What is the likelihood more than 20 public and higher education teachers will be boning up on their math skills next week at West Virginia University?
About 100 percent, if you ask Laura Pyzdrowski, assistant professor of mathematics at WVU .
The Blue Ribbon Data Analysis and Probability Institute will be held Aug. 5-9 at the Universitys Institute for Math Learning in Armstrong Hall. Two follow-up sessions are scheduled in September and October.
Topics in data analysis and probability can involve making predictions based on collected data, said Pyzdrowski, the institutes pre-collegiate mathematics coordinator. An example would be forecasting next years turkey population based on behavioral trends of this years population.
The Blue Ribbon Mathematics Partnership Committee selected the workshop topic after the West Virginia Department of Education modified its math curriculum this year to incorporate data analysis and probability, Pyzdrowski said. Formed in 1998, the committee consists of public and higher education teachers who explore and implement projects to improve math education in the state.
“This is content the teachers felt they needed to learn more about,”she added.”This will help teachers return to their classrooms with topics in math related to the real world.”
James Langa math and statistics instructor at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla.will be the workshops primary instructional consultant. Lang is a member of a consulting group coordinated through Ohio State University that conducts workshops on the use of graphing calculators in teaching math and statistics.
Pyzdrowski said the workshop advances the service mission of the Institute for Math Learning, created last year by WVU s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences to develop innovate ways to improve math education at the University, state and nation.
“One objective of the institute is outreach, finding out what we can do to help teachers be better professionals and what we can do to be better teacher educators,”she said.”This workshop helps us in that area.”
Funding for the workshop comes from an Eisenhower Professional Development Grant.