition, Session No. 3565, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 20-23, 2004.6. Duderstadt, J.J. “Engineering for a changing world, a roadmap to the future of Engineering Practice, Research and Education”, The Millenium Project. The University of Michigan. 2008.7. Beichner, R. J., L. Bernold, E. Burniston, P. Dail, R. Felder, J. Gastineau, M. Gjertsen, and John Risley. “Case study of the physics component of an integrated curriculum.” American Journal of Physics, 67.S1

Conference Session

Innovative Instructional Strategies and Curricula

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kingsley Reeves, University of South Florida; Bill Blank, University of South Florida; Victor Hernandez-Gantes, University of South Florida; Maniphone Dickerson, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

as teamwork, ethics,and the benefits of diversity, and capstone courses that seek to integrate work through teamprojects, many of the mathematics based courses still teach in a passive manner. Formulas arepresented to students, a few example problems are solved, and students practice by doinghomework. An assessment of student learning is to solve similar problems on an exam.However, what is generally not assessed is a student’s understanding of the very formulas thatare employed. In fact, students can perform quite well on such exams with very littleunderstanding at all.At its core, engineering is the application of mathematics and science to solve practical problemsof the human race. That is, at its core, engineering is not just problem

Conference Session

Issues and Solutions in Mathematics Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dianne Raubenheimer, North Carolina State University; Hatice Ozturk, North Carolina State University; Alina Duca, NCSU

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

to asking them to evaluate an integral of a composite function with aunit step function in it, something they had not seen in the review materials. They were requiredto integrate information from topic 2 (piecewise defined function) and from topic 4 (improperintegrals), so by embedding topic two into question 4, this created a brand new problem, whichmost of them did not know how to tackle. This suggests that they needed to be given an exampleof how to creatively integrate these two topics in the review materials.The biggest gains were seen on questions 1 and 3. In these problems, they were asked to do thesame procedure they had seen in the review materials. In question 1, they were asked to graph asinusoidal signal with different amplitude

Conference Session

Issues and Solutions in Mathematics Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Grossfield, Vaughn College of Aeronautics

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

understandany derivations regarding limits. A student who has just been introduced to the word, limit, issimply in no position to appreciate limits of difference quotients. The limit of the differencequotient is just a method of obtaining the value of the slope, not the derivative itself. There ismuch to be learned about curves with such an approach without belaboring the difficultiesinherent in limit processes. The integral of a positive piecewise monotonic function should bedefined as the area under the curve and again the limiting process should be viewed as just amethod of obtaining the value.All references to the concepts and perplexities of the 19th century Cauchy’s analysis should bepostponed until the series forms are confronted head on, and

Conference Session

Students' Abilities and Attitudes

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maria Terrell, Cornell University Math Dept.; Robert Terrell, Cornell University; Lisa Schneider, Cornell University

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

: (1) Development of the first draft of the MAI, (2) Pilot testing the MAI,and (3) Preliminary analysis of the pilot test data.To develop the MAI, faculty of second- and third-year engineering courses were surveyed abouthow key concepts and techniques from single variable differential and integral calculus are usedin intermediate-level engineering courses. Based on their feedback, as well as feedback fromadvanced undergraduate engineering students, an initial set of test items was developed. Theresulting MAI consists of five open-ended questions with eleven sub-questions. The test isdesigned to be administered during one hour in paper-and-pencil format.The MAI was administered during the first week of the Fall 2009 semester as a pre-test to

Conference Session

Innovative Instructional Strategies and Curricula

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Schmeelk, Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar Branch; Jean Hodges, Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar Branch

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

organization that manages Education City, among other projects. Initiallysupervised solely by Qatar Foundation, VCUQatar began in 1998 as Shaqab College of DesignArt, but in 2002 the school became an official branch campus of VCUR, began to operate morefully under its direction, and was officially renamed Virginia Commonwealth University inQatar.VCUQatar’s approximately 200 students come not only from Qatar but from all over the world.Regardless of their nationality, all must study in English because the country’s rulers recognizeEnglish as the lingua franca of global business.VCUQatar undergraduates may major in Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, orPainting and Printmaking. The curriculum imposes specified Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS