Student(s):
Jacob Smith
Dates of Involvement:
Sept. 2009-June 2010
Faculty Advisor(s):
John Flynt
Graduate Mentor:
Calculus Exploration Lab Development
Background
Experiences with tutoring calculus students have revealed the students stand a better chance of succeeding if one creates social contexts that support their mathematics studies. Such contexts include attending supplementary labs, working with other students, and working with tutors. A further context is to use mathematics to apply it in visually and interactively rich contexts such as those provided by Flash and other web-development tools.
Lab Testing and Evaluation
To confirm the effectiveness of labs in extended educational contexts, assessment and evaluation of the affects it has on students’ learning. My focus will be to construct an assessment protocol to determine whether the use of these labs is beneficial to the student's learning at a high school and college level.
Collaboration
I will be continuing to gather information on tutoring activities and social networking through research of current resources. As more information becomes available, I will be providing the lab developers with information that allows them to more closely focus on the needs of students and also refine their applications so that they are more effective.
About Jacob Smith
Jacob Smith is a senior in Applied Mathematics and Secondary Education with interest in various methods of teaching math, and how software simulation development can become a useful tool.
