THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
1980s
INTRODUCTION
“A Nation At Risk” was published by the U.S. Department of Education in 1983 as the United States high school student test performance was compared to other countries. Our American students were taking standardized tests and showing mediocre results. The report declared, “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by the rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and as a people.”
While there was controversy over what math content areas to emphasize, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published “An Agenda for Action.” Eight recommendations for school mathematics in the 1980s were given:
1. Problem solving should be the focus of school mathematics in the 1980s;
2. basic skills in mathematics should be defined to encompass more than computational facility;
3. mathematics programs should take full advantage of the power of calculators and computers at all grade levels;
4. stringent standards of both effectiveness and efficiency should be applied to the teaching of mathematics;
5. the success of mathematics programs and student learning should be evaluated by a wider range of measures than conventional testing;
6. more mathematics should be required for all students and a flexible curriculum with a greater range of options should be designed to accommodate the diverse need of the student population;
7. mathematics teachers should demand of themselves and their colleagues a high level of professionalism; and
8. public support for mathematics instruction should be raised to a level commensurate with the importance of mathematical understanding to individuals and society.
These two documents set the stage for the direction of initiatives undertaken by national funding agencies, professional educators, and more especially Price Laboratory School Department of Mathematics faculty.
The Department of Mathematics teaching faculty during this decade included Joseph Hohlfield, George Immerzeel, Dennis Kettner, Earl Ockenga, Lynn Schwandt, John Tarr and Donald Wiederanders. Kay Hanna and Kay Wohlhuter were adjunct instructors and assumed some of the teaching responsibilities as grants and the tenured faculty undertook projects leading to publications.
TEACHING
The following course offerings described below were written in the 80s by the seven full-time faculty members. Faculty seldom used textbooks but frequently wrote or adapted lessons produced by previous faculty to match their present learners’ needs.
The seventh- and eighth-grade mathematics curriculum at Price Laboratory School in the 1980s, a continuation of the 70s curriculum, was supplemented with two Iowa Problem Solving modules at each grade level. Problem Solving Using the Calculator—Book 2 and Problem Solving Using Resources were 7th grade modules. Problem Solving Using Calculator Codes—Book 2 and Problem Solving Using Special Computations were 8th grade modules. The student booklet and 100 problem cards for each module provided students, working in partnerships, two-weeks of problem-solving experiences.
For high school students, the following courses were offered:
Math I -- 2 semesters elective
Math I is a two-semester general mathematics course for ninth graders. The course is designed for those students who have experienced some difficulty with mathematics.
The four major objectives of the course are:
1. To build the student's interest and enthusiasm for mathematics;
2. To reveal how mathematics is used in daily affairs, including areas of student interest and future need;
3. To provide continued development in the student's computational skills and problem-solving abilities; and
NCA Outside Review
The North Central Association is the accreditation agency for the Price Laboratory School education program. Using materials for study, the faculty identified their accomplishments on determined goals, worked in teams to set next steps for improvement, then invited educational professionals to visit PLS and evaluate the strengths of the programs and the needs to address for improvement. To read the full evaluation of the PLS mathematics program click here.
1982-1983 NCA Evaluation
The program in mathematics appears to be consistent with the stated objectives of Malcolm Price Laboratory School (MPLS). Several University students are involved in classroom field experiences, and the teachers seem to be giving them a viable learning experience. The educational program is outstanding in many ways, as will be evidenced in this report. Many of the faculty at a variety of grade levels have served as officers in educational organizations, presented workshops for teachers, made presentations at local, state, and national mathematics teacher conferences, and contributed to professional journals. The record of the mathematics faculty in the area of development and dissemination of curricular materials and innovative programs must be one of the best of any such group in the country. Often connected with this development and dissemination of curricular materials, faculty members have conducted in-service programs for teachers throughout the state of Iowa and beyond. While this report will focus on the K-12 program of mathematics instruction rather than specific professional accomplishments of faculty members, it should be recognized that the quality and quantity of these accomplishments have gained a good deal of national recognition in mathematics education for the University of Northern Iowa and MPLS.
The NCA evaluation team summarized its visit with the following recommendations:
A. The mathematics faculty should be commended for its past and present professional leadership efforts. They should be given every reasonable opportunity and encouragement to continue these efforts since they appear to be crucial to the continuing vitality of the mathematics program.
B. More microcomputer capability should be available to the mathematics department throughout the day. The present needs in computer programming and junior high mathematics classes would suggest that two or three more systems would receive regular, productive use. For the future, there is a need for the development of a long-range, building-wide plan so that computer hardware and software can be obtained for instruction that is consistent with this plan.
This evaluation team committee (in agreement with the self-study) believes that the faculty should explore ways to better accommodate the mathematically able students, especially at the junior high level. Present efforts to do this should be continued and expanded if appropriate.
PUBLICATIONS
The second listed role of a PLS faculty member is to be productive in researching, creating content goals, experimenting with new strategies for implementation, and preparing publications for their peers and the mathematics community.
Microcomputer Project at PLS
Lynn Schwandt, Don Wiederanders
1980-1988
In 1980, Price Laboratory School mathematics teachers Donald Wiederanders and Lynn Schwandt submitted a proposal for a three-year grant to produce microcomputer programs that would support the teaching of math. The grant was funded and the Microcomputer Project (MCP) was assigned space in the “Math House,” a neighborhood home owned by UNI and located near the UNI campus. This computer project was a major endeavor for eight years.
The first phase of MCP involved mathematics teachers. Twenty-four secondary school teachers attended a summer program at the Lab School to review and critique programs. After finding fault with the available software, the teachers were asked to design something better. They produced more than eighty ideas that fit into the framework they had created.
UNI programming students were hired to write lines of code that would produce the actions that Wiederanders and Schwandt wanted. Once programs were altered to their satisfaction, they were made available for distribution on floppy disks. Each disk had a hidden teachers program that teachers could use to list the students who were to complete the programs on the disk. As students completed the instructional part and proceeded to the exercises, their scores would be recorded on the disk for the teacher to see.
SERVICE
In the 1980s, PLS Math faculty received many invitations to make presentations in-state, out of state, and out of the country. Of the seven faculty members, documentation from vitas of five of them listed over 100 trips to conventions and conferences:
5% were statewide conferences, not including the UNI/PLS Math Conference
The PLS Mathematics faculty conducted more than 50 workshops for teachers in Iowa, in regional states, and other states:
53% were Iowa workshops
24% were regional workshops
23% were other state workshops
Additionally, George Immerzeel was invited to present at an international mathematics consortium.
Fourth International Congress on Mathematical Education
The 1980s was a prolific time of productivity by the math faculty. Dr. David Else, newly appointed Director of PLS, made the following statement about the works of the mathematics faculty in a memo to the administration of the university:
“Students in high school mathematics continue the department’s trend to draw upon the very latest in books and other curricular materials. In 1988-89, the textbooks for General Mathematics, Algebra I and Algebra II written by our faculty were revised. This year, in two courses, new textbooks are being supplied by the publisher in exchange for a thorough critique of the books. Both last year and this year, geometry students are field testing a pre-publication edition of a new geometry text.
In the second semester computer programming course, great emphasis was placed on machine language as options for a computer science curriculum were explored.
For the first time, in 1988-89 PLS participated in the American Junior High School Mathematics Examination and the MATHCOUNTS competition. The Laboratory School will continue to participate in these competitions and exercise some leadership in them by virtue of having a faculty member serving on a national committee. The entire junior high mathematics program is being subjected to careful examination in light of recent national research reports.”
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