THE USE OF ONLINE, STUDENT CENTERED MATH TUTORIAL MODULES (THE MATH YOU NEED) IN PHYSICAL GEOLOGY AT A TWO-YEAR COLLEGE

Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) is a two-year college located in south central Virginia. A high percentage of students at PHCC arrive at the campus deficient in basic skills. In the past three years at least 45 to 50% of incoming students have required developmental math classes before entering their chosen program of study. With an average student age of 29, many of our students have not had a math course in literally decades. Even traditional students have often not had a math course since their sophomore year in high school. Introductory geology courses (including both physical and historical geology) are offered to students with no math requirement. The NSF funded project, The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN), provides online, student centered tutorials and practice problems for critical areas of need for the geosciences. The use of TMYN has enhanced the ability of students in physical geology at PHCC to solve problems involving math calculations with greater accuracy. A pretest and posttest were given to students in the fall semester of 2011. Average student scores improved 38.5% on the posttest, and all but one student (who had neither completed the modules nor attended classes frequently) had improved scores. TMYN will be used in physical geology again in the fall of 2012, and more data will be collected to confirm these results.