[MATHEDCC] Re: to math or not 2 math

Lynn Mack (mack@PED.TEC.SC.US)
Mon, 10 Mar 1997 18:10:23 -0500

Phil Mahler wrote:
>
> >I keep wondering whatever happened to the old notion of teaching
> >mathematical skills (particularly in math courses up thru calculus) and
> >then applying those skills in all the other classes like sociology,
> >physics, computer science, etc. I absolutely gaurantee that, if you know
> >math and understand it, all those other courses are so easy that you can
> >actually learn and understand them.
>
> That posting gave me pause. I believe it was in reaction to the way
> in which we talk about teaching math through applications.
>
> Everything has to have an application - we even stretch ourselves for
> ones that involve factoring. And we use the TI CBL thing to input "real
> world data" and massage it.
>
> I have noted my opinion before that this is as much physics, etc as math.
> I don't happen to have a problem with that - I have always enjoyed most
> the math that has applications and that grew out of needs to solve "real"
> problems - and I hated my graduate courses that ignored applications totally.
>
> And I have always felt that any math teacher at the college level should have
> at least some physics under their belt. And maybe they should have some
> finance and economics. etc... That in and of itself would be an interesting
> topic.
>
> My point is that much of what's going on is interdisciplinary, not "math."
>
> So why don't we talk more about interdisciplinary courses?
>
> Phil Mahler
> Middlesex CC
> Bedford, MA

Phil,

I am involved with a project that is focusing on developing an
integrated curriculum approach to teaching the first year of the
Engineering Technology curriculum. We have formed interdisciplinary
teams (math,science,ET,and communication)of faculty members on all of
our South Carolina 2-yr college campuses. These teams are exploring
what it means to teach/develop interdisciplinary courses. We hope
our research will show that interdisciplinary courses can make a
difference, especially with the ET curriculum where attrition rates are
so high.

I am a mathematics teacher, 20 years in the 2-yr system,and
think this is the way to go. The faculty teams involved in the
project believe it will make a difference. Look for our
presentations at upcoming conferences(ASEE, AMATYC,and others).
This is a 6 yr project and just in its 2nd yr.

Lynn Mack
Co-PI SC ATE Center of Excellence
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