NISOD Sessions #1

The Welcoming Reception wasn't very welcoming.

There were huge lines for the bar (always a bad thing), but fortunately Marie Navickis had the presence of mind to know to LOOK for me in the bar line. Soon after getting my Dos Equis, we noticed Evan outside near the pool towering over most of the others. He then called Cindy on the VP-phone and we met up with the others. There didn't seem to be any food there, so we left. (Somebody later said that some of the tables in the room with the mariachi band had popcorn and cookies on them. Maybe it's just me, but that seems to be a weird food combination.

We regrouped in the hotel lobby a little bit later to go to a Tapas restaurant. The food was pretty good, and it's always fun to just have a little of this and a little of that. We gabbed a bit after dinner, when Evan felt compelled to discuss again how strange it is that College Algebra does not count as a gen ed math course and to give his rationale for why it should.

I must have been more tired out from the trip than I thought, as I slept through the keynote and 1.5 of the 2 morning breakout sessions. Fortunately, the two sessions that looked most interesting for the day were in the afternoon, so the day was not totally lost.

Al Groccia, from the Osceola campus (Kissimmee, FL) of Valencia Community College presented the first session, titled "Trying everything even the Kitchen Sink to Improve Prep Math Success Rates." I was a little disappointed that there was in fact NO mention of the kitchen sink, or any other plumbing fixture, during the talk.

We began by "meeting somebody new." This meant talking to somebody sitting next to you and sharing your favorite movie, or book, or something interesting about yourself. I don't know what I was thinking, but all I said was that I was going to be on sabbatical leave next spring looking at our developmental math program. Wow. That's interesting. All I remember about the guy I talked to is that he taught math somewhere between Houston and Austin.

Al told us that if we shared something interesting about the person we met, we could get either a Jolly Rancher lollipop or a Hershey's hug (he actually said no kisses because of all the hype about sexual harassment). Nobody in our row shared, but Al passed around the candy anyway, as I knew he would.

In Florida, apparently, all Beginning and Intermediate Algebra students must take a state competency exam and score at least 70% on the exam to pass the class. Valencia requires students to earn a grade of A, B, or C and to score at least 80% on the exam to pass the class. Much of Al's work at the college involves the preparation for, and the administration of, this test.

He described some of the information he gives to students and teachers, and some of the technology they use, including WebCT and CPS (Classroom Performance System). We even did a little demo of the CPS. I had remote #26. The first question was "Who is Jennifer Aniston's current boyfriend?" The answer choices were (a) Ben Affleck, (b) Brad Pitt, (c) Al Groccia (the presenter - ha ha), and (d) Vince Vaughn. I didn't really know, but amazingly got the right answer - D.

The second question was "Which team won the last World Series?" I thought it was the White Sox, and when my neighbor gave me a knowing look (since he now knew I was from near Chicago) I was sure. The other answer choices were the Red Sox, the Astros, and something like the "No Hole in Sox." ha ha

The third question was my downfall. "How far would you have to walk to burn off the calories from one M&M?" The choices were (a) one mile, (b) 3 city blocks, (c) the length of a football field, or (d) who cares? ha ha I guessed (b), but the answer was (c). The guy on the other side of me said "Aren't (b) and (c) almost the same length?" I don't care enough to check if he was correct.

The fourth question involved dividing the product of the numbers from 1 to 10 (10!) by the product of the numbers from 1 to 9 (9!). What amazed me is that Al said how shocked he was that a kid on some show got the answer in less than 10 seconds, and then he said how there was a "trick" that would let you get the answer quickly. I guess he doesn't teach permutations and combinations much.

Much of the talk was really pretty standard stuff. I found it interesting that Valencia is part of this "Achieving the Dream" grant, and that 2 of the 3 initiatives Al mentioned with respect to this were (1) supplemental instruction (having a model student sit in on your class, take notes, and then work with the students as a student leader) and (2) LinC courses (our FIGs). Both of these are things we tried at RVC years ago.

The second session was "Pros and Cons of Computer Assisted Algebra," by Valerie Martin of North Arkansas College. The college used I Can Learn hardware and software to teach ALL sections of Elementary and Intermediate Algebra. Some highlights:

• Each section contained 20 students.
• Students could complete the course over 2 semesters if needed, possibly paying tuition a second time, through a new grade of NC (for not complete).
• It seemed that the classes were only 3 credit hours.
• Students could only work on the material in a college lab.
• The teacher was in the lab for the 3 class periods, helping individual students as they had questions.
• Students watched and listened to (via headphones) lectures on the computer for each lesson.
• Pass rates did improve.
• Students were overall pleased with the class.

It was interesting, and something to think about, which is why I'm here I guess.

We had dinner at Chuy's in Austin, which our cab driver told us is famous for being the restaurant where Jenna Bush got in trouble. It was good, and I got to finish Marjorie's margarita! We got back too late to see the bats, although a couple in the hotel elevator was able to tell us the time they started tonight - about 8:15. We'll have to see them tomorrow.