As anyone who has taught or taken a statistics course knows, statistical calculations can be tedious and error-prone, with the details of a calculation sometimes distracting students from understanding the larger concepts. Traditional statistics courses typically use scientific calculators, which can relieve some of the tedium and errors but…

A peer mentoring program has been implemented to support a group of at-risk students enrolled in two sections of an elementary algebra course at an urban community college. Peer mentors were recruited from advanced mathematics classes and trained to provide individualized tutoring and mentoring support to at-risk students. The results show that…

Describes how mathematics contests for high schools were set up in North Carolina so others wishing to organize such ventures may benefit from the experience. The contest is seen as one more step in unifying teachers of a region in both enthusiasm and a sense of direction and purpose. (MP)

M.Y. Math Project is a developmental mathematics program that is aimed at: (1) fostering fundamental and problem-solving skills in developmental mathematics students by helping them to learn when and how to create and use algorithms; and (2) providing on-the-job training for developmental mathematics instructors through an instructional framework…

Details are given of a university course that utilizes computer programing to help students explore aspects of number theory. The course is thought to provide acceleration of the discovery process to the point where pupils can study a full range of topics. (MP)

A current project for the Allegany College of Maryland Mathematics Department is using spreadsheets in some of their General Education Mathematics courses. It is important to note that one of the key features of this project is that is does not require an introductory computer course as a prerequisite for any of the mathematics courses that will…

The use of the computer, and specifically the mathematics software package Maple, has played a central role in the authors' abstract algebra course because it provides their students with a way to see realistic examples of the topics they discuss without having to struggle with extensive computations. However, Maple does not provide the computer…

Although the phase plane can be plotted and analyzed using an appropriate software package, the author found it worthwhile to engage the students with the theorem and the two proofs. The theorem is a powerful tool that provides insight into the rotational behavior of the phase plane diagram in a simple way: just check the signs of c and [alpha].…

Uses muMATH to illustrate the step-by-step process in translating mathematical theory into the symbolic manipulation setting. Shows an application of a Picard iteration which uses a computer to generate a sequence of functions which converge to a solution. (MVL)

For this FIPSE funded project, mathematics faculty attended allied health classes and allied health faculty attended developmental mathematics courses to incorporate health examples into the developmental mathematics curriculum. Through the course of this grant a 450-page developmental mathematics book was written with many problems from a variety…

Outlines an articulation program between college and industry. Describes three seminar courses using the college's computer system. Considers the benefits of the program. (Author/YP)

A FORTRAN program is provided for use with computer projects for a course in number theory. Uses diminishing functions and the speed of the computer to quickly determine possible solutions to problems. (MVL)