Faculty given opportunities to learn during QL Week

Details

A presentation from Temple University Mathematics Professor John Allen Paulos Monday, Sept. 10 kicks off Quantitative Literacy Awareness Week His lecture “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper” will be presented from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Hill University Center, with Provost Eli Capilouto introducing Paulos.

Some of the highlights of QL Awareness Week, which runs from Sept. 10-14:

• Paulos – along with a middle-school mathematics class from the Birmingham school system – teaching university faculty, and UAB faculty members discussing quantitative literacy (QL) in their teaching methods in a faculty workshop.

• Tuesday, Sept. 11, university faculty will have the opportunity to learn from the middle-school mathematics class as they reason through problems out loud during a faculty workshop from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Marshall Conference Center at 802 11th St. South.

• A panel discussion also will be featured. John Mayer, Ph.D., Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership (GBMP) principal investigator and UAB QL Task Force member, will moderate. The panel also includes Ann Dominick, co-director of GBMP and Hoover City Schools mathematics specialist, and Rachel Cochran, Ph.D., from the UAB Center for Educational Accountability.

• A faculty workshop titled “Integrating Quantitative Literacy with Existing Course Content” is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 12 from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. in room 109 of the Business Engineering Complex. It will highlight the experiences of UAB faculty members John Moore, Ph.D., and Norman Bolus.

Their Spanish and Nuclear Medicine courses have been designated as QL courses. Moore and Bolus will discuss how they incorporated instruction in and assessment of QL into already existing courses. They will also highlight what worked and what did not and address how what they learned will be incorporated into their courses this fall.

In addition, Mayer will discuss how working with middle-school students through the GBMP has influenced the design of his course.

Lunch will be served to 35 registered participants. Visit www.uab.edu/facultydevelopment to register.
The teaching of quantitative literacy across all disciplines is a key component of UAB’s Quality Enhancement Plan. Professors and researchers are engaging students in a new way of learning, preparing them to solve realistic, authentic problems in all walks of life.