Improve Precalculus Success by Pairing a Precalculus Course with a Computer Science Course Centered on Select Precalculus Topics

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track1 pilot project aims to improve underprepared students’ transition from algebra to calculus using computer programming to aid the learning of precalculus concepts and skills. Many community college students intending to major in STEM are underprepared for calculus so precalculus has become a gateway course for many STEM majors.

However, because of low student success in precalculus courses, these courses create a major constriction in the STEM pipeline. The project will conduct research on how pairing the traditional precalculus course with a redesigned computer science course centered on numerical investigation of select precalculus topics impacts student performance in (a) the precalculus course; (b) subsequent calculus courses; and (c) in completion of STEM degree/transfer.

It will provide valuable insight into the ways in which computer programming can elevate success in precalculus and (subsequently) calculus. For community colleges, it has the potential to help ease the bottleneck between algebra and calculus that constricts transfer rates and diminishes student interest in STEM. Project results will also add to the body of knowledge on how using computing to teach precalculus can help underserved and underperforming students gain access to STEM disciplines.

If proven successful, this approach will likely find widespread use throughout the country, given that precalculus appears on almost every college campus and is a prerequisite for STEM majors.

The primary goal of the project is to boost student success in precalculus, increasing the number of students able to enter and successfully complete calculus thus reducing the number of students who opt out of STEM majors. The project will accomplish the following objectives: (1) Develop a supplementary computer science course centered on numerical investigation of select precalculus topics to accompany the precalculus course; (2) Provide the new course combination (computer science +precalculus) to at least 60 students during the grant period; (3) Determine how this approach impacts students’ (a) success rate in precalculus; (b) subsequent enrollment in calculus courses; (c) success rate in calculus courses.

The success of the proposed approach will be determined through quasi-experimental procedures using control and treatment groups, where the treatment group comprises students completing the supplementary computer science course along with the formal precalculus course; the control group will have only completed the latter. The project team will widely disseminate project and research results at local, regional, and national levels to share important findings with other educational institutions and communities that seek to increase math attainment.

The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs.

Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.