Math Department Minutes –3/19/2013
Announcements
- Congratulations to Kenny for receiving tenure!
- Congratulations to Catherine for being awarded a sabbatical for Fall 2013!
Catherine will be working in Peoria with Caterpillar on several teams that include quality control and logistics of moving inventory to see how math is used in the field. She will also be working with the HR department to find out what they are looking for in new hires as well as their college internship program to see what they are looking for and what kind of support they are providing to students.
Old Business
1. Placement committee (Dan)
We have a draft recommendation that we are refining. We will have a recommendation for the April department meeting.
New Business
1. Office supplies (Kris)
If you have any requests or notice anything getting low, please list it on the sheet that is inside the classroom supplies cabinet. If at all possible, please leave the empty box in the cabinet so that I can find the inventory number easily. If there is a specific brand/color/style of something that you want, please list all of the necessary information (i.e. skinny blue highlighters, 5 tab manila folders, etc.) otherwise I will be ordering on a guess. I will be indicating on the sheet in the cabinet the date that I submit the order to Jane.
2. Ratify the Mth096/098/099 instructor files (attached via email – I will print a few copies as well).
There has been a request to list a recommendation on how long to spend on each topic. The committee elected not to put this in yet as no one has taught the new class yet. The committee would appreciate volunteers to track this in the fall and make suggestions. Calculator usage policy changed for 098 because of the revisions (which make the course more conducive to graphing calculators). There is a feeling that students who progress to MTH 112 are being underexposed to graphing calculators, however this may not be detrimental to the students who are following other pathways. Graphing calculators are not required, but recommended and each instructor is free to choose, but please be aware of the cost if you decide to require them. A suggestion was made to develop a student workshop for calculator use. Naima will see how many graphing calculators we have to put in the math lab to be used like the textbooks that are currently in there. The TI emulator software is available in the lab. The information on study skills will be weaved in to 096 when that is finished. Please contact Kenny if you have any further suggestions.
3. Calculus articulation at the U of I (Lauren).
We were reminded that both first and second semester calculus are 5 semester hours there and so if our students only take the first semester course, it will not transfer. However, if they take both courses, they will transfer together. As of now they are not taking business calculus because it is missing Lagrange multipliers. There is a discrepancy between IAI and IMACC articulation guides. Topics, including Lagrange multipliers, were added to the IAI guide that the IAI panel removed last November to match the IMACC guide. The course topics are now under discussion and are on the April IAI agenda. Lauren is supposed to get a contact name to talk to in the math department there to make sure we are doing everything we can for transferability. We do not want to make a significant change until we see exactly how many students this is affecting.
4. Requiring review before taking the placement exam.
Some schools require students to take a review before taking the COMPASS test and James wanted to know our opinion on this. This would not be for every student, but for those who opt to retake the exam. Currently, we make them wait three days to retake the exam and there is stuff available on MML to help. It was decided that this sounds like a good idea and we need to take a look at this in detail. We will need to talk to Annabelle and Victoria about what is involved in time and cost.
5. Math Lab update (Terri)
The committee met yesterday.
We will be making the no food no drink policy official and this includes those who are working the lab.
There will be summer hours. 11-1 or 10-2 Monday-Thursday is what we the committee was thinking about. It was suggested that we look into doing an hour at night. If you are interested in working the lab over the summer, you should contact Terri. Full timers who are interested in holding office hours in the lab over the summer will be paid.
If you would like to have a key for the lab, contact Terri.
There will be a new director of the lab in fall of 2014. If you are interested in being director of the math lab contact Libby.
Terri has usage stats for anyone interested that includes a break down by time of day in two hour blocks. It has been suggested that we extend hours in the afternoon as the students in higher numbered courses are using it to study together and we are often having to ask calc 2 and calc 3 students to leave when the lab closes.
HR is allowing us to hire more people starting in the fall.
6. Overview of Math/Counseling meeting on Wednesday, 3/13
We gave them an update on all the stuff happening in our department and discussed how IMACC will be voting on a new developmental pathway. We clarified the policy on proficiency credit and discussed the new curriculum changes.
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