South Central Calculus Coalition: Disseminating Calculus Reform for Two-Year Colleges and Comprehensive Universities

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9455163 This three-year project will extend an existing calculus coalition to create a network of two year colleges and comprehensive universities that will reform their calculus curricula. The existing coalition in southeastern Texas will expand in three stages to include institutions throughout the South Central states. The extended coalition will grow from intensive nine-day institutes and will be fostered by mentoring, electronic mail, follow-through workshops, and a newsletter. The coalition will use the materials and methods of the Calculus for Comprehensive Universities and Two-Year Colleges (CUTYC) Project, in which two-person faculty teams at Sam Houston State University and North Harris, San Jacinto Central, and Tomball Colleges have written student activities and customized instructional methods from other calculus reform efforts. CUTYC integrates cooperative learning, graphing technology, and writing in a progression of problems and projects that challenge students while improving their confidence and study skills. The CUTYC faculty teams will serve as the senior personnel for SC3. At each institute they will lead eight new teams who will experience the CUTYC approach and plan for the ensuing year. The CUTYC teams will mentor the new teams as they craft a curriculum suited to the needs of their students and home institutions. The new teams will conduct workshops for their colleagues to spread the ideas and methods of the project to other faculty and other courses. The coalition will directly involve 56 faculty leaders at 28 collaborating institutions. The project will influence numerous other faculty through on-site workshops, conference presentations, and publications. An advisory board will guide the project's progress, and the project will employ an instructional consultant and an evaluator. Evaluation will be used to refine the instructional approach, to customize it to local site conditions, and to measure the success of the project.