Method

We will combine the MAT 0020 75-minute class with the SLS 1535 50-minute class, giving the students a 10 minute break in between.

Dr. Abety will bring with her a cd and recorder and will play a nature cd during her lecture

With permission from the college, she will also bring essential oils or incense such as jasmine to evoke relaxation and rosemary/patchouli to evoke brain stimulation.

Dr. Abety will give the students a short survey to fill out (5 minutes maximum time)

The surveys will be tallied by Dr. Gonzalez who will present the results to the class after Dr. Abety’s lecture

For 20 minutes a discussion of students’ attitudes and behaviors towards mathematics, as well as math anxiety (with self-disclosing statements from Dr. Abety) will ensue followed by a brain-storming of negative adjectives attributed to math (written on the whiteboard)

Students will be asked to process the information on the board, explore where these myths developed and why, and then, begin to replace the negative adjectives with a bibliography of the uses of math in day-to-day life.

Students’ survey results will be discussed and the students will be asked for their feedback on the topic

Once this is completed, lights will be dimmed, the cd will be switched to relaxation music

Dr. Abety will then do a fifteen-minute  relaxation exercise with the students

Relaxation Exercise…taken from:
Conquering Math Anxiety (Arem, 2003)

Script to be read as it appears on pages 143 to 146

Once the relaxation is completed, Dr. Gonzalez will introduce her session.

Ten minutes before the class session ends, Dr. Abety will give the students a blank strip of paper. She will address the students and ask:

What was the muddiest point?

The muddiest point is a classroom assessment technique that enables the student to write on a blank piece of paper that part of the lecture that was most difficult to understand or most unclear.

Students will be asked to anonymously write the muddiest point on a slip of paper.

The papers will be collected and the most common items will be addressed.

Once the students and Dr. Gonzalez have completed their clearing up the muddiest point:

A final anonymous survey will be given to the students with three questions:

    1. This session was helpful to me in that_______________

    2. I learned that in mathematics, I can_________________

    3. It would help more if_____________