June 4, 2020 Workshop

There has been overwhelming interest in this workshop. We are closing registration at this point, but will post other opportunities to collaborate on IBL course planning over the AMIIBL listserv.

Overview

  • Thursday, June 4, 2020
  • 10:00AM - 4:00PM Eastern Time
  • The workshop will be appropriate for both new and experienced practitioners of IBL.
  • Funded by IBL Communities grant (NSF-DUE #1925188)

DESCRIPTION

Active learning has been shown to increase student success, which has led to calls by the National Science Foundation and the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences to move away from the traditional lecturing. It has further been shown that Inquiry-Based Learning in particular can have a significant and persistent positive impact on undergraduate women in mathematics as well as previously lower-achieving students.

Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is a form of active learning in which students engage in the practices of mathematicians: sense-making, proving, example exploration, conjecture-making, revising, listening, sharing, collaborating, persevering, and facing uncertainty. While courses may look different, they rely on four core principles ("pillars”): Deep Mathematical Thinking, Collaboration, Instructor Inquiry into Student Thinking, and Equity. Following these principles, IBL courses enhance student learning by providing opportunities to learn math through collaborative struggle, rather than simply watching someone else do it.

This workshop will be appropriate for both new and experienced practitioners of IBL. Sessions may include: video lesson study, an online IBL “classroom” experience, finding/modifying/creating course materials, exploring the nuts and bolts of IBL teaching practices, and thinking about IBL in a distance-learning environment.

Facilitators

Danielle Champney

Dr. Danielle Champney is an Associate Professor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in California. Before she took her current position at Cal Poly, Danielle grew up in Ohio, got her degree in Applied Mathematics at Bowling Green State University, taught community college for several years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and finished her PhD at UC Berkeley, in Mathematics Education. Now at Cal Poly, Danielle works with faculty teams to provide Inquiry Based Learning workshops to high school and college faculty throughout the year. She also serves as the Project Director for several partnerships between area school districts and Cal Poly, in which K12 faculty are paired with college faculty, to jointly participate in IBL experiences and transform their teaching.

Francesca Gandini

Dr. Francesca Gandini is a visiting assistant professor at Kalamazoo College. Before moving to Kalamazoo, she studied for her Mathematics PhD at the University of Michigan. Her mathematics interests are in algebra, combinatorics, and graph theory. In her time at the University of Michigan she also developed an interest in mathematics education and obtained a Master in Post-Secondary Science Education. Her interest in IBL peaked when she started attending the annual multi-day IBL workshops at the University of Michigan and joined the local learning community on inclusive teaching. When she moved to Kalamazoo, she joined the leadership team of AMIIBL, the Alliance of Michigan IBLers, which is now part of an NSF grant for supporting and studying regional IBL communities.