Statistics Liberal Arts Math Pasadena City College

Motivation & History

Current Curriculum CALCULUS Roger

Does the curriculum serve our population?

Create a new track for SLAM Completion Only 11.7% prealgebra students complete transfer level course in 4 years

Backwards Design What math does a SLAM student need? Statistics Quantitative Literacy 1 Quantitative Literacy 2 Liberal Arts Math No attempt to accelerate or compress Just what do we want them to know and how can we teach it. Real Life

SLAM vs. STEM Statistics Quantitative Literacy 2 Liberal Arts Math Beginning Algebra Intermediate Algebra STEM Track Acceleration not a design goal, but there is a small amount. Shorter track for non-STEM

Creating Learning Experiences Discovery-based activities Using Manipulatives to understand mathematical ideas Excel Labs to both explore concepts and analyze data Projects Tracking Expenses Stock Project Home Buying Project

Created our own course materials Many hours, many authors Flipped class (pencasts) Canvas(again process mirrors classroom)

QL2: Course Content

Statistics Measures of Center and Weighted Mean Measuring Spread Graphical Representations of Data Correlation and Estimating the Best-fit Line

Finance Simple vs Compound Interest Payday Loans Credit Cards Annuities Amortized Loans Student Loans Home Loans Computer Labs that investigate changing Principal, Loan length, interest rate, and compounding period per year. Student Loans – subsidized vs unsubsidized Home loans – 15 year fixed vs 30 year fixed

Probability Events, Simple Events, Combining sets Counting – Fundamental Counting Principle, nPr, nCr Two Way Frequency Tables Expected Value Probability Experiments Are Males more likely to support marijuana legalization that women? How do Casinos Make Money?

Geometry Areas of Rectangles, Triangles, Parallelograms, and Trapezoids discovery- based activity Investigating the effects on Perimeter, Area, and Volume when changing edge length Fermi Problem (estimation)

Fermi Problem

Science Solving Literal Equations Units and Dimensional Analysis Absolute vs Percent Error Linear, Exponential, and Logarithmic functions & rates of growth Scientific Notation and Sig Figs Variation Logarithmic Scale – pH and Richter

Standard Algebra Content Excluded Quadratics & Polynomials Rational Expressions Factoring Matrices & Linear Systems Title is Set difference

QL1: Content and Approach

Similar Content to a Standard Prealgebra class (but better) Old and out of date New and hot! Roger

Content Patterns Integers Fractions Decimals Percent Graphing and Lines Roger

Contextualized Baker baker paradox

Experiential/Activity-based Less lecturing More of students doing math Pic on left has old white guys Pic on right has women and students of color Lots of Manipulatives

Lots of Manipulatives

Solving Word Problems Everyday

Discovery-based Learning Discovering areas of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids Pattern recognition Intelligently designed problem sets that lead towards discovery of mathematical principles and ideas

Metacognition and Affective Domain Failure is an Option Mindset Study Skills

Critical Thinking Reasonableness of Answers Money tracker – students did serious soul searching about how they are spending their money – combines metacognition, critical thinking, and life. Decision making – would you rather have $2000 off or a lower interest rate? Use quantitative reasoning to answer questions like – “Are ____ more likely to be ____ “ links quantitative reasoning with their other classes

Student Comments “This thing is hard, but I love it!” “It seems like I’m learning the same stuff in a regular class, but I actually see how it’s useful.” “I’m SOOOOO glad that PCC has finally realized that we are all individuals and that we learn differently.” “This is more than math, this is real life!” “F**K ME, I GOT IT!!!” “Are you teaching me so that my brain gets fat or that my soul gets full?”