“Why, What and How” Calculus

Challenge

Performance in Calculus courses is seen as a major barrier to students’ progress in STEM majors at both UC Merced and CSU Fresno.  Current traditional lecture- and instructor-focused style of mathematics instruction has been shown to be one of the major reasons for disengagement of STEM students [1].  The problem is particularly amplified for disadvantaged groups such as URMs, first generation in college students, and Pell grant recipients. Data from both campuses demonstrates the challenges with equity gaps in courses and STEM majors, retention in STEM and learning outcomes in Calculus courses specifically and in STEM disciplines.  Adopting active learning strategies, creating a sense of belonging, and orienting students for their intended career path by making connections between Calculus courses and applications can foster the transformation needed for academic STEM programs.

Project Design

The project seeks to close equity gaps in first-year Calculus by:

1. Redesigning introductory calculus courses to focus on conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills by incorporating innovative approaches to teaching and learning calculus including:
   • adopting active learning strategies,
   • changing the structure of the course to improve students’ learning,
   • integrating collaborative problem-solving activities to reinforce content concepts and skills,
   • infusing course material with applications-oriented content that enables students to easily transfer acquired knowledge and skills to subsequent STEM courses,
   • fostering culturally responsive instruction, support systems, and learning environment which reduce math anxiety and promote the sense of belonging, math interest, self-efficacy, and STEM identity;
2. Developing training and support systems to transform instructors’ and overall departmental culture to embrace innovative teaching methodologies and research-based learning strategies and to promote a growth mindset, equity-based grading practices, and teaching across cultural strengths; 
3. Developing and integrating informative assessment tools to monitor the course impact on students’ learning outcomes, with particular focus on URMs.