|
Bright Ideas Software® of Cheyenne has been awarded a Phase 0 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
grant from the Wyoming SBIR/STIR Initiative (WSSI).
The company will use the Phase 0 grant to fund the development of a Phase 1 grant proposal to the U.S.
Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. This proposal will describe a graphical visualization
software package for pre-calculus students and educators.
Data shows that students’ mathematical understanding in the USA is below average as compared to other developed
countries. Only one-third of students who take mathematics beyond their basic requirements take pre-calculus, and only
10% of them take calculus beyond that. The goal of this project is to prepare tools to increase students’ understanding of
pre-calculus, increasing the likelihood that they will take additional mathematics (calculus) courses. Research shows that
visual representations offer learners effective ‘conceptual anchors’ by ‘disclosing important networks of relationships in a
vivid and memorable way’. Graphical visualization tools in calculus education hold great potential for improving student's
depth of understanding of advanced mathematical concepts, but the visualization tools currently available are lacking in
sophistication (e.g., graphing calculators) and/or prohibitively expensive.
The proposed software package is to be developed with input from Dr. Bryan Shader, chair of the University of Wyoming’s
Department of Mathematics, and Dr.’s Jerry Hamann and Suresh Muknahallipatna of the University’s College of Engineering.
Dr.’s Alan Dale Moore and Sachin Jain of the College of Education will conduct evaluation testing to measure the package’s
effectiveness as a teaching aid.
|