The need to strengthen the pipeline of careers in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) has received renewed interest lately.
Whether students can successfully flow through the pipeline to fill vital positions in the country may have significance for the national interestaccording to some observers.
So what would it take for STEM to be truly open to future scientists? Several professors say there is some rethinking of how calculus is taught, a crucial step toward STEM careers and often a “kill” course in higher education.
As educators clash in the so-called “math wars” over curricular changes in California (which recommended delaying algebra, a critical point in the race toward calculus in K-12), the issue came to the fore this year . Realizing this, EdSurge traveled to Harvard this summer to observe an attempt at a more subtle revolution, aimed at bringing calculus education into the 21st century. The resulting article, published in EdSurge and USA Today, struck a chord. And readers had a lot to say, both for and against the thesis.
These are some of the more thoughtful responses.
Another language
A reader from Utah: “For me, the breakthrough was discovering that math is just another language with its own grammar and syntax. It is a language that is very eloquent in describing what we see in the natural world and, like all languages, conveys meaning and understanding. Memorizing formulas and equations is as useful as memorizing poems as a way to learn to write in English. Teach it as a language used to describe things and as a tool to solve real-life problems.”
A Pennsylvania teacher: “I’ve been teaching calculus to high school seniors for 30 years. The problem is algebra skills. Those with strong algebra skills will excel in calculus. Weak algebra students eliminate themselves. After all, if you understand what calculus is all about, you’ll realize that calculus is just algebra 1 ‘on steroids.'”
An Iowa parent: “It just so happens that my daughter is a freshman in ME and is taking Calc 2 this semester and last night I was helping her study for her first big exam. While the content of the course has changed almost completely since I took it 40 years ago, in my opinion it still relies too much on memorizing dozens of formulas for exams. No professional works like this. If you don’t remember some formula or integral or whatever (probably because you do it a lot), just look it up and move on. Knowing *what* to do when faced with a problem is a million times more important than having memorized some curiosities about it along the way. In my opinion, this memorization-intensive approach is the reason why many of my fellow students dropped out of Engineering and why I never really understood it until my EE ‘waves and fields’ class allowed me to see the ‘what and the why'”.
TO Illinois reader: “One of my favorite things about learning calculus over the last year and a half was the real-world application. If anything, vector and multivariable calculus should be taught as early as possible, rather than at the end, or not at all, as it has the greatest real-world applicability.”
The ‘failure course’
A California educator: “This misses the bigger picture that the reason math teaching like algebra continues to be pushed to younger grades is because people are trying to get a leg up on getting into highly competitive colleges.” . Get rid of the societal lies that everyone needs to go to college and that everyone should strive to go to an Ivy League school instead of one that best fits their needs. You will see more success everywhere.”
A reader from Minnesota: “I was told a long time ago that my algebra was weak. I got straight A’s in high school, but as soon as I got into high school the teaching became confusing. I never managed to master what I learned just the basics, but from that point on I never felt confident in any math class. Can mathematics be taught (or) is it just a gift? My college professor, while teaching us, announced to the class that mathematics cannot be taught. So I gave up on getting it. “Cool, huh.”
A Kansas professor: “In college, calculus was a requirement for business school. It was the failed course. In MBA school it was only used in an economics course. That was it. In undergrad, when I left music, I chose a new major looking for something I was interested in studying that didn’t require calculus or organic chemistry. “That was geography.”
TO teacher from Indiana: “I have taught calculus dozens of times, with various textbooks, and with considerable success. Some texts are full of false “applications”, but these hide the mathematical essence under a mountain of details. “Students learn best with a simple treatment of the mathematical essence.”
