Economics Makes College Algebra Come Alive
By Audrey Malagon, Lead Editor, DUE Point, Virginia Wesleyan University
In 2019, we featured the SUMMIT-P Project that brought together faculty across institutions to create mathematics curricula relevant to other disciplines. Here we catch up with Tao Chen at Laguardia Community College to see how the curriculum they’ve developed as part of the SUMMIT-P project is enhancing college algebra by adding an economics focus.
Tell us about the goals of your project and how you accomplished them.
The main objective of our project was to make mathematics accessible, useful, and relevant to students while also developing their understanding of economics. We did this in three parts. First, we added mathematics materials like lecture notes, videos, and worksheets to economics courses to facilitate students’ economics learning. Secondly, we created assignments for college algebra courses involving contexts in economics. Finally, we paired college algebra and microeconomics courses to facilitate the use of these assignments.
Why was it important to you to provide an economics context to college algebra?
Students at times tend to view math as a manipulation of symbols. It may seem useless for their academic and career goals because of their previous negative experiences. Meanwhile, instructors in quantitative disciplines find themselves having to devote extra class time to teaching basic mathematics concepts and skills, as many of their students are mathematically underprepared. We applied for this grant to bridge this disconnect, build up a positive math learning experience, and foster the transference of math skills across disciplines.
Tell us about the people involved in the project.
The team consists of two math faculty, Glenn Henshaw and myself, and two economics faculty, Choon Shan Lai and Soloman Kone. We worked closely on all aspects of the project: from deciding on students’ mathematical needs to designing math assignments, running workshops, piloting the courses, and assessing the project’s efficacy.
What materials have you created, and how did you decide on what was most needed?
Example exercise from the SUMMIT-P web applet.
Our project started with a wishlist of student prerequisite math skills generated by economics faculty. Math faculty also visited economics courses from time to time to observe how math skills are applied in these courses. Then we created mathematics assignments involving contexts in economics including web applets that offer students a hands-on introduction to the topic and terminology without requiring them to fully understand the underlying mathematics. Check out this exercise for an example on price and profit.
What have you learned so far in this project? What’s the biggest change/adjustment you’ve had to make?
We found that the language barrier across disciplines is larger than we thought. In mathematics we commonly use the variables x,y while P,Q are the traditional variables in economics. Because of this, we noticed that students struggled with how to deploy independent and dependent variables on a graph. In order to overcome this barrier, economics faculty were invited to math class as a guest speaker from time to time. Moreover, our pairing of college algebra and microeconomics means students take math and economics at the same time.
What positive impacts have you seen so far?
This project develops a positive math learning experience for students as they relate math courses to economic courses. Based on a survey of 152 students in the pilot sections of college algebra, 89% agreed that the course provided thinking and problem-solving skills and 78% agreed they had opportunities to apply math to real-world problems. Over 80% agreed that they had to think about the work they did versus just using formulas. Moreover, economics instructors have been able to focus on their own field without worrying about students’ math readiness, and math instructors are able to introduce math topics within interdisciplinary contexts.
Learn more about NSF DUE (#1822451)
Full Project Name: Collaborative Research: A National Consortium for Synergistic Undergraduate Mathematics via Multi-institutional Interdisciplinary Teaching Partnerships (SUMMIT-P)
Abstract Link: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1822451
Project Contact: Tao Chen, Laguardia Community College, tchen@lagcc.cuny.edu
Project Page: https://www.summit-p.com/institutions/laguardia-community-college
*Responses in this blog were edited for length and clarity.