Assessment : 2013 - 2014 : Educational Programs :
Mathematics BS
3 Goals 3 Objectives 2 Indicators 4 Criteria 4 Findings 3 Actions
GOAL: Deliver A Lower-Level Curriculum With Appropriate Discipline Specific Skill Sets
|
|
|
Objective
|
|
Foundation Areas - Differential Calculus
|
|
|
|
|
|
MATH 1420 (Calculus I): Students will demonstrate the following knowledge and skills: differentiation of standard mathematical functions, application of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to the evaluation of integrals, and using calculus techniques to solve optimization problems.
|
Indicator
|
|
Course Assessment - Mth142
|
|
|
|
|
All students enrolled in the program are required to complete Mth 142. Students will be administered a final exam developed and approved by the department faculty. The exam will require them to demonstrate the knowledge and skills mentioned in the objective.
|
Criterion |
|
Optimization Using Calculus Techniques
|
|
|
|
|
On the final exam, 70% of the students will use appropriate calculus techniques to solve an optimization problem.
|
Finding |
|
|
|
|
Of 176 final exam problems concerning optimization, only 72 ( or 41%) received a passing grade on that problem.
|
Criterion |
|
Differentiation Of Mathematical Functions
|
|
|
|
|
On the final exam, 70% of the students will provide the correct derivative for a given mathematical function.
|
Finding |
|
|
|
|
Of 176 final exam problems concerning optimization, 129 (or 73%) received a passing grade on that problem.
|
Criterion |
|
Fundamental Theorem Of Calculus
|
|
|
|
|
On the final exam, 70% of the students will correctly use the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to evaluate a given integral.
|
Finding |
|
|
|
|
Of 176 final exam problems concerning optimization, 127 (or 72%) received a passing grade on that problem.
|
Actions for Objective:
Action |
|
Need To Work On Optimization Applications
|
|
|
|
|
We clearly need to pay more attention to the performance of our students pertaining to applications of the derivative, particularly optimization problems. Difficulty often arises not only whe applying calculus, but earlier, in the setup of the problem. Our new precalculus course, MATH 1410, is designed to help with some of these deficiencies. It's too early to tell whether or not this new course is helping the performance of our calculus students.
|
GOAL: Improve Communication Between Department And Its Majors
|
|
|
Objective
|
|
Improve Communication Between Department And Mathematics Majors
|
|
|
|
|
|
Communicate to our mathematics majors more and better information pertaining to internships, research opportunities, scholarships. etc.
|
Actions for Objective:
Action |
|
Have A Winter Meeting For All Mathematics Majors And Minors
|
|
|
|
|
In January 2015, the chair will host an hour-long meeting of all mathematics majors and minors. This meeting will inform all students of summer REU opportunities (application deadlines typically in February), graduate school opportunities (deadlines in March) and new courses avaiable for Fall 2015/Spring 2016.
All faculty will be invited, and slides will be prepared in order for students not able to attend to have the opportunity to receive the same information. These slides will be made available on the departmental website.
An announcement will be made via email 3 weeks before the date, with a reminder sent one week prior.
Other actions will include the possibility of hosting a departmental Twitter account maintained by the office to better inform students of new sections of courses opened, advising deadlines, etc.
|
GOAL: Deliver An Upper-Level Curriculum With Appropriate Discipline Specific Knowledge
|
|
|
Objective
|
|
Advanced Areas For Majors
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students preparing to graduate will demonstrate advanced mathematics knowledge and skills.
|
Actions for Objective:
Action |
|
|
|
|
We will continue to monitor the progress of our students in this course. While it is a required course for future secondary teachers, enrollment is not that high (25 in 2014). more monitoring is therefore necessary.
|
Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
|
We will implement a new placement exam for MATH 1420/1410.
|
Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
|
The placement exam for 1410/1420 has been in place since Summer 2014, in hopes fo correctly placing Fall 2014 students. Upon completion of the semester, we will compare the performance of those students that took the placement exam with their grade in either 1410 or 1420. The results of this comparison will begin to tell us the value of the placement exam. Although, few students took the exam; several semesters will be needed in order to assess the value of the placement exam.
|
Plan for Continuous Improvement
|
We have plans to apply for 3 different NSF grants: two interdisciplinary STEM-centered projects that will improve our STEM course offerings, and one research grant (PI: J. Wang).
We will hire two new faculty members, in the hopes of increasing our breadth of our graduate and advanced undergraduate course and research offerings. We also hope to find new colleagues that have interests in community outreach and the development of a STEM center on our campus (one of the goals of the NSF grants mentioned above).
|