By Erin Moss, Co-Editor, DUE Point, Millersville University

Dr. Terrance Pendleton, an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Drake University, serves as the  Principal Investigator on a project designed to cultivate undergraduates’ interest in mathematics while addressing inequities surrounding recruitment into the major. The Research on the Impact of Inviting Early College Students to be Mathematicians project engages students in independent inquiry and early undergraduate research experiences–often before calculus.  The project specifically focuses on student groups who have been historically excluded from mathematics majors.  Below, Dr. Pendleton describes more about his study on how participation in authentic mathematics research can shift how students think about themselves as mathematicians. 

Can you share some of the mathematics research projects you have directed?

In Going Viral: Musical Influence of Social Media, we quantified the success of a song by modeling its spread through social media networks such as TikTok, Apple Music and Spotify. Models in epidemiology helped us develop a set of parameters to better understand the conditions a song should satisfy in order to optimize its chances of going viral.

Other projects have thus far included developing a digital currency circulation model, minimizing single-use plastics, mathematizing fears related to contracting COVID-19, and exploring pay gaps for highly educated women and people of color. 

In addition to providing undergraduate students research support and mentorship, your project has a substantial scholarly component. What questions drive your research, and what type of data have you collected to address your questions?  

Our work has been guided by three research questions:

• In what ways can undergraduate students, enrolled in pre-Calculus and Calculus courses, engage in developing and researching authentic mathematical research questions?

• In what ways does participation in authentic mathematics research shift how students think about themselves as mathematicians or potential mathematicians?

• How does race intersect with mathematics as the students do research with a faculty mentor?

Data collection includes video/photos of classes and artifacts, interviews, surveys, and instructor reflections.

While your research is still in the preliminary stages, what are some emerging themes? 

By participating in mathematical research activities, students are able to use this opportunity to motivate the learning of new topics, techniques, and tools that are usually presented in upper level mathematics courses.  Because students are invested in these tools through early research activities, they are able to use advanced  courses to effectively support and build their own mathematical identities. 

During and after the seminar, students reported that they were surprised to recognize their own mathematical knowledge and capacity to create useful mathematical equations. They were also amazed to see the social nature and value of mathematics in investigating questions that matter to them and to find that others were interested in learning about their research through conference presentations and articles. The students developed a curiosity that led many of them to add a major or minor in the mathematical sciences in order to delve deeper into their research projects.  The overall joy experienced by participants is reflected in one student’s comment, “My biggest takeaway is that I am happy.”

The autonomy and ownership students felt in choosing their projects led to an increased belief in the relevance of the mathematics they were utilizing and fostered their burgeoning mathematical curiosity.  Students enjoyed talking about the questions they were investigating with mathematics and the ways that modeling techniques provided insight into the questions they had posed.

One of your research questions concerns the impact of having a Black male professor in a STEM course.  How did students perceive this? 

Black and Latinx students’ sense of belonging was intertwined with their own race and that of their professor.  Many students of color expressed relief and even joy in the opportunity to have a Black professor for a STEM course, finding the race of their professor to be an important source of connection, strength, and solidarity.  White male students were more indifferent when discussing the professor’s race. 

A Latina woman describes the feeling thusly:

Because I know his struggles as someone in science. I walk into class, there's 70 people in the class and there's like two people that look like me. And so I know he's walked into classes and he's probably been the only one. And so I think if [the professor] wasn't a person of color, I don't know if I'd be doing it because… I already spend my whole day being around people that don't understand who I am [...] Seeing [the professor]  succeed... in a field that he probably felt alone most of the time, once again, pushes me to go to class and to sit there with people that aren't looking like me. Because maybe  in 10 years there'll be three more people that look like me because I was able to go  through.

A Black man explained:

To have a Black man come in and teach math, to me, that's giving me more strength to go further. [...] I really appreciate that because it's giving me the thought that I could one day be [this professor] and end up, I don't know, teach the program or something.

Learn more about NSF DUE 2021161

Full Project Name: Research on the Impact of Inviting Early College Students to be Mathematicians

Abstract: https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2021161&HistoricalAwards=false

Project Contact: Dr. Terrance Pendleton, PI; terrance.pendleton@drake.edu