Fall 2025 Schedule

Title: Kicking Off the Semester - Concerns, Celebrations & Brainstorming

Description: Conversation and Planning

Title: Career Pathways for Majors and Minors

Description: Julianne Smith, Associate Director, Career Education and Access at BC’s Career Center, will be joining us to discuss career pathways for math majors and minors. This discussion is of interest for all faculty who are major advisors.  

Title: Reading to Win: Strengthening Student Skills with Dominion

Abstract: Across LVC’s math curriculum, our course objectives center on developing students’ technical reading, critical thinking, and communication skills. I’ll share some reflections on my acclimation to this way of teaching and my experience of its effectiveness.

In my general education class, to support student’s reading skills, I piloted the use of the engine-building card game Dominion (tabletop and app versions). Each round requires players to read and interpret new card instructions and make strategic decisions about the order in which they play them—offering natural opportunities to practice these skills in a low-stakes, engaging environment. In this talk, I will cover the basics of gameplay, share how Dominion was integrated into the course, provide sample assessments, and offer early reflections on student responses and outcomes.

Title: Student Learning and AI in 1000-2000 level courses

Description: We'll discuss your experiences with AI use in these courses and exchange ideas for what types of assignments and class structure or conversations might help us better support and gauge student learning in the current AI landscape. We'll also discuss how we might collect more information from students about how they are using it and what effects they are seeing.  We'll especially focus on those courses which are gateways to our major (Calculus and the 2000 level).

Title: Student Learning and AI in 3000-4000 level courses

Description: We'll discuss your experiences with AI use in these courses and exchange ideas for what types of assignments and class structure or conversations might help us better support and gauge student learning in the current AI landscape. We'll also discuss how we might collect more information from students about how they are using it and what effects they are seeing.

Title: Using Alternative Grading with Learning Targets in Calculus 2

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss my use of alternative grading (a term which encompasses standards-based grading, mastery-based grading, etc) in Calculus 2 over the course of four consecutive semesters. I will share my initial motivations for changing from the usual way of grading, pros and cons, changes I've made, and lessons I've learned along the way. I will also share student feedback and how I logistically manage the increased workload of this system.

Title: Intentionally teaching our students to work with parameters

Abstract: Call a parameter a constant whose value is unknown to us or whose value may change from one setting to the next. They appear so frequently in a STEM education, yet it seems to us that we expect students to pick up their use through osmosis. We believe that we should be placing an explicit emphasis on how to work with parameters in our classes. In this talk we survey these ideas, describe our efforts to incorporate them in the calculus sequence, and open up a discussion with the audience. This is joint work with Juliana Belding.

Title: Series First: Rethinking the Sequence of Calculus II

Abstract: A typical Calculus II class begins with integrals and covers series towards the end of the term, when time is short and motivation is low. In this talk, I will discuss my decision to start with the topic of series. By front-loading one of the more challenging topics, students in my class calibrated their expectations and built confidence with advanced concepts. I will share my reasons for this approach, describe how I implemented it, and discuss key takeaways from this semester.