A different approach to Calculus is being planned for pilot sections of Math 1151
being offered in Autumn 2023. This is part of the department's contribution to the
University's HHMI Grant (https://news.osu.edu/ohio-state-receives-25m-grant-from-howard-hughes-medical-institute-to-advance-stem-education/) funded project for improving educational opportunities and success in first-year STEM courses. This is aimed at improving student support and engagement through curricular and instructional change using transformative pedagogies for gateway STEM course. Similar pilots are being planned in Chemistry and Physics.
The team working planning the pilot consists of Alex Borland, Elizabeth Miller, Bobby Ramsey, and Jenny Sheldon. The larger HHMI initiaive in the department also involves Jim Fowler, Bill Husen, and John Johnson.
The pilot will improve class size and schedule, teach metacognitive skills to help students be more successful throughout their STEM degree, increase student involvement with a more inquiry-based approach, and adjust the standard grading system to emphasize student understanding.
These sections will have a modified schedule, eschewing the usual 5 day per week course by opting for 3 class meetings per week taught by a single instructor, giving more time per class session. They will also have a reduced class size, capped at approximately 30 students. This allows students to more easily build community within the classroom with both their
instructor and their peers than they would in a traditional 200 student lecture. It also allows the instructor to be more responsive to student needs.
Students learn Calculus best by "doing Calculus". In these sections, students will work in groups to discover the big-picture ideas which are developed and reinforced by class discussions, the textbook, and homework problems. These sections will be taught in specially designed Active Learning classrooms in McPherson, which are currently being renovated.
The other major change is in course grading. Rather than a "points and percents" grading scale, students grades will be primarily detemined by their performance on a predetermined list of learning standards. The many learning standards for the course are enumerated and questions on the assessments are aligned to those standards. A student's grade at the end of a semester is based on how many of those standards of which they were able to demonstrate a full understanding. In this system students have multiple attempts to demonstrate understanding of each objective. This alternative grading system puts the emphasis on the student's understanding and grades are an indication of what they learned.
The overarching goal for these changes is to welcome students into the STEM community, build deep understanding of mathematics, and grow metacognitive skills that we hope will extend beyond Calculus throughout a student's tenure at OSU and into their professional career.
