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MAC project

 

This module is part of the curriculum developed through the Mathematics Across the Curriculum (MAC) project. The MAC project began at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington in 2000. It was supported by the National Science Foundation (DUE #0088149), Edmonds CC, and other local and state agencies. Over the four years of the project, MAC involved 122 faculty representing 33 disciplines from 19 different high schools, colleges, and universities. The MAC project's goal was to support faculty in creating curricula to enable their students to experience the quantitative and mathematical aspects of many disciplines. For more information about MAC, see http://mac.edcc.edu.

 

MATH: Cult or Culture?
or
What's a nice variable like you doing in a place like this?

By Angi Caster & Erik Scott
Highline Community College

These modules—arising from a coordinated study of the same name--include writing and reading assignments incorporating mathematics as a subject worth writing about and applying to students' lives. Both modules treat student resistance of math sympathetically, with strategies to improve their success. Module 1 provides step-by-step instructions and a model for teacher and student to relate to math application readings, including Chaos Theory, scale, "What Is Mathematics?" & scurrilous details of Bertrand Russell's life and mind. This module also includes an essay prompt which springboards from provocative mathematical epigraphs—such as Barrow’s "God is a Mathematician"--which are included.

The Module 2 essay prompts offer ways for students to explore their own use of time studying, cell phone & other time-dependent activities/products, & observations of math teacher & student behaviors. The module also includes a worksheet for use in class to help students practice the desired analysis in the context of comparing cell phone plans.

For more Information on the coordinated studies and assignments for 'MATH: Cult or Culture?' click here