Thomas G. Edwards

Math Corps Summer Camp: An Inner City Intervention Program

The underrepresentation and underachievement of African American students in mathematics is a national tragedy. One response to these problems is the design and implementation of mathematics intervention programs aimed at primarily African American student populations living in the inner city, many of whom are placed at risk. This article describes such a program and presents a philosophical framework grounded in empirical studies of effective schools. The authors suggest that key aspects of the program design help students avoid the trap of disidentification with the educational system. They also suggest that a large number of factors that have been demonstrated to be associated with higher student achievement (acting in combination) contribute to the effectiveness of this intervention program.

Sets of Sets: A Cognitive Obstacle

Lawrence Brenton (brenton turing.math.wayne.edu) was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (BA, 1968), and the University of Washington (PhD, 1974). He held posts as :>+.Xr, na post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany and as a visiting professor at Tulane University before joining the faculty of Wayne State University, where he has served for twenty-six years. His research interests are several complex variables and algebraic geometry, especially the theory of singularities of analytic varieties. His current passion is directing the WSU Undergraduate Research Program.

Interpretations of Boxplots: Helping Middle School Students to Think Outside the Box

ABSTRACT Boxplots are statistical representations for organizing and displaying data that are relatively easy to create with a five-number summary. However, boxplots are not as easy to understand, interpret, or connect with other statistical representations of the same data. We worked at two different schools with 259 middle school students who constructed and interpreted boxplots. We observed that even students who were able to create boxplots had difficulty interpreting data represented in a boxplot. After sharing specific difficulties that we observed students having, we discuss ways to help students to make sense of data presented in boxplots.

Controlling Inventory: Real-World Mathematical Modeling.

Students learn to manage orders in a business so that inventory is controlled to maximize profit.