Vision

Increase the enrollment of future university students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields by enabling middle school students to learn about mathematics through teaching tools and motivating examples that relate to their daily lives.

Goals

Find educational tools and create educational materials in which mathematical concepts can be taught through examples that relate to daily activity domains (such as social networking over the internet, sports and puzzles) for middle school students.

Objectives

• Identify a set of tools that can augment middle-school mathematics textbooks
  • Given a particular section of a textbook, identify the key concepts
  • For each key concept, identify a tool or tools that can be used to help the teacher present the concept
  • Provide a mapping between the textbook section and the tool(s)
  • Map each tool to instructions and/or suggestions for using the tool(s)
  • Work with students to provide a motivating example(s) for learning the concept; map these examples to a textbook section
  • For each key concept, identify motivating examples and a tool or tools that can be used to help the student master the concept
  • Provide a mapping between the textbook section and the tool(s)
  • Map each tool to instructions and/or suggestions for using the tool(s)
  • Provide a mapping between the textbook section and the motivating examples
• Supply a way for teachers and students to provide us with feedback regarding the tool instructions/suggestions, motivational examples, etc.
• Provide learning activities that enable students to "map" tool use to the "latest and greatest"
• Incrementally populate web pages that will act as guides for teachers
• Tools associated with mathematics textbooks
• Instructions/suggestions for using the tools
• Motivating examples
• Feedback
• Provide a quick start guide that enables teachers to use the web content
• Present a workshop for middle-school and high-school teachers that will introduce them to the materials, get their feedback, and learn how best to proceed
• Provide teacher assistance and classroom assistance during the fall
• Present a workshop for middle-school students that will introduce them to the materials, get their feedback, and learn how best to proceed
• Extend these materials to computational-thinking and HPC-related tools that can be used by AHPCRC partners and middle-school, high-school, and college teachers.