New HU Project Supported by the National Science Foundation Focuses on Mathematics of Real-world Pro

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Dec. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology a three-year $550,000 grant for Engaging Mathematics: Building a National Community of Practice, a faculty development and dissemination initiative.

Engaging Mathematics will produce adaptable mathematics curricula that use the framework of civic issues to study mathematics and its real-world applications, says Wm. David Burns, director of NCSCE and professor of general studies at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

Additionally, this initiativewill substantially enhance and expand the current work of the NSF-funded project Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) by significantly increasing the use of the SENCER model to create, implement, and sustain reforms in mathematics education.

SENCER focuses on learning mathematics and science content through “real world” problems and engaging students in course work that is framed within complex civic issues. Engaging Mathematics aims to create courses that do not act as terminal courses, but instead propel students to seek more challenging and engaging STEM courses, says Burns. The SENCER mathematics framework will be enhanced through the use of curricula from current leading reform initiatives, funded by the NSF and other sources.

“Engaging Mathematics will develop and deliver new mathematics courses and modules that engage students through meaningful civic applications,” says Burns. “It will also draw upon ‘state-of-the-art’ curricula in mathematics, already developed through federal and other support programs, to complement and broaden the impact of the SENCER approach to course design.”

Burns adds the initiative will create a wider community of mathematics scholars within SENCER capable of implementing and sustaining curricular reforms. Engaging Mathematics will also broaden project impacts beyond SENCER by offering a persistent and recurring program of national dissemination through workshops, on-line webinars, publications, presentations at local, regional, and national venues such as the Mathematics Association of America, and “catalytic” site visits, and develop assessment tools to monitor students’ perceptions of the usefulness of mathematics, interest and confidence in doing mathematics, growth in knowledge content, and ability to apply mathematics to understand complex civic issues.

Engaging Mathematics will create a collaborative relationship between three lead institutions (Metropolitan State University-MN, LaGuardia Community College-NY, and the United States Military Academy-NY) and four partner institutions (Augsburg College, Normandale Community College, Oglethorpe University, and Roosevelt University) to develop and assess curricula that teach students mathematics through civic issues. As the project progresses, mathematics and other SENCER faculty as well as those not already affiliated with SENCER will be invited and encouraged to use the materials developed through the Engaging Mathematics project and adapt them to their unique institutional needs.

This projectprovides an opportunity to develop faculty capacity to connect learning in mathematics courses to real and relevant local, regional, national and global issues and thus greatly improve students’ retention of the specific mathematics concepts and skills, along with their understanding the role of mathematical modeling and quantitative literacy in everyday life, says Burns.

Engaging Mathematics will produce adaptable mathematics curricula that use the framework of civic issues to study mathematics and its real-world applications and utilize active, inquiry-based pedagogies. Having developed SENCER mathematics courses and documented student success, the investigators will be well situated to support a growing community of practice.

Engaging Mathematics will prepare and enable students to succeed in college level mathematics where such success had eluded them in the past. Our goal is to change what is now all too often a stumbling block into a building block. Ultimately, the impact of the project will be to help students appreciate the value and power of mathematics, regardless of their fields of study, and to enable graduates to use skills and dispositions developed in these courses to have greater and more effective engagement with the complex civic issues of a democratic society.

The Engaging Mathematics project leadership includes: David Burns, SENCER co-founder and executive director of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement, Principal Investigator; Cindy Kaus, Ph.D., professor of Mathematics at Metropolitan State University, Co-Principal Investigator; Mangala Kothari, Ph.D., associate professor of Mathematics at LaGuardia Community College, Co–Principal Investigator; and Frank Wattenberg, Ph.D., professor of Mathematics at the United States Military Academy, Co–Principal Investigator. NCSCE staff who have leadership roles in the project include: Ellen Mappen, Ph.D., Senior Scholar, NCSCE, who will provide general organizational consultation, and Eliza Reilly, Ph.D., Senior Scholar, NCSCE, who will provide consultation support for the development and dissemination of the new course models and modules.

Details on the project including information on how to become involved will be published on the SENCER and NCSCE websites and carried in our bi-weekly e-newsletter. To subscribe, please go to:
http://www.sencer.net/About/NewsMailGroup/newsmail.cfm. For more information on the SENCER project, please visit www.sencer.net. Questions may be addressed to engagingmath@ncsce.net.

Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Harrisburg University is a private university offering bachelor-of-science and graduate degree programs in science, technology and math fields. For more information on the University's affordable demand-driven undergraduate and graduate programs, call 717.901.5146 or email, Connect@HarrisburgU.edu