Saint Joseph’s College Quantitative Literacy Committee

Email: quantlit@saintjoe.edu

Members 2012-2013

Karen Donnelly

Anne Gull

Karen Venditti

Chad Pulver (Chair)

Anita Reed

Rob Reuter

George Roy

Mark Seely

Quantitative Literacy and Mission at SJC Report Report from the Committee presented at the January, 2009 faculty meeting.

Proposal to Academic Cabinet Presented at 04/08/09 meeting. Note: This was not accepted as is. The Academic Cabinet brought forth a proposal to faculty that a quantitative literacy graduated requirement be implemented starting in the academic year 2010-2011. No implementation details were passed.

Second Proposal to Academic Cabinet Proposal was resubmitted in spring of 2010 in abbreviated form to Cabinet and passed by both Cabinet and then faculty at the March 2010 meeting.

Summary of Quantitative Literacy Test (Administered in January 2010) Results

Annual Assessment Report on Student Learning Outcomes for MTH 101 (Academic Year 2010-2011)

Course Syllabi for MTH 101 Quantitative Literacy

Semester 102 (Team taught – first offering)

Semester 111, 112 (Olson)

Semester 121 (Donnelly)

Minutes from Meetings

Reference List for Committee

A. Useful on-line articles for addressing “What we want our graduates to know”:

1. Article by Jeffrey Bennett and William Briggs: General Education Mathematics: New Approaches for a New Millennium.

http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~wbriggs/qr/AMATYCPaper.html

The above article is from a list at his web site that contains other useful links and resources:

http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~wbriggs/qr/papers.html

2. Article by William Briggs presented to SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Quantitative Literacy and SIAM.

http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=414

3. Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates: A Complement to the Standards

http://www.maa.org/past/ql/ql_toc.html

( published in 1994 -- Especially part 2 Quantitative Literacy: Goals and Appendix B: A Topical Listing

4. Article by Arnold Packer “What Mathematics Should “Everyone” Know and Be Able to Do?”

http://www.maa.org/ql/pgs33_42.pdf

5. Study by American Institute for Research about literacy of college graduates. (2006)

Press release http://www.air.org/news/documents/Release200601pew.htm

Full Report

6. Interview with Peter T Ewell, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems “ Numeracy, Mathematics, and General Education”

http://www.maa.org/Ql/037-48.pdf

7. Article by The Quantitative Literacy Design Team, MAA. Pages 8 – 17 especially.

The Case for Quantitative Literacy

8. Article by William Bennett and Gilman (Valparaiso U) from the Current Practices book “What Mathematics Every College Student Should Know”

http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~wbriggs/qr/QLskills_paper.pdf

B. Web sites of quantitative literacy interest groups:

1. CUPM Quantitative Learning Committee.

http://faculty.valpo.edu/rgillman/ql/

2. MAA Special Interest Group on Quantitative Literacy

The Mathematical Association of America

SIGMAA on Quantitative Literacy

http://pc88092.math.cwu.edu/~montgomery/sigmaaql/

3. National Numeracy Network

http://serc.carleton.edu/nnn/

Note: Has a nice link to list of spreadsheets that contain resources for teaching specific topics in QL:

http://serc.carleton.edu/nnn/teaching/qr_resources.html

C. Individual College Quantitative Literacy Sites, Programs, or Courses.

1. Colby-Sawyer Quantitative Literacy Program and Grant:

http://www.colby-sawyer.edu/academics/experience/quantitative/index.html

2. Michigan State Quant Literacy Program

http://realizingthevision.msu.edu/quantitative_literacy/index.shtml

3. Dartmouth College: Math across the curriculum (MATC) project – gives good idease about integrating mathematics with other areas, including humanities:

http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~matc/

D. Web Sites with Content Resources for Quantitative Reasoning Courses / Applications / Topics

1 SJC MTH 101 Quantitative Literacy Course Web Site (Donnelly)

http://www.saintjoe.edu/~karend/m101

2. SJC Mth111 Mathematics as a Human Pursuit course web site

http://www.saintjoe.edu/~karend/m111/

3. Cut The Knot – General math resource with many interesting topics

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/content.shtml

4. MacTutor History of Mathematics -- well-maintained resource for ideas for integrating historical ideas with quantitative exercises or applications.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/

5. Chance Database -- Web site with materials for teaching “Chance” quantitative literacy course.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/

E. Quantitative Literacy Exams / Sample Questions

1. Simpson College http://orgs.simpson.edu/math/www/Math105TPractice.pdf

2. Indiana State: http://mathrc.indstate.edu/qltest05/TestMain.aspx