The Math Minor Initiative CSC 290 INTERNSHIP FALL 2017 SAM RESNICK - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Math Minor Initiative CSC 290 INTERNSHIP FALL 2017 SAM RESNICK

About Me  I am OpSTEM Intern.  I am currently studying Chemistry at CSU.  I also work at Target in the electronics department.  My beard is naturally 3 different colors.

History of Math Minor Initiative  CSU Mathematics professor, Dr. Carol Phillips-Bey, realized that the required math courses for engineers could easily apply toward a minor in Math.  Dr. Phillips-Bey also saw student lack of knowledge regarding how to obtain the Math minor and informed Dr. Susan Carver.  Internship position created to educate engineering students on what they could achieve.

Overview of Math Minor Initiative  Increase the number of engineering students with Math Minors by at least 100 by end of Fall 2017.  Reach out by data sorting, personalized emails, Degree Maps, Math Minor flier and class visits.  Document steps taken in order to replicate procedures, communication method and results.  Evaluate approach and return on investment.

Timeline of Declared Math Minors Pre-Initiative  49 Math Minors as of February 13, 2017  142 as of August 16 th Post-Initiative  195 as of October 13 th - My direct contact began  251 as of November 27 th

September – Planning & Data Sorting  Decided on a plan of attack to get the information out to the students.  Started with sorting tables of data describing students’ majors and tailoring emails for each engineering major.

October – Personalized Emails  Established focus of Earn a Math Minor email and its contents.  Sent personalized emails via mail merge to each student based on course and engineering major.  Emailed all Fall 2017 Calculus I and Calculus II engineers (N= 243)

November – Class Visits  For each class, personalized CSU Degree Maps and the document to the right were distributed to each engineering major.  Using these documents and OpSTEM kindles, Dr. Carver and I visited Calculus I and II OpSTEM sections to explain how to earn a math minor.

Return on Investment Initial # of Final # of Gain Time Frame Possible Reasons of Increase Math Minors Math Minors Educated First Year and OpSTEM 49 142 93 28 weeks Advisors and OpSTEM Summer (2/13/17) (8/16/17) Calculus I Students First Year Advisors, 2017 OpSTEM 143 194 51 8 weeks Summer Institute Scholars, Word of (8/16/17) (10/13/16) Mouth Math Minor Initiative In-class Presentations and Emails, First 195 251 56 6 weeks Year and OpSTEM Advisors (10/13/17) (11/27/17) Advocates, Word of Mouth

What I Learned from CSC 290 and Applied to the Project  Setting small scale goals makes a larger goal much more approachable and creates clear separation of work.  Constant communication with a supervisor or peer in the program will offer new ideas on how to tackle problems.  Weekly assessment meetings make it easy to stay on track and show progress on smaller goals.

Challenges  Branching out to other classes may require involving more people.  Answering students’ questions before they sign -up is time consuming. Students need individual walk-through of steps.  Finding more efficient ways to educate and reach out to students.

Solutions  Acquiring more people to help personally reach out to all engineering math courses and Calculus III.  Explaining to advisors about math minor and communicate frequently, i.e., provide updates.  Setting up a table at the Engineering Career Fair, post fliers around campus especially throughout the engineering buildings, continue to educate the First Year and enigineering advisors.

Next Steps  Follow- up with students who have received information, yet haven’t acted.  Continuing with class visits until we find a more efficient way to get students’ attention to act.  Branching out to higher level math classes and engineering equivalents.  Ensuring math classes have enough sections to accommodate the influx of new Math Minors.

Questions?

Thanks  I would like to dedicate this slide as thanks to following people:  Dr. Susan Carver for her guidance and insight into how-to of this project.  Juan Amador, who gave technical advice and helped create multiple materials for the Initiative.  Hyacinthe Raven who is in charge of the course and who provided excellent soft skills activities.  Everyone who attended this presentation and listened.