From the price of milk to income tax returns, we do the math every day.
Northeast State associate professor Dawn Dabney decided to incorporate those real world figures as the practical data to augment the mathematics concepts taught in her MATH 1010 Math for General Studies classes.
“The idea is if you are going to use math in a business or in your life people don’t just hand you all the numbers you need,” said Dabney. “It is real data, and students have to apply it to the math they are learning in class.”
Dabney had become frustrated with a traditional math textbook’s use of artificial numbers to explain mathematics. With available data ranging from census numbers to the consumer price index, she decided to introduce existing data into the course.
She dispensed with the MATH 1010 textbooks and compile a wealth of database material from existing public sources. She collected real data from a variety of sources including United States government agencies, primary and election results from the State of Tennessee, and consumer expenditure data.
“These are real life numbers,” said Dabney. “Instead of saying of making up data you can look up data and use it.”
She began adding extra class assignments incorporating the new math they were learning in the textbook concepts. The students used the database materials posted on D2L online learning site to understand how the data affected their lives on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the labor and printing costs fell to the students in those classes.
But, a bit of textbook fate intervened.
A representative from Kendall Hunt Publishing visited campus last year and met up with Dabney. She asked her if she had a wish list of material she wanted to see available for students. Dabney provided to the databases and worksheets information she created for her classes.
The representative was duly impressed and asked if her company could publish the material as a workbook – with Dabney as the author. At first, Dabney thought she was kidding.
“I told her, ‘I have to go teach my next class,’ ” she said. “When I came back she had a contract waiting.”
Northeast State Division of Mathematics Dean Malissa Trent and the College’s office of Academic Affairs approved the published workbook as an official teaching material. The workbook’s cost factored out to be less than the printing costs students incurred to print the materials from D2L.
“That was part of the deal is that it could not be expensive,” said Dabney. “We hoped to keep it at minimal cost for the student.”
The workbook contains 200+ plus pages of content that students once had to print at their own cost from D2L. The workbook made its first appearance in the MATH 1010 classes this spring semester.
MATH 1010 was originally designed for technical certificates in Business programs. The course introduces students in the practical applications of mathematics. Dabney noted the Tennessee Board of Regents had supported the creation and use open education resources.
“The math is very practical, it always has been,” said Dabney. “If you want to find the rate of inflation between 2008 and 2009, they have to look up numbers.”
Dabney said she hoped a possible companion piece to the workbook would be a video. If the workbook became a popular source for other she wanted the text material to remain with the video serving as another source to explain the concepts.
For the math-phobic among us, Dabney said succeeding at any math subject involved two controllable concepts: attitude and time. A student focused on the subject being a value to them improves their dedication to learning math or any subject. Time involved following the steps to reach the right conclusions. She emphasized a well-known sports adage of you play on game day, or in this case exam day, how you practiced over time.
“You can’t cram for math,” said Dabney. “If you don’t understand what a math book is telling you when you are studying you’re not going to understand what it is telling you at test time.”
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From the price of milk to income tax returns, we do the math every day.
Northeast State associate professor Dawn Dabney decided to incorporate those real world figures as the practical data to augment the mathematics concepts taught in her MATH 1010 Math for General Studies classes.
“The idea is if you are going to use math in a business or in your life people don’t just hand you all the numbers you need,” said Dabney. “It is real data, and students have to apply it to the math they are learning in class.”
Dabney had become frustrated with a traditional math textbook’s use of artificial numbers to explain mathematics. With available data ranging from census numbers to the consumer price index, she decided to introduce existing data into the course.
She dispensed with the MATH 1010 textbooks and compile a wealth of database material from existing public sources. She collected real data from a variety of sources including United States government agencies, primary and election results from the State of Tennessee, and consumer expenditure data.
“These are real life numbers,” said Dabney. “Instead of saying of making up data you can look up data and use it.”
She began adding extra class assignments incorporating the new math they were learning in the textbook concepts. The students used the database materials posted on D2L online learning site to understand how the data affected their lives on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the labor and printing costs fell to the students in those classes.
But, a bit of textbook fate intervened.
A representative from Kendall Hunt Publishing visited campus last year and met up with Dabney. She asked her if she had a wish list of material she wanted to see available for students. Dabney provided to the databases and worksheets information she created for her classes.
The representative was duly impressed and asked if her company could publish the material as a workbook – with Dabney as the author. At first, Dabney thought she was kidding.
“I told her, ‘I have to go teach my next class,’ ” she said. “When I came back she had a contract waiting.”
Northeast State Division of Mathematics Dean Malissa Trent and the College’s office of Academic Affairs approved the published workbook as an official teaching material. The workbook’s cost factored out to be less than the printing costs students incurred to print the materials from D2L.
“That was part of the deal is that it could not be expensive,” said Dabney. “We hoped to keep it at minimal cost for the student.”
The workbook contains 200+ plus pages of content that students once had to print at their own cost from D2L. The workbook made its first appearance in the MATH 1010 classes this spring semester.
MATH 1010 was originally designed for technical certificates in Business programs. The course introduces students in the practical applications of mathematics. Dabney noted the Tennessee Board of Regents had supported the creation and use open education resources.
“The math is very practical, it always has been,” said Dabney. “If you want to find the rate of inflation between 2008 and 2009, they have to look up numbers.”
Dabney said she hoped a possible companion piece to the workbook would be a video. If the workbook became a popular source for other she wanted the text material to remain with the video serving as another source to explain the concepts.
For the math-phobic among us, Dabney said succeeding at any math subject involved two controllable concepts: attitude and time. A student focused on the subject being a value to them improves their dedication to learning math or any subject. Time involved following the steps to reach the right conclusions. She emphasized a well-known sports adage of you play on game day, or in this case exam day, how you practiced over time.
“You can’t cram for math,” said Dabney. “If you don’t understand what a math book is telling you when you are studying you’re not going to understand what it is telling you at test time.”
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