Needed Math Project: September 2022 Newsletter

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NEEDED MATH PROJECT

It's All about Math Scenarios, but …. How will we know what mathematics today’s technicians use on the job? Why not just ask them? But can we craft questions that are likely to elicit the math concepts that underpin and inform what technicians do? That’s the problem we have been wrestling with. We have been working hard to develop a survey that will illuminate the math that’s needed in modern manufacturing jobs by linking it to the tasks that make up those jobs. The results, we hope, will help math and technical faculty at community colleges to teach math in a more realistic setting while also motivating the students who ask, “When am I ever going to use this?” The 21st Century workplace calls for technicians who understand the math that lurks within the complex, often highly automated processes they are called to supervise. It is not enough for them to use a spreadsheet as a static look-up table, they must be conscious of the relationships between variables embodied in, but hidden by, the technology—a central feature of high school algebra that is easily overshadowed by the quest to “solve for x.” A curve of best fit involves more than “connecting the dots” and its relevance to completing a job or troubleshooting a process entails an understanding of mathematics. After analyzing results from our survey we plan to develop a series of math-rich scenarios that we hope will spark a conversation about the math that’s needed and how to teach it. But before we get there, we welcome feedback from each of you. If you would like to respond to this article, please send a message to Lois.M.Miceli@hofstra.edu. In addition, if you would like to participate in the pilot test or survey or know someone who would, please send an email to: Lois.M.Miceli@hofstra.edu.

September 2022

A Huge Thank-You to all Thinkaloud participants: Michael, Shera, Luis, Mark, Dianne, Eric, Amy, Ric, Sujithan, Wei-Kai, Marci, Natalia, Al, and Douglas! Also, Thank-You to all the participating companies and universities: Monin, GenMet, Univ. of New Mexico, Hocking Community College, Central Community College (Nebraska), Central Virginia Community College


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Needed Math Project: September 2022 Newsletter by Hofstra University - Issuu