Math Department Agenda –4/8/2014

Present: Dr. James McGee, Blythe Burren, Gary Grohs, Naima Bahaji, Ken Beynon, Dan Kernler, Mary Ann Tuerk, Kris Campbell, Chalyce Deterding, Dan Gardner (retiree), Terri Martin, Lauren Anderko, Nicole Scherger, Catherine Moushon, Jean Phillips

Announcements

  1. Upcoming Events & Conferences:
  2. Career Conversations Panel (Physicist, Implement & Systems Cost Manager, and Chemist):

Wednesday 4/9, Spartan Auditorium, 12:30-1:45 pm

  • DePaul University Faculty Round Table Discussion / Breakfast – Math and Psychology

Friday 4/11, Lincoln Park Campus – McGowan South, 9-11:30 am

  • NISOD: May 25-28 in Austin, TX
  1. SmartBoard demo on 4/18 – Karin Stacy looking for volunteers to PRESENT from the math department.

Tentatively 10-11am, though there appears to be some flexibility. Contact Lauren if you are interested. Nicole will contact a couple of potential “volunteers”.

  1. New placement document – in progress (Nicole)

Nicole has been working on a placement document that clarifies placement and courses. Marketing is currently working on beautifying the document for sharing. Nicole will share the document with us after Marketing completes their work.

Old Business

  1. HhOnline MTH 104 (Nicole)

Nicole will not be developing an online Mth104 for Spring 2015. If anyone is interested in teaching Mth104 online, please contact James. (There is compensation for online course development included in the ECCFA contract, but it must be pre-approved by the dean. Materials must be presented to the dean at least 3 months prior to the semester of instruction. More details are in the ECCFA contract, section 4.11.)

  1. Scholarship Update (Dan)

We have clarified with the ECC Foundation that there are two scholarships for the Math Growth and Excellence Fund. Instructors are strongly encouraged to identify students who qualify (see below) and to identify those students to Dan or Terri who will let the Foundation know.

Growth: A student who begins in developmental courses and is successful in at least Calculus.
Excellence: A top student in Calc III or Differential Equations

  1. Math Lab Update (Terri)
  2. Graphing calculator sessions

Schedules were targeted based on student availability. 13 students attended this semester.

  • Attendance

71 students/day for Spring (vs 65/day for the Fall semester)

  • Final Exam Review Sessions

Emails will be coming out soon. Two additional Mth098/099 sessions will be offered:

5 for Mth098/099

3 for Mth096

2 for Mth090

  • Hours for Summer and Fall 2014

Summer: M-Th 10am-1pm
Fall: M-Th 9am-6pm

  1. IMACC Conference Feedback (Nicole, Chalyce, Dan, Catherine, Ken, and Greg, and Kris!!!)
  2. Changes to teacher education

Statement to be sent to 110/113 teachers:

“As a result of ISBE Part 20 and 21, the mathematics requirements for state licensure for elementary education and middle school education majors have significantly changed. These changes include statistics and college algebra content for elementary education majors and calculus I for middle school education majors. Currently there is no state standard for how these requirements should be met. Therefore, at this point we recommend you contact the transfer coordinator at the 4-year institution you intend to transfer to for specific guidance regarding the courses you should take at ECC.”

The legislation requires that every 4-year degree-granting institution work with a local community college in submitting their proposals to the state. We have not been consulted by any of our area institutions. (Clarification: Mth110/113 were never guaranteed to transfer into education programs, but they do have IAI designations as general education math courses.)

The new requirement states that students in an education program before September 15th, 2014 are allowed to get licenses under the old requirement. The implication is that our current students will likely not be allowed under the old licenses, and so will be effected by these changes.

  • Geometry
  • PMGE

Nicole clarified that the Preparatory Mathematics for General Education is now active at other institutions across the state. Nicole suggested we visit the IMACC Curriculum Guide to consider the course for a future meeting:

We will possibly consider this at our next meeting.

  • Calculus – Kris and Dan brought up the statewide discussion regarding early transcendental functions – we are the only institution at the round table discussion that did NOT cover transcendental functions in Calculus I (though those other institutions typically offer Calc I for 5 credit hours). We will plan on having this discussion at a future meeting.
    We also had a discussion regarding the consideration of credit hour caps on certain programs, and how any change to the credits in our sequence would impact them. Caps are mandates, usually set by professional accreditation boards, which limit the amount of credit hours that can be required in a particular program. James mentioned that science has had to work out issues with the caps on the nursing program. Credit hour changes in math curriculum would be checked against a list of capped programs to identify any conflicts. This does not preclude changes, but it does require communication.
  1. MTH 112 Update (Gary)
  2. Our content aligns well with what the College Board suggests.
  3. Our content and the objectives also lines up well with IMACC and with the catalogue description at other community colleges in Illinois and universities from other states.
  4. As it relates to AMATYC, Gary feels that we are addressing most content appropriately except modeling, which seems to carry a heavy weight in the AMATYC guidelines.
  5. Gary shared a redesigned college algebra course at another institution that had some success and chose to change their course to emphasize modeling.
  6. Gary and Catherine will work on developing more detailed Instructor Information file. Other interested faculty (even with specific feedback) should contact Gary with any concerns or feedback. The pair will work on a proposal for the full department by the May meeting. Gary and Catherine will contact adjuncts who teach the course for their feedback.

New Business

  1. AtD Survey (Catherine)

Catherine noted that the survey from earlier in the semester was a national Achieving the Dream survey, and not created locally. Also, Catherine noted that there was no place at the end of survey for final comments, but she was able to get details from Libby Roeger.

  1. Differential Equations (Kris)

Differential Equations needs to be revised. Kris is investigating other transfer institutions and their requirements and will craft a report for the May meeting.

  1. MyMathLab Presentation (Andrea)