Foundation Coalition Refunded
By Matthias Kawski
The Foundation Coalition has
been refunded by the National Science Foundation for years 6 to 10, at
the anticipated level of again $15,000,000. The FC is one out of eight
multi-institution coalitions that were funded by the NSF in the last decade
for the purpose of providing national models for redesigned the undergraduate
engineering curriculum. In addition to its continuing full members Texas
A&M at College Station and at Kingsville, Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology, U of Alabama, and ASU, the FC welcomes two new members: U of
Wisconsin at Madison and the U of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
The main thrusts of the FC are
curriculum integration, intensive use of technology, cooperative learning
and team-work, and assessment and continuous improvement. The most prominent
feature of the FC at ASU is its integrated freshmen program: About 80 students
stay together to take block-scheduled courses in English composition, Calculus,
Physics and Intro to Engineering in the custom-designed mediated classroom
ECG 224. (Take a tour of this marvelous facility, or visit it on-line at
www.eas.asuedu/~asufc/Classrooms/classroom.html). Faculty meet every week
to coordinate the courses. Students work together in teams in a highly
interactive environment that combines elements of “Workshop-Physics” (Dickinson)
and “Studio Calculus” (RPI). Several month-long projects form the umbrella
that integrates the course content and serves to focus the curriculum.
Less visible, but just as important are innovative programs offered at
the sophomore and upper division levels at ASU.
The goals of the FC are very closely
aligned with the new accreditation requirements (ABET, www.abet.org).
A major goal for the next five years is to institutionalize the programs
developed in the first funding period. This necessitates that more mathematics
faculty become more directly involved in the FC activities - unless, of
course, the mathematics department preferred not to teach engineering majors
anymore. While it has been far from perfect, the mathematics department
has developed a remarkably close relationship with the College of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, and with the Foundation Coalition, in particular.
We are looking forward to continuing, and further deepening this relationship
in the next five years. For more information contact Jack Spielberg, Hank
Kuiper, JoanMcCarter, Nancy Childress, Zdislaw Jackiewicz, Matt Kawski
(who have taught in the FC programs), Don Evans (local PD of the FC) or
visit the FC online at http://foundation.ua.edu/ ¦
Technology in the Classroom
By Matthias Kawski
The seminar series “Technology
in the Classroom” (organized by John Jones and Matt Kawski) meets every
week in the Undergraduate Computer Lab ECA225 of the Mathematics department.
The main objective is to provide a forum where faculty and graduate teaching
assistants can learn from each other, and from national experts, about
innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning mathematics.
As rapidly evolving computer
technologies have a profound impact on how mathematics is done and used
in almost every professional setting, they necessarily also affect many
of the courses offered by the mathematics department. ASU-graduates will
be expected to use computer technology to do mathematics - whether for
statistical analysis in psychology, modeling and simulation in the geosciences,
optimization in business, image processing in the medical professions…..
Due to very stringent requirements by their accreditation board (ABET,
www.abet.com) the engineering college might be the most outspoken, but
other disciplines are just as concerned that their students receive appropriate
training using “professional tools”, and that they do not waste their time
in courses that only drill arcane manual techniques that have become
effectively obsolete.
The seminar series focuses on
classes from calculus to graduate levels. It introduces various software
packages and their uses in mathematics, from computer algebra systems like
MAPLE, numerical packages like MATLAB, spreadsheets, as well as packages
designed for narrower purposes. Throughout the seminar, a major theme
is how to use the computers, how to integrate them into the class. Uses
include exploration, experimentation, visualization, simulation, self-drill
and checking of hand-calculations, on-line assessment, but also demonstrations
such as animations that complement lectures. Some uses of computers may
hinder learning more than they help - but all uses of computers in the
classroom may require substantial training, and typically require different
modes of teaching than blackboard lectures.
With strong financial support from the chair, and additional
resources from the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, we were
able to invite several national leaders: Brad Osgood from Stanford gave
a joint presentation with Dean Peter Crouch from the College of Engineering,
underlining how dramatic the changes required by ABET are. Beverly West
from Cornell presented the software suite “Interactive Differential Equations”,
followed by Jerry Uhl from Illinois (UIUC) who pioneered interactive textbooks
almost ten years ago, and who since has gone international with Calculus&MATHEMATICA
via on-line courses. Joe Ecker from Rensselaer presented how Studio courses
have transformed RPI and won RPI the Hesbergh, Boeing and Pew awards.
These outside speakers are complemented
with presentations by local faculty - and there is no shortage of expertise:
Extending far beyond calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations,
volunteers offered contributions on computer use in classes of differential
geometry, abstract algebra and number theory, statistics, basic reasoning
skills and induction proofs…. more than could possibly be accommodated
in one semester.
While participation varies much from week to week, this
seminar provides an important forum, and plans are made for continuation
in the next semester. A detailed schedule with links to abstracts and resources
may be found on-line http://math.la.asu.edu/~kawski..