Using a Formal Conference Presentation as a Capstone Event in Learning Communities

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Using a Formal Conference Presentation as a
Capstone Event in Learning Communities
Dr. Shamita Dutta Gupta Dr. Carlos Hernandez
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The Learning Community
In the fall of 2003, we teamed up to create the
Learning Community Crossing the Divide The Art
of Mathematical Thinking and the Science of
Rhetoric.
The LC combined ENG 120 with MAT 107.
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The Students

• Strong(ish) in English
• Math-phobic
• Needed only MAT 107 for their majors
• Most were Theatre majors (!)
• In sum We would attempt to Cross the Divide
  with students who perceived a cavernous divide
  between Mathematics and English Composition.

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The Concept
We would use these students skill in ENG 120 to
build a bridge to Mathematics. Students would
learn how their ideas of math (as being hard
and opaque) derive in part from cultural
portrayals of it, how math can be useful to
anyone, and how to train themselves to think
mathematically.
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Mathematics Topics

• Codebreaking (via number theory)
• Mathematical Aesthetics (via Fibonacci Sequences
  and the Golden Ratio)
• Infinity (Some infinities are bigger than
  others!)
• Contortions of Space (4D Geometry and more)
• Probability (via Risky Business)

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ENG 120 Texts/Topics

• A Beautiful Mind a movie many of them had seen
  served as bridge into the topic
• The Man Who Counted a mathematical fable of a
  great mathematician, set in ancient Persia
• Flatland a dystopic story of a 2D society that
  refuses to believe in a 3rd dimension
• In Code the nonfiction story of an Irish high
  school student who used advanced mathematics to
  propose a new cryptographic encoding system
• Alices Adventures in Wonderland did you know
  Lewis Carroll was first and foremost a
  mathematician?

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In the Beginning
We knew that we would have an uphill battle
convincing math-phobic students of any
connections and possible cross-fertilizations
between Math and English. As expected, students
were, in the beginning, dubious of the learning
communitys aims.
And there was one big wildcard in the LC that
created a further complication in our design. And
that was
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The Megan Factor!
Several weeks into the semester, Dr. Dutta Gupta
went on maternity leave. She therefore was out of
the classroom for much of the second half of the
semester. During that time, Professor Chet Advani
came in to teach the math portion of the class.
He was a great hit with the students!
But, even so, the substitution meant students had
to become accustomed to a new Math teachers
methods.
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Fleeting Moments
Throughout the semester, students sometimes
received flashes of inspiration, where they
seemed to understand what we meant by Crossing
the Divide. Most often, however, those
inspirations were short-lived.
Mostly, though, students struggled to make the
connections this Learning Community asked them to
between Mathematics and English Composition.
Instead, they tended to cast English 120 in a
supporting role to Math 107.
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The Final Project
We decided, after several discussions, to have a
joint final project for the learning community.
Here are the guidelines we established

• Students were required to both write a paper and
  create a presentation. These components would be
  graded in compliance with all typical ENG 120
  composition requirements.
• Must be on a Mathematics topics appropriate for
  MAT 107. MAT 107, being a topics course, allowed
  for a great deal of flexibility in topic
  selection. Students could choose, for instance,
  to write on some aspect of the history of
  mathematics, or some real-world application of
  mathematics.
• Students would work in a group of at least two
  and no more than three students.

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The Conference
Since a presentation was to serve as an important
part of the grade, we decided to try and make
this portion of the project as formal as
possible. We reserved the Multipurpose Room, used
some of our Learning Community money to purchase
refreshments, and invited faculty and
administrators to attend.
Among our list of attendees were Professor Ann
Moore, Kelly Butler, Associate Dean for Student
Life and Campus Activities, and Associate Provost
Beverly Kahn.
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Preparation

• The text In Code provided students with a model
  of what a formal presentation should look like
  and what level of preparation would be necessary.
• Students began thinking about their projects very
  earlyby week two of classesand much class time
  was devoted to them library visits, a required
  annotated bibliography, etc.
• We hosted a dress rehearsal for projects just
  prior to the event.

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Gravitas
The result of this class investment on the final
project was that students understood early on how
important the project would be. We thought at
first that doing so would make students take both
classes more seriously, but we had no idea just
how successful this method would be.
It turned out that students exceeded even our
most hopeful ideas of their ambition and devotion
to this project. Their topics comprised a
dazzling panoply of math-related theories and
applications, such as
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Great, Ambitious Topics!
The previous three slides came from the
PowerPoint presentations three of the groups
created for the Conference. As you can see, these
topics were unusually demanding and difficult
ones, especially for students in their first
semester of college! Below is a complete list of
student topics

• The Unification of Physics
• Chaos Theory
• Zero (mathematical and cultural history)
• Avogadros Number
• The Making and Breaking of the Enigma Code in
  WWII
• The Golden Ratio in Art
• The Golden Ratio in Poetry (Sonnets)

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Proof of LCs Success

• Level of investment in projects unprecedented in
  Dr. Hernandezs introductory composition courses
• Research on par with senior-level, major-specific
  work
• NO ONE FAILED MATH!
• Students stated that, especially because of the
  conference, they (finally!) understood what we
  meant by Crossing the Divide

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Have a Conference!
Especially in learning communities, but also very
true for all courses, building in a formal
conference presentation can create an environment
of learning that can truly inspire your students
to new heights. We have some suggestions, both
theoretical and practical, to help you in
planning a final conference in your own classes.
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Suggestions Theoretical

• Start early
• Make it multifaceted written, oral, visual
  components
• Give the students great freedom in choosing
  topics
• On the other hand, help students stay on-topic
• Allow student topics to develop organically over
  time
• Build in classroom library time to allow you to
  model good research practices
• Assign an annotated bibliography

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Suggestions Practical

• Make friends with your librarian!
• Reserve space early. Special Events x1360 (NY)
  x3731 (PLV)
• Try very hard to get a formal space. We, for
  instance, used the Multipurpose Room (NY campus)
• Invite faculty and staff. Encourage students to
  invite family and friends
• Provide food and drinks (optional, but a nice
  option! Good especially in LCs, where you are
  given an allotment of money for the class)

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Group Work Yay or Nay?
Pros
Cons

• Allow students to learn from each other
• Promotes cooperation, and allows students to
  emphasize their strengths in a project
• Prepares them for group work later in life
  (future classes project teams in the workplace,
  etc.)

• Sometimes difficult for a group to settle on one
  project
• Distribution of labor is rarely split evenly
  (especially in groups with more than two members)
• Weak link can weigh down strong students

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In All
We feel that the formal conference at the end of
the class really made the class a much greater
success than it otherwise would have been. The
logistics needed to pull it off were modest and
certainly a small investment, given the
spectacular return we received, in terms of
student investment into, and knowledge gain from
their projects.