Mount Holyoke's Laboratory in Mathematical Experimentation

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Starting in each of June of 1996 and 1997, this Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement project will bring 32 faculty members from other schools to Mount Holyoke College for a one week workshop and to a two day follow-up meeting preceding the joint mathematical meetings 18 months later. The project will disseminate materials and methods from the course, Laboratory in Mathematical Experimentation, which was developed at Mount Holyoke with NSF support. Exploration of the course materials will introduce participants to the interactive, conversational mode of mathematics teaching that the course requires. Participants will also explore the opportunities the laboratory course affords for dramatically restructuring the undergraduate mathematics major in ways that enhance student understandine. The June workshops will have five elements. First, participants will model the learning experience of students in the Lab by actually carrying out computer experimentation. Second, the workshop instructors will model the role of the teacher as coach. Third, by looking at student papers, participants will both address issues of teaching and evaluating writing and also have a means of examining some of the ways students' thinking develops. Fourth, participants will have an opportunity to talk with students who have taken the Lab. Finally, participants will discuss their observations and experiences and compare them among themselves. These elements will allow participants not only to deepen their understanding of the mathematical and pedagogical issues but also to begin to imagine themselves teaching in new ways. The January follow-up workshop will be devoted to implementation issues, evaluation, and a study of strategies for opening the mathematics curriculum.