Pew Consortium
Homepage

Short - Term
Consultations

Host Faculty
Workshop

Speaker
Series

Pew
Activities

Pew
Institutions

Representatives

Student Opportunities

Related
Links

Pew Workshop on
Quantitative Reasoning Initiatives Across the Curriculum
January 30–February 1, 2004
Macalester College

The well-organized Pew Faculty Workshop on Quantitative Reasoning Initiatives Across the Curriculum was held January 30 through February 1, 2004 at Macalester College in an extremely cold St. Paul, MN. This was a large workshop as 38 Pew members represented 10 of the 13 Pew institutions. There were also 13 non-Pew members in attendance. All sessions and Friday dinner were held on the Macalester.

The conference began Friday evening with the usual wonderful dinner, welcome, and a highly rated talk by Lynn Arthur Steen of St. Olaf entitled, Does QL Really Matter? (It Isn’t Needed to be President). Saturday morning began with Hollins University’s Program in Quantitative Reasoning Across the Curriculum, by Caren Diefenderfer and Tina Salowey, both from Hollins University. Minna Mahlab from Grinnell College did the next session. Her talk was Quantitative Reasoning in the Sciences: Case Studies. Mike Siddoway from Colorado College, Toward Group Projects Across the Mathematics Curriculum was after the mid-morning break.

After lunch there was Macalester’s Quantitative Topics in Public Policy, by David Bressoud and Danny Kaplan of Macalester, How Can We Quantitate Quantitative Reasoning Gains: Pre and Post Testing Problems and Potential, by Nate Bower of Colorado College and Illustrative Instance of Inappropriately Inaccurate Information on the Internet by Sam Rebelsky of Grinnell College. Following the afternoon break, Saturday’s sessions concluded with A Decade of Quantitative Reasoning at Kalamazoo, by John Fink, Eric Nordmore and Michele Intermont, all from Kalamazoo College.

Dinner Saturday was at Sidney’s and after dinner participants had the option of going to the St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palace. In spite of the below zero temperatures, the Ice Palace was wonderful and everyone who went had a very good time.

Sunday morning began with representatives from Lawrence University, Joy Jordan and Beth Haines giving their talk Quantitative Reasoning at Lawrence University: Creation, Implementation, and Possible Assessment. Next was Assessing Quantitative Literacy by Jack Bookman of Duke University. Following break was Wrap-up: What have we Learned and Where do we go From Here?

The evaluations and informal comments once again pointed to the fact that participants particularly appreciate the opportunity to meet and share with other faculty concerning their projects, plans, concerns, and experiences. Comments were positive and participants found the workshop worthwhile.