From Symbol Manipulation to Meaning Making
The traditional undergraduate curriculum treats mathematics and science as separate entities, but these disciplines are inherently interdependent. Many have called for greater integration of the teaching of mathematics and science, more exposure to real world applications and more emphasis on ensuring that science majors develop a solid foundation in mathematics and the ability to reason quantitatively.
Motivated by this vision for change, and supported by an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant, our interdisciplinary team collaborated to create the following:
- A set (matrix) of videos that explore rate of change across the curriculum
- A published research-based guide (instrument) to inform the design of educational videos
- A published paper to deepen instructors' conversations about curriculum across disciplines
- A published critique of how chemistry textbooks treat rate of change concepts
- An instructor guide with supplemental information and formative assessment items.
Video Theme Matrix
These resources, from an NSF-funded project, encourage meaning-making in mathematics and teach rate of change concepts across the curriculum. Videos are on five themes (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and current research) on four rate of change subtopics.
Video Design Guide
Conversations Paper
Rate of change concepts from calculus are presented differently in college mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology classes. We summarize our conversations and present strategies to communicate effectively and reach shared understandings.
Textbook Critique
Analyzing general chemistry texts' treatment of rates of change concepts in reaction kinetics reveals missing conceptual links.
Acknowledgments
In addition to our community of practice, Adam Burgasser, Thomas Bussey, John Eggers, Stanley Lo, Jeff Rabin, Sherry Seethaler, Laura Stevens, Haim Weizman and our late colleague, Jeff Remmel, the project benefited from a long list of contributors. This includes the major contributions of the UC San Diego Educational Technology Services team, as well as that of our student actors.
The project was supported by an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Engaged Student Learning Exploration Grant (1610193). Seethaler was PI.
Educational Technology Services Team. Our three-year project stretched into five years as we struggled with pandemic-related delays in filming. We are grateful for the amazing ETS team that worked with us the entire time and so ably carried out the filming and editing and created the animations for the project, especially Seth Marshburn, Jordi Oliman and Nate Bayless. We are also grateful to Robin Martin, for overseeing the team, and to his predecessor Craig Bentley, who helped with the project formulation.
Student Actors. The actors (other than the faculty team members) were UC San Diego undergraduate and graduate students in STEM and STEM education. We would like to thank Leila Brasfield (chemistry video), Danica Cajigas (chemistry video), David Callahan (production assistance, chemistry video), Ernesto Calleros (math video), Kathleen Chao (current research videos), Achol Chowdhury (biology videos), Peter Emanuel (biology videos), Devin Flanagan (chemistry video), Peyton Graves (current research videos), Leah Grayson (current research video), Susan Hou (biology videos), Tina Marcroft (chemistry video), Makenna Martin (chemistry video), Dora Ogbonna (biology and mathematics videos), Riley Peacock (chemistry and current research videos), Nicole Suarez (chemistry video), Ceres Trinh (chemistry video), Ashley Warner (physics videos).
Instructor Partners. We are also grateful to the many community college and undergraduate instructors who provided formative feedback and helped us disseminate the products. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors who provided feedback on the papers we published as part of this project.
