Spring 2024 Schedule

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

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Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/6387244074 

A discussion of issues that arise specifically when teaching first-year students, and more broadly students taking their first college math class. Discussion will be based around the two reports below, but it's not necessary to have read them before coming. 

• Burrill-Challenges in the Transition from High School to Post Secondary Mathematics.pdf from 2017 MAA/NCTM report The Role of Calculus in the Transition from High School to College Mathematics

• Report on a US-Canadian Faculty Survey on Undergraduate Linear Algebra Could Linear Algebra Be an Alternate First Collegiate Math Course? (May 2022)

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

Workshopping Resources and Responding to Students

What resources are available to support students on campus?  How do you answer that student email?  Come to compare and add to each other's lists of student resources, as well as sharing and brainstorming around how to address student issues and emails.  Have a bit of language that you find especially useful, or a student inquiry you never know how to answer? We plan to create a shared repository of resources and good scripts that help us all support students and answer unexpected or difficult student questions.  

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

Title: Audience and Proof: Peanut Butter and Jelly Guy

Description: 

Students who are just learning to write proofs sometimes struggle with who their audience is.  There's an abstract question there (why do we write proofs?) but also practical ones: what can I assume the reader knows?  How much do I have to explain?  What results can I use?  I've found that introducing Peanut Butter and Jelly Guy to my classes helps address these questions, and gives a framework for addressing other proof-writing skills.  Find out who he is and why I recommend him as a fixture in proof-writing classrooms.  

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

Title: How frequent, lower-stakes assessment has made my teaching better and improved my students' learning 

Description: For many years in my career, my assessment plan in most classes centered on a smaller number of higher-stakes items:  3-4 quizzes, 2-3 exams, 6-8 written HW exercises due every other week, and usually one other type of major assignment; almost everything was graded on points, and there were few or no opportunities for revisions.  In the past several years, I have moved to a model of weekly quizzes, weekly written HW (2-3 exercises per week), regular online HW sets, and one other type of regular assignment.  A central feature of this new model is that almost everything is graded on a binary scale -- "good enough" or "not yet good enough" -- and the most important items can either be re-attempted (quizzes) or revised and resubmitted (written HW).  I'll use my work in teaching first-semester linear algebra as an example of my former approach contrasted with my new approach and reflect on such items as students' weekly workload, my weekly workload, students' attitudes and engagement, students' understanding and progress, and student performance on final exams.  Finally, I'll argue that not only has this made my teaching better and my students' learning better, but this approach has even made our overall experiences better in how the weekly expectations provide consistent, manageable expectations for students and instructor alike.  Participants will be invited to share perspectives from their own practice and reflect on how small changes can make positive differences in student learning and success. 

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

Title: Transitioning students into higher mathematics

Description: Many students who choose to be math majors do so based on positive experiences in lower-level courses focused on computation and application.  However, quite a few of these students become dismayed and lose confidence when embarking on abstract, proof-based coursework.  A student's experience in a first course on proofs plays a huge role in determining their future success in higher mathematics.

How can we design early proof-based courses to better serve these struggling (but capable) students? I will lead a discussion of this question based on the methods I've developed and implemented at Plymouth State over the past year.  Crucial aspects of this approach include the use of an interactive workbook to guide class meetings and a mastery-based grading system with a heavy emphasis on revision. 

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

Title: Specifications grading and projects

Description: Specifications Grading is an alternate grading scheme where assignments are graded as "satisfactory" or "not yet".  Adopting this for project grading has made grading easier, and allows for higher standards.  While there's success so far in adopting this for Math 1007, questions remain and there's lots of room for adaptation. 

Zoom link: https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93176938614

This is a series of short presentations by three colleagues on some of their recent innovations and tips for teaching.

• Claire Frechette: Active Learning in 4000-level Classes

• Rob Meyerhoff: Math 2216 Building from Homework to Exam Problems

• Eric Moss: Teaching Euclid's Elements and Student Presentations