SUPPORTING STUDENT SUCCESS IN GEOSCIENCE COURSES WITH THE MATH YOU NEED WHEN YOU NEED IT

One of the obstacles to student success in introductory geoscience courses is a deficiency in quantitative skills, including basic numeracy. At Fitchburg State University, a four-year public institution in Massachusetts, approximately half of our incoming students require math remediation but may enroll in introductory science courses before completing developmental courses. The Math You Need When You Need It (TMYN) has been integrated into two introductory geoscience courses (Oceanography and Meteorology) at Fitchburg State to enhance student learning and address this challenge. Students complete five of the TMYN online tutorials during the semester, which promotes their success with skills such as rearranging equations and unit conversions. The asynchronous online tutorials provide a convenient format of supplemental instruction for Fitchburg State students, many of whom commute. Assessment data from six semesters of implementation indicate that TMYN improves students’ abilities to solve quantitative problems in a geoscience context. The average pre-test score across all semesters was 67%; students improve their score 12% on average during the semester, resulting in a post-test average of 79%. Pre- to post-test gains are observed among general education students as well as science majors. Several students have completed both courses with TMYN; their pre- and post-test scores are consistently higher in their second course. Student response to the tutorials has been overwhelmingly positive, conveyed both during class and through feedback on anonymous surveys. TMYN has been an effective means to support student success in these courses.