Seminar in Science/Math Education

IE 197 (3 units)
Spring Semester 2003
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/courses/2003/spring/ie197
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Jacobs B134
Prof. Zachary Dodds (email: dodds@cs.hmc.edu)
Prof. Belinda Thom (email: bthom@cs.hmc.edu)

Important Links: Seminar Ideas PHS Ideas

Course goals

The goal of this course is to examine the questions "What is effective teaching?" and "What is effective education?" In particular, the course will consider the challenges and practices of high-school mathematics and science education. The investigation of effective teaching strategies and issues surrounding education will involve readings, leading seminar discussions, high-school classroom observations, creating and teaching a three-week unit at Pomona High School (PHS), and a final paper that integrates these experiences.

In this class you have the opportunity to share with PHS students some of the excitement about science that pervades HMC. Further, we hope to encourage those students to consider pursuing science/mathematics beyond high school. Specifically, we hope to encourage them to consider careers in math, science, or engineering and to increase their chances at entering competitive four-year colleges and universities, including Harvey Mudd!

Course Schedule

Responsibilities and grading

Ideas

Here are some ideas to start you thinking about (1) the curriculum you might want to present to the Pomona High School students and (2) the education topic you might want to investigate for the seminar meeting.

Pomona High School projects

Because one of the goals of our outreach is to convey the excitement and inherent engagement of science, mathematics, and engineering, the projects taught at Pomona High School should reflect the enthusiasm of the presenters and strive to create equal enthusiasm in the students.

Topics in science/math education

While the focus of this class is effective secondary teaching in the sciences and mathematics, there is substantial leeway in choosing an education-related topic to guide a seminar discussion.

Here are some links to general sources of educational papers and information online:

<dodds@cs.hmc.edu>