The National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has been funding innovation at two-year colleges for over twenty years. With a focus on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy, and strong partnerships between academic institutions and industry, ATE promotes improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary school levels.
To learn more about ATE, please visit the NSF ATE program home page.
Rogue Community College faculty used an ATE grant to develop two applied algebra courses that use genuine, technical workplace problems. The results are promising.
Students are passing Applied Algebra 1 and 2 courses at a higher rate than students in the college's traditional math track. Most significantly, Applied Algebra 2 students perform well in a subsequent statistics course without the additional course required in the traditional math track.
At the project's free summer institutes, high school and community college educators gain a richer understanding of algebra's real-world uses by measuring beams, building circuits, and checking amperages. They also learn how to launch the contextualized courses at their institutions.
Summer math institute participants apply the Pythagorean Theorem to a concrete forming problem.
The Contextualizing Career Technical Education in Math project is based at Rogue Community College. Rogue Community College, founded in 1970, is a two-year community college located in Grants Pass, Oregon. The college offers six two-year degrees, seventy-five career and technical training programs, seventeen career pathways certificates, workforce training, and continuing and community education classes.
Doug Gardner
Primary Investigator
Email: dgardner@roguecc.edu
This project, based on the success of a previous award (DUE ATE 1002822), is increasing high school and community college student math skills so students are better prepared for post-secondary education and, ultimately, for work as career technical education (CTE) technicians. Objectives for the project include:
External evaluation is being used to determine the effectiveness of the contextualized curriculum in developing math skills, compared to the traditional course as a control group. The developed curriculum is being disseminated via the project website, the summer institutes, regional workshops, and presentations at national conferences.