Web Educators' Library Collection of Mathematical Exploration

Mathematical Association Of America, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Mathematical Sciences (21) This project is creating a library collection of "interactive explorations" to support a suite of undergraduate courses in mathematics. Each exploration consists of approximately eight organized sequences of simulations, "quantitative/qualitative laboratory" experiments, lessons, and/or open-ended exercises tied to the conceptual themes of the targeted course. The underlying application programming package is the Mathwright software environment created originally at the IBM Institute for Academic Technology at the University of North Carolina. Development of these explorations is by faculty teams that pair a novice developer and an experienced author of Mathwright WorkBooks. A particularly attractive "capacity building" feature of this project is that the novice developers represent HBCU institutions. The project leverages a large collection of existing WorkBooks by employing a new "translator" software application that converts WorkBooks to the Java programming language. This tool also enhances the dissemination and ultimate usability of newly created material. Extensive class testing of the explorations is taking place at the eight participating HBCU institutions, and it is expected that the course improvements form part of a larger effort of curricular reform.