Math Still a Problem

In response to my recent ETD Listserv survey, Philip Regalbuto of Trident Technical College sent me this note.  He is right about math affecting enrollments and retention.  I have noticed this in my past academic experience.

Lou:

This past week the department was scheduling classes and I noticed that the

number of project student entering the 2nd year of our MET and AEET programs was

lager then in recent years.  What the department has done is request a the Math

department teach an applied math course to our students rather than the

traditional college algebra. The number of students completing the applied

math course has increased dramatically.  When our students would take the

college algebra class and any prerequisite classes we typically had 70 go in and

maybe 10 get out of the sequence   Now we are seeing 40 -50  students coming out

of the new sequence, We also added a course in numerical methods were the

Engineering Technology  department teaches students numerical methods that are

relevant to Engineering Technology problems.

My thinking is part of ET problem at 2 year college level is the math department

and how it teaches math.

Philip also had this to say about enrollments and advanced technologies..  Again he is right on.

 

> Lou:

> I think the reason for lack of new technologies to be included in EET programs

is that these new technologies are part of other departments, IE automotive or

the network systems . Colleges cannot afford to hire instructors who know about

these technologies because of the low pay in academia as compared to the pay in

industry.  Most of the students I see also want to be an engineer, so they can

make the "Big Bucks" and get a four year degree. The push for STEM is what is

driving this.  Stem promotes a 4 year engineering degree and ignores the

technicians with two year degrees.

How do we fix these problems?  Thanks, Philip.

Lou