Richard Millman gave a presentation to the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale titled “Mathematical Academic Outreach to K-12: ALGEBRA3, SLIDER, and GIFT” on April 1, 2010
Click here for the PowerPoint Presentation
There are many research studies that show that the mathematics achievement of students in K-12 does not do well in international comparisons. There is also solid evidence to show that teacher content knowledge has a positive influence on student achievement. Therefore, in the STEM disciplines, both working directly with students and adding to the content knowledge of present and future teachers are important issues and ones that a mathematics department can contribute significantly to, whether there be math educators in the department or not.
In his talk, Dr. Millman will discuss two NSF funded projects. The first, SLIDER, focuses on learning physics (and the relevant mathematics) through the use of robotics in eighth grade classrooms in Georgia. The second, ALGEBRA3, is collaboration between teachers, university (mostly mathematics) faculty, and graduate students in STEM disciplines at the University of Kentucky to help middle and high school students in rural Kentucky learn mathematics.
An example of outreach to teachers, GIFT, an externship program, will also be discussed as a way to add to the knowledge of mathematics teachers by integrating their experiences in research labs with some of the mathematics of their classroom.
Some content issues of mathematics for future elementary school teachers and examples of the use of a “mathematical habit of the mind” in preparing future teachers will be given.