Update 1995

Maricopa Mathematics Consortium

Mathematics instruction must propel all students into personal, academic, and employment success.

 

Alan Jacobs, Project Director
jacobs@sc.maricopa.edu

A National Science Foundation Project administered by the Maricopa County Community College District.

1995 Spring Update
Maricopa Mathematics Consortium (M2C)

Table of Contents

 Status Report
 Why is the Mathematics Curriculum Changing?
 Mission
 Members and Teams of the Maricopa Mathematics Consortium

[To return to the table of contents, click on any green bar.]

Create mathematics programs in which students learn the genuinely valuable knowledge, skills, principles, and applications that they can use throughout life to become smarter employees, consumers, citizens and learners.

So far...	We've outlined a modular, 3-year curriculum to replace all courses from Arithmetic Review through College Algebra and Trigonometry. This curriculum focuses on understanding data and modeling real applications; it is not algebra-based. Important mathematical ideas are studied numerically, symbolically, and graphically with an emphasis on communication and interpretation of results. Graphing calculators, computers, and other appropriate technologies are used throughout the curriculum.
We've learned...	to shift the focus from what we need to teach to what students need to learn.
To do...	During the summer of 1995 and the 1995-96 academic year, we will write and field test content modules, bringing the proposed curriculum to life. We will also seek additional funding to continue the curriculum development and implementation process.

Build a coalition in Maricopa County so that the above mathematics programs can be created and implemented by schools, community colleges and universities, acting in concert.

So far...	During the 1994-95 academic year, we have met with mathematics department chairs and/or faculty at the ten Maricopa institutions, six local high school districts (Chandler, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tolleson), four community college instructional councils (Physics, Biology, Engineering, Psychology), the interdisciplinary ACEPT group at Arizona State University, and college presidents and deans. We have presented, and exhibited, at the NCTM Regional Meeting in Phoenix and the AMATYC National Conference in Tulsa. The working teams within M2C represent diverse levels of mathematics instruction: high school, community college and university. We have provided joint professional development opportunities, including guest speakers: John Dossey, Linda Rosen, Sheldon Gordon. Math Dialogue Day will involve mathematics faculty from each high school in Maricopa County.
We've learned...	to expand our understanding of the consortium to include partnerships with other disciplines and with business and industry.
To do...	Develop a long-range professional development partnership with the consortium institutions. Develop local business and industry relationships through "field trips for faculty" and dialogue about our proposed curriculum. Continue to foster diverse representation on our working teams.

Why is the mathematics curriculum changing?

1. The world is changing.

Three interrelated forces in our culture are influencing changes in mathematics instruction. The availability of technology, which performs all of the skill-level computation and symbolic manipulation we teach in high schools and lower-division mathematics, has already affected the content of courses in College Algebra through Calculus. While the current before- calculus curriculum is based on the idea that by practicing skills one reaches understanding of important mathematics, mathematics instruction needs to change to develop the uniquely human contributions: the ability to frame the question and explain the answer to others, thorough knowledge of the uses and limitations of the technological instruments, and common sense.

Changing expectations in the work force influence our thinking. For example, as companies flatten their hierarchical structure, employees at lower levels need to make decisions based on data and information, decisions once left to their supervisors. As a result, everyone needs to learn more mathematics, and it needs to be a mathematics they can use. Not only do we need to improve mathematics instruction for scientists and engineers, the other 95% needs to learn more mathematics.

Finally, many advances in mathematics over the last forty years, such as statistics, discrete mathematics, game theory, chaos and fractals, which have become important to many professions and discipline, are accessible for high school and college students.

2. Mathematics has so much to offer.

Mathematics is a rich discipline; computation and algebraic systems are but a small slice of the spectrum. Mathematics contributes ways of organizing, describing, visualizing, and analyzing real-world events and processes. Mathematics contributes a systematic way of understanding the world, not just through quantitative, but also through qualitative and descriptive, analysis. Mathematics offers tools to understand and control the complex systems within which we operate. Mathematics has a devotion to clarity and logic.

3. We, the mathematics faculty, are responsible for the integrity of the mathematics curriculum.

Our professional organizations, MAA, AMATYC, NCTM, have called for the curricular reform of K-14+ mathematics, emphasizing the following themes: integration of many mathematical strands, application-based, technology-accessible, and open access to all. The mathematics faculty, in their individual classrooms, are already responding to the challenge of integrity by changing what and how we teach, by including technology and collaborative learning, to name just two. To address the changes in the world with what our discipline has to offer &emdash; to make good judgments about what students need to learn &emdash; the mathematics faculty must initiate the dialogue with other disciplines, with business and industry, with students, and with high schools and universities.

The mathematics faculty must not wait to choose from a set of commercial curricula, developed by publishers and others. We must engage the difficult question of choosing which mathematics needs to be learned. Through the Maricopa Mathematics Consortium, through our professional organizations, in our departments and classrooms, we assume responsibility for the integrity of the mathematics curriculum.

The Maricopa Mathematics Consortium has two central missions:

1. To create mathematics programs in which students learn the genuinely valuable knowledge, skills, principles, and applications that they can use throughout life to become smarter employees, consumers, citizens and learners.

    

2. To build a coalition in Maricopa County so that the above mathematics programs can be created and implemented by schools, community colleges and universities, acting in concert.

Maricopa Mathematics Consortium Members

Maricopa Mathematics Consortium Teams

Content Team Chair
Sally Pretlow Mesa Community College
Program Structure Team Co-Chairs
Ed Chandler Scottsdale Community College	Floyd Downs Arizona State University
Professional Development Team Co-Chairs
Ted Corley Glendale Community College	Melinda Romero Chandler Unified District
Betty Field Maricopa County Community College District
Project Evaluation Team Co-Chairs
Maria Harper-Marinick Maricopa County Community College District	Shiji Shen Maricopa County Community College District
Gail Mee Mesa Community College
Instructional Design Team Co-Chairs
Naomi Okumura Story Maricopa County Community College District	Sandy Nagy Mesa Unified District

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Last Date Modified: July 1, 1999