Part I: Needs Assessment

Introduction
Mathematics is a required subject through all levels of public instruction, from kindergarten
through high school. It is also used as one of the determining factors for college study in many
standardized tests, such as the SAT and GRE. Mathematics skills are also required in real life.
Many activities in everyday life are related to mathematical skills: counting money, doing
measurements, exchanging currencies, determining interest rate, etc. For those students who choose
to enter college at a university, they are often required to take some quantity of math courses,
depending on their intended major.
At Indiana State University (ISU), all undergraduate students take a set of classes as part of
the Foundational Studies program. The Foundational Studies curriculum seeks to create well
rounded individual; students therefore have the opportunity to take courses in science, history,
literature, behavioral sciences, and the fine arts. The Foundational Studies program also seeks to
prepare students for active lives as citizens and includes courses on ethical behavior, social
responsibility and global perspectives (Indiana State University, 2015a). There are 13 different
types of courses in this curriculum, ranging from math to foreign language to global perspective.
One of the choices that students may take for the math component is Math 102, Quantitative
Literacy.
In Math 102, students learn about a variety of different topics in order to develop basic
quantitative literacy skills that will be helpful not only in the college classroom but in life as well.
Throughout the course, students spend time in a math lab to practice their skills, as well as
completing projects that are real-life applications of these new skills and help students understand,
evaluate, and make basic quantitative arguments (Brown, 2015).

Learning Goals
Math 102 is a Foundational Studies course in the Quantitative Literacy category. As a
result, the following objectives are goals for this course (Indiana State University, 2015a):
Foundational Studies Learning Objectives (FSLO)
1.

Locate, critically read, and evaluate information to solve problems;

2.

Critically evaluate the ideas of others;

3.

Apply knowledge and skills within and across the fundamental ways of knowing (natural
sciences, social and behavioral sciences, arts and humanities, mathematics, and history);

10.

Express themselves effectively, professionally, and persuasively both orally and in

writing.

Additionally. Math 102 also has the following objectives under the Quantitative Literacy
(IIIA) category (Indiana State University, 2015a):
Quantitative Literacy Learning Objectives (QLLO):
1.

Solve for one or more unknowns from available information using appropriate methods.

2.

Represent and solve real-world problems employing appropriate mathematical models.

3.

Answer questions using empirical methods

4.

Critically evaluate a quantitatively-based argument.

Applied Skills Learning Objectives (ASLO):

1.

Develop critical thinking skills.

2.

Develop information literacy skills.

3.

Include a graded writing component

In addition to the Foundational Studies learning objectives, there are also mathematical
learning objectives. These objectives include descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, probability
principles, managing money (compound interest, loans, and investments), and simple mathematical
modeling throughout 13 chapters of the 4th edition of the textbook, Using and Understanding
Mathematics: A Quantitative Reasoning Approach by Jeffrey Bennett and William Briggs.
One of the key ways to accomplish these learning goals is through the development of
projects in Math 102. Currently, students work on 3 different projects throughout the semester.
However, the current projects are dated and do not fully meet all of the learning objectives above.
Additionally, the current projects do not fully utilize technology, nor do they encourage the learners
to investigate real world problems nor incorporate writing. Key administrators and faculty of Math
102 requested a revamp of the Math 102 projects in order to make them more relevant to students
outside the classroom, as well as utilizing the technology learned in class so that students feel
comfortable using it in real-world applications. The goals of this revamp of the projects for Math
102 are to more fully meet the Foundational Studies objectives, as well as the mathematical
objectives throughout the course, utilizing real-world problems and technology.

Existing Conditions
While the Mathematics Department of Indiana State University has included aspects of these
learning goals as an important part of the Math 102 curriculum, students were still limited to the
actual application of these goals as part of the current projects. With such a large textbook utilized
in the Math 102 curriculum with such varied mathematical concepts, it was often difficult to create
projects as well as instruction that met all of these learning goals both Foundational Studies and

mathematical objectives. Additionally, there are a large number of instructors that all teach this
course, which result in varying grading of the current projects (which were lacking rubrics and clear
objectives) and consistency with the projects. Due to the large number of students enrolled in this
course (266 in the Spring 2015 semester), and the diversity of the students, there was large
variations in the project implementation. Currently, the average grade for the Spring 2015 Math
102 students was a 2.47 GPA, which corresponds to slightly above a C+/Average in the course
(Indiana State University, 2015b).

Learning Gaps
To gain more information on learning gaps in the mathematical subjects taught in each
project, a pretest and posttest on the subject matter was created. Prior to being given the new
projects, students are given a pretest on the mathematical subject matter. The pretest focus on the
mathematical operations and applications focused on in each project. The three pretest/posttest
created for the new projects are located in Appendix A, B, and C, respectively. By focusing on the
different kinds of problems, the course designer sees the areas where more instruction is needed,
and areas to focus more instruction and lab problems. These pretests are given to students prior to
completing the projects, but after the instructional material and labs have been completed. After the
projects are completed, the students are given the same test as a posttest. Our goal is to achieve a
score of 85% or higher with all of the students, which corresponds to a 3.0 Grade Point Average.

Need for instruction

There are many reasons for the Spring 2015 students achieving an average 2.47 GPA in this
course. However, since this one of the course goals is that the students learn basic quantitative
literacy skills that are applicable for their life after college, we would like to increase this grade
point average. One way of doing this is to give the students real-life problems that they may face,

and help them develop knowledge and technological tools to be able to critically analyze these
problems. Projects, unlike typical homework assignments, are a way of getting outside the
classroom and into the real world. Creating consistent grading standards and rubrics for these
projects will also help with consistency across instructors. This is a course that many college
students will end up taking, and being able to offer real-life problem solving skills and enhance their
critical thinking and writing skills through projects is beneficial. Current administrators and
instructors were unhappy with the current projects, both in scope and implementation.

Priorities for Action

The priority of ensuring better quantitative literacy skills is to teach the students the
complete skill utilizing real-world situations. Additionally, improving their critical reasoning and
writing skills will help not only in the mathematics classroom but in other areas as well. This will
be accomplished using scaffolding of types of problems in the projects, starting with simple
computations that develop into more complicated problems, and requiring students to answer
critical thinking questions and make observations about their results.