Wheaton to explore uses of quantitative analysis across the curriculum
Wheaton has won a grant of $99,500 from the Teagle Foundation to expand the reach of quantitative analysis (QA) in the college’s multidisciplinary curriculum. A Wheaton working group will develop a variety of initiatives to encourage faculty members to incorporate new quantitative dimensions into their teaching and help students strengthen their QA skills and understanding.
Wheaton has won a grant of $99,500 from the Teagle Foundation to expand the reach of quantitative analysis (QA) in the college's multidisciplinary curriculum.
Quantitative literacy is an essential skill for understanding complex issues in today's society, yet the United States lags behind the rest of the world in math and science competence. With the support of this grant, a Wheaton working group will develop several initiatives to stimulate interest in QA across campus. The group hopes to encourage faculty members to incorporate new quantitative dimensions into their teaching and help students strengthen their QA skills and understanding.
The group will be spearheaded by mathematics professors Bill Goldbloom-Bloch, Tommy Ratliff, and Michael Kahn, who also serves as Wheaton's director of quantitative analysis. A larger body consisting of students, faculty from many disciplines, and a representative of the college's multicultural center, will also take part in the project.
The project, titled ''Expanding Quantitative Analysis as a Framework for Interdisciplinary Learning and Applied Problem Solving,'' will be multifaceted: The working group will propose new pedagogical approaches and campus-wide collaborations, and will also sponsor events, guest speakers and math-oriented displays. In so doing, they hope to help both teachers and learners see the value of quantitative analysis to all disciplines, not just the natural sciences.
For instance, a professor of a humanities course might come to discover an unexpected role for a guest lecturer from the math department. A political scientist might develop increased understanding of how data analysis can be used to illustrate a point in class. And natural scientists might learn that the computer algebra system known as Maple can be a powerful tool in tackling complex problems.
It is hoped that the project will prompt more students to participate in Connections that feature math courses, that more such Connections will be developed, and that students will make expanded use of peer tutoring services in Wheaton's QA Resource Center. Another project goal is to stimulate interest in math and science among historically underserved students.
The group will also develop a math practicum in which faculty-student teams will work with local organizations on research projects that require mathematical solutions. Ratliff and Kahn will team-teach the course, titled ''Mathematical Consulting,'' beginning in the spring of 2007.
After soliciting problems from local businesses, industries and non-profit research facilities, students will work in teams of four to tackle the given challenges. At the end of the semester, each team will produce and present a professional seminar for the client at their place of business.
Kahn said he taught a similar, highly successful course at St. Olaf College for a number of years. Students there took on a wide range of business problems, including one involving a bagel shop that kept running out of garlic bagels too early in the day. The students performed an in-depth analysis and proposed an inventory redistribution scheme for the company's eight stores. Another student team used data from a large number of kidney transplant operations to determine whether the body size of the donor relative to that of the recipient had an affect on the outcome of the operation.
The Wheaton course will provide students with similar real-world opportunities to apply their mathematical, statistical and computational backgrounds. ''This is an extraordinary learning opportunity for Wheaton students and may also help the clients solve problems they might not otherwise have time to work on,'' Ratliff said.
