DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Quantitative Literacy (EDUC 449) was one of my first courses in the MA-IDE program at Santa Clara, in Fall 2014 with Professor Shawn Vecellio. I found that it was a good course to begin the master’s program with, as it helped with a transition from my life working full time to my life as a full-time student once again. Quantitative literacy is a central subject in my work at the Carnegie Foundation. While this course is not required for the STEEM emphasis, a handful of students had been enrolled in Advanced Theory and Practice of Mathematics Teaching and Learning, which was canceled for the quarter, and this was the other mathematics-oriented course offered. Going into it, I was not sure what to expect from the course, and I was not sure if I would be challenged by the readings, discussions, and assignments: I had been working on Quantitative Reasoning curriculum for two and a half years by that point, and Quantitative Literacy as a math course may not have been intellectually stimulating. I feel as if I have obtained a very strong grasp, if not a certain level of expertise in the subject, enough to write lessons on quantitative reasoning.

 

I was glad to find, almost right away, that the course was more focused on strategies for teaching quantitative literacy and why it is so important: we discussed quantitative literacy as it relates to what most people consider literacy (reading and writing), the strands of mathematical proficiency, how math could or should be taught, connecting mathematics to students’ interests, 21st Century Skills and relatedly, the Common Core State Standards and College & Career readiness. In addition, the course covered understanding good mathematical questions, projects, and problems, as well as the debate around teacher-, student-, or subject-centered learning.

 

The students in the class were primarily teachers, both elementary and secondary school, including English, math, art, and one math tutor. We engaged in many discussions about incorporating quantitative reasoning and literacy into other subject areas. I found these discussions quite useful for my current work, as our [Carnegie Foundation's] Quantway course is about using mathematics in real life, and I feel that the curriculum would be strengthened by emphasizing mathematical concepts in other school subjects, because a majority—if not all—of our students are not mathematics majors.   

 

For the final project, we were asked to design and describe a project- or problem-based unit plan. I had written a few individual lessons for Quantway and Statway, but this was my first opportunity in several years to think through an entire unit. I decided to focus on a health-related topic, as “medical literacy” is one of three themes in the Quantway I course, but there are far fewer lessons for this theme than for “citizenship” and “personal finance.” For some time, I had been interested in the idea of the quantified self (which I also address in the final project for EDUC 492), tracking one’s own health and personal habits, collecting data, and using the data to make lifestyle changes. The math involved is not particularly challenging, but is at the level of the developmental mathematics students, and it’s the sort of math that people do frequently without always realizing it. The unit would address what it means to be “healthy”, certain formulas such as the formula for calculating Body Mass Index, understanding nutrition labels, building a balanced meal plan, exponential and multi-variable formulas related to caffeine and blood alcohol content, and proportional reasoning through unit conversions and “scaling” recipes.

 

This artifact, and the course itself, exemplified the Quantitative Fluency intellectual skill, which is outlined in the M.A. Degree Qualifications. We studied extensively the use of mathematical reasoning across subjects and in everyday situations. In this final paper, I discussed the mathematics involved and provided examples, including calculations, tables, and graphs.

 

I believe this experience (taking the course and creating the final project) was valuable for me in that it encouraged me to think about the kinds of units I am interested in designing within a curriculum, not just isolated lessons. If I do, someday, develop my own set of curriculum materials, this Health in Numbers unit can be modified as needed and incorporated into it. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.